Nina's Place

Snow!

There was talk this fall about how this was going to be one of the worst winters ever. It just hasn't happened.  Here we are in January and this is the first snow we've had.  It looked beautiful but here in Vancouver it hasn't been sticking much.  We've got another five or six weeks for a real snow but this one might have to do it for us snow lovers.

Dinner at West

We had a lovely dinner at West on Saturday, January 14th.  I haven't eaten there in a long time and it was nice to catch up.  We had a tasting menu that was chosen by Chef Quang Dang.  West has a new menu that is designed to encourage people to try new things.  You can order off the main part of the menu and have three or four courses or you can order off the Elements menu and share several dishes.  We, of course, got to try both.

Here is what I had...

Tastings

Amuse Bouche,North Arm Farm Beets, Farmhouse Fromage Frais, Parsley Pistou, Tattinger "Brut Reserve"

Fraser Valley Pork Belly, Agassiz Quince Compote, Hazelnuts, Kruger-Rumpf Riesling Kabinett 09, Nahe

Poached Six Masters Farm Hen's Egg, Sunchokes in Textures, Director's Blend 10, OK Valley

Thiessen Farm Quail, Thyme marinated and grilled, Chanterelle Tortellini, Brussel Sprouts, Sherry Vinaigrette, Cantele "Alticeli" Fiano 09, Apulia

Here is what Stephen had...

Amuse Bouche, Kusshi Oyster with Sechelt Caviar, Brandied Truffle Gel, Tattinger "Brut Reserve"

Mountain Berry Cured Salmon, Dungeness Crab Salad, Hannahbrook Farm Watercress, Director's Blend 10, OK Valley

Charred Vancouver Island Octopus, Marinated Pemberton Vegetables, Barigoule Vinaigrette, Cantele "Aliticeli" Fiano 09, Apulia

Thiessen Farm Quail, Thyme marinated and grilled, Chanterelle Tortellini, Brussel Sprouts, Sherry Vinaigrette, Cantele "Alticeli" Fiano 09, Apulia

Here's what we shared from the Elements menu...

Brussel Sprouts, Shallot Crumble

North Arm Farm Beets, Hazelnuts, Parsley Pistou

Chickpea Croquettes, Mint Dill Yogurt

Gnocchi, Sage Brown Butter, Parmesan

Overnight Braised Short Ribs, Red Onion Marmalade

Honey Mussels, Crispy Mussels Stuffed with Spinach, Lemon Puree

Wines: Drouhin-Vaudon Chablis 09, Burgundy Vietti"Perbacco" Langhe Nebbiolo 08, Piedmonte

Dessert

Frozen Lemon Parfait, Manjari Chocolate Truffle Center, Chateau D'Armajan Sauternes 05

Petits Fours

Winter in Vancouver

It always amazes me how people can complain about the weather.  I come from Alberta and we are experts at complaining about the weather.  In the winter it's too cold, too much snow, not enough snow, messy because it's a chinook.  In the summer it's too hot, too dry, hailing and so on and so forth.  It happens every where.

This week on the weather report they kept saying that it's warm but wet and that soon it will be less wet but colder.  People are never happy with the weather.

I went down to the lagoon to take some photos of birds to add to my photo file yesterday.  It was overcast but not raining and I thought that was great because it had been raining earlier.  On my way back I came across a cherry blossom tree starting to bloom.  Wow, in January?  But of course I had to start thinking about the weather... will it get too cold for this tree soon?

See what I mean, never happy.

The Vancouver Art Gallery and facebook

The Vancouver Art Gallery is asking it's "friends" to write why art is important to them and in return some will win a chance to select a piece of art for the Around the Gallery in 80 Artworks collection.

This is what I wrote... Art inspires me, makes me think, makes me laugh, makes me remember, makes me wonder.  I collect art experiences while I travel and here at home in Vancouver.  Frequently my memories of a place are strongly attached to art I've seen/experienced in that place or at that certain time. I talk with total strangers about public art almost every time I go for a walk.  i ask them if they've seen this or that piece, which do they like, which do they not like, why???  So art also connects me to others, people I love and people I don't even know.Each year art, particularly public art, has a greater and greater effect on my life.

Click on Nina's Pick to see what art from the permanent collection I chose and the story I told about it.

