The Squamidian Report – Oct. 24 / 15
 
Issue #700

Including:
From Russ
North Nova News
From Carol & Al
From Maggie
Lorne’s Squid Contribution
From Cindy
Announcing Olivia Quinn Brubacher
The Ontarion

Hi All,

Welcome to the 700th episode of the Squamidian. Makes you wonder where the last 13 years went. Oh, I know, they went into writing and sending out this silly news letter. There has been many times I've come close to pulling the plug, and times when its been too much fun to let go. One thing that keeps it going is when there is some participation from the readers, you guys, or even some comment on something Greg or I have written. And speaking of Greg, I don't know how you have kept going, always coming up with something to write about, and I thank you deeply.

When I announced that we were approaching the 700th and hinted that it would be nice for some reader participation, I didn't really know what to expect. It can get pretty quiet out there. If it weren't for our biggest fan, Russ, we wouldn't even know for sure that there was anyone left still reading the 'Saturday morning news'. In fact, it was my intention to wind this down if there was no participation as I would interpret that as no interest. I still may at some point in the not-too-distance future, we shall see.
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Most of you know by now that little Kyra has a brand new baby sister, born last Saturday evening. I'll leave it to others to fill in the details, but it was kind of funny to watch her when her Daddy phoned with the news. She ran to tell me, although I was right in the same room and could overhear the conversation. Then, she figured that her Mommy might want to hear the news and she wanted to phone her and tell her. I guess at 3 ¾ yr old she doesn't quite have things fully figures out yet.
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Each spring and fall my motorcycle group does a BBQ, spring to kick off the riding season and fall to mark the winding down. It never really comes to a halt out on the coast but it does slow down. So, to that end we did our fall BBQ for the chapter here at our place but this time it was a none-BBQ, BBQ. Instead of going to all that work we simply ordered pizza. Much easier, much faster and less cost. To kick off the day, last Sunday morning, the whole pack of bikes met at our usual Horseshoe Bay location for staging. We rode in a nice tight formation up to Squamish. Our first destination was the mini-golf place down in the valley. I had informed them that we were coming and they were quite pleased to have a large group this late in their season. Just like the last time we went there, we had a great time. Before we left we took a group picture and the mini-golf place also took a picture of us to use on their Facebook page. Cool.

Its just a short 5-min ride from there to our place so we took the 'back way'. Its always fun leading a formation of bikes up into our neighborhood. According to 'The Wife', we can be heard coming from a fair distance away. Its always cool to see a bunch of bikes parked along the street too, and the neighbors know we are basically harmless, so, a good time was had by all.

Anyway, we have actually had some nice articles sent in for this issue so there is no point in me getting too wordy. Read on and enjoy.

doug
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From Russ

Dear Doug:
I want to congratulate you for devoting so very much of your time and talents to bring to us faithful, supportive readers of your Weekly Squamidian, interesting, educational, and sometimes 'temper-driven' stories from your prospectives on life.
 
Many of us look forward to Saturdays, when we can always expect to read the
weekly 'News' by The Doug.
 
According to my calculations, you have been thinking-up articles/stories of interest for nearly 13 and one- half years!! That should be entered in The World Book of Records!!
 
Man, We don't know how you do it, but we are thankful you DO!
 
Russ.

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North Nova News

Well this morning (Oct. 19th) we woke up to snow on the ground, not much but enough to realize winter is soon on its way. We had spent the weekend cleaning up the garden, taking down our screened in tent, and many other fall/winter preparations.  The woodshed is full of nice dry wood and the snow blower is in ready position.  We may be way ahead of the game but its much better to be ready.  Last winter was so extremely challenging that we have put even more thought into preparations.

Life is busy.  In the last 18 months I have sold my hair salon and building giving me a lot more time to do other things.  I'm finally enjoying the freedom from obligations being a landlady and business owner for over 25 years.  Since I still have many clients that are
hoping I never retire, I have stayed on as an employee on a 3 day work week (24 hours!).  It seems to be a good balance between work and play but by next year, maybe 2 days a week.  I call it weaning myself off work!  Working is almost like visiting, I've known my
clients for years and we're so comfortable with each other, it's more like play.  I even take vacations!

