Wet Market

For those in the rainforest, November is the cruelest month. The flowers are gone, and the green, blossoming trees of summer are reduced to their supports. In February I will insist that February is the cruelest month, only because those grey November days take so much out of me. At least in February the days get successively longer.

In past Novembers (and Februarys) I would visit the Vancouver Aquarium. Not the orcas' jump-and-touch-it show, but the huge glass tanks inside. I love the variation in these tanks, where a slow moving shark will glide amongst rock fish and an octopus I want to believe is older than I am. I also love the lighting, how the halls are slightly darkened to accentuate the light inside these tanks. A little like watching a monitor? Sure, but without the eye strain. 

Now that the Aquarium is closed I have had to seek alternatives. Though T&T Market uses lighting similar to other grocery stores, they do have living sea creatures. Included among them are crab, lobster, geoduck and my favourite fish to look at -- the tilapia (picture above).