The letter B

Mrs. Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday is braving the letter B today.  The brain has been on my mind a lot lately.  There are lots of other B's in my life and I'm going to highlight a few of them as I take you through our day yesterday, but if you have time to listen to this 18-minute TED talk by neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor, I think it will stay with you. You will find the picture below on that page, and the video of the speech at the bottom of the page.

BRAIN 

BILL and BLACK JACK

If you have spent even a few minutes at this blog, you will probably have figured out that my love for them is brobdingnagian.

BEAUTY

I took this photo a couple of days ago.  It was on a balcony (maybe the 3rd or 4th floor up) and it bulldozed its way into my brain so boldly that we stopped later to take the photo.  

My big lens managed only two small sections of this totem that greeted us just before entering Vanier Park.  Its colours, but even more, its welcoming spirit, is beautiful to me.

The colour blue always brigues (intrigues) me.

There were flowers marking the memorial benches where people sit to enjoy the ocean.  I always think of my father and how he loved to sit for a minute, perhaps meeting someone and exchanging a story or two, or perhaps, just resting his tired legs.  The sign below the flowers really struck me yesterday.  It gives a benchmark of the things that mattered to Motaz Derhalli.  What a beautiful spirit comes through those words.

BRIDGES

Yesterday, we rode our bikes past Granville Island and into Vanier Park.  From there, we made our way to the Burrard Bridge for the ride home.  Here, you can see the Granville Bridge in front and the Burrard Bridge behind it.  You will notice some "B" words scattered throughout the post that I found at the "Unusual words that begin with B" site. Barodynamics is the science of support and mechanics of bridges. 

BOATS

Boats are part of our daily comings and goings.  They are always present on False Creek. Sometimes, we ride the small ferries to get to the other side, and sometimes, we just like to look at the sailboats.  I am brigued by ships as well, though I do worry about the increasing number of them along English Bay.

  BIRDS

We saw this blue heron hunting in a pond between the Granville and the Cambie bridges.

This seagull was taking a bath.  Just a note here that, though I didn't get a photo, we saw Tupper, our favourite seagull, yesterday, for the first time in five days.  That gave both of us brobdingnagian (immense) happiness.  If you are wondering how to pronounce that word, you can find out here.

Bath time, again, this time for a cormorant.

A baby duck in a small pond searched for its mother.

The cormorants flew steadily between English Bay and Vanier Park.  I didn't get the light right, but was brigued by their flight patterns.

 BLOOMS

Bill spotted these beautiful lilies..

 and behind those, were wonderfully lush gardens.

Berries are blooms, but deserve a special mention because Bill and I eat some every day.  Not the ones you see below, though.  I do not know what they are, but their brilliance was hard to miss.

 BRIO

A zest for life is everything.  Most of the photos below speak for themselves.

 Black Jack was running with a small treat stuck in her mouth :)

I love this baby crow's brio but also thought of the descriptions bumptious (offensively self-assertive).. 

and babeldom (a confused sound of voices) as I imagined the harried mother's determination..

to stuff something..  anything.. into that gaping mouth.

 A ladybug showed great brio, I thought, in clinging determinedly..

 to Bill's finger.

 It took a lot of convincing to transfer it to the leaf.  From there, it flew away.

This is only a small part of a very strange home on a boat that someone had built as their home base.  We were brigued by it for sure. 

 Our bikes contribute greatly to our life enjoyment.  

 Watching life around us creates a constant barrage of brio.  We are fortunate and we know it.  For more B's across the world, there is no better place to start that Mrs. Nesbitt's meme.  I thank her for starting it, and also appreciate the wonderful volunteers who keep it going.  Thank you so much for stopping by.  May there be lots of brio in your life today and always.