Admiring a Bentwood Eagle

A visit to the thrift shop produced an unexpected encounter on the shelves: a small oval container fashioned from thin wood veneer, its lid carrying a crisp, hand-painted First Nations eagle in traditional black, red, and white formline. It had an unmistakable presence that commanded attention. I picked it up and carried it through the store, though the price tag was so negligible that bringing only the box to the cash register felt almost improper. To appease the retail ledger and justify the transaction, I circled the aisles until I finally settled on a shirt to buy alongside it. The clothing was mere camouflage; the little box was the real acquisition.

I discovered it is called a bentwood box and is named for the woodworking technique used to create the container itself.  Rather than carving a hollow from a solid log or fastening multiple flat pieces together at sharp angles, thin strips of wood are steamed or soaked until pliable, then bent around a mould into smooth, curved shapes to form the oval rim and walls.  On the West Coast, bentwood boxes are a celebrated Indigenous tradition, masterfully crafted from a single cedar plank that is grooved, steamed, bent into four sides, and pegged together. For smaller market crafts and shaker-style oval boxes like this one, thin veneer is steamed and overlapped to make a lightweight, seamless container.

Tucked inside was an original cardstock slip identifying the artist as Una-Ann of the Tahltan First Nation, noting the Eagle as a representation of wisdom, strength, and foresight. Beneath the text was a local 604 telephone number and an old Hotmail address.

A search online filled in the wider biographical canvas. Una-Ann spent twenty-five years working as an Indigenous support worker in the Langley School District, dedicating a major chapter of her career to secondary students before retiring in 2019. Rather than slowing down, at age sixty-six she enrolled in the Freda Diesing School of Northwest Coast Art in Terrace to further advance her carving and traditional formline practice.

The physical ephemera dates this container back roughly twenty years, hailing from the Lower Mainland artisan market circuits of the early 2000s. Twenty years is barely a footnote in historical time, but in an individual human life, it is a substantial expanse. It represents the arc of an entire teaching career, generations of students passing through classrooms, and the gradual obsolescence of early digital tools. Yet through all that accumulated living, the painted veneer remained unchanged, patiently preserving a single afternoon's work until it was rescued from a crowded shelf.

I love it. I plan to send a message out to that vintage Hotmail address. Whether the note reaches an active inbox or bounces silently into the digital ether, it feels right to offer a simple word of thanks to the artist whose handiwork now decorates our coffee table.

Down the Inside Passage

Our final day on board was spent entirely at sea, cruising southbound through the Inside Passage. A soft mist hung over the water for stretches, but it was certainly not without views, giving us plenty of intermittent glimpses of the coast throughout the day. Thanks to modern satellite navigation systems, the ship glided quietly along without needing a single blast from a foghorn. I kept track of our exact progress down the channel using the blue GPS dot on Google Maps, watching our steady course home.

Having a full sea day at the tail end of a voyage is a wonderful way to close out the trip before we pull into the cruise terminal in downtown Vancouver tomorrow. It creates a comfortable buffer, letting the entire week settle in before stepping off the ship. We enjoyed a relaxed final lunch on board and packed up our stateroom at our leisure, enjoying these last peaceful hours on the water.

I often think about how very lucky I am. With Jay, we can plan and execute just about any travel itinerary we can envision. This cruise popped up as a last minute chance, and I feel so deeply appreciative that we were able to take up the unexpected voyage.

The Purely Cash Contingency

Living on an active tectonic plate along the West Coast changes how one must look at emergency preparedness. Most regional advice focuses heavily on the standard accumulation of canned rations and emergency supplies, but a critical logistical blind spot exists for most households. Jay and I have completely relied on electronic transactions for the entirety of our daily lives for decades now. I carry a solitary, folded twenty dollar bill in my wallet as a symbolic relic, but the rest of our financial footprint is entirely digital. I really didn't remember who is on a few of our Canadian bank notes.  

Few people in modern society actually envision a total disruption to that seamless daily routine. It is a fragile baseline. If a significant seismic event interferes with the local electrical grid, the immediate consequence will be the total disappearance of ATMs and point-of-sale terminals. Cash becomes the only viable currency when the digital architecture fails.

