On a chill, blustery, cloudy and just a bit sunny late Sunday afternoon in the early spring of 2011, the winds blew, rain-soaked clouds hovered overhead, the North Shore mountains were snowcapped, wind surfers were out in force, lovers walked along the Spanish Banks beach path, and children frolicked in the sand under the watchful eye of their parents.

No matter what time of year, if you live in Vancouver there’s no activity that is more quietening and social than a visit to Granville Island.
Walking through the market area a cascading tsunami of aromas, colours and sounds serve as a calming tonic for the soul, the glistening waters of the inlet and the boats on the water offering a reminder that we live in a harbour city, the waters from whence we came millennia ago warming forgotten memories. This is the salutary effect of a visit to Vancouver’s Granville Island, a welcoming oasis of serenity in the heart of the city.

In the days during which VanRamblings’ west side Co-op apartment was undergoing reconstruction / a thorough re-piping, we did what we could to absent ourselves from the dust, the noise and the general mayhem.
On one sunny pre-Labour Day Thursday afternoon, we spent an enjoyable afternoon walking around Granville Island. The video above constitutes a recording of the first half of that walk; the second part of the Granville Island video will be published next week. We’ll see you back here then.

Summer in Vancouver would seem to be over, with the arrival of torrential west coast rains pouring down on our city. We’ll hold out for a warm, sunny September, though, a usual state of weather affairs in Vancouver.
VanRamblings is pleased to report that 90% of the renovation of our apartment is complete, most of the remaining work involving stuffing our clothes back in our closets, washing the floors, replacing all that we store in our cupboards in their usual home, and just generally attempting to recover a semblance of a ‘tidy’ life that’s been missing for some time now.
Amidst the chaos we were disinclined to publish on VanRamblings, a creative venture we’ll set about to correct in the coming days and weeks.