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Sunday, July 31, 2011

Kopje Beach, British Columbia



                                                     Tabs and Pip Found the Water Warm
Me, Keeping an Eye on My Gals
Pip Crazy Dancing While Mist looks On
My Gals Taking it Easy
Beautiful Okanagan Lake
Dinosaur Nose
Pip
My Dinosaur Nose
Mist with Pip


3 hours of dance yesterday. It was fun but always hard on the knees and hips.  Kelowna was lucky though. It was the first ever Zumba Jam session in western Canada. I noticed some competition amongst the local teachers. Everyone checking each other out. I liked 4 of the songs though and will use them in my repertoire. 
Mist is still camping with friends. Peter and the little girls, Fernando and I went for a walk down town last evening, along the lake front. It was HOT! Pip got over heated. Fernando survived by dipping in the lake. It was very crowded and busy down town--full of bikini clad tourists. We ended the evening at an air-conditioned coffee shop--quite pleasant I must say...
Today Peter flies down the Portland Oregon. We bought our car from a dealer there because the Canadian dollar is higher than the American at the moment. He will be driving it across the border on Monday. I'm taking the little gals to The smurfs tonight--oh joy! I love going to movies with my gals but for some reason The smurfs just doesn't excite me...
I'll get to the lake at some point today too. Ideally an evening swim before bed is the best--so relaxing but those Smurfs might make that difficult.
I ate nothing but pizza and pasta while in Spain. It was wonderful but I of course I can't keep that up. I noticed though, that allowing myself to eat whatever in Europe, turned me into more of a foodie. I started to love food big time and was always hungry and much more into taste and the idea of cooking.    Alas, being a foodie could be dangerous for the likes of me. I love my own cooking way too much! But I must admit that the other evening, I made the most delicious Moroccan carrot soup for supper. It was sooo delicious and very healthy:  pureed carrots, onion, veg broth and cumin--YUM! I ate 3 bowls. I think I am oranger.

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Friday, July 29, 2011

Gibson House, British Columbia

Historical Gibson House--One of the First European Homesteads on Lake Okanagan
My Lovely Daughters Playing on the Front Lawn of Gibson House

Mist
Tabs
Pip
Beach Combing
Ground Squirrel Wanting to Join Our Picnic
Curious Ground Squirrel


The girls and I attempted a picnic at Gibson House. As luck would have it, it rained on us so indeed the picnic was literally on Gibson House's front porch. I would love to live at Gibson house. I so enjoy the pastoral view and mature treed front yard. I have always loved established yards with big trees and big lilac bushes--I suppose everyone does. Kelowna is such a new city that the yards and growth are always so young. 
Peter and I walked out of a movie last night: The Tree of Life. After 1/2 hour of viewing exploding lava and waves crashing to morose music, I decided life was just too short to spend it watching that crap. We ended up at DQ for blizzards--a blizzard a month keeps the doctor away!
My life seems to be an endless line up of pinched nerves and pulled muscles. I am always nursing some type of sports injury. Today, stopping to view the damage the deer did to my tomato plants caused a pinched nerve in my neck/back.  I had been doing my morning squats with weights in the back yard and stopped to water the plants between sets. One must not stop to view the tomatoes, I guess :P --Must recover for tomorrows 3h dance workshop!
Last day of swim lesson for my littlest girls. They are very excited as it is a day of play in the pool. Also, I always treat them with one treat from the vending machine in the pool lobby on the last day of lessons. It's amazing how excited one can get over the thought of choosing a vending machine treat.
Mist is camping this weekend with a friend and the friends neighbors at their lake front property. At 14 Mist is a very independent young woman.
We bought a car! The barcelona Red RAV4 4x4. It is loaded so we are excited about experiencing the luxury: a camera in the rear view mirror that shows what's behind the car, bluetooth, leather, push button start, sunroof etc. I am looking forward to driving it. I have driven beasts for so long (vans) and big cars with car seats. The RAV4 is actually fun to drive--a treat for me. We are down to one booster seat for Pip so we decided it was time to move to a smaller vehicle. The RAV4 is really fuel efficient too.

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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

ZUMBATHON!


