Coast Mountains and some thoughts

Saturday afternoon, late before the sunset, I was up on Burnaby Mountain north of where I live to take in the view of the snow-capped mountains to the north.  The photo above is just one of a series taken that afternoon. The scene here looks out toward the mountains from the north side of Burnaby Mountain.  The boats in the bottom of the photo are heading up Indian Arm.  There were a number of boats out that afternoon, including a sailboat.

The temperatures have gotten warmer and are around 10 degrees Celsius at the moment.  The rain is back but there are plenty of signs of spring around.  Crocuses, spring heathers,  forsythias and other spring flowers and shrubs are in bloom now, even the first magnolias.

At work, I have someone working with me into the second week and we get along great.  He's a Gemini, like Brad, and he loves it where he's working now.  If you don't know, I'm a Leo!  It made me think of what it would be like working with Brad.  That was one of the original plans, and I'd see to it happening if he's still interested and up to it.  With a year or two here he'd be a changed man with a broader, deeper understanding of life and what its all about.  It would be awesome to have a hiking companion too!

Well, I'm going to have a quick shower and then head off to bed.  Its nearing 10:30 pm and the morning comes fast enough.  Have a good night, or good day, guys!

~ Volker

Cape Split, Nova Scotia

I've been watching a number of shows on television lately that are set in Canada's Atlantic provinces, such as Nova Scotia where Brad was raised and lives.  Cape Split is just one of a number of places that capture my interest.  When I finally to get down to Nova Scotia, that will certainly be a place that Brad and I will visit along with anyone else that would like to join along.  Awesome place and view!

Volker

clock tower

This is another of the photos I took earlier in the week when we still had nice weather.  This is a clock tower on West Hastings Street at Granville Street in downtown Vancouver.  There is a schooner at the top of the weather vane.

When I came home this evening, I had a light supper and then fired up the computer the check emails and such.  The only problem was I have two user accounts set up, one for me and the other for Brad.  I clicked on Brad's instead of mine and started his up instead.  Then I had to switch users to get mine going.  I must have had Brad on my mind at the time I was getting the computer started up.  Its the first time I've done that.

Now I'm going to have a quick shower and then go to bed.  Its moving toward midnight here on Canada's west coast.  Have an awesome weekend, guys! - V

c'est moi

For those of you that know me, this might be familiar but for those that don't, this is what I currently look like.  This photo was taken in early 2010 during the time of the winter olympics in Vancouver, hence the Canadian flags..  I work as a concierge but outside of work I am into photography and hiking on mountain trails...and believe it or not, I am closing on 60 though you might not know it just looking at me.  So, do what you can to take care of yourself, so that your body will serve you well into old age.  If not, it could mean years of agony if not an earlier death.  Our genetics does play a role but how we take care of ourselves can hasten aging or lessen it.  I also posted this photo so that my friend Brad can have the opportunity of seeing it.  He seen some of my photos but I don't think this was one of them.

Take care of yourselves, guys! - V

New years thoughts

Right now I'm finishing up a bottle of French sparkling white wine, Veuve du Vernay, but if I had my boyfriend by my side or I was at his,it would be a case of us sharing the same, and I have a bottle of Spanish white to share as well (not even opened).  My thoughts are on Brad at the moment and I hope all is well, both for him and who he's with.

I am looking at properties in Nova Scotia at the moment (onlline). Once my debts are paid off there is money to invest and what better way to invest than in property that we can both benefit from.  Since the money that I came out here with is gone due to health issues, there are adjustments necessary.  Life is full of this!  Land prices here in British Columbia are insanely expensive, so the funds will stretch further back east than they will here.  I am looking at retirement and those years are not that far away.  Moving east to the Maritimes would be like a new adventure.  I'm still not to old for that nor is Brad by any stretch of the imagination.

Have a happy, healthy and safe celebration and all the best for 2012!  - V

christmas and candles

Back in Germany in the mid-1950s we had a Christmas tree (Weihnachtsbaum) at Christmas (Weihnachten) which had candles. The candles were only lit when we were present and snuffed out when elsewhere, so it wasn't a case of leaving the candles burning on the tree and going elsewhere in the apartment or house.  That's a good way to burn the place down.  But I love the aroma of candles, especially when they are snuffed out and the little bit of smoke rises up along with the scent.

I still have candle holders for such an occasion but there will be no tree where I live currently.  Perhaps when I have a house of my own once again.  Have a wonderful Christmas but do remember to be safe about it all!  That time is not all that far away.  Time is flying! - V

P.S. - The top photo shows a Christmas tree in our apartment in Knittlingen, Germany.  The image below show me, a younger version, with my parents.  My younger brother was asleep.

the look part 2 - tattoos and sunglasses

I find this guy hot despite the tattoos which I'm not too fussy about.  For some reason the look of him wearing his sunglasses reminds me of my friend Brad.  Well, we can dream, can't we?

