I have been cleaning out some photos and found the very first shots I took with my new Canon 5D Mark III in the summer. The coneflowers (Echinacea) were out, and so were the butterflies and bees.
DAYS LIKE THIS …
January 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment
I am glad I am not in Toronto. A friend sent me a note with a pic of the streets of Toronto .. dark .. and –25 with the wind chill. I do not miss that. 8C is t-shirt weather for a Canadian (smile).
EH?
August 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I had to go to the Canadian embassy in Tokyo last week to have a bureaucrat witness my signing a piece of paper, proving that it is in fact my signature (And you thought Canada was paperwork heavy!). It is a nice embassy, in fact the Canadian garden is seen as a landmark in Tokyo. Too bad our embassy sees it necessary to portray our country with lame stereotype billboards out front.
Beautiful artwork from Canadian’s dumbed down with a stereotype. The only thing they didn’t put on the billboard is a Canadian Mountie and a Tim Horton’s logo.
Brutal.
TIME TO LEAVE
July 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Well, Tokyo here we come. Reflecting back on work over the last 3 years, I had the opportunity to do a few very interesting things with clients. My top 3:
#3. Play in a pro-am with Louis Oosthuizen at the Mike Weir charity event the day before the Canadian Open pro-am. Capilano is the prettiest golf course I have every played. Ever.
Louis is a great guy, although a little shy. For the record, my least favourite moment was when I picked it clean out of the bunker jumping it onto the next tee and an older woman exclaimed “Oh dear, that isn’t good”. My favourite moment …. outdriving Louis with a 300 yard bomb. I let him hit first (smile).
#2. Joining a SWAT team for a day – rappelling down a building and shooting a fully automatic weapon for the first time. It had been a while since I have shot a gun (other than paintball with the boys) and had never shot full auto (shotguns, hunting rifles, my .22 as a kid), but shooting comes back to you quickly.
And last, but not least, my most interesting client event over the last 3 years.
#1. Playing hockey at a client event at the Bell Center in Montreal. Although wearing Guy Lafleur’s number didn’t help my goal scoring. I suffer some kind of Montreal curse … Multiple games, more than a few heartbreakers, but no goals. Standing at the line in the Bell Center (I keep wanting to call it the forum) when the Canadian anthem played gave me shivers – truly awesome and distinctly Canadian.
That is me on the left and the goalie making an insane save to keep my record at a whole bunch of assists and no goals … The slacker in the number 76 somehow got a bunch of goals (you know who you are) and wouldn’t let me forget it for 2 months. See the goalie lying on his side? The puck is teetering on his shoulder. I flicked it up twice and ….. no joy (And it would have won the game). My shame forever caught in this photo on the jumbotron (smile).
I will miss you Canada. Ciao for now.
SIRIUS ON SONOS
January 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Not complaining (too loudly) about we Canadians getting treated as second class citizens when it comes to services (ahem, Pandora) but at least one wrong has been righted. Big user/fan of Sonos and glad to FINALLY see Sirius live and streaming. It was a Coffeehouse weekend.
THE LAST DUEL
November 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
One last Maritime story. As we drove past the village of New Maryland (Named by a settler from Maryland) I noticed a sign declaring it the home of the last fatal duel in New Brunswick. Of course I had to open up a browser and start reading the village’s history:
The village was named by a Mr. Arnold, a settler from Maryland, USA circa 1817. The area was first called Maryland, and Maryland Hill, but as early as 1825 it began to be referred to as New Maryland.
Among the historical anecdotes relating to New Maryland’s history, one particular event stands out: New Maryland was the venue for the last fatal duel in the Province. The famous Street-Wetmore duel, in which George Ludlow Wetmore was killed, took place on the Segee farm on October 2, 1821.
Take a moment to read about the duel. It was a rather unfathomable event, especially considering that this was the frontier and the men involved were leaving behind their families to fend by themselves if killed (as one was). The duel took place under the guise of “honour”, but the reality is that this was a selfish act fuelled by ego:
As he sat before his hearth that evening, the young lawyer’s anger blazed as brightly as the fire in front of him. He was oblivious to the sounds of his wife, pregnant with her fourth child, setting the children for the night. Street’s insults and the raised hand consumed him, until his thoughts took a dangerous turn.
Ego is a dangerous thing ….
JOHNSTON CANYON BANFF
December 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment
My blog entries on Banff are a bit scattered. One of the best hikes that we took while in Banff National Park was Johnston Canyon. It was an overcast day, but we were up for it. Judging by the parking lot, it is a popular hike.
You have a few choices on this hike, a 1.1 km hike to the lower falls, a 2.6 km hike to the upper falls or a rather rigorous 5.6 km hike to the Ink Pots. We chose to go all the way.
It is a beautiful climb.
The inkpots at the end of the climb are not really that magnificent, but interesting. Seven mineral springs that bubble and swirl non-stop in big pools.
But the view of the valley at the top is spectacular.
Of course, the water is cold and the purest you can get.
