White Sails at Canada Place

 

Another view of Vancouver's Canada Place ferry terminal + convention centre in June 2007  This is one part of the roof constructed to look like white sails  (actually made from fiberglass and teflon coated sheets, stretched across steel cables and are supported by 40-ft steel masts).

Nine and Fifty Swans

This pretty shop in a side street in Gort, Galway, Ireland says it stocks stuff that is "handmade, vintage and beautifully useful"  photographed in June 2026

My Shop ... Granny Likes It.

 

This gift shop in Galway, Ireland says it features the best of Irish design.   It looks like it was named as a joke- and the joke stuck.   It's quite hard to get a good picture of but I spotted this on day in later March 2026.

What came behind Whale Street?

Captain Ahab and his crew in their glory

This year, I hid behind a mobile street-diversion sign, and got some great close-up photos of Galway International Arts Festival parade.   The parade title is Whale Street, and it is apparently a "thrilling outdoor reimagining of Moby Dick, that transforms the city into a vast, moving stage as ... Captain Ahab and his crew" persue Moby Dick, who nevertheless stops frequently to spray the crowd and play music.

Photos above start at the end of the parade, and go thru to the beginning.

Setting sun over the bay

On this evening in early July 2026,  it felt like the setting sun over the hills of Clare was drawing the sea out of Galway Bay.

Delightful daisies

These determinedly cheerful Dorotheanthus bellidiformis, aka Livingstone daisies, were spotted in a corner in Doughiska one sunny day.

Industrial estate hoodlum

Saw this ldistingushed gentleman in an industrial estate on the east of Galway city this evening.  Google tells me he's a hooded crow, aka a hoodie.

Not a great pic, he was a bit camera shy.  But I don't think I've seen one before.

Arthur Colahan Memorial

 

The words of Arthur Colahan's sentimental ode to Galway Bay, in Irish and English now grace this rather unimposing pair of plaques on the beachfront in Upper Salthill Road.

King of the funfair

The ferris wheel is King of the funfair!

This year's Salthill-funfair seems a little more restrained and tasteful - or maybe I was just seeing it in a  lovely sunset on a hot, sleepy day.

Celebrating Galway's Seagulls?

The Claddagh Icon is a public artwork in Galway near Claddagh Quay.  It normally blends into the grey background.  Except when the sun strikes it at just the right angle, which I happened while I was strolling past one day in October 2017.

Officially it's a Galway Hooker (ie traditional sailing boat) and a cormorant with the sun as a backdrop of the sun. But it could become known as the Seagull Monument.

Carrolls with window boxes

The flowering window boxes above this pub were just a at the right stage - blooming without overwhelming the elegance of old stone building, and giving the impression that the whole place is being cared for.  But the grass growing out of the chimney brings things back 

Minature megalithic mushrooms

Spotted these impressive mushroom-esque monsters  in Briarhill Business Park one afternoon after a  recent heatwave.

Acting the goat in Gort

 

The perfectly purple 💜 Goats Lane Cafe is in Gort, Co Galway.   And they make lovely coffee.