I had set aside a dedicated, little cash stash for just such a circumstance a while back. That emergency fund sits securely inside a hidden, fireproof box in the apartment alongside our vital personal papers. However, I recently took a closer look and realized a major flaw in the makeup of the bills. What earthly good is a hundred dollar note going to be when one is trying to purchase basic necessities like broccoli and carrots from a local vendor? In a real crisis, merchant registers are going to run out of small bills within hours.

I visited our uptown bank branch this morning to systematically break down those large denominations into a beautifully distributed stack of highly usable smaller bills. The teller probably thought I was running a highly suspicious garage sale. Thanks to this bout of financial micro-management, I feel like a wonderfully dutiful, silver-haired Boy Scout. If the "Big One" finally hits the coast, I might be sitting in the dark, but at least I possess the exact change required to bribe my way onto a outbound ferry or buy a single, 4-liter jug of whole milk.

Our Visit to the New Lab

Today, Jay and I went uptown to the new LifeLabs location on Sixth Street to get our baseline bloodwork done. This was our first time visiting the "new digs," which recently replaced their old spot over on Fifth Avenue.

I have to say, the new location is a significant improvement for overall access. The space is larger and the layout is much more functional. While the old clinic was definitely inconvenient to get to, it did have a view. However, this new spot certainly doesn't disappoint in that regard. I snapped a photo right from the lab chair, enjoying a surprisingly great peek out over the uptown high-rises and bustling 6th Street below.

One of the tricks to navigating the medical system here is knowing when to plan ahead. We had the foresight to book our appointments online in advance, which meant our wait time was a fraction of what it would have been if we had just walked in. The waiting area is always full of folks who didn't book ahead, resigned to a lengthened bout of sitting.

It got me thinking about how general medicine actually functions here in Canada, and specifically in British Columbia. To an outsider, the system might seem complex, but it operates on a very direct sequence. It all starts with the Family Doctor, or a walk-in clinic for anyone not lucky enough to have a dedicated GP. The doctor acts as the gatekeeper. They issue the requisition for the lab work, which in BC is primarily handled by private entities like LifeLabs that operate under the provincial health umbrella.

Once the requisition is issued, a patient simply gets their blood drawn, and the results are routed directly back to the doctor. Thanks to modern provincial portals, I can log in later today and see my own numbers the moment they are finalized. It is a hybrid system of publicly funded care delivered through a mix of private labs and independent physician practices. When it works smoothly, as it did today with our booked appointments at the new Sixth Street clinic, it is a remarkably efficient machine.

We Canadians certainly love to complain about our medical system, but one only has to look at places where healthcare is entirely privatized to appreciate what we have. In those models designed for moneymaking, the level of care received is entirely dependent on a person's wallet, leaving far too many folks with unequal treatment or abandoned by the wayside completely. Furthermore, there is a massive, hidden financial burden in those systems just to maintain the competing, redundant, and often poorly organized infrastructure required simply to keep the billing departments running. It might not be perfect here, but our single-payer baseline consistently delivers better overall outcomes than the wild west of the completely for-profit healthcare industry.

Fireplace or Barbecue?

 

It is mid-May. We had switched off the gas fireplace a while back; however, now that the long weekend in Canada is nearly here, I felt the need to light it again. This morning the temperature felt cold and it's still only 9°C (48°F) and remains overcast and rainy. Tonight the temperature will drop just a couple of degrees lower, but the sun is not expected to appear at all until tomorrow morning. 

Yet, get ready to fire up the barbecue because Victoria Day arrives on Monday, May 18th, as a statutory holiday that guarantees a three-day weekend across British Columbia! Originally established way back in 1845 to celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday, this historic Monday became a fixed, nationwide holiday by an act of the Parliament of Canada in 1901 following her passing. It has happily transformed into Canada’s undisputed, unofficial kickoff to the summer season, especially after 1952, when the government smartly decreed it would always fall on the Monday preceding May 25th. 

This paid day off is officially celebrated in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Yukon, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories. In these regions, it remains the cherished long weekend where Canadians enthusiastically dust off the patio cushions, unpack the camping gear, and boldly embrace the Great Outdoors to welcome the warm weather ahead. This makes it the absolute perfect excuse to settle in, relax, and celebrate a joyful start of the summer roadmap in style, even though we will most likely require umbrellas again in 2026.