Today is voting day and I'm still confused but I will do my duty and hopefully before 8:30pm I will have made up my mind!  You'll never guess where we vote.  It's even further into the woods than I live!  And there never is a lineup, at least that I have seen.  After coming out of the hall ( originally a one room school house) the view is of the back of Fitzpatrick Mountain.  ( We live on the other side)  It's actually quite refreshing after making your decision for what's best for your country and a relief too that it's over.

I would like to thank Doug and Greg for their efforts every week! They are amazing.  I really appreciate what it takes to come up with new and interesting reports especially now when I try to make a go of it.  Keep up the good work, Saturdays would not be the same
without you!

Nova Scotia Sue
*****

From Carol & Al

First, congratulations Doug on your 700th Squamidian!!
This past summer the Georgian Bay Folk society held their 40th annual weekend musical extravaganza, Summerfolk.  Brother Gary has volunteered on the construction crew for 38 of those years.  The event is held in Kelso park and a lot of work goes into building & tearing down the site.  There is an outdoor amphitheatre already in the park but the stage needs to be built, painted & more seating added.  Also 5 other stages are created throughout the park.  Five large tents (and one is enormous) are rented and erected by the rental company, at a cost of thousands of dollars.  One of the tents is for selling items and, artist signings, etc.  One of the tents is for the children’s area and the other 3 for musical areas.  In all 5 more stages (other then the amphitheatre) are built, with flooring.

Tables & chairs are set up (people in the audience also bring lawn chairs or blankets with them for more seating).  Several booths need to be set up and painted (ticket booths, information booths, first aid, etc).  A dozen large pop up tents need to be put up and temporary fencing installed.  Fencing goes around the entire site, more around the venues that sell alcohol and around the volunteer only camping site.  When the weekend is over all this needs to be taken down and stored away until the next year.

For the weekend itself; at least 100 acts or solo artists are booked and it will be several years before the same artist, no mater how good, is invited back again.  If a person doesn’t care for one artist then they can just head to another stage.  It is impossible to hear everyone so looking at the line-up on line ahead of time makes planning on catching your favorites a good option.  By the Wednesday the volunteer camping area is ready and the volunteers move from the main area to make room for vendors to set up.  There are food vendors and many handicraft vendors selling unusual items.  People are allowed to bring their own food in, if they wish, and water stations are set up for people to help themselves.  There is a First Nations tepee set up that gives wonderful demonstrations also an area that teaches some basic circus tricks.  The children’s area is fabulous with crafts and games and a spray ground and also a musical “petting zoo” where everyone is encouraged to try out a large selection of instruments from the common to the unusual.  Children under 12 are free.  You can purchase either day passes or come for the weekend.

As mentioned before, Gary has been involved for 38 years and has been unsuccessful about getting any of us up to enjoy it with him until he convinced Gale 2 years ago.  After that he got smart and instead of asking us he asked Nick to volunteer.  Nick said yes, that meant Al & I had to take him up the week before.  While Vivvy and I enjoyed the beach hanging around Wiarton, Al and Nick went to Owen Sound each day to volunteer.  Beth, Gale Vivienne & I attended.  Summerfolk could not happen without the many volunteers who not only construct and destruct the site but who work the gate, the bars, information, garbage detail, children’s area, , lighting, sound, etc.  Any volunteer who puts in 12 hours gets a free weekend pass.  Those who are on detail for the actual weekend mostly only work the minimum but construction volunteers put in 20 to 60 hours each, but they are also fed as there are no food vendors before and after the weekend.  This year Beth had holidays the week before and after Summerfolk so I also ended up volunteering as I didn’t have Vivvy to take care of.  We set up a tent in the volunteer camping, even though we went back to Wiarton each evening, just so we had a place to keep our food & drinks (in the volunteer camping area only people could bring in alcohol to their tent) and to set up a gathering place.  This year Jamie, Beth, Gale, Ewan & Alison attended, besides Gary’s family.  We volunteers signed the others in as our guests to the camping area and all of us were given a second, special arm band that let us come and go to the area.  The camping area is right beside the biggest stage area, By the Bay, with the huge tent.  We could hear the music fine from there as we relaxed (for me the volume was just right, it was way too loud under the big tent).  Both years my favourite music was the Sunday morning gospel at the amphitheatre.  Vivvy loved dancing her Irish jigs to the Celtic music.  Nick actually enjoyed the hard work of construction more then the festival, mostly because the volunteers were such a friendly group.  Gary is planning on us working again next summer, he tells us he is putting us in charge of the pop-up tents as we figured out how to set up and take down without instruction.  I encourage everyone to give Summerfolk a try, we had a wonderful time.