I'm taking another easy weekend.  Earlier in the week I developed a hangnail on one of my fingers.  This condition crops up in the colder months of the year.  Well, I took a pair of clippers to rid myself of the hangnail.  Unfortunately, I developed an infection and had to disinfect a needle so I could drain the pus that had developed in a pocket to one side of the fingernail.  The infection usually clears up after that from past experience.  The pain in that finger is much less since the draining too!

There are a number of Christmas themed movies on television now.  I guess that will be with us until the season has passed.  Meantime, we'll just have to put up with it until we're tired of it all.  Then we can always turn off the TV and listen to music or have a conversation with someone.  That would be a novel idea!

In the meantime, enjoy your weekend and have a great time of it! - V

cars and stuff

Back in 2008 when Brad was first making plans to come out west and hopefully stay a while, he was driving this vehicle.  Unfortunately, the car broke down in the Gaspe region of Quebec.  In order to raise the funds necessary for the repairs, he and his brother worked as dishwashers in Montreal.  Later, Brad was working in the Gaspe region closer to where the car was working on a boat.  He was a mariner after all.

We messaged each other while he was in that latter region, as often as we could.   I guess after the repairs were done, he must have gotten homesick, so he drove east rather than west as I had expected.  I'm wasn't that hard on him and still am not.  We were all young once and emotions well up inside.  We do what we have to do.  Likely the car breaking down had something to do with it all.  Things were going great up until then.

At some point, when Brad is ready, he will get out here.  There's more than enough work out here, more than there might be back east.  All he has to do is make the move, even if someone has to come with him to make it all work.  He knows what I'm talking about.

So Brad, you want another car?  We can make it work here and arrange for it in the way we discussed.  Just get your ass out here and the rest will happen.  Perhaps December or early in the new year?  Love you!  What else can I say. - V

thoughts on Brad

This isn't Brad but model Josh.  I spent a long time thinking about Brad last evening and this morning.  There isn't a day that goes by where my thoughts aren't with him in some way.  I wake up in the morning to one of his images posted up in my bedroom and also the same image as a wallpaper on my computer.  And I'm sure his thoughts are on me as well even though he can't communicate with me directly.  Easy access to a computer would solve that but he doesn't have that option at the moment.

We are both friends on Windows Live where he is my only favourite and also linked on my family listing.  I consider him like family anyway and treat him as such.  Its an awful thing to be from a child from a divorce, tossed from one parent to the other and then left to fend for himself.  The friends that I know that come from such circumstances haven't fared all that well in life, and its not confined to friends.  I have family members from similar circumstances, half-siblings, so I know better than most what he might be going through.

All that aside, where Brad lives jobs are difficult to find (the east coast of Canada, Nova Scotia in fact).  That's why many leave for central or western Canada in order to find employment and make a life for themselves which is what I've been trying to convince him to do, with my help of course.  I shoot off some funds now and then as I can afford it.  Keep in mind that I am still trying to get my own finances in order after the mini-stroke I suffered back in May.  It was around that time that I heard from him last.  I guess I would best describe myself as a father figure in his life.  Like every true father would I worry about him.

I suspect from his life experiences to date that Brad has trouble trusting people.  I mean, his very birth parents have let him down.  The reasons for that are varied and many I am sure but someway we have to find a way out of this mess.  Everything that I've promised, I have honoured, so at some point I hope that he will open his heart to trust the very person that feels the most for him.  This will certainly help him with other relationships.  We don't live in a vacuum, you know!

What I'd most like to do is wrap my arms around him and give Brad a great big hug letting him know that I love him and that I'm there for him.  Mere words are not enough.  We have a world full of people from different walks of life that say many things and never live up to them, politicians in particular.  Its action that gives it all meaning.  So, Brad, if you or someone you know has happened upon this post, take the time to comment.  You'll long not forget it.!

Be kind and forgiving of people.  Life is like a stage as Shakespeare pointed out.  We come, play our part and then exit.  While we're here (physical presence on Earth), we learn from our experiences and others learn from us, or so it should be, so those are some of my thoughts for the day.   - V

68 Barracuda

Back in 1967 my mother bought a new 2 door 68 Barracuda and later sold the 4 door 57 Chevrolet she had bought in the early 1960s. I am standing next to the new car and my mother is taking the photo. I was slim then and still am. The image above is a crop from the one below. My father didn't have a car and never drove. - V

West Berlin - my second visit - July 1972 - Rudow

My aunt and uncle had a property in Rudow (West Berlin) where they had fruit trees and spent some time on weekend during the warm summer days. This was in addition to their townhouse in Britz near the Hufeisensiedlung. That's me on the left, my uncle in the middle and my aunt on the right. I believe my cousin Gela took the photo. Its a great way and place to relax! - V

motorbike

Back in the 1980s I used to have a motorbike, a Yamaha XT500, a single cylinder engine with a compression release. I was in my 30s by that point and even remember in the beginning getting so frustrated with the thing in trying to get it started that one day in the north end of town I gunned it and did a wheelie down the road for a stretch. A guy walking toward me on the sidewalk thought it was hilarious! I haven't done one before or since, but then, I no longer have a bike!

