vancouver strikes again - summer in the city

I am in Vancouver.

Family matters, of a joyful variety.

I have been so busy that I have not had time to bore you with my letterpress workshop in London, or tell you about my new storytelling ventures at Dungeness, involving Tracey and Emmeline, two corrugated metal dolls. More of them later.

For now I just have time to throw some images at you.

Vancouver is a great city for cone hunters and people who like decorated metal street cabinets.

I am not going to show you those either. You can catch up with them on my instagram account.

I am also not going to bore you with my A to Z of Vancouver in pictures. It is going well, but I do need a whale...

Last night I strolled the streets with the words 'summer in the city' as my brief. I did not allow myself to take any photos that didn't meet the brief.

I tried to capture the greenery alongside the skyscrapers and apartment blocks.

The pink/purple tower merits another visit

Flowering blossom  on a city tree

light and airy

cables and tower blocks

leafy side streets

and just as I was heading home

water lilies © Caroline Fraser

I walked over a bridge and looked down into the water

water lilies © Caroline Fraser

beautiful colours and shapes

water lilies © Caroline Fraser

everything a girl in the city could need.

water lilies © Caroline Fraser

the joys of jet lag and some photography in Vancouver

foggy dawn

I cannot thank eldest child for choosing to live in a city that allows for the most challenging jet lag of all destinations that I have encountered. I don't get stressed if I wake early, but I do get very tired, and that affects my brain in an adverse way.

• day one; wake 3.30am
• day 2 wake 4 am convinced that it is dawn.....but oh so wrong.
• day 3 wake 4.30; ah ha; moving in the right direction....
• day 4 wake 3.50 hmmmm
• day 5 wake 4.30 ; I give up. I want to go home...
• day 6 on plane to Auckland; breakfast served at 03.30 here we go again......
• day 7 wake 05.00 luxury item; getting it cracked now

• day 8 wake 06.00 YAY! I might be even be able to function when I start work tomorrow 

Suffice it to say that I have been unable to string any words together for this blog, or even decide what to post.

while most are sleeping

Should it be trees in the city?

trees in the city 1

trees in the city 2

Or should it be Vancouver and Stanley Park in the fog on a very cold and frosty walk before breakfast?

Dawn, Vancouver

sunrise

Stanley Park

Stanley Park 2

Stanley Park 3

 trees and crows

the last leaves of autumn

Or it could be 'Orange on Nelson'

Eldest child walks to work on this street daily. I joined her on my last day and in my jet lagged stupor decided to focus on the cheery colour orange on the return journey.

orange on nelson 1

orange on Nelson 2

Orange on Nelson 3

orange on Nelson 4

the strange bolted cones of Nelson Street

more orange on Nelson

micro cones cover tree stumps on Nelson.

As you can see, I have not been able to choose, so have shown them all.


And my favourite is the bird seen on a city side street. Which doesn't fit any of these themes.

Bird in the city © Caroline Fraser 2015

Got to go now; I forgot to pack any socks, and it is very cold here in the New Zealand 'summer', so I am off to the shops.

dinner jackets and gumboots - rural city living - this is Gore

rural city living

I am on call for a whole weekend. Something I have not done for a good many years.

Confined to town, within cellphone reach of the local population should they have need for a medical opinion.

So I will devote a little time to telling you about why I like it so much here, in the land of 'gum boots and dinner jackets'.

'Rural city living'.  Now there's a contradiction if ever I heard one. This town only has a population of 12,300 people, so I am not sure where the term 'city' fits in.

Gore is rebranding itself, and not everyone is happy about it according to the local newspaper.

I have seen a lot of boots, but no dinner jackets.

Muddy, dusty gum boots and leather boots. Respectfully left outside the doors of shops and cafe's.



Houses in the town are small and inexpensive. Mostly bungalows. No two the same.

Street view

Gore clock tower

Many locals are farmers and farm hands or they work in the enormous abattoirs and in the dairy industry out of town in nearby Edendale and Mataura.


People here don't have 'tennis elbow'; they have 'grubbers elbow', from 'grubbing' weeds and a similar condition of the shoulder from 'cupping cows' .

I talk to people who spend all day on 'the chain', dealing with animal carcasses day in, day out. One man washes kidneys all day every day, and has done for 16 years. These are hardy, uncomplaining people.


It is a quiet town. Tidy and spacious. Proud of its floral displays.

No marigolds here.

My drive to work is down this road, and it is normally about as busy as this.

City?

Not in my opinion.


The biggest building in town is the Cremoata building. No longer in use, it has historic status as a grain mill that brought prosperity and porridge to the town.

It is a category 1 listed building, and dominates the town.

Cremoata, Gore

Now much of the land that produced grain is being turned over to dairy farming.

The railway no longer takes passengers.

Gore railway station

Main Street, Gore

I like it here because of the peace and quiet, the space and the friendly people.

……..the cinema where folk eat ice cream cornets


………….the streets where people smile and say 'hello' to strangers


Over this weekend I have learnt that

• the library closes at 1pm on Saturdays 
• most of the shops and cafe's do too

Which left me reading my book in the sunshine in the garden in my house near the graveyard overlooking the hills that I see from my window every morning.

Gore cemetery

So what do people around here do for leisure?

On a weekday evening in summer they run up those hills that I see every morning from my window.

sport southland

I walked up, and that was hard enough.

But this weekend I stayed at home with chicken and enjoyed the sunshine.

chicken and I

I think I may buy a house here.

There's one for sale just down the road. 

Just opposite the green space where I tried to learn to run, in order to keep up with the locals, until I injured my ankle……..