Urban Green Spaces: Show me yours, I'll show you mine...

To Vancouverites like me, this looks very familiar because...

...here's what our Queen Elizabeth Park looks like...

...and here's how to find it, if you're visiting our beautiful city of Vancouver, B.C. and we hope you do come and see it for yourself.

One of the prominent features in Queen Elizabeth Park is the Bloedel Conservatory....

with its tropical jungle inside, including birds and butterflies flying around....

This was a gift to the city by the family of Julius Bloedel, one of the principals of the famous MacMillan Bloedel forestry company. His partner, Harvey (H.R.) MacMillan and his family gave us our famous 'flying saucer' Planetarium, now known as the H.R. MacMillan Space Center and Museum, at the mouth of False Creek, opposite Sunset Beach, in Vanier Park near the heart of downtown....

The sound system in the Planetarium (upper floor, under the roof above) is just spectacular, and one evening, many years ago, the person running the big projector assembly in the center of the room announced that they were planning a new kind of show which would combine rock music with features from various planetarium presentations, and he asked us for suggestions for the music. Being the 'Big Mouth' that I am, I jumped up before anyone else could, and shouted "Pink Floyd!" - there was a loud cheer from the assembled audience, many of whom had sampled some medicinal compounds prior to the show, and our host announced "It's settled then - Pink Floyd it is!" - and that Pink Floyd show ran on Friday and Saturday evenings for the enthusiastic younger crowds (and a few of us oldies) for at least two decades until fairly recently. You really should have been here....