Nina's Pick

Finally Settled In

We are finally settled in to our new apartment and apparently people want to know what it looks like with our stuff in it so here are a few photos.  I didn't tidy up or hide the boxes of stuff we still have to find a place for so this is the unvarnished truth.

 
The view from the elevator into our space.

 
We have a "Great-room" and it really is great.

 
 
 
 
The view of the mountains is pretty spectacular.

 
The Kitchen

 
This is our temporary office while the actual office is being sorted out.

 
The Laundry Room

 
The Main Bathroom: it has the best shower, no kidding, you should come and try it out.

 

 
Peter and Rebecca's Room

 
 
Our Room

 
The Ensuite

  
The Office with the Murphy Bed down.

 
The Office

Sleepover At The New Apartment

We got the keys for our new apartment this weekend and, although we have not moved in I decided that we should stay there one night anyway.

We lugged a futon over and packed up some dishes and food and a shower curtain and moved in for the night.

After organizing the few things we'd brought with us we went upstairs to watch the sunset.  We were a couple of minutes late but it was pretty any way. We could hear music and thought maybe we had music loving neighbours but were later told that it was Sam Roberts as Malkin Bowl.  If I had known earlier we could have walked over and listened from outside.  We need to keep an eye on who is playing the bowl for sure.

 

From the other side of the roof you can see the Lost Lagoon fountain.

 
We walked around the east end of the lagoon.  There were geese settling down to sleep and little brown bats flying every where.  Of course that also means that there were bugs for them to eat.

 

 

On Sunday morning we got up and had lattes before Christopher and Marci arrived for breakfast.  Stephen made a delicious meal for us and then we went to walk in the park again.  Sense a theme here?  We walked towards English Bay.  The sign said that it was 1.4 km to Second Beach.  Not far at all.  On the way we saw a skunk and a very friendly raccoon came right up to me.  This is not a good thing.  Someone must be feeding them.  After realizing that he wasn't going to get anything from us he picked something up off the ground and suddenly a crow came and dive bombed him!  Hit him right on the head and then the cheeky bugger just landed a few feet away and watched.  I guess he was hoping that he'd given the racoon enough of a headache that he would drop what ever he was chewing on but the racoon just ignored him.

 
 
 

The view from the roof is pretty spectacular but the view from our front window is nice too.

 

Actually, in order to see the fountain you have to lean against the window.  If you don't, what you see is the roof of the building next door.  You really can see this... you just have to work at it a little.

We had a nice time and now comes the hard part, actually moving in.

The Moving Adventure Continues

Friday night before unpacking some more junk we went up to the roof again to watch yet another sunset.  What do you think?  Could this get boring?

 

Christopher came and gave us a hand with the heavy lifting and so we actually look like we're living in the apartment now.  In the process we met two of our new neighbours.

 

Our new beds arrived at 11:00 pm! I told the delivery guy that we had to be quiet... no kidding.  We just couldn't resist so we started to put R and P's bed together.  We were whispering but using a mallet to get all the pegs in.  I think it's a good thing that it was Saturday night.  We finally got it all together and went to put the new king size matteress on.  It came rolled up in a paper cloth bag and a thick plastic wrap.  What did we know???  It turns out that if you rip off the bag air starts to get inside the plastic.  All of a sudden there was loud popping and cracking and the thing starts to inflate.  We were giggling and scared at the same time.  Too bad we didn't take a video because it was pretty impressive.  We put together out Queen size bed the next day and it was a real let down, hardly made a sound.

 
Sunday morning we got up and went out for breakfast on Robson.  The sun was shining and so we ate at X Spot at the corner of Denman and Robson.  A little taste of things to come.  Later in the day I had to pick up a gift certificate so we went to Big Lou's Butcher Shop.  You have to go there.  The meat is great and the sandwiches are fantastic.

 

Thoughtful Gift

I lost the "a" that Stephen gave me and one of my students made me a replacement.

 

The Final Chapter in the Salmon Adventure

I have been raising salmon from eggs to fry in my classroom and this week we released them into Beaver Creek at Stanley Park. We started out with 55 eyed eggs.  One didn't hatch.  We released 53 on Wednesday. It's been quite an adventure but today was the best day of all.  Here's what happened...

