Monday 22 October 2012

A Tour of Steveston


I am so blessed to be a part of two interesting historical towns. Fort Langley where I live and Steveston where I work.

                                                  A Brief History of Steveston

Originally a farming community, it wasn't long, with the opening of the first cannery on the waterfront in 1882, that the commercial fishery was firmly established as the economic engine that would power Steveston for the next century. By 1890, Steveston was a full-blown boom town, with 15 canneries along its waterfront and record catches of salmon, herring and other species. Steveston canneries were shipping salmon overseas, setting a record of 16-million pounds in 1901. This natural bounty supported many hotels, an opera house, saloons and bawdy houses, as well as gambling tables and opium dens to service the fishing-season population of 10,000. However, by 1912, the fish processing lines had become automated, reducing the town's population by nearly half.

Despite devastating floods, the 1918 fire that razed the Chinese and Japanese sections of the village and the strike in 1900 over the price of fish, which found the strikers facing a Vancouver militia company, and WWII internment of Japanese-Canadians, Steveston has survived. No longer home to a single working cannery, the last succumbing to fewer fish and development pressures, Steveston is, nevertheless, home port to Canada's largest fishing fleet of over 600 vessels. B.C. Packers, the last cannery in Steveston, canned more salmon in 1985 (24-million pounds, with a further 12-million pounds frozen) than all Steveston canneries together in the boom year of 1901 (16-million pounds).

To read the rest of the history of Steveston, check out their website

Take a walk around the village with me. Excuse the dull skies in the pictures, it was actually pouring rain the day I took these. Generally the sun shines here a lot. We get the most sunshine of the lower mainland!

This is the building I work in. It is over 100 years old and has had a variety of business in it, amongst them a brothel and opium den. It was one of the only buildings to survive a fire that levelled most of the village

 A view of the back, all those bricks keep the building toasty warm in the summer

 
This is my Massage Therapy Clinic
 


My flower collection in the windowsill


My view from the office


Some of the local businesses


A wooden sidewalk











Yup, that's a great big banana tree





The local wharf


 I am always blown away by the ginormous size of the giant tankers that go past us!

A local fishmonger, selling her wares from her boat



This guy invited me to take a picture of him and his new boat that he just bought for a dollar!

The last standing cannery that is now a museum




My favourite building in town, I would love to have a business in this building. Right now it is being used as Mr Gold's ( Rumpelstiltskin) shop in the TV show "Once Upon a Time`` which is filmed here in Steveston. The building I work in is often in shots on the show as well.
 
 
This is my next door neighbour, Nick. He is from Romania and bakes bread in a large stone oven like they did in the old country


 
The garage across the street always has old cars parked out front



The Cannery Cafe, which has been renamed Granny's Diner for the TV show, is a popular lunch time stop.




Well now you know what I get to see every day when I go to work. I love this village so much. It`s too bad they wouldn`t let me move my house here, but I am more than happy with the place I ended up so all is well that's ends well!

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Sunday 21 October 2012

Views of the' Hood

 
Random pictures from the area I live in. Eye candy and some autumn colour!
 
 
 


This field across the road from us is usually full  of horses. Right behind it is a Christmas Tree farm were we will be getting our tree this year.

 
 A flooded cranberry field, with a heron and a flock of ducks taking advantage of the new pond in their neighbourhood






 I love this barn so much!! I see it every day on my way to work and it lifts my heart every time.

This amazing old gas station in it`s original condition with the coolest old van I have ever seen in it,is also on my way to work, half way between Fort Langley and Langley City
















I love this house, what a setting!

Lots of railway tracks in this part of the world and lots of trains using them! Risked my life to get this picture for you!





 

 






 Awesome fruit wines here! Love the blueberry and blackberry wines, amazing flavor!


 A view of Mt Baker from the road I live on. It`s actually in the States but if it ever erupted I am sure we would feel the effects.


This is the view from the edge of the island which is between Fort Langley and the other side of the Fraser River

 

Well this is my neighbourhood now. I am having so much fun exploring it, taking back roads, hiking through forest trails, biking on country roads. I hope you enjoyed the scenery.
 
 
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The Eclectic Ark