The Squamidian Report – Dec. 6 / 03
Also in this issue:
Ewan: Not Seeing Stars
The Melbourne Report & A Note From Jen
The Ontarion
Hi All,
We drove Ewan back to the airport last Saturday evening for his red eye flight to Toronto. (Ewan is Hugh Cameron’s oldest son incase you don’t know). There was a bright half moon reflecting off the waters of Howe Sound, making the island look like black voids.
Sunday dawned clear and bright, the surrounding snow covered mountains looking absolutely stunning. It was my first chance to clean up the mess I’d made working on my deck project. We loaded up the lumber debris and took it to the dump. Perched in the trees overlooking the garbage at the dump were numerous eagles. Some dumps have seagulls, ours has eagles.
Kind of a funny thing, as most of you will remember, parts of the Squamish area were flooded out last month. (We were safe as our place is 800 ft above the valley floor). There was an immediate call for people to donate all sorts of stuff, cloths, bedding, toys, you get the idea. So all this stuff was gathered, sorted and laid out in a warehouse where the flood victims could view the stuff and pick things they needed. They opened the doors on Monday morning and were all ready for the rush of needy people…. Not one person turned up. Nobody had thought to announce or advertise when or where the items would be available. Then they rushed to have the local radio station put out the word (Mountain FM, locally known as Mountain Phlegm) and they tried again on Wednesday. This time almost no one turned up. Seems they chose the place and times to suit the organizers. No one considered the fact that most of the ‘needy’ were too busy working at their jobs during the week to rummage through the offerings.
I’ve often referred to the challenge and dangers of hiking or climbing the trails and cliffs on the Chief. When the weather conditions are poor it is simply not a good place to be. Last weekend some jerk decided to try climbing the cliff face and got stranded part way up as daylight faded into dark. He was able to call for help on a cell phone but search and rescue couldn’t spot him on the cliff. Too dark. I’ve also referred to the number of movie shoots that happen around here. Well, a movie company was staying at a local motel and had all their equipment parked outside, including the lighting trucks. A quick call to these people had the lighting trucks out at the Chief’s parking lot and about 50 thousand watts of power lighting the whole cliff face. Five minutes later the climber was spotted and helped down.
We are in the rainy season out here so it rains for a day or so then the sun comes out. The cycle repeats over and over as storms blow in off the Pacific. Each time it clears, the snow line is further down the mountainsides and the snowfields are bigger and brighter. Great viewing from the deck or any of the windows for that matter. The snow we had down at this altitude and below has melted so the grass and shrubs are green again. Work is finally slowing down which is fine with me. I’ve evolved to have lots of time off during the winter. Problem is at some point Sue will remember that there is still lots of painting to do in this house. I’ve got some winter projects of my own in mind. I’m thinking about building a new computer, just for the fun of it. This old one is fine but a hot machine running the latest technology such and serial ATA drives and dual channel RAM would be fun to put together and my old brain could use the challenge. Looking forward to it.
Sue will be off to an audit in the West which is of course East of here this coming week so it will be just me and Yogi to fend for ourselves again. Looking forward to it.
Hey, there is lots of great reading below so adjust those bi-focals and dig in.
****
I haven’t heard from Sus lately, I think she is snowed
in out there in Nova Scotia.
****
Hello all!
It's been too long friends! This is the
year that just wouldn't slow down, eh? So much has happened even since the
spring. I feel a little bad for moaning on about SARS and all things Toronto,
because of what happened in the east and west. It showed in the faces of those
I work with who have family out of the province. Half of Nova Scotia blew away,
I saw some terrible pictures of the public gardens in Halifax. But thankfully
our own Sus survived the storm, as did good ship and crew! This is how it goes
on the east coast, right?
BC was burning down, but not Squamish. Half
of Squamidia did flood though! Once again fortune favoured the high ground. For
a long time I've wanted to go out west, and I thought I'd better do it before
it's gone! I figure next year we'll have to watch out for volcanoes, killer
robots and a new form of french fry infection.
I always thought that October would be
incredible in the mountains. Naturally I was working. So rain or no rain I
decided to go to BC in November. Could it be any worse than here?
But I left off before the Rolling Stones
concert! We all heard about it, and my personal memories could fill an e-mail.
Suffice to say the scalpers were defeated, and it was a good time. My feet were
sore. Before hand I was saying that I hoped mostly old people would show up.
They were great, but it's the energy of the young that makes a good
time. I didn't see any trouble. A friend of a friend arrested a guy for
stealing a golf cart. That I can see as funny, but he fought the police. Very
stupid. If you ever get drunk and make a break for the US border in a stolen
golf cart, know when to quit!
