Strathcona! My favourite Vancouver neighbourhood. Just on the edge of Chinatown, a community of older Chinese families turned artist's colony. Heritage houses and enthusiastic gardeners; the sun belt.
I wrote about it on my old blog, after I first stayed and fell in love with the place. You can read more of the background and see a bit of the local colour
here and
here and
here and
here and
here. (In reverse chronological order. Do click on those ridiculously tiny thumbnails.) Or click on the
Strathcona label, on this blog.
We arrived at my daughter's house around 5:00 last Saturday. Still early, and the sun was bright. I had time for a slow look around the garden and a walk down the block to the park.
Stepping out the front door, this is what I saw:
At the bottom of the steps, in a handkerchief garden, the tulip tree was in flower. For the rest, purple hyacinth, yellow and orange tulips and I think that is a white narcissus. Snuggled into a corner, a clump of forget-me-nots.
And euphorbia. I never did like euphorbia; it has an imperialistic bent, and needs careful and enthusiastic regulating. But it is such a beautiful spring green!
Some tiny pink blooms down among the tangled new growth. I have no idea what they are.
Down the block, an artist's studio in an old "Paneficio" (Bakery). Ivy, tulips, assorted greenery. The tree on the right is a fig. Later in the summer, it drapes fruit-laden branches over all the windows.
The horizon (and studio) are badly tilted; I think I was a little tipsy already with all the beauty around me.
On the way back, I took a side-trip down the alley, following a robin. He posed for me briefly before he took to the trees.
Almost home again. "Vintage" houses across the street, sunken into the ground with the years. (Or the street widened and built up. Long ago, these were narrow dirt alleys up and down steep hills.)
And folks were arriving. I could smell coffee and hear the laughter. I joined the party:
