ABC Wednesday - Letter F

The letter "F" is being Featured this week For ABC Wednesday. "Thank you" to Mrs. Nesbitt for starting the meme and to Roger Green, Reader Wil, Leslie and Trubes for hosting. All do a First-rate job of Firing up bloggers to search Frenziedly through their Files for alphabet-related Fotos.

I found a Few new-to-me (except for one) "F" words at the Phrontistery site.  I'll scatter them throughout the post in the hopes that I might remember one or two of them for longer than a day or two :)  Here's the list:

1. Fusain - drawing style using Fine charcoal From a Spindle tree 

2. Funambulism - tightrope walking, show of mental agility (repeat from old post)

3. Frith - (old English word) peace, sanctuary

4. Flexiloquent - speaking ambiguously

5. Fossick - to search by turning over earth or rocks

6. Floromancy - belief Flowers have Feelings

Here are three of Frederic Chopin's waltzes played by Janina Fialkowska to bring you Frith as you read the post.  I knew Janina as a child prodigy at the music school I attended throughout the 1960's.  She is one of my Favourite pianists. Her Fabulous playing and her Fortitude as she battled and recovered from Cancer that threatened her career (and life!) inspire me. 

Sometimes, I love to discover an artist previously unknown to me, and using the alphabet helps to narrow down the selection.  "Young Girl in the Park" is by Tsugouharu Foujita (1886-1968).  I photographed his page from The Art Book.

Though he does not use charcoal, as in the Fusain style, I see some similar elements in the way he uses a Fine brush dipped in black ink.  You can read a little about him in this information photographed from the same book, but there is much more at the Wikipedia link (above).  His was a Fascinating life for sure.  

Below is artist, François Génot, working in the Fusain style.  He was born in 1981 and lives in Dussendorf, France. I wasn't able to find a lot of information about him, though he does have his own web site (in French) and there was an interesting site showing his work as it appears on buses in the Alsace region of France where he was born.  It seems to me that buses are a great way to bring art to the public.  Many cities, including Vancouver, seem to have Figured that out.  When I commuted Frequently by bus, I used to love to read the work of poetry contest winners displayed over the seats.  

The rest of the post is a Farrago of the new  as well as some  "F" words that popped up in a couple of our days.  A Ford parked on a nearby street,

appeared to be Fully Functional.  Bill took a few minutes to check out..

its rumble seat.  I learned that the round metal piece on top of the Fender is a step plate to help passengers get into that seat.  If you look in the photo above, you will see there is another stepping plate on the back bumper.

Everything about this car was Flawless.

The horn doesn't show clearly, but is in the Front under the headlight at the right.

It's a Ford for sure :)

Leaving the car, we walked across the street to False Creek where Black Jack Fossicked to her heart's content.

Bill helped her by overturning rocks to see what we could Ferret out.

Foraging for gold didn't exactly pan out, but we did..

observe lots of signs of life.  We tried to replace the rocks exactly as they had been, hoping to appease Finicky residents disturbed by our investigations.

I think my Favourite word on the list at the beginning is Funambulism.  Though it means a show of mental agility, its first three letters are surely significant.  This team of dragon boaters was quite a distance from us, but my large lens caught a couple of the team members high-Fiving.  Proof, I thought, that though the sport develops mental and physical Facets of teamwork, Fun rather than Functionality, is still the name of the game.

It was the next day that we stopped our bikes to spend a little time admiring these athletes. I remembered "Funambulism" also means tightrope walking and hoped to catch a photo for the blog.  I think the technical name for this sport is slacklining, but it still Fits the theme.  This Fellow sat on the webbing,   

sprang up a couple of times and, to my amazement,

managed to plant both Feet on the webbing.

He was still working on sticking the landing, but given that I can't imagine the strength and agility to get there in the First place, he had my Full respect for an awesome Feat.  His Friend also pushed himself..

to go beyond Fundamental skills.

Fulfillment, I guess, depends on how willing one is to Fly in the Face of a good challenge.  The basic walk would have tested my balance more than enough :) It was Fascinating to watch these gentlemen push their limits but Bill and Black Jack and the beautiful day awaited and off we went.

Remember Floromancy?  Well, I'm not sure if..

I am Faithful to the idea..

 that Flowers..

have Feelings,

but it wouldn't take much..

 to convince me :)

Surely, they must react in some way to insects Flying on and off them.

Now to Figure out whether the arrival or the departure brings more pleasure.

I was looking for all things Fuliguline (pertaining to sea ducks) when we arrived at Granville Island, but in Fact, there were more geese than ducks.

We saw some with wings Fanned over their bodies creating air pockets on either side that I thought might be a cooling system.

Finally, a Fuliguline moment :)

This goose had Faith that I might come through with a treat,

but in spite of those Fiercely intelligent eyes, I resisted.

My beautiful great-nephew is celebrating his Fourth birthday next week.  Soon, I won't be able to post his gift on-line, but I think he is still a little too young to find.. 

my blog and see this game that encourages story-telling.  He is Fixated on dinosaurs and space ships and I Fully get how those two things could be related :)  I wish I could have caught a photo as I Followed Bill home on the bike.  I kept thinking we should have bought one for us too :)

This last set of pictures was taken when we rode our bikes around the Stanley Park seawall a Few days ago.  We hadn't gone the Full way round in a while but this was the perfect day for it. We stopped en route to walk on a section of beach.

In the above photo, you can see the Iron Workers' Memorial bridge in the distance. From the same spot on the beach, I could also see the Lions Gate bridge to my left (below).

A young seagull and his/her parent were not having Fun.  The time when the parent must convince the child to Find his/her own Food is a tough one for both.

But Black Jack..

was having the time of her life..

and it thrilled me to watch her.

She Followed Bill so closely,

he actually lost track of her.

But they Found each other again in no time Flat!

She loves the water but doesn't stray Far.

We keep calling her back and she cooperates happily for a Food reward.

It is the running back and Forth..

that is the most Fun.

She is ten now.  We know that she won't be this agile Forever..

so we treasure every joyful leap, and every Frisky..

Frolic.

At our second stop along the way, a cormorant Flew over my head..

and landed (miraculously) on this rocky ledge.

Then we realized there were two.

Another Feat of agility.

We stopped for a third and Final time to sit on a bench gazing over English Bay  with Black Jack curled up on Bill's knee.  She likes to contemplate life with us :)

We were just to the left of the trail in the photo below.  As you can see, there were a lot of cyclists that day.  Riding the seawall route requires some understanding of the rules of the road.  There are images painted on the pavement to indicate directions and to separate the bikers and skateboarders from people on foot.  Tourists need a little time to Figure that out  and because we ride almost every day, we navigate among them Fairly well.  Those using the lanes for commuting or training can be less Forgiving; some ride or skate way too quickly.  Though there have not been a lot of accidents and no deaths, one American tourist's back was broken when she was knocked off the seawall by a cyclist. In my opinion, that is Frightful and Bill and I both think it would make sense to post rules of the road at the beginning of the trail.  Stopping without warning, especially on a curve, or talking on the phone (or even texting!) while moving is NOT okay. One runner was so frustrated, he wrote a Blog post about seawall etiquette.

I digressed a little with that last paragraph, and hope it didn't feel like too much of a rant.  We appreciate the efforts of Vancouver planners to encourage outdoor activities in our beautiful city.  It is a learning process and improving safety as we move Forward has to be a good thing.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you are Finding lots of Fun things to do this weekend, wherever you reside.