Carol & Al
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From Maggie

This past spring, Ron and I had the pleasure of a trip to England.  I was presenting at a conference at the University of Leicester, and from there, we took a trip to all the “faves” in England such as the Tower of London, Westminster, Stonehenge, the Cotswolds, Cornwall, and so on.  Being born and bred in England, I knew all the right places to take Ron.   However, I had never been to Leicester.  The city has some of the most hair-raising streets I have driven on, and I am a seasoned driver in England.  If you are a history buff, you might know that some bones were discovered were discovered in a parking lot in Leicester, and thought to be the bones of Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England (who is some far distant  relative to the current queen). He was not well liked for certain villainous acts (which I will not go into).  Richard III was known as the hunchback king because he had scoliosis  of the spine, so when a skeleton was found, researchers wondered.  Richard died at the Battle of Bosworth in 1495, which was a significant battle during the War of the Roses.  Strangely enough, it was the DNA of a Canadian, Michael Ibsen, that confirmed that the man in the parking lot was indeed this king. 

Ron and I arrived in Leicester just two weeks after the burial and funeral befitting a king at Leicester Cathedral.  Of course we had to go to the church to see the tomb!  On the Sunday morning, after a frustrating ride  of narrow and one-way streets, we found a parking spot and the cathedral ( I was driving).  For me, it was a bit of a “coming home” to be in a high Anglican church and hear the comforting service.  However, the highlight was after the service when the congregation was invited for tea that we met the Bishop, and he gave us a private tour of the tomb of this notorious king (before the hoards were allowed in).  Not only that, but he took us outside and showed us the place where he had been found only 50 metres from the church.  Apparently, some kind of work was being done on the infrastructure of the streets and, lo and behold, bones  (now finding bones does happen a lot in England —- but bones with curved spines?)

What struck me about this trip to Leicester was the importance of history  and  family.  How we remember is important.   It does not matter if it is a king from  1495, your ancestors or mine, or Vivyan, our DNA carries us forward.  It forms who we are, but we really never think about it.  We need to cherish that past – and I know the Brubacher’s do. I look at this great Brubacher family and see the DNA in action and the love of family both past, current and future.   Congratulations to Lauren and Ryan for the newest addition to the family  and the extended family!
                                                                                                          
Congratulation on the 700th edition of the Squamidian.

Maggie

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Lorne’s Squid Contribution

Here we are at Doug and Sue’s home in Squamish. A lovely, comfortable place to stay at the right price.  The flight out was so very confining and long. I may hitch hike home. In BC they are not only on standard time but triple standard time.  One advantage is that upon arriving home, we will need to only set our watches ahead 2 hours because of the return to standard time back home. People out here say I’ve got it all wrong.  It’s time zones or something and to stop complaining.  A very wonderful addition to the area is the ‘Sea to Sky Gondola’ that goes from just above sea level to a facility in the clouds much higher and beyond ‘The Chief’. We all have a pass that allows us as many trips as we want.  As I’m writing this, we are preparing for another great adventure above way up high over the rainbow, as the song goes.