At the concert I realized that my true
calling in life is to travel around to hot crowded places and photograph
sunbathers a second after they get a shocking surprise from one of those fire
hose trucks. There is nothing better, I assure you.
The blackout of '03 could likewise fill an
e-mail. I walked home across the city, which was an amazing experience. I was
waiting for my break to get something to eat and drink, use the washroom, go to
the bank machine and the LCBO. The blackout signalled the beginning of that
break, and my parched trip home. For some reason I had 2 US 1 dollar bills. I
spent them on slush from one of those trucks. Best 2 bucks I ever spent!
I saw people wandering out of the woods,
squinting and with blackened hands. They didn't know where they were or why
there were trees. They had come out of an emergency subway exit in a park near
St.Clair. They looked like they expected to see talking apes on horse back. I
suspected the big computer virus from the day before had been the culprit of
the outage, and I have to admit I half expected to find myself battling robots
in a sci-fi scenario. But it all ended with BBQ on the balcony, everyone
relaxing outside. If people would've quit driving around it would have been
peaceful! The next day people lined up for blocks for gas, the next nobody
seemed to care about gas anymore. Personally, I ate as many Fudgesicles as I
could.
So many people talked about how amazing the
stars were that night. Some of them were right, Torontonians saw nothing. I
feel bad for people in the city who obviously have no concept of the night sky,
and probably never will. In the city the idea of seeing the show that is the
night sky is slowing fading in to mythology. It's simply never dark or clear enough,
it's no longer possible here.
That's why I need to get away to nowhere at
least once a year. This time it was a week at Boundary Lake in Killarney Park,
near Georgian Bay. Again, that one could fill a chapter. The funny thing was
there still weren't any stars. Once or twice I've been camping and it was overcast
the entire week so we saw none. This time it was clear, but the moon was
totally full. It was so bright that we could walk through the woods with no
flash light. We saw some shooting stars, but not many stars really. It sure was
beautiful though.
I thought if I go up in to the mountains,
not the ones in Killarney but the really huge ones out west, I could climb up
over the clouds and cities. There would be stars like I've never seen before!
But first I did a bunch of other stuff. I
know I'm rambling on, but... I went to school in Chicago, to learn and to eat
like a king. I never saw so many huge people. The teacher warned us we would
gain between 5 and 10 pounds during the course, and we did. I never felt to
bloated, and I was too busy to go to the gym much! But everywhere I visited
around Chicago I felt like a string bean.
When I got back I had a good time at a big
formal Scottish ball at the Royal York Hotel, in excellent company no less. In
the summer I carried a flag to lead a parade of people wearing a whole lot of
tartan. I'm better at that than being a secretary. Many thanks to Jackie for
all her fast help in designing a flag for the Camerons!
Anyway, after visiting Algonquin and
Oktöberfest I did finally get to BC. It was great. Cora welcomed me to
Vancouver, and they're both gorgeous. I took the sky train and wandered all
around the city. It was a beautiful day in Stanley park, and I took pictures of
excellent scenery, with boats, buildings, ships and statues. I even saw a bald
eagle right by the city. The shopping was also good, and didn't seem as
expensive as Toronto.
It did start to rain though. We headed
towards Whistler for the day, but the rain was snow outside the city. It was a
bit of a freak storm, and poor Cora was caught on the Sea to Sky highway when
it was really slippery, with only her all seasons. We would have been fine, but
it was the opening weekend for skiing at Whistler. There were cars stuck
everywhere, and traffic was stop and crawl. It was too much to keep stopping
like that so we decided to go no further than Squamish. We made it all the way
to Britannia Beach (ten minutes from Doug's place!) but no further. Doug tried
to pick me up but there was too much traffic.
Ultimately I had to go back to Vancouver.
Naturally Cora was all for leaving me on the side of the road, but I chased her
car down, which she foolishly forgot to lock. The next day Doug dropped Sue off
at the airport and I had a ride to Squamish.
The snow made it impossible to go up the
chief, which is their way to get people to visit again. Seeing the weather roll
through the mountains is every bit as indescribable as Doug described. There
were stunning waterfalls, and in the rain the whole mountain side becomes a
waterfall. Needless to say I went through many rolls of film. Rain also gave me
a chance to read, relax and just slow down a bit. On the news I saw cars back
in Burnaby underwater from all the rain!
