What is that?

When we meet friends for a dim sum lunch in the international district, there's usually some shopping at the Uwajimaya store ($15 minimum purchase) to get parking tickets validated. But last time we ate at a different restaurant and parked for free near the Viet-Wah Supermarket. It's like a budget Uwajimaya with medicinal Chinese herbs and housewares. Most people here think of Uwajimaya when they think of an Asian grocery store, but our savvy friends say it's for tourists and shoppers who don't know any better. Why pay premium prices for Asian staples? I read in the paper that Viet-Wah sells SIX TONS of rice a week in Seattle. And everything in the grocery section is cheaper than Uwajimaya. Although a walk down the condiment aisle is bewildering:

There's an American success story behind the store. A Vietnamese "boat person" of Chinese descent named Duc Tran immigrated to Seattle in 1988. He first stayed with a pastor's family where he learned to eat meatloaf and mashed potatoes, but what he really wanted was food from home. Starting out as a dishwasher, with hard work and business smarts he opened the first Viet-Wah store and eventually became the president of a 20 million dollar retail food business.

But to be perfectly honest, the first thing that hits you when those Viet-Wah doors snap open is the smell. Chinese grocery stores apparently smell like that everywhere. But what is it? A strikingly complex bad odor, dominated by old fish and produce with undertones of dust and container ship. But there's something else, something not quite identifiable. Could it be the durian fruit?
This fruit is so pungent it's been banned in many public places around the world. Don't try to take it on the train in Singapore or you might get caned by the transit police! I'll never know, but people say it tastes like a cross between chocolate and onion. The smell is compared to "a month of unwashed gym socks." There was a time when U.S. import laws didn't even allow the fruit in our country, so you had to travel to Canada if you had a taste for it. But Mr. Tran lobbied the government and won the right to import it into the U.S. It is now offered for sale at his grocery stores.

Here we are, clogging up the aisles for the serious shoppers. After much discussion, everyone bought tea. No one bought durian.
Plenty of unusual and pungent fish...not to mention live turtles, frogs and eels.

Also squirming little crabs-- definitely not Dungeness.
And a scary-looking Chinese herb section. As our friend Don Phu said: "You must know what you are doing."

Is it spring yet?

Flowers are starting to bloom...

My dad needs help with garden clean-up...

And I have a new sun hat to wear with my snow boots!

Yin and yang

Courtyard pavement
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Garden

The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Garden in Vancouver was the first full-sized "scholar garden" built outside of China. Chinese craftsman traveled to Canada and constructed the buildings using all traditional methods-- no glue, screws, power tools, etc. Every pebble, rock and piece of wood came over from China packed in 950 crates. The garden was completed in time for the Vancouver Expo 86' opening.

We visited on a cold, gray morning and the spring flowers were late, but there were still many beautiful details. I liked the intricate paving stones. The white centers of the design were made with antique pottery shards. As the brochure said, the overall result of the garden is a "perfect balance of yin and yang." Everything is symbolic in a classic Chinese garden. Nothing is accidental. Just don't forget to look down.

Mountain Pavilion

The garden is hidden behind a high, plain wall in Vancouver's Chinatown. The complex is a replica of the 1400's Ming Dynasty estate of an educated imperial official (scholar). There he lived a life of seclusion, meditation and luxury in the middle of a bustling city. In this miniature kingdom he enjoyed the company of his many wives, guests, and servants.

Jade Water Pavilion

Like a Japanese garden, a Chinese garden carefully symbolizes nature. But there are differences. In China, unusual rock formations are important for meditation practice. Architecture is larger, but must still blend seamlessly with the natural elements. The moon gate in the Jade Water Pavilion above carefully frames a view of the park next door

It was an enjoyable tour, but after an hour in the chilly air we worked up an appetite and headed out into the Chinatown neighborhood.