By the way, the blue spruce in the background was planted by my younger brother (Norbert) and myself in 1969. Its a Hoopsi Blue Spruce and we hammered in the handle from an old broom to keep it growing straight but it did. By the time I sold the house in September 2005 the tree was a lot taller than you see it there. Tree sparrows nested in the top of the tree later when it was taller and a pair of cardinals even built a nest on one of the lower branches about waist high from the ground hidden by a branch above it. If the trees could talk!

Its another of those pleasant memories you tend not to forget!! What memories have you got to share? - V

summertime

Well, since its summer now (or supposed to be!), here is a photo taken in the late 1950s in a park in London, Ontario. My mother made the outfits but things have changed a lot since those days! My father was taking the photo. Can you remember those days as a child when you had no worries and were carefree, just living from day to day? - V

brothers II

Our first year in Canada was nothing to what came later when it was time to attend school. These photos were taken during our first Christmas in London, Ontario after spending the summer on a farm outside Hensall, north west of the city. My mother didn't much care for the mice that frequented the house and a bull chasing my mother and older half-brother through a farmer's field did it for her. That was the final straw! She was a city girl born and raised in Berlin, not a country person at all. My father, on the other hand, was born in a village and was used to the country life and all it offered.
During the Christmas Eve dinner, I had the bright idea of taking an empty wine bottle to my lips and Norbert thought this was hilarious. Amazing what you'll do as kids to amuse yourselves!
As with other European families, we had our own "children's table" where we sat down to eat away from the adults. You can see the stuffed monkey and other toys on the floor behind us, all brought over with us from Germany. Just a little something else to share with you! - V

brothers

For those of you who have never had siblings I pity you because you don't know what you're missing out on. Norbert was my younger brother who was born in December 1954 just after Christmas. I was born the previous year in August. We share the same room for years. It wasn't until 1972 or 1973 that we each had our own room but in light of his sudden and unexpected death in March 1974 I often wonder whether having our own rooms was a mistake! In the photo above, I am on the left, Norbert is on the right. We had just come from a children's birthday party on the ship. That's the only image I have of us in party hats!
Norbert had taken a bath after we had spent some time chatting about travel in the dining room. It was at the table I last saw him alive. In what had unfolded in the bathroom ended in his taking his life. There was no warning. It just happened and we were all affected afterwards in different ways. The emotions are as fresh today as they were then.
If you have brothers or sisters, cherish the moments together. You just never know when they end and you're left with the memories! Make those memories good ones!!! And we don't really know how much we miss them until afterwards!
The photos above were taken by my father on our crossing of the Atlantic on the ship, the Arosa Star, in June 1957. We had left from Bremerhaven, Germany and landed in Montreal, Canada. They bring back pleasant memories more than worth remembering! - V

relationships

I've long had a spiritual and emotional connection with my boyfriend. Neither of us would deny it! I think he'd like to have me in his arms as much as I would like to have him in mine! How's your relationship and where would you place it? - V

monkey business

This is a photo of my late brother Norbert and myself in the winter of 1955. This was two years before we came to Canada. Note the stuffed monkey on the counter with the horn! Keep that in mind when you re-read the Gemini horoscope in the previous post. - V

update

I heard from an old, dear friend yesterday (actually I consider him more family) which has helped perk me up and aid my recovery. I'm going to a clinic in Vancouver tomorrow after work. My bronchitis needs some assistance to get rid of it! Otherwise, I'm regaining strength but the vertigo is still with me. The antibiotics should help considerably. Then I'm off to the naturopath later in the month for more work. I hope all is better with you! Take care, guys!!! - V

roses

We moved into this new house in southwest London (Ontario) in the late 1960s and that is when I began taking up gardening with great interest. I'm in the photo here taken in the mid-1980s when I was into my 30s. Soon after this I replanted the flowerbed in the foreground. The yuccas (the ones with the white flowers) found new homes in other parts of the front yard which was a chore. The roses in that bed had seen better days though the climber stayed on for some years. The bed was then replanted with alpine flowers which lasted until the late 1990s when the bed was replanted once again, this time with heathers. My interest in plants and flowers in general goes back to my early childhood. Anyway, have a great week! - V

brothers

My younger brother Norbert was the only true brother I've ever known. Here's a photo of the two of us, Norbert on the left and me on the right, on the balcony of our apartment in Knittlingen, Germany where we lived at the time before coming to Canada. I was three at the time and Norbert was two. That was 1957 before emigrating! Norbert passed on in 1974 and is missed! - V