I also got a kick out of the train museum
in Squamish. Old steam trains are just too cool. There's a great heritage
village in Kitchener that has a classic, and it was always my favourite part.
The park in Squamish has nothing but trains, with interesting paraphernalia.
Later I also saw a wonderful old carousel, which was in a heritage village in
Burnaby.
I'm not sure how to describe Janice and
Warren's place. Their home and chalet are artistically beautiful, with a warm
feel. Warren's collection of twisted wildwood was quite something, their
website is worth a visit too. Everyone in BC was great.
I saw rivers and mountains, a large number
of bald eagles, the ocean, waterfalls, view after breathtaking view. I met
lovely chinese ladies and visited the western branch of the family. Still, I
left BC wanting more. Still no stars, except from the car on the way back to
the airport! Next time I go will be in the summer, and I'm going paragliding.
Next time I'm going to climb the chief.
What have you been up to? I fall a little
behind in reading my e-mail and people either get engaged, knocked up or have
their baby!
cheers,
Ewan
Well Doug, it's a damn novel again! You can chop it up or send it out as is, as
you please. Thanks again for a good visit.
Editor’s Note: I wouldn’t change a word, great
writing.
****
G'day everyone,
It's been a while since I've written anything, but now that I no longer do the Thursday art class, I am finding I have a bit more time on my hands. I did teach a drawing class on Thursday afternoons for a while, but people were always cancelling the last minute, and it eventually dwindled out. I decided to start up again next year, after Christmas and the holidays and just focus on doing watercolour paintings for the time being. Christmas is neigh, although when you live in a warm climate it does kind of sneak up on you. Even after 10 years it still doesn't seem like Christmas without snow.
There are however the usual other signs, such as a few houses decked in lights. Some folk go all out and their houses look either kitchy or wonderful, or somewhere in between. We don't get out often after dark, but yesterday we actually went to see a movie and got home after dark, so we saw a couple of the Christmas displays for the first time this year.
We don't put up any lights outside. I am still debating weather to bother with a Christmas tree this year. We have inherited an extra item of furniture which has claimed the space where we had the tree last year, so the main problem is lack of space. I really would love to put up the tree, especially since we only bought a new one last year and it looked so nice after we decorated it. On the other hand, Jennifer won't be here and we are planning to have Christmas eve at my sister-in-law's house this year, so there really isn't that much point.
Soon it will be time to do a bit of baking. I usually make some gingerbread cookies and a gingerbread house. I also make some traditional German cookies which I only bake for Christmas. They are awesome and remind us of my mom and the Christmasses in Germany and Canada in the good old days.
Some years the weather is too hot for baking. Fortunately I have a great oven, which my dear hubby bought me one year to replace the old crappy oven that came with the house. The old one was one of those gas ovens where you had to lean a broom against the door to keep it closed. They must have been popular around the time this house was built, from what I've seen in other older homes. Anyway, now that I have a good oven, and airconditioning, baking is actually a pleasure even when it's hot outside.
Well, enough about Christmas for now.
Let's talk about the weather then. I'm sure Doug will be interested that we have had a bit of flooding here a few days ago. We had one of the most severe thunderstorms in at least the 10 years we have lived here. Fortunately we were not directly affected, but the north and east of Melbourne got about a months worth of rain in less than two hours. As a result, parts of Melbourne were flooded, causing millions of dollars worth of damage. There were no casualties or injuries, only damage to homes and cars.
Now that summer is here, I may just switch from daily walks to bike-riding again. The flies are just getting too annoying on warmer days. The other thing I don't like about summer is that I can't let Buddy run lose on our walks, because of the danger of snakes. Mind you, in the 10 years I have lived here I have only ever seen one venomous snake along the path. I don't think they are a real danger to people, since most people stick to a path, or know to watch out for snakes. They have had snake warnings in the local paper as they do this time of the year. Someone's cat was bitten by a snake. Fortunately, the cat survived without treatment. Apparently, cats don't need anti-venum when bitten, whereas dogs can die very quickly if they aren't treated promptly. For more information about Australia's venomous snakes go to http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/1999/archives/25/conservation_&_the_environment/snake_bites Of course there are hundreds of other sites where you can get information, but this one you can trust since Burt's Back Yard has been one of the longest running gardening shows on Australian television, and you might even find the other info on this website interesting.
This morning I thought I would check out a different area for our morning walk, so I checked out some of the gardens rather than walking up to the beach. Well, most of the gardens I saw looked a bit tired, because we have had a few hot dry days, which has damage a lot of the flowers, especially the roses which were so gorgeous a few weeks ago. People are also not watering as much as they used to because of constant reminders of water restrictions. On the other hand some of the damage could have been from heavy rain and wind,which we have also had plenty of.
