The Lobster Dance

I may have missed the UW campus cherry blossoms, but I had a chance last month to see the cherry blossoms in Vancouver, BC, and they were gorgeous. These, of course, are not the only places in the city to see them, but Granville Island, Devonian Harbor Park, and Stanley Park were all easily accessible from the place I was staying downtown.

In Ishikawa, we used to say that the overcast weather actually made the flowers seem more vivid. I certainly treasured them more after the constant snow and wintry mix, when the landscape was no longer a white-out and the first colors (other than the camellias) emerged.*

1. False Creek Community Center, Granville Island

There’s only 4-5 trees in the grove behind the playground, but they’re huge and make a beautiful net of sakura.

Although you can’t drink it outside, Granville Island is also home to an organic nihonshu distillery, Organic Sake Maker!

2. Devonian Harbor Park / Coal Harbour

On my way to Stanley Park, I stopped to photograph these lovely sakura and tulip trees. I love the contrast with the sky and the blue-grey buildings.

3. Stanley Park

Stanley Park apparently has a fantastic rose garden as well.

As I wrote in my post about camellias,** it was just nice to be alone and free to explore the island as much as I wanted while listening to Stuff You Missed in History Class and La Traviata.

Sempre libera degg´io
folleggiare di gioia in gioia,
vo´che scorra il viver mio
pei sentieri del piacer.
Nasca il giorno, o il giorno muoia,
sempre lieta ne´ ritrovi,
a diletti sempre nuovi
dee volare il mio pensier!

Joyously alone and utterly free.

Notes

*Other things emerged as well, such as a sock I that fell out of my gym bag; it froze between the fallen snow and the fresh layer that blanketed my parking space and emerged when the snow melted some weeks later.

**In retrospect, I should have listened to La Traviata during the camellia adventure in homage to the original work, Alexander Dumas (the Younger)’s La Dame aux Camélias.