all canadians are celebrating one of our old-timey monarchs with a three-day long weekend this monday. the venerable queen victoria.

this is an especially celebrated holiday in bc canada because our provincial capital is named victoria [yes, after the queen] and it marks the first unofficial camping weekend in late spring/early summer for all those outdoorsy types. needless to say, this city-slicker and her hubby have no desire to camp, sleep on the ground or shower [if you’re lucky] in communal, cold showers at a regional campsite. so this weekend we’ll be hangin’ out at home doing city stuff. this girl doesn’t rough it. nope. i’m much happier doing this kind of outdoorsy stuff…

t and i took in the 23rd annual all british field meet - which is a really long title for cool classic and new brit cars. the event has been held for 22 years at van dusen gardens [a vancouver landmark for the botanical garden-set] on their ‘great lawn’ and is truly mecca for classic car enthuasiasts. over 600 cars and 50+ motor cycles are in attendance at this annual event, making it the largest event of it’s kind in western canada.

now we’re not big car buffs, but knowing that there would be a ton of vintage, classic cars at this event was enough of a photo op to drag me outta the house. think lots of chrome, curvy lines, gorgeous paint, burl walnut interiors and leather. yummy eye candy for sure! plus it was a spectacular day yesterday soaring to 30C/86F so being outdoors under some large trees was pretty much a neccessity =)

between the two of us, we shot over 500 photos of the most amazing chrome and enamel vehicles we’ve ever seen. yep t took some pics too… in his words “if you’re gonna drag me out to this thing, i better take a camera so i don’t get bored”. needless to say, he wasn’t bored LOL! he took a ton of photos himself, experimenting with the lens, dof, reflection, etc… i think he really enjoy himself actually and that was great fun to watch.

so many of vehicle were so cool looking with interesting reflections in the chrome and the gorgeous paint jobs that t has encouraged me to do a photobook. so yep… i’m publishing again and will have a 100 page book in my hot little hands in about 10 days. anyways… thought you might enjoy looking at a few of my favorites. there are more in my flickr collection here.

love this! so gorgeous in person. the detail of the figure and chromed gleam of the rolls royce hood ornament is something to behold. breathtaking!

i had no idea that the lotus esprit was a british car! i know the brits do luxury muscle cars [see bentley, jaguar and astin martin], but had no idea that they did exotics too. well done uk auto designers. well done. these new lotuses are truly remarkable. amazingly compact and full of personally [and a lot of vavoom!] if we sold off t’s star war fig collection we could go buy one today [yep, that is ALOT of star wars in plastic bubbles. but i’m not judging him lol!]. i’m partial to the bright orange one… it goes with my hair colour ;^)

to see the rest of the 25 images i uploaded to my flickr portfolio, click here…

have a great rest of the long weekend canucks!
happy early memorial day to my southern usa friends too =)