Archive for jatp
Mount Baker in the sky [jatp]
Posted in Mountains, pictures, Travel with tags forest fire, jatp, JSM 2018, Kulshan, Mount Baker, North Cascades National Park, plane picture, Seattle, smog, volcano on September 23, 2018 by xi'an
end of the Canadian Rockies [jatp]
Posted in Mountains, pictures, Travel with tags Air France, Canada, Canadian Rockies, flight, forest fire, jatp, JSM 2018, plane picture, smog, vacations on September 16, 2018 by xi'an
the kingfisher and the heron [jatp]
Posted in Statistics with tags beach, British Columbia, Canada, heron, jatp, kingfisher, Pacific North West, Strait of Georgia, tide, Van Isle, wildlife photography on September 8, 2018 by xi'an
impressions soleil couchant [jatp]
Posted in Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel with tags Balmoral Beach, British Columbia, Canada, Claude Monet, Comox, Comox Glacier, Forbidden Plateau, forest fire, Georgia Strait, impressions soleil levant, jatp, mainland, Pacific North West, Pacific Ocean, smog, sunset, Van Isle, Vancouver Island on August 25, 2018 by xi'an
the ocean at the end of the lane [book review]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags book review, British Columbia, Chihiro, forking paths, Hayao Miyazaki, jatp, Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere, Pacific North West, Pacific Ocean, Simon Fraser University, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Tofino, Vancouver on August 24, 2018 by xi'an
While in Vancouver, waiting for a friend at the Waterfront ferry station, we entered the Simon Fraser University bookshop across the street. This was a most disconcerting experience in that the bookstore contained essentially no book! Just a tiny bookshelf with local authors and another one with a medley of genres. Including Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Which I bought against my better judgement as I had tried to read American Dogs years ago and failed. (But liked very much Neverwhere, again a chance occurrence on a bookstore shelf!) As I started reading the book on the ferry to Vancouver Island, hence on the Pacific Ocean!, I first thought this was about the author’s childhood in rural Sussex, with no other friends than his books, finding some ways to relate to the story of a modest household in the early 60’s, only to be interrupted by three whales swimming along the ferry route. The cheek of them! When I picked up the short novel later in Tofino (with Tonkin Beach above), reality started to unravel (in the book!) and horror to creep in (!). Without getting into spoilers, the other world or old country starts appearing to the narrator, a seven year old, with about everything taking another and sinister meaning. And no-one else in his household paying any attention to his warnings. What I really enjoy in the book is the sheer ambiguity of the tale, where one cannot be sure this is pure fantasy made up by a lonely seven year old who strongly dislikes a new nanny and is impacted by his parents’ relationship, or an opening into that alternate reality and its dangers that he and only he is able to enter. The book never concludes and this is a strength of the story. Which works for both adult and children readers. It also reminded me of Miyazaki’s Chihiro Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し), in that the supernatural beings here and there are neither evil nor good but simply utterly alien. (This fantastic² movie is considered by my daughter as the most traumatic one she ever saw as a child!) Concluding about the book, this was a very good read, somewhat on the light side although full of forking paths.
Comox [K’òmoks] snapshot [jatp]
Posted in Statistics with tags British Columbia, Canadian geese, Courtenay River, jatp, Puntledge River, salt marsh, Strait of Georgia, Vancouver Island on August 23, 2018 by xi'an
beach walk in the fog [jatp]
Posted in pictures, Running, Travel with tags British Columbia, Canada, fog, hiking, jatp, Long Beach, Pacific North West, Pacific Ocean, Pacific Rim, Tofino, vacations, Vancouver Island on August 22, 2018 by xi'an
