Y MENTION of the Ambleside Park cygnets caused
my answering machine to fill, and the switchboard

Ww 8 of West Van Parks and Recreation board director
Kevin Pike to be deluged with calls, many highly emotional.

Callers had gone to see the
swanlets and the swanlets were
gone,

Rumors abounded, They were
stolen by black marketeers! They
were sald to American zaos! They
were wrenched from their mom
and given to (gasp!) Chilliwack!

Here’s what happened. The
swans don’t belong to West Van.
The City of Vancouver lets us have
them because, as you may have
noticed, they keep geese out of
the park,

Swans keep geese away by be-
ing as vicious as they are pretty.
And the hatchlings’ sex had to be
determined.

As no one wants to poke around
the privates of ornery adult swans,
the babies were sent to the Van-
couver Zoo to be sexed and to
have their wings clipped (they're
not allowed to fly because they're
not native Canadian birds).

Pike is now considering putting
up swan-information signs, and
the five cygnets, which now look
like furry ducks, are happily back
in their pond and posing for
photos.

kek

The Vancouver Art Gallery
hosted a huge party to kick off the
Robert Davidson exhibit, which
continues through the summer.

| couldn’t get near the exhibit so
| can’t describe it.

As the opening ceremonies were
at Robson Square, the VAG
couldn’t control the crowd as it
normally would (the dregs in
guests’ glasses and leftover bits of
food were consumed by street
people — it was pathetic).

So, | stayed outside and played
“spot the-Northshorites.””

| spoke with ad man Jerry
Beckerman and his exuberant wife
Merla, who'd just returned from a
long trip to Turkey.

They took trains and buses,
didn’t stick to a schedule, had a
wonderful time, and highly
recommend it as a vacation spot.

Molson’s VP Robin Milward
was there with his new friend, the
Vancouver Museum’s Monica
Sayers; painter Susanna Blunt

‘and her husband Brian Clayden
chatted with fellow artist Eva
Kupczynski and North Shore
natives Betsy Hagopian and Leslie
Mauro; and West Van‘s Karen
Hall showed with her friend
Melinda Balaam.

Balaam is the Sonoma Valley
grape grower and restaurateur
who is well known for her collec-
tion of things aboriginal — and the
proud owner of numerous items of
clothing by Dorothy Grant.

Sune:
TERY isS
>A Wl B® &
KIDS 8-16
All skill levels
Start Mon., July 19

Carson Graham 9-12 noon
West Van. Sec. 1-4 pm

Weekly Tennis Camps. Call for
starting dates

877-0064
SR EAUQYSA

Louise Aird
BRIGHT LIGHTS

Grant, who's married to Robert
Davidson, announced that she'll
have her first Paris show in
September -- an event which
should have that city’s fashion
watchers buzzing.

Also wearing a Grant suit was
Countess Aline Dobrzensky,
who was here to collect her
daughter from her Vancouver
island school before heading off to
France for the summer.

You may recall that Aline and
her family moved to Vienna to be
closer to Prague because her hus-
band Enrico is trying to retrieve his
family's lost Czech properties —
one large castle, one small castle
and a lodge, plus attendant lands.

This endeavor has turned out to
be more difficult than was ex-
pected and the family will spend
another year in Vienna, where
Aline keeps busy by volunteering
at a retirement home.

Vienna is a nice place to live,
says Aline, especially if you're into
balls, but one does not go out
unless one is dressed ~ no shop-
ping in tennis dresses and sweat
suits as North Shore and West Side
women are wont to do.

Also at the party was one of
Robert Davidson’s mentors, Bill
Reid, who is now, unfortunately,
wheelchair-bound.

There were lots of other artists
there, of course, many of whom
snickered when Darlene Marzari
declared the VAG to be “‘the
finest art gallery in Canada!”

Two overheard responses were:
“Yeah, like Marzari has seen any
other Canadian art galleries,” and
“What an insult to the other gal-
leries!”

SEN

id Vit
photos Loulse Aird

WEST VANCOUVER native Betsy Hagopian with designer Dorothy Grant and California grape
grower and native art collector Melinda Balaam.

sh a A

BRIAN CLAYDEN and Susanna Blunt, of West Vancouver,
tist Eva Kupezynski.

Walking
Cross Training
Light Hiking ®