The Shifting Skyline from the Royal City

It is fascinating to look out from our vantage point in New Westminster and realize how much the landscape has evolved since Jay and I first settled here. My lone photo of the day captures a reality that would have been unrecognizable a decade or two ago. Where there is now a dense phalanx of glass and steel stretching toward the clouds, there used to be open air and a clear line of sight.

Back then, the horizon belonged to Mt. Baker down in Washington State. Its snowy peak was a constant, majestic companion to our morning coffee. Today, those towers have claimed that particular piece of the sky, effectively editing the volcano out of our daily view.

It’s not a point of sadness, though; rather, it's just the natural rhythm of urban development in a corner of the world that refuses to stand still. We’re watching a massive demographic shift in real-time. Just across the water, Surrey is growing at such a clip that it is projected to surpass the population of Vancouver proper in the very near future.

New Westminster remains our home base, but the view is certainly getting more crowded. It’s a bit like watching a child grow up; you don't always notice the height increase day-to-day until you look at an old photograph and realize the world looks entirely different.

May the 4th Be With You

For the photo above, I was standing by the Fourth Street entrance to the New Westminster downtown Parkade.  Columbia Street, two heritage buildings, and the underground tunnel of the SkyTrain stood between me and our apartment tower.  (There is another, slightly shorter tower in our complex beyond the right side of the image.)

I shot this on my way to Westminster Pier Park. 

I continued across the parkade towards stairs and a public elevator.  These photos were taken in Westminster Pier Park along the mighty Fraser River.  It seems that our preview of summer has lasted past the weekend.  

It was clear with a high temperature of 26C.  In order words, it felt like perfect conditions.  Yet, unfortunately because of a mild winter and miniscule snow pack, we are already under Level 2 drought conditions.  It will apparently be a dry summer.  I am hoping that the wildfire season somehow remains muted, or, at very least, the prevailing winds blow the smoke eastward rather than into the Lower Mainland.

Visiting Tim in Golden Ears Provincial Park

As planned, Jiwan came here by SkyTrain from downtown Vancouver after his doctor's appointment.  We all got in the car and headed to the Golden Ears Provincial Park.  Let me give you a few facts.  

Golden Ears Provincial Park is a sprawling natural playground that consistently ranks as one of British Columbia’s most heavily frequented outdoor sanctuaries, drawing well over 600,000 visitors annually. Encompassing a staggering 62,539 hectares of rugged coastal mountain terrain, it serves as a massive reserve of thick hemlock and cedar forests anchored by the vast waters of Alouette Lake. Its immense popularity is largely due to its brilliant accessibility; sitting roughly 50 to 60 kilometers northeast of New Westminster, it requires only about an hour of driving time to completely trade the urban sprawl of the Lower Mainland for pristine wilderness.

As planned it took just about an hour to get there.  For the first time, I crossed the new bridge and travelled east on Highway 17.  That took us to the Golden Ears Bridge and right into the huge park to the campground and recreational areas around Alouette Lake.

We found Tim in campsite A78. He went on Monday and will go back to the West End either tomorrow as originally planned, or perhaps take an extra night.  We'd brought along lunch but decided to walk a couple of kilometers down to the lake.  Most of this type of lake runs north-south and was created by retreating glaciers.  Things were pretty empty at the campground.  As it is close to urban areas, it gets a whole lot of campers and will be constantly packed come summer.

Jiwan brought along lunch for he and Tim.  Jay made bagel-omelet sandwiches for us.  We picked up a few things at the Walmart earlier today, just chips and strawberries really.  It was nice to tuck into the food because we didn't get back from the lake until 2:00 pm.

By 3:30 Jay, Jiwan, and I started back.  Rush hour had already begun but we were travelling in the direction against most of the flow.  We returned via Highway 17 and I'm sure it would've taken much longer either on Highway 7 or Highway 1.  By the way, Highway 1 is the BC name for the Trans-Canada Highway.  We arrived home at 4:40 and Jiwan immediately went back home by SkyTrain.

It was a nice outing.

Love in Tokyo and a Totem Pole

Jay and I just got back from a short stay in Tokyo. He was remembering a 1966 Indian film called, 'Love in Toyko'. As most Bollywood films, there are numerous musical numbers. He cast it from YouTube on the computer to our TV. Singing in a park was not usual for films of that era. However, one set in Japan was rare, of course. In it, I noticed a totem pole and it made me wonder where the segment was shot. 

