Standing Into Danger: September 2015

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Scavenger Hunt: September 2015 ~ Opposite Sides of the Continent: D.C. and B.C.

I hope that September has been a great month
for each of my fellow scavenger hunters!

September has always been my favorite month;
and this year it proved to be an awesome one.

It started in Washington, D.C. with our niece's wedding,
and it finished with a lovely trip to Victoria, B.C.

Terry and I
at the Wedding

I can't wait to see what each of you has found!

1. Woven

Two Lives Woven Together

My Niece and Her Fiancé Exchanging Rings
Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Marker Representing a Salish Spindle Whorl
A Traditional Disc for Spinning Wool for Weaving
The top of the tool is embedded in the base,
so the convex surface of the disc can be carved.

Signs of Lekwungen #4: whu-SEI-kum (Place of Mud)
Seven of these can be found throughout Victoria
marking places of significance to the First Nations Lekwungen
(Esquimalt and Songhees Nations in the broad Salish Group)
Lower Causeway in Front of the Empress Hotel
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Salish Spinning Whorl in a Weaving Exhibit
Here the whorl disc is shown with its concave side up as it was used.
The mountain goat wool was woven into blankets in this exhibit (top of photo).
The Royal BC Museum, Victoria, B.C.

2. Repeating

Repeating Tails of Southwest Airplanes
Denver International Airport
Taxiing for Takeoff to Washington, D.C.

Repeating Forms of Luna Moths
Delicate Lime-Green Shapes in a Collections Drawer
Entomology Collections
Royal BC Museum, Victoria, B.C.

3. Greedy

Homeless in Washington, DC
Sometimes it's hard not to think of American society as greedy
when I see homeless people. We can do better.

The Turnagain Nugget
The largest existing gold nugget from British Columbia
1,642g or 52 oz
Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC Exhibit
The Royal BC Museum, Victoria, B.C.

The gold rushes in the 19th century led to violence, racism, and injustice,
with devastating consequences for the aboriginal people in Canada and the USA ~
actually throughout the Americas.

4. Flowers

Flowers Grace a Mantle at Our Niece's Wedding Venue
Washington, D.C.

Fuchsia "Galfrey Lye"
Beacon Hill Park
Victoria, B.C.

5. Curly

Curly Decorations at the Tops of Columns
Washington, D.C.

Curly Waves Festoon A Houseboat
Fisherman's Wharf
Victoria, B.C.

6. Adventures

The Start of One of Life's Biggest Adventures
Washington, D.C.

Someone Is Off on an Adventure
Spray from a Taxiing Float Plane (Around the Point)
Captures the Evening Light
Victoria, B.C.

7. Line

A Lesson in Perspective
Parallel Lines Coming Together in the Distance
Dupont Circle MetroRail Station
Washington, D.C.

Another Lesson in Perspective
Parallel Lines Coming Together in the Distance
Ogden Point Breakwater
Victoria, B.C.

8. Mesmerizing

Mesmerizing Skyscapes
Between Denver and Washington, D.C.

Peacock Kisses
Beacon Hill Park
Victoria, B.C.

9. Triangle

Lots of Triangles!
Giant Demon Attacks a Ship, India, Gujarat, ca. 1775
The Freer Gallery of Art on the National Mall
Washington, D.C.

Triangular Breastplate (Gold)
Eastern Cordillera, Muisca, 600-1600 E.E.
Gold Rush! El Dorado in BC Exhibit
The Royal BC Museum, Victoria, B.C.

10. Dreamy

A Glimpse into an Vanished World
There is something dreamy about these Ordovician trilobites emerging from a rock matrix
in the National Museum of National History
Smithsonian Castle, Washington, D.C.

Cnidarian Dream
Ogden Point Breakwater
Victoria, B.C.

11. Day

Oh Happy Day!
Our Niece and Her Father Walk Down the Aisle
Washington, D.C.

