Walk About in Vancouver
We have roughly seven weeks left in Vancouver. They will be jam-packed, literally, with packing, cleaning, teaching and homeschooling ... administrative work galore. Lots to do when changing and purchasing a home. I have also promised Minime that we would take lots of breaks on the sunnier days to explore Vancouver and the places around, before we leave the Big Smoke for the Big Skies of Northern Alberta.
The skies on the west coast can be pretty impressive at times too with the odd surprise offered up from our proximity to nature. The bald eagle below was nonchalantly chilling on a pole at the tip of Canada Place, causing a scene without ruffling a feather.
The spring blooms are starting to brave the crisp March air, but I am still making do mostly with supermarket floral massacres. These cut roses are courtesy of No-Frills if I remember correctly.
The soil is still jealousy guarding its winter-bare facade but a look up and out offers some airbrushed and frosted beauty. The North Shore mountain from a vantage point out at Horse Shoe Bay was stunning. Horse Shoe Bay is a quaint community that is worth a day trip even you have no plans to catch a ferry, set sail, and go the island way.
Zheng He
All things nautical continue to take up space in our consciousness. We have worked our way through the Age of Discovery sea Explorers and made it to China and Zheng He, a lesser known pirate/admiral of the day.
From our studies ...
Zheng He is a lesser known voyager to westerners from the 15th century era of sea exploration.
He was active between 1405 and 1433 CE. He was born in the Mongol Empire and made a eunuch when his hometown of Hunan was conquered by a Chinese prince.
The same prince would later become emperor, Zu Di. Zheng He grew to become his confidant and warrior navigator.
Zheng He was an Islamic, Chinese admiral, who commanded a huge armada for the Ming dynasty. He was charged with sailing from China, around the sub-continent of India, into the Arabian Sea, and to the east coast of Africa to gather tribute for the Chinese emperor. Some say Zheng He may have even reached the Americas.
The treasure fleet made seven voyages in total between 1405 and 1433. He commanded almost 28 000 men and over 300 ships called swimming dragons. The dragons were immense galleons, 400 feet long and with 9 masts. They were almost 5 times the size of the Portuguese caravels.
Zheng He died at sea. After Zheng his death and the end of the Ming Empire, the Chinese emperors would focus on land defence. The great Chinese era of sea exploration would end. China went into isolation behind its Great Wall.
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