I typed this question for my AI: I just noticed a totem pole in 1966 Bollywood movie filmed in Japan. Explain this.

 

That visual anomaly in the 1966 Hindi classic Love in Tokyo is actually a fascinating bit of "Hurd-spec" history connecting your current home in British Columbia to the "Land of the Rising Sun." 

The park you saw is Shiba Park (Shiba-Koen) in Minato, Tokyo. It is the iconic setting for many of the film's most famous sequences, including the title track and the song "Sayonara Sayonara," primarily because it sits in the direct shadow of the Tokyo Tower (completed just eight years prior in 1958). 

The totem pole in the background was a very real landmark with a direct link to your own backyard:

The Origin: It was a gift to the city of Tokyo from the Government of British Columbia. 

The Occasion: Presented in 1961 by the then-Premier of B.C., W.A.C. Bennett, during a major trade mission to Japan. It was intended as a gesture of friendship and a symbolic "welcome" to the international community as Tokyo prepared for the 1964 Olympics. 

The Artist: The pole was carved by the renowned Doug Cranmer, a master Kwakwaka'wakw artist (and a frequent collaborator with Bill Reid). 

Seeing a piece of west coast First Nations art standing amidst the cherry blossoms and mid-century Tokyo architecture is a jarring, high-fidelity collision of cultures. For a resident of New Westminster like yourself, it’s a peculiar digital "easter egg"—a 1960s Bollywood lens capturing a 1961 B.C. artifact in a Japanese park. 

The pole stood in Shiba Park for several decades as a symbol of the Vancouver-Tokyo connection before it was eventually removed due to natural deterioration. In the 1960s, however, it was a "must-see" for any tourist—or any film crew looking for a unique, international vibe for their romantic musical. 

Sayonara Sayonara from Love in Tokyo 

This musical number features the vibrant atmosphere of mid-60s Tokyo, where the Shiba Park scenery—including the Tokyo Tower and the gift from B.C.—served as the backdrop for one of Bollywood's most enduring hits.

Embracing Change

 

I have found it interesting living in a place where things change.  I'm trying to say that the environment differs over time.  Our little city of New Westminster, especially downtown New West, looks vastly different than when we moved here in 1996.

The riverfront has developed, tall buildings now crowd streets which used to contain single-storey shops, and new infrastructure has been built.

The view is ever changing and I think witnessing that helps keep a person ready to continue growing and developing in tandem with the times.

This is the last full day in our apartment until next spring.  I stepped onto the balcony for two quick shots down and up along the mighty Fraser River.

First, the landscape picture was zoomed a bit to catch the land adjacent to the new Pier West development.  One can see the work on the Westminster Pier Park extension.  Artist renderings of the new space look lovely and I bet it will make a great addition to the city.

Second, the portrait orientation of the second shot is looking between buildings toward the Pattullo Bridge replacement.  All the the cables are now stretching down towards work crews completing the project.  There's still talk that it will open before Christmas, but I'm sure it'll take a while until the numerous exit and entrance ramps are complete.  

Nevertheless, I expect that when we return in mid-March both projects will be different than they are today.  It gives us more to look forward to when making our homecoming.  

The Same City Hall Since 1953

The weather seemed too good to waste. So, I took a tiny walk up to New Westminster City Hall.  Of course it sits right beside Tipperary Park, so I spent a few minutes walking to the uncovered stream.  

 

Warm Weather in New Westminster

We welcome the nice weather we're getting in the Lower Mainland of BC. Today, I did note a smidgeon of wildfire smoke in the air, but we've been blessed with a pretty small amount of that phenomena this season.  I walked out of the door with my Bluetooth headphones on.  My new phone played Spotify, kept track of my Fitbit walking route and stats, and still provided me with a chance to play with its camera.

 

I loved the feeling of sun on my face and old tunes in my ears.  The few people who were out appeared to be enjoying their chance to experience some nice weather too.

Grouse Mountain: Third Time's a Charm

Today, we were up on Vancouver's Grouse Mountain for the third time this August.  It started back on August 6th.  That was when the mountain offered one-day, free access to the mountain for local residents who were quick enough to snap up an online offering.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be a dark day and not a great opportunity to showcase the mountain which is only a 20-minute, free shuttle bus from downtown Vancouver.

