Well, Don't Say I Didn't Warn You

Now that I have my wonderful little camera, I'm armed and dangerous. I promised to show you some pictures of my neighborhood, so here they are. I live within walking distance of Kitsilano Beach on English Bay, and here is one of my favorite buildings I walk past as I go to the beach. It always has a beautiful garden in the summer, with roses, hollyhocks and colorful nasturtiums. If you look closely, you can see the water at the foot of the hill, just beyond the beach umbrella.

This lovely house is just around the corner from where I live, and I pass it every day on my way home from work. It is a typical Kitsilano house of the American Craftsman style, which was popular in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. Kitsilano is made up almost entirely of houses like this, with wonderful porches and attic dorm windows. They give Kitsilano very much a seaside flavor, and they all have English country gardens. Most of them are painted either blue with white shutters, like the house here, or chocolate brown with beige and/or red shutters in the traditional Craftsman style. The original American Craftsman style originated with Frank Lloyd Wright, so it has a good pedigree.

Yes, this is a palm tree, and it is right next door to my house. There are actually two palm trees in that yard, but I took a photo of only one of them, because I didn't want to appear to be bragging. *heh* People still think we wear parkas and walk around on snowshoes in August. No, no, no. We have a very long summer and a very short winter, and some years there isn't much difference in the temperature between summer and winter. Perhaps we might get a bit more fog and rain in the winter, but rarely do we get a lot of snow.

Some of my favorite things about Kitsilano are all the produce markets. I love to shop like an Englishman, buying things daily as I need them. You will never find wilted lettuce or celery in the bottom of my fridge. I buy fresh produce every day, and flowers too. And there are all sorts of meat markets and fresh seafood markets as well. I often have fresh scallops, and I can buy only as many as I need.

Well, you can't leave without seeing a little corner of my sunny terrace on my tree house. On a summer afternoon, it's the best place to be in all of Vancouver. I can put on some jazz, or perhaps Mozart or Beethoven, or Stevie Ray Vaughan, and kick back and relax. Or I'll just listen to the birds in the trees outside my tree house, and feel the sea breeze coming in off the ocean. In fact, I'm headed there right now, as soon as I get off work.

And... just to prove that I am a bona fide long-standing resident of Kitsilano, duly paid up, here are my 15 year-old, well-used Birkenstocks. Yes, I do own Birkenstocks, and yes, I do wear them. They are the most comfortable shoes ever made. You can't be a resident of Kitsilano unless you own a pair of Birkenstocks. Really! They won't let you in if you don't own a pair of Birkenstocks.

So, there you have a little corner of my neighborhood. Stay tuned....