Monday, May 31, 2004
Here are two more time-lapse videos I shot from the balcony. Unfortunately, I can't set my camera to shoot frames less than 1 minute apart. If it could automatically shoot frames only, say, 15 or 30 seconds apart, it would produce a much smoother video.
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Here are some videos and photos of this year's first Errington Market. It runs every Saturday in Errington, a small town not too far from Parksville. The Cormies (my aunt, uncle & co.) go there every Saturday to sell their produce until some point in the middle of the summer when it gets really busy around here. Lots of interesting things are sold at this market, from fresh farm produce and baked goods to jewellery and photography. It's very inspiring. Jon and I could easily bake things and sell them here if we wanted to. The videos are kind of lame:
Here are a couple nice pictures I took from the balcony during a sunset:
The rest of my photos are quite silly. The three of us (Meta, Jon and I) went to the beach on Victoria Day. We had a spontaneous photo shoot of weird posing and prancing. I combined lots of Meta's prancing photos into one. Jon and I were running around too. Then Meta and Jon went swimming fully clothed. The sillies.
And here's a video of Jon making sounds with his pants (2.5 MB)
- Meta and Jon talking about nonsense (4.8 MB)
- Us hanging out with my cousin Mya and her boyfriend Adam at a picnic table (2.7 MB)
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Here are a couple nice pictures I took from the balcony during a sunset:
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The rest of my photos are quite silly. The three of us (Meta, Jon and I) went to the beach on Victoria Day. We had a spontaneous photo shoot of weird posing and prancing. I combined lots of Meta's prancing photos into one. Jon and I were running around too. Then Meta and Jon went swimming fully clothed. The sillies.
And here's a video of Jon making sounds with his pants (2.5 MB)
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Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Here are some photos I took with my new telephoto lens. They're nothing particularly special, I'm afraid.
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Monday, May 17, 2004
Here is a picture of some people who hang around here (I had to sneak it because some of them probably wouldn't be caught dead having their picture taken, let alone exhibited in my blog): my cousin Robin (the one with the black dreads), his cousin Dominic (the one with long hair dressed in black), Jon, Kara (Robin's girlfriend), and Meta.
Here's what the beach looks like. It's in a public park that is so conveniently located right across the street from my aunt's. That's Jon and Meta walking in the distance. The air was a bit chilly, but the water was surprisingly warm.
Another picture of the beach.
Yet another picture of the beach. I was trying out my new tripod.
Here's a picture of the house in the morning. It's quite big. Logs from their own trees were used in whole to construct the frame of the house.
You can see one of the fruit trees, young raspberry canes and some other crops in this picture. The field is of course much, much larger than you can see here.
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Sunday, May 09, 2004
Hello, everybody. Sorry I haven't posted anything for a while. I'll try to post regular updates of my time here on Vancouver Island, but they probably won't be too frequent.
I came to my aunt Anna's farm on May 3rd with Jon (Meta was already here) because my house in Oakville is being sold very soon, and I wanted to go live somewhere that I was welcome and where I could begin to work towards my goal of living sustainably.
Her farm is in Parksville, on the east coast of the island about half an hour northwest of Nanaimo. It's so green here! So leafy and lush. Here's a video (2.4 MB) I took in the forest across the street from the farm.
There is definitely a lot of wilderness around here. It's wonderful. Wildflowers are in bloom everywhere. There are California poppies lining the roads and all the paths are thick with yellow flower bushes (I don't know what they're called). Spring is much more advanced here than in Oakville. In fact, I would have to call this summer now. The climate here is very temperate and feels almost tropical with the palm trees in the garden. I think the weather is also very mutable at this time of year.
It often rains while the sun is shining. The sun often shines on my aunt's property while there are clouds billowing above the mountains (800 KB) in the distance.
Mountains capped with snow and patterned with wedges of sunlight loom on every horizon. The towns here aren't as ugly as Ontario towns (on the whole). The stores, gas stations, etc. have more of variety of plants and shrubs around their properties with more blossoms and overhanging vines. There are still plenty of power lines that handicap the beauty, however. If they placed the wires underground as they do in many European countries (especially Germany), then I think Parksville would be hard to distinguish from a small European town, such as Trogen, Switzerland (near St. Gallen).