The offer was expanded because of the first poor weather showing.  We used the same free tickets when ascending on August 14th.  That Thursday turned out to be rainy and foggier than our first trip up.  Jay and I enjoyed it nevertheless.  We saw lots of deer even though it was rather cold and damp.

We got email last week indicating that annual passes for seniors were on sale for around $30 less than the normal fee. We thought about it and decided it would be pretty easy to arrange three outings over the course of a one year period, even if we are out of town for five of each twelve months!   That is the point we break even so any additional days up there will be gravy, as the saying goes.  We got our e-passes by email but picked up the physical cards and lanyards today.  It was a grand day for our first use of them.  

The peak on the last two occasions was socked in with fog and clouds.  Today, as the pictures show, we had fine blue sky.  It was a hot day of about 29C in New Westminster and nearly the same on the top of Grouse Mountain.  We like the fact we can now go anytime when we see that the weather is good.  It takes around one hour from our apartment in New Westminster to get there.  We can go just to eat a picnic lunch and say hello to the orphaned grizzles, Grinder and Coola. 

 

     

Street Pride 2025

 

I love the Saturday in August, when Columbia Street, our main drag through downtown New Westminster, is closed to traffic for the New West Street Pride.

 

Harvest Days

Today it was hard to see far because of the nonstop rain. It has been pretty much non-stop pouring since we got up.  That's not necessarily a bad thing here as things were getting quite dry. We've been spared from the presence of wildfire smoke this year. If a day or two of rain will ensure this continues, I'm all for it. 

It was one of those days were it was most comfortable to sit indoors and peer outside. Yet, we did a fruit and vegetable run to the Langley Farm Market. How great to see the new local, apple crop showing up. Apples right from the orchid are not coated with wax or treated with 1-methylcyclopropene. That's why I love the local harvest of fruits and vegetables during our summers in British Columbia. 

Interestingly, the local prune plums are already hitting the market shelves too!  But sadly, that means the cherry season is over ...

 

Grouse Mountain: A Second Try.

Last Wednesday, we went up Grouse Mountain on the new, blue gondolas for free. We'd gotten tickets online before they ran out. We had to show ID as they were only available to local residents. Last week, it was a bit misty and dark so the usual stunning views of the city weren't possible. After returning home from a nice outing, we received an email.  It said that due to the poor weather conditions, we'd have another chance this week! Of three possible dates, we chose today.

   

We knew that rain is approaching the area, so we tried our second attempt in the morning. We again took the SkyTrain to the Waterfront and grabbed a free shuttle bus from there.

 

It took a few minutes to turn our paper QR codes into tickets, but we were at the top chalet by 10:55.  It was very foggy as we were in the clouds.  We could feel the mist as we moved through the cool, wet air.

   

We walked to see Grinder and Coola first. They weren't near the creek but on a far side of their 5.5-acre, fenced-off refuge area, It was pretty hard to see far, but we continued to the chairlift and went up to the peak.

   

We couldn't spot the grouse that call that area home. However, we saw more deer than ever. This doe and fawn were not afraid of us. We got really quite close.  It felt cold for mid-August.  The weather forecast mentioned the high for the day would be 16C but the wind made it feel much cooler than that.  We'd worn jeans and long-sleeved t-shirts.  So with a thin jacket we were comfortable.  I could have used gloves though.  Of course, some visitors came up in shorts and tank tops.  We saw one young guy buying a hoodie at the gift shop at the chalet.

   

We saw more deer as we descended from the peak on the chairlift.  There was a big buck that still had velvet on his new antlers.  We must've seen a total of more than six.

When we got back to where the shuttle parks, we learned that no busses were running during lunch hour.  Rather than wait 45 minutes, we took a public bus back to the Lonsdale Quay.  I don't think we'd been on the Translink Seabus yet this summer.  The short, 15-minute trip back across the Vancouver Harbour was enjoyable.

The original idea was to have lunch at the food court at the Harbour Centre.  However, as it was just 1:40 pm, we 'SkyTrain-ed' home to New Westminster for a lunch at home.  It seems as though the weather was not cooperative for our second visit to Grouse Mountain this summer.

We enjoyed our outing.  How lucky we are to live in place that so many tourists come to see!