And yes, Thursday up again.  This time we walked one of the trails with extended  decks over looking Howe Sound, the town of Squamish and many mountains. Our trail was1.6 KLM long. The gondola travels 2 KLM horizontally and 1KLM vertically and under normal wind conditions, the time up or down is 12 minutes. With wind is slowed to 15 minutes.    To-day, Fri., Doug drove to whistler, had lunch, then on to Pemberton. Very beautiful route all the way.

Lorne
*****

From Cindy

My long awaited trip is now here. Greetings from Squamish. Words do not do justice. Fabulous!

We ride up in the gondola leaving rain and arrive in cloud. Amazing views next day we ride up from rain though cloud to sunshine. Breathtaking. We hiked on top of the mountain. Visited Whistler one day and Britannia another. We plan many trips in the gondola, each one will be different. When you stand on the deck at the top there are mountains all around you. It is incredible, certainly takes your breath away.

The stars from the back house deck are so bright and close, and in the morning Venus and  Jupiter and Mars are brightly visible.

Thank you Doug and Sue for a never to be forgotten holiday.

Cindy

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Announcing Olivia Quinn Brubacher

Doug and I are thrilled to announce the birth of our beautiful new granddaughter.

On Friday October 16th, Ryan took Lauren went to the hospital for an induced labour which changed to a Caesarean Section late on Saturday afternoon.

Olivia was born on Saturday October 17th 2015 at Royal Columbian Hospital, New Westminster BC., weighing 6 lb 11oz with lovely brown hair.

Kyra met and loves her new sister and Daddy is over the moon.

Lauren, Ryan & Olivia are doing well and were able to go home on Tuesday with Olivia wearing the family heirloom sleeper. This sleeper was worn by both her Daddy and big sister when they came home from the hospital.

On Thursday, the three of them came to our house to meet Great Grandpa, Aunt Gale and Cindy and pick up big sister, Kyra.


Sue

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!
In the last two weeks editions I’ve been telling you about our wonderful trip to Europe. I realized I still have some details about touring Northern Ireland that I haven’t described as of yet. Well, here goes this week just to finish the Ireland part of the trip.

When we landed in Belfast as you already know we picked up the rental car and found our accommodations. In the first couple of days, we decided to rediscover all the items and spots in Carole’s memory and past. She and her family had moved to Canada in 1965 and she’d only been back “Home” three times in the last 50 years so the discovery of her history in Belfast was first on our list. Neither Adam nor I had seen in person all the places we’d heard all about from Carole over the past 42 years for me and the past 39 for Adam. We were all very eager to get started. One of the first places we wanted to see was only blocks from our motel suite so off we went. We soon were driving down the Ormeau Rd in Belfast, which was one of the main streets that pass through Belfast and also through Carole’s old neighbourhood. First on the list was Carole’s old primary school Ulidia Primary School. We were lucky to find a sign declaring Ulidia Playing Fields. We pulled into the parking lot and low and behold weren’t we at the exact site where Carole had played field hockey as a young girl. We parked and walked out onto the field and it brought back a flood of memories for Carole as if it were only yesterday that she had played her last game on that very pitch! How special it was to see her standing in a goal scoring field hockey stance right in the original spot. I just had to take some pictures of that moment in time. Luckily Adam had brought along his new camera that he had purchased just to record such moments on the trip. The pictures are wonderful of the whole trip because of the quality and creative eye that Adam has for photography.

Anyway, we moved on and a short distance maybe 100 yards down the street we found the lane way that lead directly to the gates of Ulidia School and there it was in all it’s glory, still standing but now in use as Ulidia Research Centre. When we were standing in front of the school, we could look to the right of the school and there were the “Playing Fields” we had just visited. It stood to reason that the fields would be adjacent to the school property. We were able to walk around the grounds a little and have Carole tell us about her years there as a child. Again it was such a wonderful experience since she had thought that the school had been torn down many years before. The last time she was in Belfast was 1988 and she hadn’t taken the time to look up these old sites from her childhood. From the school, we ventured out to see if we could find her childhood home.  Carole and Adam had planned the whole trip and while doing so she had refreshed the names and places of these sites and Adam while being our driver remembered all the names and places she had mentioned and as we drove along he was reminding her of what she wanted to look up. We next drove a few blocks up the Ormeau Rd looking for the street that lead to Primrose St which is the location of her childhood home. It was only a matter of minutes from the school and luckily we drove right to it! We turned the corner and a block further on we found Primrose St. We parked the car right in front of her original home and got out to spend some time with Carole reminiscing. We spent about two hours just walking around the area and taking pictures of her and the three of us in front of her home. One of the most poignant moments of the day was when Adam took Carole’s picture standing across the street from her home in the very spot where a lamp post stood during here childhood.