Here's John, ready for dim sum:

Time for Lunch China Gate

City herons

Vancouver's Stanley Park has the largest urban nesting population of Great Blue Herons in the world. At least that's what I overheard a lady birder saying when we were there last week. Stanley Park is immense and even wild in places, but 170 pairs (!) of herons choose to nest in 25 trees over-looking the busy tennis courts and parking lots.
It's a high-rise "herony" condo. They want a penthouse view to guard the nests from flying predators like eagles, hawks and crows. The park staff put metal collars on the tree trunks to keep cats, raccoons and other critters down. But other than a small wooden fence around the base of the trees, the nests are unprotected.

Herons are usually sensitive to noise and avoid humans, but this colony is acclimated to the city and has been nesting in Stanley Park for years. Herons repair and reuse their previous nests when they arrive back in February. The largest nests are the oldest and grabbed first-- herons arriving late have to build from scratch. The courtship rituals are dramatic and the female lays 3-4 eggs per clutch.

Once the eggs hatch, it takes only 60 days for a 4 inch bird to grow to 48 inches with a 6 foot wing span. Poor mom and dad. Their kids will eat until they are so stuffed their mouths hang open. (I didn't make that up.)

The first flight is a critical and often fatal crash course for the gawky little birds. They have only 2 weeks to learn to be self-sufficient before leaving for wintering grounds. Only about 15% survive their first birthday, but those that do have a good chance to live a long life.

And maybe have a Vancouver condo of their own someday.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

King of the Bridge

The Capilano Suspension Bridge is only a 10 minute drive from downtown Vancouver, but it feels like another world. Buy an admission ticket and a few minutes later you're swaying 230 feet above the canyon and white river. Even two people tiptoeing gingerly across make a little wave with each cautious step. So? Imagine the tsunami when a charter bus load of Americans tramples over.

But we were there at opening hour on a rainy Wednesday morning and had the entire park (almost) to ourselves. In the photo below I'm waving to John who was ambitious enough to hike down to a lookout platform across the river.


The first suspension bridge was built here in 1889 by George Mackay to reach prime timber land. To his credit, he saved a few of the finest old-growth trees from logging. Back then the bridge was suspended on hemp ropes, but now the bridge has 2" steel cables embedded in rock. They say it could hold two fully-loaded 747 airplanes. Not that they're going to land there anytime soon.
On the other side of the canyon there are nature trails, displays and an elevated boardwalk called the "Treetop Adventure."

It's a 650 foot long boardwalk held up by cables suspended between platforms up to 10 stories high. There were some magnificent Douglas-fir, cedar and hemlocks that were growing here long before Europeans ever thought of North America.
And since this is a rain forest, visitors are supplied with attractive, complimentary rain ponchos. It was also my birthday, and climbing around the trunks of 400 year old trees helps put "old" in perspective.
:-)

April, come she will

April
Duc de Berry Book of Hours


Time has shed its cloak of wind, rain and cold,
to assume the embroidery of the sun,
shining bright and beautiful.

Charles d' Orleans

It doesn't feel like April in Seattle, but here she comes. Was the weather nicer six hundred years ago? The medieval Book of Hours calendar shows a warm and charming new season. A young couple is exchanging betrothal rings outdoors in front of the girl's parents. Her pale blue dress stands out against her mother's black, and she lowers her eyes while the groom-to-be searches out her glance. The mother and father look at their daughter affectionately. Nearby, maidens are picking violets in the lawn. It is an intimate and subtle composition.

In this little painting, the Limbourg artists may have been depicting a real event. There's a village nearby, and in the background the river Orge flows in front of Chateau Dourdan. In April 1410, the Duc de Berry's eleven-year-old granddaughter Bonne (so young!) became engaged to the prince and poet Charles d' Orleans, who was then sixteen. The wedding was held four months later, and the rich Duc promised Dourdan to his future great-grandson. The ruins of the Dourdan Chateau in central France can still be seen:


April, come she will
When streams are ripe and swelled with rain;
May, she will stay--
Resting in my arms again.

Simon and Garfunkle