My gift this Mother’s Day was venturing out on our first camping trip of the season. It was nice to be out together exploring the world though a toddlers eyes. The footage is pretty rough – partly because we discovered some greasy fingerprints on the lens – but we were able to capture our Munchkin and each other in a few sweet moments that we are already grateful to remember.
This fall we moved into a housing co-op. We love our new community. This little video is just a taste of what co-op life is all about: neighbours helping each other build their community.
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Who doesn’t love a good story? I sure do on July 30th I hosted a pop-up storytelling event in Grandview Park. With the sun setting in the background, ten storytellers shared unusual, uncanny and unexpected stories that were true and told from the heart. Though we started with twenty-seven people many more filtered in and out catching snippets of stories on the sidelines. Thanks to all the storytellers, the attendees and everyone who has encouraged me to make it happen. So, lets plan share stories again soon.
This fall I worked on a series of six videos for the Museum of Vancouver’s Exhibition PLAY HOUSE – The Architecture of Daniel Evan White. It’s a privilege to share these vignettes of the spaces and the people that inhabit them. The video above is one of my favourites, but you can find the others on my Vimeo page and here.
More about the Exhibit from the Museum of Vancouver:
PLAY HOUSE – The Architecture of Daniel Evan White
at the Museum of Vancouver, October 17 2013 – March 30 2014
Architect Daniel Evan White produced a remarkably consistent oeuvre of iconic homes in British Columbia during a 50-year career. His unique interpretation of building form and landscape challenged the traditional images of house and home and their relationship to the natural environment.
PLAY HOUSE: The Architecture of DANIEL EVAN WHITE ventures through the architect’s mind, hands and eyes to explore the creative process that transforms the house from a simple desire into a constructed reality. A number of selected projects, including the exhibition space itself, explore the territory between the abstract and the real: the space between the architect’s vision and the lived-in domestic environment.
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I’ve recently returned from a trip to Northern Ontario: Moosonee, Moose Factory and Waskaganish. The landscape was beautiful, I met some amazing people, visited some very special places and I saw a brilliant display of the Northern Lights. It was a life changing and eye opening trip that I know will leave a lasting impression on me. Here are a few of my favourite photos.
Pacific Theatre’s production of John Patrick Shanley’s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea is a moving, funny and provocative performance. Directed by Jason Goode and starring Aleks Paunovic and Lori Triolo, it is a play that challenges you to think about the nature of self-abuse, forgiveness and our profound need for others. Read my review for Converge Magazine here.
For the past few months I have been doing social media and marketing for Vancouver Extended Stay. Take a look at the blog or follow us on Twitter. So far, my favourite post is the review I wrote for Pink Elephant Thai.
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The base of the cenotaph at Grandview Park 11/11/11.
I actually tear up with gratitude every Nov. 11. Usually, it’s during the final resonate notes of The Last Trumpet. This year was no different. I remember my Grandfather who drove armoured cars and was among the first Canadians into Holland.
This year my thoughts also wandered to the powerful story of Sgt. Gerald Walter Flower who took a few moments of his time and did an interview with me last year for a Remembrance Day assignment. I have thought about Flower a lot over the last year and I was happy to se that he was at the Cenotaph again today. Read his story in the original layout here or pasted below.
Sgt. Gerald Walter Flower 2010
During the second world war, Gerald Walter Flower was a flight sergeant with the Royal Air Force, serving as the tail gunner for Lancaster Bomber Squadron 115. His crew did 21 operations over Germany before they were shot down and taken as prisoners of war.
Flower was a PoW for four years, spending time in various camps, including one called Breslow near the Polish-German border.
In the prison camps each day he was given only a cup of pea soup a tenth of a loaf of bread to eat. “Inside the pea soup was little black beetles, and we were all starving by then so it didn’t matter anymore,” said Flower.
As a prisoner, he spent much his time on the move. They were marched for 100 days through what Flower called, “the worst winter I ever saw.”
“[The Germans] used to take the Russian prisoners out every day and only half of them ever came back,” Flower said. He saw other atrocities, like prisoners being shot and a man crushed underneath a tank. “Some men were teated worse than dogs,” he said.
When Flower finally got out of the camp, he was sent back to Dublin where he began training again. This time he was to be sent to Japan. Fortunately, the war ended before he was deployed.
The day the war ended was one of the best days of his life. “I didn’t get released until after everything was over, but I made it,” said Flower.
Flower didn’t speak about the war for 10 years and was often tormented with nightmares of what he had survived. “My poor wife, I don’t know how she would put up with it,” he said.
Flower joined The Royal Canadian Legion in 1956, for comradeship, and has been a member of Grandview Branch, #176, ever since.
He calls Remembrance Day a very emotional day, and said, “I remember my crew because only four of us lived and three of them were killed so they come first in my mind.”
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Tagged Grandview Legion, Remembrance Day, Sgt. Gerald Walter Flower, Vancouver
Now that November is here Christmas is lingering at the edge of everyone’s thoughts. We all want to find that perfect gifts for our loved ones , but (if you are anything like me) the frenetic consumerism starts to get to get to you after a while. Recently I wrote an article for Converge Magazine about a new business model that is all about giving. Read here about how companies and consumers are creating a new market and, perhaps, be inspired to consider products embedded with generosity this holiday season.
Reading, writing, taking pictures and collecting stories.
Natasha Irvine 