The public transit here is pretty terrible, unfortunately. Trains go up and down the island only a couple times a week, and they're pretty expensive. Buses to Nanaimo go only a few times a day, and I don't think it's possible to go to Victoria and come back in the same day. So if you wanted to live here, then you'd have to know how to drive or possibly be a pro cyclist. I'm considering the latter option now. I'd love to get everywhere I needed on the bike if I could without dying or becoming totally exhausted. We'll see what I find out. I need a good bike, to begin with.
But it was pretty painless for Meta, Jon and me to take the bus to and from Nanaimo yesterday. I got a tripod and Jon got a baking stone. Nanaimo is pretty nice. It's got a cute little downtown with lots of music stores. We wandered around there and along the waterfront. Here's a short clip of the waterfront (1.2 MB).
I came to my aunt Anna's farm on May 3rd with Jon (Meta was already here) because my house in Oakville is being sold very soon, and I wanted to go live somewhere that I was welcome and where I could begin to work towards my goal of living sustainably. Her farm is in Parksville, on the east coast of the island about half an hour northwest of Nanaimo. It's so green here! So leafy and lush. Here's a video (2.4 MB) I took in the forest across the street from the farm.
There is definitely a lot of wilderness around here. It's wonderful. Wildflowers are in bloom everywhere. There are California poppies lining the roads and all the paths are thick with yellow flower bushes (I don't know what they're called). Spring is much more advanced here than in Oakville. In fact, I would have to call this summer now. The climate here is very temperate and feels almost tropical with the palm trees in the garden. I think the weather is also very mutable at this time of year.It often rains while the sun is shining. The sun often shines on my aunt's property while there are clouds billowing above the mountains (800 KB) in the distance.
Mountains capped with snow and patterned with wedges of sunlight loom on every horizon. The towns here aren't as ugly as Ontario towns (on the whole). The stores, gas stations, etc. have more of variety of plants and shrubs around their properties with more blossoms and overhanging vines. There are still plenty of power lines that handicap the beauty, however. If they placed the wires underground as they do in many European countries (especially Germany), then I think Parksville would be hard to distinguish from a small European town, such as Trogen, Switzerland (near St. Gallen).
The public transit here is pretty terrible, unfortunately. Trains go up and down the island only a couple times a week, and they're pretty expensive. Buses to Nanaimo go only a few times a day, and I don't think it's possible to go to Victoria and come back in the same day. So if you wanted to live here, then you'd have to know how to drive or possibly be a pro cyclist. I'm considering the latter option now. I'd love to get everywhere I needed on the bike if I could without dying or becoming totally exhausted. We'll see what I find out. I need a good bike, to begin with.
But it was pretty painless for Meta, Jon and me to take the bus to and from Nanaimo yesterday. I got a tripod and Jon got a baking stone. Nanaimo is pretty nice. It's got a cute little downtown with lots of music stores. We wandered around there and along the waterfront. Here's a short clip of the waterfront (1.2 MB).
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Saturday, May 01, 2004
citadel.
a "house fluffer" came over a couple days ago to scold us about our terribly ugly house. it was a moving experience. she described in glowing detail all the furniture we had to rearrange, all the lamps and cupboard knobs that we had to replace, all the nooks we had to clean, all the junk we had to hide, etc., before our next open house on Sunday. what a smart lady. she really knows what people care about. who knew that having matching shower curtain and towels was so important to potential buyers? Gloria knows.
so we've been spending most of the last few days buying things, cleaning things and moving things. my dad hired a friend and a cleaning lady to help for a few hours. how rewarding.
a "house fluffer" came over a couple days ago to scold us about our terribly ugly house. it was a moving experience. she described in glowing detail all the furniture we had to rearrange, all the lamps and cupboard knobs that we had to replace, all the nooks we had to clean, all the junk we had to hide, etc., before our next open house on Sunday. what a smart lady. she really knows what people care about. who knew that having matching shower curtain and towels was so important to potential buyers? Gloria knows.
so we've been spending most of the last few days buying things, cleaning things and moving things. my dad hired a friend and a cleaning lady to help for a few hours. how rewarding.
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