Her father had tied a rope swing to the top of the lamppost and she and her brothers and friends would spend hours and hours playing on the corner and taking turns swinging around the lamppost on the swing! The lamppost is no longer there but the cover plate is in the sidewalk to mark the exact spot. There were so many little but precious details and memories that Carole spent the afternoon sharing with us about her home and former neighbours and the surrounding features that it was incredible to finally experience such memories in person. She had been sharing her memories with us for many years and we felt that we would already have known the area if we had stumbled upon it ourselves without Carole as a personal guide. Of course the whole scene and history came to life with the terrific descriptions she provided. The experience we had that afternoon just sharing this with Carole was worth the trip in itself! It was so very heartwarming to go through her history with her and we were so happy that we were able to share the details with Carole! We also found the homes that both her mother’s parents and her father’s parents had lived. We also found where her aunt had lived that was such a big part of Carole’s memories. Of course there were tears of joy at every turn and it was one of the happiest days of our trip to Europe! One of the childhood memories she’s shared with us for years is the memory she has of eating what is called a “Pastie Dinner” a pastie (pronounced: pass-tee) is a ground beef patty with special spices and onions coated in the same batter we coat fish in, for fish and chips and it is then deep fried and enjoyed with French fries or chips as we call them. So a Pastie Dinner” is the Pastie and Chips! Carole has made them for us here in Canada for years but there was nothing like having and tasting the real thing! The first meal we had was on the afternoon we landed and Adam and I had found a little Chip Shop about 4 blocks from our apartment. We had just gone out for a few minutes to pick up some snacks and bottled water and stumbled across the shop with a big sign in the window “Pastie Dinners fresh made and sold here!” We just had to take a dinner home for each of us and surprise Carole. It was of course the first memory we were able to share with her on the trip so it was doubly special indeed!

The next item on the list was a visit to “The Titanic Museum”. We went there the next day and spent a few hours walking through the museum and reading all about the building of the Titanic and about the people of Belfast that built the ship. The museum itself was not filled with artifacts from the ship as we had expected but was more geared to the history of the people and their involvement in building the Titanic. We were a little disappointed with that because it was like sitting down and reading a book about the workers and their jobs on a daily basis while working for Harland and Wolfe the company that built the great ship! The most exciting aspect of the museum was an actual ride in a carriage that was suspended above a “movie” type set depicting the inside of the Harland and Wolfe steel works as they fabricated the different parts of the Titanic. It was like taking a tour of Stelco in Hamilton!

It would have been much more interesting if they had built the museum to contain and show the artifacts or even replicas of what the ship contained. ie: deck chairs, furniture, silverware and dishes etc etc. We had visited the Titanic Museum in Halifax about 10 years ago and their museum was more interesting and geared toward the ship’s contents. Oh well, I guess their pride in having built the Great Titanic was more important to the people of Belfast than was the contents of the ship! It was still quite a wonderful experience and of course was built on the exact site where the ship was built. The huge dry dock is adjacent to the museum building and you can look out from the top floor of the museum right onto the dry dock that held and launched the Titanic. We wouldn’t have missed it for the world!