Me and my Tabs after the Zumbathon
Tabs and I had so much fun last night at a Zumbathon for cancer research. We danced and danced until my lungs hurt--Tabs didn't even break a sweat! Tabs won a month membership to Global Gym and we got our photo taken for the September edition of a local entertainment paper: Snap. 
We are going to attend Zumba at the beach this Friday night and then on Saturday I am attending a 3h workshop for more Zumba training--some teachers are up from Arizona for the weekend and offering some new choreography workshops.

Lots of dancing since I returned from Spain.
I miss Spain terribly. I truly do. I will return though...soon. I found Dali so inspirational. It was completely unexpected. I knew his art well. Yet, seeing it again and so much of it and his entire artisitic vision and his home...well, it touched my own artistic chore and inspired me to shut my inner critic up and create the art I need to.

My darlings are swimming for this next week and then it will be time to plan a camping trip. Mist finished her Bronze Cross last week--she must wait until she's 16 to take the life guard course next (2 more years to go).
We are in the middle of buying a new vehicle. Our van was totaled--no one hurt thank goodness.
We have decided to down size to save on gasoline. We're leaning towards a Toyota Rav4--Barcelona Red of course!

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Monday, July 25, 2011

Costa Brava in Black and White

A few unpublished pics from our time in Costa Brava and one from France. Again, these pics seemed to work best in black and white.
Some happy, drunk or crazy soul in Begur, Catalonia.
Me in the Med. I love salt water...
Playing pirates at De Begur Castle, Catalonia.
Peter as King of Catalonia--the flag is yellow and red.
Peter 
Me on the Costa Brava.
Peter at La Reira.
Inside Queribus Castle, France.

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Saturday, July 23, 2011

Barcelona in Black and White

A few unpublished pics from our time in Barcelona that lend themselves to black and white.
A Sweet Surprise on La Rambla
Peter inside Gaudi's Casa Batilo
Me, pausing to navigate the narrow streets of Barcelona
Me, Happy to be Surrounded by Picasso at the Picasso Museum
Taking it Easy in Barcelona
Me Again, at Placa Del Rei
Peter in the tower at Sagrada Familia--Overlooking Barcelona.

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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Dali Theatre-Museum: Figueres, Spain

The Dali Theatre Museu in Figueres, Spain.  Figueres was Dali's birth city.
The theatre houses his works from 1904-1989. It was built in 1974.
The museum was created by Dali himself. The entire museum was conceived and designed by Dali, each room is a constellation in itself. The Museum is big--five floors with seemingly unending little nooks and crannies to explore.

 It was terribly crowded with tourists--we'd been warned. It seems the museum is never quiet so one must put up with wall to wall people if one wants to experience it. I'm sure Dali would approve of the crowds as he designed this museum to remember his artistic vision for all time--an attempt to become immortal. But the crowds made me crazy. Peter and I were dying to escape by the end of our viewing.

My impression is that yes, I love Dali, simply because he was a true artist: always creating, trying his hand at so many ways to express himself. His art itself, is sometimes uninspiring to me: mainly his taxidermic animal parts, his suffocating installations of 'stuff' and the jewelry (it was lovely but I am not a jewelry lover). However, at other times, his art, especially his paintings, inspire me greatly.

Dali was full of self celebration and self expression--I love him!
Dali Museum is a little bit of a "Dali's-do-it-himself" Disneyland.
Face of Mae West Which Can Be Used as an Apartment (installation) 1974.
This installation was to be viewed from up a series of stairs and then through a glass lens that enabled the viewer to see a woman's head and face. The line was soooooo long to climb the stairs that I said, " F-it" and was satisfied with viewing the installation without the lens trickery.
Peter having just arrived in Figueres, Spain. It was a very hot morning and we had just terrified an old lady by trying for ask directions. Peter's "Perdon?" sent her darting away.
The exterior of the Museum. I like to refer to myself as Hulga in this pic--Hulga looks ready to charge the museum--watch out Dali, here she comes!
An exterior installation by Dali.
The museum's outdoor courtyard.
The interior courtyard.
A Dali installation.
A portrait of his wife Gala: Galarina, 1944-45
Atomic Leda, 1949
View from inside courtyard looking onto outside courtyard.
Dali's tomb. Dali sometimes referred to himself in third person and had said, "Dali is immortal."
A peep hole in the wall revealed this green world inside. 
A Dali installation.
My personal favourite: Palace of the Wind ceiling 1972-73

Me, moving down a Dali hallway.
Peter, overlooking the interior courtyard and becoming rather Dali'ed out!

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