DocFest 2012! October 19th and 20th

Summer at the Farmers Market is back!

It's official!

In true New Westminster fashion, Thursday kicked off summer season
of The Royal City Farmers Market!

After a long winter and spring it was great to see some fresh vegetables again!

The famous popcorn was also there and we had to buy some of that. Besides tomatoes I also bought potatoes, eggs, peppers(see how many you can fit in a bag for $4), honey, coffee and two plants for my garden.
At the honey booth I was sold on some chocolate hazelnut butter - so good!

I bought a tie pin for my husband made of fused glass from a local artist with a company called DINGOLAY, check out the website! We also had to buy a few sweet treats from the vegan baker! Delicious chocolate chip cupcakes and Nanaimo bars!

The farmers market is held every Thursday from 3-7 pm, beside city hall on 4th street near Tipperary Park and friendship garden (a true hidden gem in the city).

River Market @ New Westminster Quay

I recently had the pleasure to spend some time down at the new River Market in New Westminster at the Quay. After shopping a few times at the Donald's Market I ventured further inside to see what other offerings were there.

The great wall tea was my first stop. Friendly staff and aromatic teas are the draw to this lovely little shop. The wall is a clever way to display and store the over 100 types of tea available.The blog Tenth to the Fraser wrote a great review of the tea company here! My family has been enjoying a fantastic Cream Earl Grey - Delicious!

We then checked out the Tiny store beside the tea shop. Everything sold there is made locally. We tried two of the delicious jams; Huckleberry and Saskatoon berry.

I love the art throughout the market including these beautiful panels that hang over the escalators, it really says west coast to me.

The fun art that is all over the market is playful and unexpected.

Even the super modern wash-rooms have fun touches

We attended a birthday party at the Vancouver Circus School

This was a big hit with my five year old daughter, especially the silks and giant trampoline.

I look forward to seeing what else will move into the new market this spring and summer!

“She slipped softly from a summer stream, as seamless as a summer’s dream.”
Toby Barazzuol.

As promised I am looking for art in New Westminster. Just what constitutes art is entirely up to me, or anyone, that's what's fun about art. No wrong answers.

I love this gate and the majestic staircase that leads to the old penitentiary.

Here is what it looked like during construction in 1877.

Today all that remains is one building.

And another gate at the plaza in Sapperton beside Knox Church.

One thing I love about the west coast are the Monkey Puzzle Trees!

Art in nature.

New Year - more blogging!

I have been neglecting this blog for quite some time, to say I have been busy is no exaggeration! My family and I love living here in New Westminster and now find our way around the city quite well. We have enjoyed a lot of fun events in the city. We just took our tree to be chipped at the Canada Games Pool, the New Westminster Fire Fighters host the event annually. We bought that tree at the Shop Sapperton event again this year. We were able to use our wagon to collect and dispose of the tree. Living in New Westminster car free is challenging sometimes. We have learned the bus and sky-train schedules, and have found walking in New West is great!

As a New Years resolution I will try and blog more often! I plan on continuing my "exposes" on the parks of New Westminster. I would like to seek out more art in the city this year too. When I lived in Vancouver I noticed a lot of art galleries, both independent ones and the beautiful VAG. Public art, large installations or sculptures are inspiring. I think they need to be in every city and add so much to public space! I would like to see what I find when I look for more art this year. I hear some exciting things are in the works!

This post made me think of the mosaic in Hume Park in front of the playground. This park is a beautiful retreat. I saw a double rainbow here the day after we moved in. I love it!

New Westminster 12th Street Festival

Earlier this month we set out to discover more about New Westminster. We read in the local paper New Westminster NEWSLeader, about the 12th street festival.

On what proved to be one of the hottest days of the year we walked through New Westminster, a little out of the way because of a little map reading mix up, but after about 45 minutes we arrived on 12th street.

12th Street has recently been going through some much needed updates. The sidewalks have been widened and new trees planted. A collaboration between artists and New Westminster Parks and Recreation has developed a project to display two mosaics in the sidewalk to celebrate the neighbourhood and the cities 150th birthday.

While at the festival we listened to some local musicians, ate a snow cone and looked at some classic cars, very New Westminster! We also entered a draw for some great prizes!

It was a fine introduction to this area of town.

In a great twist of fate we won two of the top prizes!

A huge gift basket (donated by a local real estate agent) and an acoustic guitar and stand!
We feel very fortunate, who would have thought it?