2019 Sept 12 - Shared Lawns of Stanley Park

We do use lawns when we throw a summer party too big for the house. I found the first picture, of my 30th engineering class reunion, and the second, from my 60th birthday party. They are from 8 years apart, in two different houses. Connie and I really made efforts to throw a couple of big parties every summer, because we had large decks front and back of our Calgary house - which technically means we still weren't using the lawn, unless somebody courteously stepped away to smoke. The rest of the time, it was just this thing to mow, and you could look at it, the green IS soothing, and I probably lay out on a towel to read and sun myself a few more times per year. But lawns are unoccupied 99 days out of a hundred.

Having moved to a condo, I still have some lawn, and have sunned out in our "backyard" and "side yard" a few times; to throw a party, you'd have to invite the building, though.

But we West End dwellers have some fine, semi-private lawns a few minutes' walk way in Stanley Park. It's clear to me that this space in the middle of the trees in the Ted & Mary Grieg Rhododendron Garden, practically across the street, is the size of a suburban lawn, and weirdly has a lot of privacy due to the surrounding trees and heavy bushes:

Even that space has a little annex; a few steps from the last shot, there's an even smaller space, even more private as somebody metres away could hardly see the entrance to it - about right for two to do some kissing in:

If you want a little larger, just south of the Rose Garden, a few minutes walk in the other direction, is a lovely lawn surrounded by trees and gardens, sunken a bit from the ramp from Georgia towards the Bridge, muffling almost all traffic noise. It's big enough for a couple of large parties to not bother each other - not that I've ever seen more than one or two families out with blankets here; even when shared by 40,000 people of the West End, lawns are very, very underused.