Getting all the fry into the bucket to take to the creek was pretty easy except for the very last one. "Joe 54", the last fry in the tank, proved to be difficult. I chased him around the tank for awhile and finally removed the filter and turned off the cooler to see if I could catch him.  One of my students was taking photos to record all this.  I just couldn't catch him. He jammed himself into the gravel near the thermometer and I was worried that I would crush him so he stayed behind, all alone in the tank.  I'm not sure what I thought I would do with him but we had to get going. 

The next day the students were keeping a close eye on him and said that he wasn't moving much and that he seemed pale. I had meant to release him on Thursday after school but things got hectic and I returned to the classroom on Saturday to empty the tank thinking that Joe would be dead because he hadn't been fed and the water was warming up and he didn't have much oxygen. To my surprise Joe was still there swimming around, slowly, very slowly. I tried to feed him but he wasn't interested. Things looked bad for Joe.  I really didn't think he'd make it but I called Stephen and asked if he wanted to go to Stanley Park on a recue mission and off we set. 

 

Joe is about 4 cm long (kind of small) and he does look pale compared to the other fry that we released on Wednesday.

Because he'd had such a tough time we decided to really take our time with getting him ready to go into the creek.  the crrek was about 10 degrees and the water in the bucket was about 20!  We added creek water to his bucket and he started to move around more. We did this about ten times, adding just a little bit at a time. The water in the bucket got colder and Joe seemed to perk up a bit.

 
The water was much lower in the creek and it was difficult to let water into the bucket without dumping Joe out.

After about twenty minutes we decided to rename him... "Joe 37". 37 is a prime number. Prime numbers are very special numbers. They can't be divided by anything but 1 and themselves and Joe seemed pretty special by this point. To be honest we thought that we would open the bucket when we got to the creek and he would be belly up.

 

We watched Joe 37 settle into the creek for about 15 minutes and he seemed right at home. He tested out the current a few times and he had a look around. We even saw him catch a small bug to eat. When we saw another fry near him we decided it was time to go. I think Joe is a real fighter and might just be one of the few who makes it back to spawn.

 

 

The Walking Man and Walking Figures

When Stephen and I were in Paris in 2007 we spent several days "doing" museums.  We spent the best part of a day walking around the Rodin Museum.  It was here that we saw The Walking Man.  I had seen photographs of this piece before in school because it was a pivotal piece, the first time an artist of the times had not created a recognizable figure.  It raised many questions at the time.  Some people thought that it was an unfinished sculpture that was a study for John the Baptist but Rodin himself said that he was trying to take away every thing that was not essential, leaving the bare truth, here the dynamic pose, toes digging in, pigeon toed, gripping the ground.  This is not an anonymous figure but truly an individual.

 Rodin's The Walking Man
Later that week we were in the Jardin du Luxembourg and came across five figures made by Magdalena Abakanowicz, a polish artist who I was unfamiliar with. The figures had been placed walking away from each other.  At the time I felt that the two pieces were strongly related.  For starters the name Walking Figures was, in my mind, a clear reference to Rodin's The Walking Man.  And the fact of no head, no arms, just torso and legs.

 Abakanowicz's Walking Figures in Paris 2007
Recently I photographed Walking Figures here in Vancouver.  There are eight or nine figures here, placed on the steps of the Broadway/Cambie station.  I have taken a closer look at these figures and have realized that although the piece makes a nod to Rodin's piece, it, in fact, makes quite a different statement.  Rodin's piece uses the definitive "the".  This is not just any man but a particular man.  The Abakanowicz is one of many. The piece done for The Vancouver Biennale has eighteen figures and  was originally placed in Queen Elizabeth Park standing on a platform. Later they announced that they would be placed on the beach at English Bay but I have never seen them there.  Each one is from the same cast with the only "individuality" being surface texture. Their step is without real direction or force.  These figures are part of a group just walking together.  Some of the figures seem to be just standing sort of waiting to be told where to go.  Abakanowicz has said that they refer to both social and political disruption as well as the "mindless nature of group behaviour".

Maybe some day another artist will come along an make walking figurers that show direction and determination as a group.  Or maybe it already exists and I just don't know about it... yet. 

 
Walking Figures in Vancouver 2011

It's a real pleasure for me to be thinking about this art more deeply again.  I wish that I could talk to the whoever it is that chose the piece for the Biennale or better yet to the artists themselves.