One of my favorite flowers, the blue variety of Agapanthus, are starting to flower now. They are a hardy perrennial, which are a gorgeous blue colour and are huge and shaped like a fireworks on a tall stem. They are very hardy, and last a long time, even in the hot summer. Many gardens have them. For more info click on this link. http://www.weedsbluemountains.org.au/show_weed_in_category.asp?ID=18
There are some interesting gardening concepts out there. People are getting a little more waterwise and creative, and are adapting their gardens to continuing water restrictions. I was pleased to see someone had planted a veggy garden in their front yard. Normally people have veggies in back only. I think boring lawns are on their way out eventually.
Well, I see I've rambled on enough. I do have some projects I want to work on today. I've got two watercolour paintings on the go and want to get started on another one.
Hope you all have a good week!
**
G'day Doug,
I sent last week's
Squamidian to Jennifer, and was instructed to pass along her message
(below) to you, to be included in your next report, if you wish.
have a good one...!
hi mom,
I quite enjoyed the Squamidian this week, so I fashioned part of this letter
for you to send to the Doug .
Catch ya later,
Jen
Greetings All, It's another cold and gray
day here in Berlin and Ingmar's just gone to uni. I'm trying to decide whether
I want to get another couple of hours of shuteye or if I want to get up and
have breakfast. It's still uncertain if the strikes here will mean the
boys will be back within the hour, so I don't think I'll go back to bed just
yet. Anyway, the fella downstairs is playing his anthem again (some hip-hop
crap noize he played for about 2 hours consecutively on saturday). -Just a
reminder that it was around 7 when we got up and heard it- I was not pleased.
Thanks for sending me the Squamidian, mom. I had a good laugh about the
flagpole business, and it was good to hear about the goings-on in my home
country. Also a note to Greg, if you're around Kitchener area, I'd really like
to know what Old Chicopee drive looks like nowadays. I think they might have
changed the name to Chicopee way or road, so I am not sure if you would be able
to find it. Dad never ended up going there on his trip to Canada earlier this
year, so my curiosity was never sated. I'm also interested in what's happening
with my old primary school, Franklin.
I really have to go back there and
re-explore the place I grew up. There are places I remember, all my life,
though some have changed... some forever not for better, some have gone, and
some remain...
Here there's not much else to report. I
have finally met up with my friend from Aus, Jelena. She's doing fine, and will
be going to Prague this (?) week with some of her flatmates (she's got a place
on the street adjacent to the Ku-damm, wow!). We went out on Sunday to see her
and go for a walk there at night. I must say, in all the christmas decorations,
it is one heck of a spectacle. I wish I would have taken more pictures. It was
a clear night too, so the gedachtniskirche was lit up against a black sky and
looked positively awesome. We had a look inside one of the shopping malls there
that was open (mainly to thaw out a bit before heading home) and had a walk
through the christmas market that's nestled right beneath the church. I must
say that I'm beginning to grow a
fondness for the roasted candy almonds
they sell there that Ingmar likes so much.
We've also been attending more
demonstrations, but as I thought, the one I went to on Saturday wasn't as much
as the one I missed on Thursday (only about 10,000 people -as opposed to
25,000). The unis -or students, I’m not sure- have still been blockading their
buildings, and taking over parts of Ikea. Ikea was really good about it though,
and let them protest in peace (students are amongst their most frequent
customers, and I think they liked the publicity). Also, tonite we're thinking
of attending a protest lecture at potsdamer platz from 2-4am. The subject will
be something to do with fibre optics, so it has absolutely nothing to do with
any of Ingmar or Martin's subjects. I wanted to go for a walk and see the city
at night. I also wanted to see Potsdamer Platz sometime soon. Thus I would be
killing two birds with one stone.
Anyway, I wanted to do some work today on
my children's books, so I will leave you all with this little snippet of my
trip thus far. If anyone is interested in pictures I have been taking, they are
posted here:
ftp://berlintrip:berlin@home-net.no-ip.org
Just a warning that the pictures are slow to load, so please be patient.
Take care til next time!
Jen.
