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.
*
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.
*
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
****
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.
****
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
*****
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
*****
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
*****
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
*****
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!
****
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.
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