Welcome to Granville Island

I must start this post with an apology. Ever since launching this blog over 5 years ago, I have been diligent in publishing a new post each Sunday. I have kept to this schedule religiously (pardon the pun). My Sunday mornings have had a blissful, creatively stimulating routine up until this summer. I would get up with the roosters so I could start my day with a welcome phone call with my parents back home where we would catch up on our week (and discuss the latest Leafs or Jays game). I would then pull out my MacBook Pro and gather photos from my Saturday Vagabond Adventures and find one that would become the basis for that week’s post. I always found some story that would kick-start my creative juices and out would pop a post about an hour later. I have enjoyed this Sunday morning routine and have looked forward to it each week. Until now.

I must admit to struggling with the silence that my Dad’s passing has left. My Sunday morning check-in that gave all of us such comfort is MIA along with my inspiration to write. I understand this is a process I must work through, and I know I will. Perhaps I will need to find a new activity for my early Sunday mornings, at least for now. And a new time to write my Sunday morning missives (what Dad took to calling my “epistles”). I have read recently that the act of storytelling can act as a positive salve for grief. I trust that this is so. And so I will eek out a paragraph here, to get the juices flowing again.

One paragraph on the wondrously creative, eclectic Granville Island will not be enough. Expect more from me! For now, a brief introduction to my new favourite place in Vancouver is in order. Not that long ago, Granville Island served as a base for industry, a small island filled with corrugated tin warehouses and crisscrossing railway tracks. Today when you visit, you can still see the remnants of this industrial past, along with a sense of optimism that springs from an environmental and artistic rejuvenation that now supports galleries, farmer’s markets, crafters’ shops, theatres, a university and an eclectic mix of restaurants. I shot the photo above of False Creek and the Burrard Bridge from the patio of Bridges Restaurant, where I enjoyed a pint of local craft beer on a recent hike along False Creek. I intend to go back, and back, and back as one afternoon was just not enough to take in all that lovely Granville Island has to offer. The Vancouver Writer’s Fest is coming up shortly, so expect Granville Island Part Two very soon!

Thanks dear readers for your patience as I get my writing legs back! Until then, please check out a few of my latest snaps taken in and around False Creek and Vancouver.