Second Gen (2003-2016, 2016- )
This movie was really just for Jon and Wally – a VIA intercity train leaving Kingston Station. A real hog of a file at 12.5 Mbs.
Then I realized I had hit upon something. I found the sponsorship money! At 50 million a “Canada” sign or Canadian flag – surely that is market value – it’s all there. Money well spent. If the Federal Liberals had not ensured trains had the name and flag of my country on it, I can only imagine I would have confused myself for an Albanian one day.
I swear it is the first thing I thought of when I saw the van – some faceless bureaucrat approving an application and issuing a cheque. I am sure there is an ACOA grant behind this somewhere. Perhaps even NRC funding.
My folks are from the Clyde in the west of Scotland and we figure this painting at Owen Sound is a view from a beach across the Clyde to Arran.
I don’t know the artist’s name but suspect it is a scene from the 30s when my parents would have the ages of these kids. I recall being dragged when I was seven in 1970 to the beach along this stretch in August and freezing in the cold Atlantic.
The view at Largs, Scotland – November 1987.
The father of my Owen Sound connection, my great-grandfather-in-law, was a chaplain in the First World War, Rev. William James Whillans of Winnipeg. This evening, hunting through photos, I came across a post card sent from the front as well as a few others. He is the jaunty gent in the lower right of the first photo.
This is an example of the postcards I discussed in an earlier post. As you can see from the photo below, he was involved with those doing the fighting.
…with a few of the saved from the trenches
…in the trenches…
…and Rev. Whillans with one particular bear brought from Winnipeg during WWI.
NCAA March Madness tourney chart.
Despite the hype the world wide web is a pretty crappy place for primary sources. Internet based private space may hold masses of libraries worth of material but the promise of a free and open digital library a click away is a very long click away. It is, then, small chirpy of noises of glee I make when I come across primary sources such as the UK’s National Archives and its one million documents now plunked down for all to see on the web.
Trouble is, you do only “come across” these things. I wish there was a card catalogue of accessible web-based primary sources somewhere available. You know…like an organized log of what was one the web…now what would you call that?
On Saturday afternoon, the four year old cousin had her birthday. Lots of family photos. Many Canadian men begging for grilled meats causing much shovelling of snow from around the gas BBQ at brother-in-law’s.
March is clearly the snakey, cabin-fever month after the glum of February. The maple syrup shacks are opening up in defiance of both Lent and winter, making the first agricultural crop of the year, boiling tree sap down something like 1/20th. Through the spring the sugars made by the tree shift from the first light runnings to dark.
As it roasts, baste a leg of lamb in dark maple syrup after poking it full of garlic and rosemary.