Bridges of Granville Island BC

Today's bridge post is a three-fer. This week I took a mini-vacation to Granville Island in Vancouver BC. It's a great destination tucked underneath the Granville Street Bridge. You have to weave around a bit on back streets to get under the bridge pillars, but the effort is well worth it. The island has shops, restaurants, parks, a waterfront hotel, the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, a huge indoor Public Market, and is home to Granville Island Brewing.

To the west of Granville Island is classic Burrard Street Bridge spanning False Creek.

To the east is the Cambie Street Bridge, with Science World in the distance. This historic glittering geodesic dome in East Vancouver was originally built as Expo Centre for Vancouver's Expo '86

All three bridges will take you downtown Vancouver for even more wonderful sights, tastes, and adventures. -- Margy

Granville Island Public Market

There's nothing like a farmer's market, and Granville Island has a wonderful one. It's indoors and has lots of booths to choose from for flowers, vegetable, baked goods, coffee and tea, meats, and delis. There are also great places to get a quick late breakfast, lunch, or early dinner. Market hours are 9:00 am to 7:00 pm.

Rather than buy a lunch, I decided to build my own by shopping. I got a glass of fresh squeezed organic grapefruit juice from Fraser Valley Juice & Salad, a fresh sesame bagel from Siegel's Bagels, and a slice of organic BC Alpindon cow's milk cheese from Benton Brothers Fine Cheeses. I took my booty outdoors and found a bench overlooking the water. What a great meal.

I wasn't the only one to think it looked good. One of the ubiquitous seagulls kept me company through the whole meal. A raised palm, and a firm no kept him in his place. But those hungry eyes were hard to ignore. -- Margy

Granville Island 7-ton Crane

This large 7-ton crane from Granville Island's working days in now on display on the northeast end of the island. It was originally built in the 1920s to serve the industries on the island that used the waters of False Creek to transport their goods.

It's no longer operational, but is an impressive display next to the Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

The gray overcast sky finally gave way at the end of the day to small patches of blue. -- Margy

Sofa Table

For months I've been shopping for a table to put next to our sofa at the cabin. For years, we've used two oak TV trays. They have served us well, but the legs did get in the way while storing things underneath, and the surface was barely large enough to hold all the stuff we liked to have at our fingertips.

I looked in Powell River, Bellingham, and online. Small desks were too wide. Sofa tables were too long. And both were so heavy. Sometimes when I have a hard time sleeping, I design things in my head. Three years ago I drew a diagram of what I thought would be a perfect solution. I went back in my diary, found the illustration, made a few adjustments after talking to Wayne, and gave it to John.

John is great about taking my designs and modifying them to make them even better. My only mandatory requirements were solid side panels to hide our charging station, a lower shelf to give us more surface area, and the overall dimensions. As you can see, John made us the perfect sofa table.

It has a slightly larger surface area than the TV trays. The open area underneath is better for organizing and hiding our rechargeable devices. The lower shelf is great for things like books and magazines. Now Wayne has a handy spot for reading, writing and relaxing. Thanks John! -- Margy

Dogs in the Sky

We get some really spectacular sunsets here in Powell River, BC. Looking across the Strait of Georgia I saw this sundog.

From the marina I could only get one half in the viewfinder. I went up to the condo balcony and was able to capture both sides. The left was definitely more distinct than the right.

Sundogs are bright, colourful patches of light to the left and right of, and in alignment with, the sun. In the first shot, you can see it almost forms a halo. Sundogs are created by cold ice crystals in high cirrus clouds bending the rays of sunlight. -- Margy

More Barns of Highway 195

About two-thirds of the way from Spokane to Pullman on Highway 195 is the small town of Colfax, Washington. Colfax, founded in 1873, is the seat of Whitman County. It's also the heart of the wheat producing lands of eastern Washington. Highway 195 goes right through downtown. I just love the ad on the wall for "Rip-Proof Overalls." Just the thing to wear out in the barn.

Maybe the owner of this beautiful red barn wears some.

Isn't that a lovely setting in the little valley with trees surrounding the farm house? -- Margy

Float Garden Construction

Over the years, I've had lots of interest in my float garden. It's a simple, effective design my good friend John came up with. He started by lashing together large cedar logs with 3/4 inch steel cable to make the foundation. On top he built four 4X10 foot raised beds lined with a porous, industrial strength cloth called mill felt. To get enough soil, he towed the float down to the marina and loaded dirt from his brother's yard into the beds.

Cedar logs are buoyant, but soil is very heavy, especially when it gets wet. It's important to keep the beds above the waterline so they don't become saturated. For that reason, 55-gallon blue barrels are placed under the logs. The barrels are filled with water, pushed under the float, then filled with air from a compressor. Once filled with air, they snug up between the logs and stay put without attachment.

Because we get small critters that love fresh salad, John developed a pulley system to keep our garden out in the lake away from their hungry eyes. The pulley is attached to our log boom.

A rope ties to the back of the float, runs through a pulley, and passes through large metal staples on the back and front of the float. It then runs through a chain on our transition float and ties to the front of the float.

Standing on our transition float, Wayne pulls the rope to bring the garden in for me to step aboard. Then, when I'm done working, a kick and a pull sends it back out to its protected location. I can do it too, thanks to the mechanical advantage of the pulley.

Another invention John came up with is a solar powered garden hose. A small solar panel charges a 12-volt battery. When I flip the switch, a boat bilge pump kicks into action and I have instant water through a hose. Much easier than dipping a water can, and much easier on my tender sprouts.

To top it all off, Mr. Owl guards his domain to keep out critters of the flying sort. He makes an attractive addition, but his evil eye isn't quite strong enough for determined Juncos. -- Margy