A Legendary Architect's Garden

I had the honour of shooting Arthur Erickson's garden, last year, for Canadian Gardening (May 2011 issue). He has designed incredible buildings all over North America. Two of those are the Museum of Anthropology, here in Vancouver, and was co-designer of Simon Fraser University. Personally, I would love to live in one of his homes. They are simply stunning. Arthur was still designing, right up to his death, in 2009 at 84.

Karen York, who wrote the story, was told about some legendary parties that Arthur would throw. My favourite is the one where he brought in black swans for the pond and the famous ballet dancer, Rudolf Nureyev, danced over the moss mound. Oh how I would love to have been there. Can you imagine?

If you're in the Vancouver area and want to check out the garden for yourself, they do offer tours.
Click here for details.

Have a lovely day! Back soon.
janis


 

Friday in the country

I headed out to the country today to hang out with my friend Heather, of Missing Goat. It was her official opening! After months of hard work, she opened the door to her "shack" filled with fabulous, jams, chutneys and garlic. Yum. Naturally, Lily, Heather's daughter, was in her blueberry glory. Speaking of blueberries, they won't be ready for another couple of weeks. If you're in the Metro Vancouver area, I highly recommend a trip to Missing Goat!

By the way, congratulations to all the winners of the big giveaway at Flourish Design + Style! The winner of one of my prints is Shannon of whatsupwhimsy.com - she chose "Pink" (below).

I think I need to have a g + t and give myself a bit of a pedicure. My feet are definitely not summer ready.

Enjoy your weekend! See you Monday.

Running Around Vancouver

Some days my job takes me all over the city. It never fails to amaze me that you can find yourself on a garden rooftop in Chinatown, a couple of hours later at a beach a few kms away, then just a couple of blocks from the beach you can feel like you're in a country town. I love living in the city. 


The day started off in Chinatown at 7:30am with my friends Julian and Alison of Considered Design. They designed this fantastic roof top garden at the Wing Sang building. The Two Half Cylinders structure (two way mirror and yew hedge) was designed by American artist Dan Graham. If you have to be up and at 'em at 7:30 in the morning, this is a beautiful place to be. Even in the rain. 

In between meetings and shoots, I stopped off at Locarno Beach. The sun had popped out and the beach was pretty much empty. The tide was out, so there was lots of slimy seaweed to walk over. Managed to slip and ended up sitting in it. Lovely seaweed butt for the remainder of day. Nice. Again, beach was pretty much empty, so I didn't entertain too many people. 

Just a few blocks from the beach there are cute community gardens running along old and overgrown train tracks. 

Last stop on Friday was the Millennium waterfront project. This area housed the Olympic athletes during the winter games. Love the giant birds. Kind of feels like you're in a Pixar film. 

Have a fabulous weekend! Hope it's sunshiny wherever you are. Back on Monday for Baked On Monday....some kind of bar this time. Mmmm.

What's Your Garden Style?

Mine is a little controlled chaos, I think. We have a small back yard that is in plain view of our living area. It has undergone 4 complete transformations over the 10 years we've lived here. My poor husband. It's hard shooting beautiful gardens all the time, let's just say.

I'm trying to work out plants for our back yard. We want to have an edible garden and a little more privacy. Thought I'd take a look at a few small, urban gardens I've shot for some inspiration. Would love to hear what your garden style is. Any of these gardens fit the bill? I like bits of all of them.

This garden was shot for Garden Design. I love all the privacy, and the lushness of plants. Designed by Kari Renaud.

 You really could make use of this garden for a good portion of the year. Shot for Style At Home, designed by Ron Rule. Heather Cameron propped and primped.

A Japanese inspired garden. The magnolia was so pretty, along with all the Japanese maples and mosses. Shot for Gardening Life, designed by Donna Chomichuk.

Perfect garden for entertaining and the homeowners, Mark and Daryl, do a lot of that! Again, this garden has heaps of privacy and lots of lush plantings. Love the succulents. Shot for Canadian Gardening, designed by the homeowners. 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on gardens!

On a final note, a huge thank you to Sarah at Flourish Design + Style for the little Q & A she did with me. I'm usually more comfortable being "behind the scenes", but Sarah made it all so easy and fun. Her blog is beautiful - check it out!

I Heart the Kootneys and Ernesto

Just wrapped up a 3 day shoot in the Kootneys.  Have to say, Rossland and Trail were especially photogenic. I got a bit obsessed, actually.  I'm working on a series of B.C. images, so I've attached a few.  

Now, about Ernesto.  I love Ernesto. His lovely wife, Connie, is pretty great too. They have an amazing edible garden. The dynamic duo took Jose and I into their home and showed us everything they do with their bounty. He's a very modest Portuguese man, so I had to beg him to let me take a picture of him with his gala apple tree. We all chatted for a bit using a lot of hand motions, and arm flailing, as we tried to understand what each other was saying. What I did pick up was that he doesn't mind if a passer-by picks an apple, just don't snap off an entire branch. Oh, and he's not too keen on raccoons and bears and he doesn't like "show offs". Or he doesn't want to be a show off.  Something like that.

Chair lift at Red Mountain - Rossland, B.C.

CocaCola is truly everywhere - Trail, B.C.

My new friend, Ernesto and his gala apple tree - Castlegar, B.C.

Jose and her perogie and cabbage roll dinner at Weezie's Borscht Hut - Castlegar, BC
(wish I had this right now)

Cute Cow and a Time Tunnel

It's been a very busy day here in sunny Castlegar.  Jose and I were up before dawn to shoot a beautiful garden for Canadian Gardening.  The homeowners, Caroline and Darcy, have cattle as well. At first, I thought this cow was very cute until he started to pee with wild abandon.  I thought a hose was left running. Really. This was at 7am, on an empty stomach.  Probably a good thing, when I think about it.

   

Caroline, told us that they never buy any meat as they basically eat their cows. Fair enough. I eat fish, but I no longer eat mammals or birds,  just not my thing these days. So when she was describing how a cow ends up in their freezer, I had a vivid picture of it in my head and still do. One day a cow is wandering around, chewing cud (is that the word), the next day he's in their freezer. It all takes place on their property. I won't share anymore details. Why am I so thrown off by this? How did I imagine hamburgers were created? I've now forgiven the cow for his rather crass behaviour. 

After all of that, we drove to Nelson.  It was like stepping into a time tunnel. It's a beautiful town.  I especially loved the West Arm Bridge, and the retro Dairy Queen. Very "Happy Days". Jose kindly waited for me while I pulled out my old Kodak duaflex and other assorted lens, on the side of the road.  

Now, must go find dinner and, possibly, a dairy queen.

  

West Arm Bridge built 1957

A fabulous Dairy Queen built in the 50's

On the Road

What a day. I started making frames, with my brother David, for several large pieces of artwork for Habit Lounge.  It reopens tomorrow, so time is ticking. After several cuts with the Ryobi mitre saw, it broke. Well done. Day over.  Sorry Nigel (owner of broken mitre saw). 

Now that I feel I've been no help with those frames, as luck would have it, I'm off to Castlegar tomorrow for a shoot with Canadian Gardening. I've included a shot of Highway 3 in B.C.  Love that road.  Will try to blog while away.

Have a lovely Sunday!