All posts by Paul Cipywnyk

Japan, Nature, Society, Sustainability, Travel

Changing TV Habits – Less Violence, More Life

Our TV habits have changed over the last year.

For years we were heavily into all the NCISes, Hawaii Five 0s, etc. Haven’t watched any of those for a year or more.

Don’t miss them.

We’ve been watching a lot more nature shows over the last year. Many on TV Japan. Mind-blowing videography and research featuring weeks, months, and years spent observing species of wildlife.

We watch happy/goofy Japanese shows on multi-generational families. Not dramas, real families.

A washi papermaker who is the 13th generation at his craft. . . A potter who is in the seventh generation of trying over and over and over to replicate a long-lost style of pottery.

We watch slow-paced series on travel in Japan that focus on regional and local arts, and crafts, and food. Travel by train, travel by bicycle. . . And always amazing food, lovingly grown, cooked, and presented. . .

We watch “Somewhere Street,” a Japanese show in which a crew visits famous cities around the world and documents major historic and tourist attractions, food, music, nightlife. . .

It’s people. It’s nature. It’s life.

And it’s beautiful.
Nature, Photography

Fraser Foreshore Hawk, Cormorant & More

I took advantage of the sunny afternoon in Burnaby, BC, to walk Fraser Foreshore Park from the playground east to the meadow and back.

While I’ve seen Red-tailed Hawks there before, this is the first time I’ve seen one on one of the artificial perches in the meadow.

red-tailed hawk fraser foreshore burnaby bc
Red-tailed Hawk

It was interesting tracking the hawk. I first spotted it from the main trail that runs along the river. It was sitting in a tree near the entrance to the meadow loop. I walked in on a tiny trail, came out of the bush. . . and no hawk. Odd. Perhaps it had flown the coop?

I backtracked to the main trail and took another look, and there it was. I’d just mixed up trees. This time I kept the tree in my peripheral vision so that when I came out of the bush I was in front of the hawk.

I began shooting and moving in closer, and it took off over the hill. Knowing there were perches installed in the meadow, I slowly crested the rise, and sure enough it was perched on the southwestern pole.

I kept shooting, and slowly moving closer until I sensed it was getting antsy, so I backed away and left it in peace.

double-crested cormorant fraser foreshore burnaby bc
This Double-crested Cormorant popped up for a few seconds near the railway bridge and then disappeared.

american robin fraser forshore burnaby bc
There were lots of American Robins.

green-winged teal fraser foreshore burnaby bc
Green-winged Teal

seal fraser foreshore park burnaby bc
Harbour Seal way out in the river

Photography, Society

Yumi landed a Tommy Hilfiger sponsorship for the 2021 John Deere Valentine’s Day Sledding Classic at Ron McLean Park in SE #Burnaby 🙂

She notes that the Hilfiger sponsorship, and the sled, were made possible through a partnership with Value Village and the Burnaby Hospice Society thrift store. . .

yumi sledding ron mclean park burnaby bc

Nature, Photography

Snow Makes Magic in Byrne Creek Ravine

An album from our snowy Byrne Creek walk in SE #Burnaby, BC, today. Feeling blessed to have this forest out our back gate right in the city!

varied thrush snowy byrne creek burnaby bc
This Varied Thrush was the only bird we saw today aside from a couple of sparrows. We did hear a Kingfisher in the spawning habitat, but couldn’t spot it.

snowy byrne creek walk burnaby bc


The fish ladder at Griffiths Pond


The fantastical walnuts at the old farmstead


When a snow-laden cedar branch fights back 🙂


Showing off my studded tires. I got these slip-on studded rubber webs that go over hiking boots or shoes, and provide great traction on snow and ice.

Books, Society, Writing

Savoring Le Guin’s Essays, Reviews

Sat down after lunch to read for half an hour and got lost for three hours in Ursula K. Le Guin’s non-fiction collection Words are My Matter: Writings about Life and Books.

A collection you want to read slowly, and savor. . .

One of her best-known quotations, so pertinent to the times we live in:

“I think hard times are coming when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies. We will need writers who can remember freedom. Poets, visionaries – the realists of a larger reality.”—Ursula K. Le Guin