Tag Archives: sharing community

Changing the Message – Willows Beach Portal

05/14/2022 svseekins 3 Comments

Does Public Art have to be static & unchanging? Sometimes it can transition & morph into something more.

Portal, Public Art, Willows Beach, Oak Bay, Victoria, Heather Passmore — photo by SVSeekins

Portal, a sculpture along Willows Beach Esplanade, was initially installed as a large open ring framing the horizon like a portal on a ship. The reclaimed rope reminds me of so much flotsam lost at sea. Used as seating to perch on & grasping the rope frame for balance changes the artwork from a view to an experience. Not just a piece to look at— this art is a sculpture to view the world from.
I like the artist’s multi-dimensional messages.

Two years after the art installation, the open ring has morphed into a dream catcher. I reckon it still frames the view but now the message says so much more to me. The piece is still beautiful to look at & to view the world through but it has added layers…
It catches the sunrise, protecting us all from bad dreams. (We certainly need some of that with the exposure of residential school nightmares swirling around us!)

I like this, too, and wonder,
“Was the original artist expanding on her idea?”
Apparently not. Oak Bay Parks says they don’t know who in our community added to the Portal, but it wasn’t the artist.

Another year on, baby dream catchers are appearing on the web.
Intriguing…
Who adds these?
Has the public taken to the Portal as our own public art gallery?

Perhaps it’s truly become a piece of Community Art that we contribute to ourselves! A message of public support & healing…

Now, this raises more questions:
Who controls Public Art? The artist? The city? The public?
Are these changes vandalism?
art appropriation?
— or a greater form of art?

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public art

Street Library Parade

03/31/2021 svseekins 9 Comments

street library, book sharing, book exchange, public art, free little library, take a book, public art, Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Street Libraries have been in the news for a few years now. I’ve shown a few that I’ve run across (see the end of this article for a list of past posts). They’re so sweet, I’ll often stop to photograph them when I spot ’em. After my last article, I’d planned to write a couple more as I’d run across 2 new little libraries in our ‘hood. But then I kept finding more… and more. So I reckon it’s just time for a post of all the other little libraries I know of (& add to it as I find more.)

There are several Little Free Libraries on the southern slopes of Mt. Tolmie.

I reckon the folks who protect this door-less library are pretty kind to put the books into plastic boxes during the rainy season.

I quite liked how our neighbours created a library that matched the colours of their house. A year or two later, the house was sold & demolished. The little library disappeared shortly after. Maybe the new home that is built here will get a mini-me little library, too?

There’s one at Doncaster Elementary.

Another on the way to my dentist on Finlayson.

There’s even one at the Church where my garden club meets.

Fernwood is on my cycling route to get downtown. It’s a friendly community with several Free Little Libraries.

I especially like the one just north of the Belfry Theatre.

The folks on Ten Mile Point even supplied fresh water for the dog bowl. 🙂

street library, book sharing, book exchange, public art, little library, take a book, public art, Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Cycling along the Lochside Trail through the Blenkinsop Valley, I found this Little Free Library. It’s especially nice of these folks to supply a path over the ditch & seats to rest on.

SP showed me this one in Vic West.

This one is near Bow Park. I wonder if the construction crew built the Little Library at the same time as the house so they could match materials?.

These are from Oak Bay.

Others are even more colourful.

Even a restaurant at Fort & Foul Bay Rd has a library

This one is from Langford.

Another friend took these when she decided to donate her spare books to Little Free Libraries instead of selling them to the 2nd hand bookstore. I think she searched them out via a local map of Little Libraries.

I’m pretty sure she’s dropped some books at this library, too. It’s in her neighbourhood & she’s the one who first showed it to me.

It seems we come across new little libraries every couple of weeks. Someone has even thought to put in a Little Food Pantry.

What will be available to exchange on our next walk?

3-31-2021

My sister found this street library in Rio Terrace, Edmonton, Alberta.

street library, book sharing, book exchange, public art, free little library, take a book, public art, Edmonton, Alberta — photo by P L Dipanfilo

Why did the creators choose to make a van? Are they old hippies? Or do they have fond memories of reading books while on vacation in a groovy van? Check out the license plate. 🙂

6-30-2021

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P.S. Here are some of the street libraries I’d already found:

evergreens, months 01-03: winter, months 04-06: spring, natives, perrennials

Prince’s Pine

02/28/2019 svseekins 2 Comments

Typically I curse steep switchbacks. They are exhausting!

blooming evergreen prince's pine, sub-shrub, Chimaphila umbellata, occidentalis , pipsissewa, umbellate wintergreen,, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Now, I have reason to appreciate them. One trail in Strathcona Park is so steep that the inside slope is only an arm’s reach away. I have close-up views of the tiny plants that don’t usually catch my attention. I stop, puffing for a few moments, taking in the forest’s carpet of mysteries.

At first, the evergreen plant, Prince’s pine, escapes my notice.

But then, my eyes spy the wildflower buds – such a delicate pink!

Further along the path, I find specimens in full bloom. And some already setting seed — in early June. 🙂

The tiny, waxy-looking blossoms are such a contrast to the deep woodland duff of the understory. Enchanting. (There must be faeries nearby.)

I delight in the flowers while mourning that Chimaphila umbellata is probably not suited to our own garden. (Yes, our garden is well-drained, but it’s shaded by Garry oak– not conifers.)

Back at the campsite, the mini-shrub is confirmed by Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast (my wild plant Bible). Woo Hoo — one more native plant in my repertoire.

It’s not until a wintery February morning, while attending Seedy Saturday that I meet Andy McKinnon, co-author of my treasured plant ID book. He teaches me this science word for today.

Mixotrophic.

Prince’s pine is mixotrophic. It has a friendly relationship with the fungus in the ground.

Like many plants, through photosynthesis, Prince’s pine produces sugars (its food). It shares those sugars with fungi. The fungi, in return, offer up access to nutrients from the soil.
Friendly, eh?
But wait – there’s more…

Prince’s pine & this fungi take their relationship a step further.

The fungi in the soil also connect to another plant (other than the Prince’s pine). Through this threesome, the Prince’s pine can get sugars from this other plant. Neighbours helping neighbours in times of need…. all through a fungi trade route.
(That’s Mixotrophic)

Isn’t Nature amazing?

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