After leaving the canyon we happened upon a herd of sheep trotting down the road, unperturbed by the cars all around them.
A great day out.
SULPHUR MOUNTAIN II – BANFF
December 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment
At the top of the mountain you get a moments enjoyment. You look around and enjoy the spectacular views as it dawns upon you that you are not at the top yet.
At the gondola exit is a tea house and various tourist booths. While we were there we were able to watch how they get supplies to the top of mountain.
I am always amazed at where a tree can grow.
Spectacular.
The true top.
CLOSING OUT NORMANDY: CANADA’S JUNO BEACH
August 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Our last stop on the Normandy trip was Juno beach – the Canadian beach. Unlike the other beaches, no monument to the Canadian effort existed until June, 2003, when the Juno Beach Center was inaugurated:
The Centre was conceived in the 1990s by a group of Canadian veterans who felt that the contributions and sacrifices of Canadian soldiers during the liberation of Europe were not properly commemorated and represented in the Normandy region. The project, spearheaded by veteran Garth Webb and his companion Lise Cooper, began initially as a grassroots fundraising campaign that eventually gained the financial support of many institutions and businesses and the Canadian and French governments at many levels. The Centre was inaugurated on 6 June, 2003. Over one thousand Canadian veterans attended the inauguration in 2003, as well as the 2004 ceremony for the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
The center is very well done. Outside are plaques from towns across Canada, we found the City of Barrie:
The center covers the entire war, with one interactive display kicking it off. You stand/sit in a room that is built like a landing craft and watch the famous video Juno beach video. Very moving.
As we wandered through the center, you remember how a small nation contributed broadly to the war effort with many battles almost forgotten. For instance, I never knew that Canada served with the British in Hong Kong:
The beach itself looks flat and open, but history tells us that it was not a nice place to be landing:
Juno was the second most heavily defended of the five landing sites chosen.[3] General Wilhelm Richter was in charge of the 716th Division guarding the beach, with 11 heavy batteries of 155 mm guns and 9 medium batteries of 75 mm guns at his disposal. Additionally, pillboxes and other fortifications were present all along the beach, most heavily concentrated in the Courseulles-sur-Mer region. The seawall was twice the height of Omaha Beach’s, and the sea was heavily mined.[4]
But the remnants are still there.
After travelling up and down the beach, we headed into the town and stopped at a little river side café to enjoy mussels and seafood. Nothing beats a seaside café on a sunny day. As I looked over at the fishing boats, I was fooled by this optical illusion and commented to the boys:
‘Hey look, they must have taken that boat apart to fix it. That is quite a load to keep in place while fixing. I wonder why they are doing it in the water?’ (LOL … it is 2 boats).
And with that, we made our final stop at the grave of Ross Ellsmere and then headed home. A historic place well worth visiting and remembering.
REMEMBER ROSS ELLSMERE, ST DESIR CEMETERY, FRANCE
May 28, 2009 By 6 Comments
A few weekends ago our family jumped in the car and headed to Normandy for a long weekend. I will provide additional details on the trip in future entries, as it was one of my favourite trips that we have taken in the last 2 years.
A big part of the trip was the goal of finding one of Narda’s relatives in the war cemetery near the D-Day landings. Veterans Affairs has done an amazing job through the Canada Remembers project of cataloguing where our war dead lay.
I do not have immediate relatives who served in the Canadian forces during WWII as my family mostly moved from Holland in the 50’s. Ross Ellsmere served in the Air Force as a pilot and died a month before D-Day (probably on a bombing run). He is buried at St. Desir Cemetery, which is found after a long and winding drive through the French countryside. On the road we were lucky to see the small sign pointing down a side road, in the middle of nowhere. I wondered what it would be like.
Situated just out side of the town of Lisieux, famed for the Basilica dedicated to St Therese is one of the smaller British Cemeteries.
At first the British and Commonwealth War Graves Commission buried the fallen German troops in a field next doo, where they still are. The Cemetery contains the dead from three different battles. Firstly there are four First Would War Burials who were transferred here after then end of WWII. There are men who fell in 1940 during the retreat to the Seine and those who fell in 1944 during the recapture of the area. Recently the local French village has made a walkway of peace between the two cemeteries
In all there are 598 graves here including 16 Canadian, 6 Australian, 1 New Zealand, 5 South African, and 1 American.
When I stepped out of the car I was hit with two feelings. The first is pride, the cemetery is immaculate – pristine and beautiful. The government is taking care of our war heroes in the right way. The second is a sense of magnitude. This is a small cemetery (550), but the rows and rows of graves is humbling, a testament to the price that was paid for our freedom.
The grave of Ross Ellsmere (22) is surrounded by men who died on the same day. It was a bloody day and you are struck by one thing – the age. Very few are older than 22 or 23.
Right beside the cemetery is St. Desir-de-Lisieux, the German cemetery. Unlike the Allied cemetery, there are no words on the graves written from loved ones. There is just name, rank, date. In fact, there are 2 men to each cross and as the picture shows, it is a very big cemetery – 3,735 to be exact.
Never forget.
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