****
THE ONTARION REPORT
December
5, 2003
Hi everyone! Another week
gone by and another week closer to Christmas! I guess there’s no way of slowing
down time. Although there are occasions when we’d all like to. In the fall,
most of us would like to slow the coming of winter and in the winter most of us
would like to speed up the coming of spring. I suppose if the cold weather
haters would get involved in a winter sport we’d probably find that the season
would pass much more quickly. Carole and I used to do a lot of cross country
skiing and that made the winter more bearable. I guess we just got away from it
one year and haven’t gone back. I know that we have our skis etc up in the
rafters of the garage but we haven’t been tempted to use them for years. Maybe
I’ll get brave and try them out again this year. It was very good exercise and
we really did enjoy the scenery when we were out on the trails. Looks like I’ll
have to find some cross bars for the roof rack on the Jeep. I should be able to
improvise something from the Kayak racks that we use. Gosh, I’m pooped out just
thinking of the CC Skiing! Looks like I’ve made a good start already if I’m
winded just from talking about it. Maybe tomorrow I’ll go out into the garage
and look up at the skis! LOL! They say never to rush into exercise. Best to do
what the authorities say on that one. Just kidding! I’ll make it a point of
actually doing some CC Skiing later on when we have a worthwhile blanket of
snow. It would be a great chance to take some digital pictures and who knows,
maybe even improve our cardio systems. I’ll have to talk to Carole about it and
see if she’s game. She’s always the one that has the sense of adventure anyway.
If she had her way, we’d be moving off to Australia or some other untamed
realm. I know she’d love to live by the ocean again.
I guess that comes from
being brought up in Ireland. She’s from Belfast and loved the sea from living
there. Although Belfast is a big city, it’s right on the coast of Northern
Ireland and she and her family spent as much time as they could at the seaside.
The many times we vacationed in Florida and other places on the ocean I could
see the attraction of the big water. We used to love just rising early and
walking the beaches for hours. It’s somehow mesmerizing to sit and watch the
waves lap at the shore. This motion, not to mention the vast size, seems to
conjure up all kinds of thoughts in one’s imagination. In fact, what kid (or
adult for that matter) hasn’t spent many hours imagining what it would be like
to discover a pirate’s treasure? Just last night we rented a DVD called Pirates
Of The Caribbean starring Johnny Depp and of course it’s loaded with Pirate
Treasure. If you are into adventure movies, I recommend you see this one. It’s
very well done! I’m not a fan of Johnny Depp but he plays the lead in this film
extremely well. Adults and kids alike will enjoy seeing this movie. Geeze, I’m
starting to sound like a movie critic! Sorry ‘bout that!
Speaking of pirate treasure, I have a web sight to pass on if anyone is interested. It’s Odyssey Marine Exploration’s sight. Here’s the address, http://shipwreck.net/ssrepublic.shtml . They are a company that is traded on the NY Stock Exchange and they search for shipwrecks and treasure. They have recently (November) discovered a side paddle wheeler ship named the SS Republic. It’s loaded with millions of dollars in $20.00 US gold coins and is making the shareholders of this company very rich. The National Geographic has a film crew accompanying the Oddyssey Ship during the recovery operations. I for one am going to purchase this video account of the venture. It’s an amazing discovery and something most of us dream about at least once in our lifetime.
I won’t go on about the
details of this adventure. I wouldn’t want to spoil it for those of you that
might want to visit the sight. Hey Jackie and Jim, maybe you’d like to direct
some of your group’s investment funds toward this company? I’m not an investor
but if I had some cash to spare, I’d consider shares in this one. I guess you
can’t get much more of a risk for an investment than something like looking for
lost treasure but this one has certainly paid off big time. I’m just kidding
Jackie and Jim but doesn’t it make your palms itch just thinking about such a
discovery? This kind of story in the news is always intriguing and one can’t
help but put themselves on board as part of the crew of the Odyssey for this
one. I’ll be keeping an eye on this story. They say it’s treasure has a minimum
value of $121,000,000.00 and they are already in the process of bringing it to
the surface. Check out the sight and let your imaginations wander for an hour
or so. I hope you enjoy the adventure.
Well, I have some errands to run so I should get on with the day. I hope you all have a great weekend and let me know if you like the “Treasure Hunting” sight. Talking about this sight reminds me of the story about the 2 older ladies that found that huge Gold nugget in the Outback of Australia. Finding such things always makes for good dreams. Enjoy!
Bye for now and thanks for tuning in!
GREG.
PS: Something To Think About>
It is true that many of life’s failures are people who did not know how close they were to success when they gave up.
PPS: Doug has posted a picture of our Flagpole in operation.
****
For low speed dial-up connections, just the basics:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b2/
For high-speed connections, a little more fancy:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/
Have a good one..
the
doug