Our next portion of the trip was one where we drove up the north east coast on one of the narrowest roads I’ve ever been on and that in itself was a thrilling experience! The drive afforded us the time to see what I would say was the view of the most beautiful countryside and spectacular scenery in the world! It’s utterly amazing how the mountains of Mourn line the east coast of Northern Ireland and the road itself is right on the edge of the mountains overhanging the Irish Sea. There is barely enough space to pass the oncoming traffic on the road without either us scraping our left doors on the side of the mountain cliffs or forcing the oncoming cars into the sea below! What a thrill to drive that beautiful road from Belfast to the north coast of Ireland! We stopped at many small villages on the drive north and our destination was “The Giant’s Causeway”. The Giant’s Causeway is a natural phenomenon created on the edge of the North Sea by volcanic activity thousands or millions of years ago. It is a series of stones that are all hexagon shaped and line the coast like a “pave stone” driveway. Legend has it that the causeway was built by Finn McCool so he could reach Scotland. He was chased back to Ireland by an enormous Giant on these very stones. Finn’s wife had him hide in their baby’s crib and when the Giant arrived at their door and saw how large Finn’s baby was he wondered to himself how incredibly huge the father must be and with fear for his life, ran back to Scotland never to return! The End>

If you’re interested in checking out The Giant’s Causeway, Google it and read up on it. It’s an amazing scene to visit and you can walk and climb on the Causeway stones to your heart’s content. It’s just an amazing sight!

From our visit to the Causeway, we headed to the town of Bushmills a little further across the north coast but upon our arrival in the town, we found that the famous “Bushmills Distillery” was closed. So we headed back to Belfast via an inland route and figured we’d head back up the next day to tour the distillery. The next day, we made our way back up north to Bushmills and toured the distillery for the afternoon and enjoyed a taste of their product at the end of the tour. One could almost be tempted by their lovely Irish Whiskey to return to drinking but in our case, a taste of their finest was enough to say we’d done the tour and of course purchase samples to take home to Canada. We even had them print our name on the label of each bottle we bought. It’s a regular label they use on their 750 ml twelve year old whiskey but it has a space to personalize it with the owner’s name. What a cool thing to have as a souvenir! I think mine will remain intact for the foreseeable future! LOL!

On the following day of our time in NI, we visited a small town on the north shore of Belfast Harbor called Kerrickfergus where they have a huge castle still intact. It’s on the shore of the Irish Sea and is a world renown tourist attraction. Since Carole had been to visit the castle a few times before she decided to take the time to do some shopping in the town while Adam and I visited the Kerrickfergus Castle. It was an amazing stone structure high above the shoreline with cannon placements along all walls of the castle and it has been refurbished to its original condition. We spent at least three hours wandering and climbing the walls and halls of this amazing place and again took many pictures while inside. We were able to stand on the top battlement facing northeast and spot Carole sitting on the seaside bench waiting for our return. The weather while in Ireland was clear and about 17c each day. As I have said, there were a few days that had some rain late in the day but that only occurred while we were in the South of Ireland. The north of Ireland is in my opinion the most beautiful part of the island. It contains incredible mountains and rolling hills. The mountains are not like the Rocky Mountains but are huge smooth topped rounded mountains that rise out of the distance like giant hills. All of Ireland is covered with the lushest greenery you’ve ever seen. The greens of Ireland are the most amazing GREEN GREEN you’ve ever seen indeed! I can’t describe how incredibly bright the different hues of Green strike the vision! It’s utterly amazing to witness and it draws one in like a mesmerizing spinning top when you were a kid! I don’t think we saw a brown field in any of our travels while in Ireland, it was just beautiful!
That pretty much took up the first week we were in Ireland and from there we started out on the 8th day to visit Dublin in The Republic of Ireland in the south. A number of years ago you had to show your passport to enter the South but they’ve done away with that these days, it’s just like driving from one province in Canada to the next.

I’ve already told you all about our visit to the south so I’ll just conclude today by reminding you that we returned from the South to stay one night in a hotel across from the Belfast International Airport and the following day we caught our flight to Paris France!
Next week I’ll continue the adventure with the visit to Paris!

That’s all for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report!

Bye for now… Greg

PS: Something To Think About>
Maybe if you’ve got a few minutes to spare, you can Google a few of the sites I’ve mentioned in my past few reports and check them out for yourself!
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Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.