McBurney's Coffee and Tea House

If you read my other blog, you will know we're moving to the city of Langley in less than a month. This is a place we're not unfamiliar with, but neither do we know it well. It's where our church is so we've made multi trips through town but never spent much time in it. Our new home is walking distance from church and is a few minutes' drive from Langley's downtown.

Langley has more of a small town feeling to it than Surrey (the sprawling city we live in now, which really doesn't have one downtown, but four or five business centers -- like Cloverdale, Ocean Park, Guildford and Newton -- which used to be the centers of small towns or settlements )

We really noticed the change in ambience when we drove out to Langley in early July to show some friends the property we had bought. After that we went downtown to where there is still angle parking on some of the streets. We browsed in a few shops, then went for a coffee at McBurney's Coffee and Tea House. (In the virtual tour - link above - McBurney's Coffee House is right of the McBurney Lane sign.) Apparently they have regular live music evenings there - like jazz and such. Judging from the mural on the wall (photo above), one should expect a good time!

propaganda

I snapped this picture of the mural on the wall of the North Poplar Fine Arts School in Abbotsford just over a week ago. I like the art but the subject matter not so much. It's predictable and politically correct to the point of being propaganda in my books (with its cultural diversity and ecology themes - not that I'm against those things: I'm not). This is typical of the murals seen on school buildings around here.

White Rock whaling wall

One of my favorite local murals is this whale mural in White Rock, seen on Johnston Road as you head toward the beach.

A little sleuthing on the internet has netted me some interesting info about it.

The 21 metre long mural of three life-size gray whales was painted by Wyland, in September of 1984. At the time he was only 28 years old and lived in California. It was the fourth of Wyland's "whaling walls." In February this year he completed number 95 in Key Largo.

List of Wyland's whaling walls

Wyland painting whaling wall 79 in California.



Painting the Key Largo wall (number 95).



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