Busy Water Taxis on a Beautiful Day
Victoria, B.C.

12. Whatever You Want

An American Icon: the White House
Washington, D.C.

A Canadian Icon: the British Columbia Parliament Buildings
Victoria, B.C.

Yours Truly Caught in the Act!
Victoria, B.C.

Happy hunting in October!

October's List:
Question, Cream, Number, Lattice, Familiar, Ring,
Today, Down, Writing, Many, Broken, Whatever You Want

Thanks to Jill (Greenthumb)

and her Made with Love blog

for setting up the scavenger hunt.

Friday, September 25, 2015

The Lansdowne Letters: Having a Blast!

Life may have been hard in the northern bush,
but one thing for sure, it was rarely boring!

Even doing laundry could be an adventure
in isolated Lansdowne House a half century ago.

flickr: Peppysis license

Saturday, October 29, 1960
My father wrote:

Hi There:
This also is being written on Sunday evening.
I was a very busy housekeeper Saturday;
in fact, both of us were.

This may be a bachelor’s shack,
but it is the neatest cotton pickin bachelor’s shack
in the whole Canadian bush.

Dad Outside His Bachelor's Shack

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, Canada
Photo Likely by Uno Manilla

I got up this morning about seven thirty,
and after I had breakfast,
I came back to the shack and got Uno up.

Then I gathered up all the dirty clothes
I could find (both mine and Uno’s),
and I went over to the Father’s and did the wash.

It was quite a wash because neither of us
had done any for three or four weeks.

Father Ouimet, Dad, and Brother Bernier

In the Kitchen of the Roman Catholic Mission

Photo Likely by Uno Manilla

Up here, you don’t do a wash till you have a big one
because before doing the wash,
you have to start the pumping engine for water,
and if there is no wind to turn the wind charge,
you also have to start the gasoline generator,
or you will run down the storage batteries.
There was no wind today.

While I was doing the wash, which incidentally
took me all morning and part of the afternoon,
Uno cleaned house.

He washed and waxed both floors,
dusted and cleaned everything
and just had the cottage gleaming
by the time I was through of the wash.

Uno and Dad with Baby Duncan
Photo Likely by Maureen or Duncan MacRae

Hanging out the clothes sure had
an element of excitement today.
The Brother was blasting all around the yard,
and the only way to get the clothes up,
was to dash out between blasts and work like a beaver
till you heard the Brother’s warning yell,
and then run for cover till the blast was over.

Then you went out and resumed hanging
including any of the clothes that happened to be
blown off the line by the concussion.

And I’m not fooling either.
I actually had a couple of things blown off the line
during one or two blasts.

It must have been particularly nerve racking
for poor Uno in the cottage.

Wikimedia edited

Once the Brother
blasted a large rock
right close to the cottage.

It was actually just about
one or two feet away
from the corner of the shack.

Before he set that one off,
the Brother came in and had Uno place
everything that was breakable on the floor,
open all the windows,
in case they were broken by the concussion,
and then leave the cottage.

There was one window that we couldn’t get opened,
and so there was one pane of glass broken –
also a couple of cups in the cupboard.

It was a good job that the blast by the cottage
wasn’t as powerful as the one that blew
some of the clothes off the line,
or there wouldn’t have been a window left in the cottage.

The one that blew the clothes off the line
was stronger than the Brother anticipated.
Besides blowing a couple of things off the line,
it also blew ten panes of glass
out of the east side of the church.

The Father's Island

The Church, the Bachelor's Shack, and the Windcharger

with Maureen Duncan (Baby Duncan's Mother)

Brother Bernier was blasting between the two buildings at the back of the shack.

Photo by Donald MacBeath

This evening everyone seemed to land at our shack.
First Duncan and Brian came over,
and then the Father and the Brother came over,
and then Mike stopped in to see us
while he was making his sick calls over on the Island.

In the end we had a table of bridge
going in the front room,
and a three-handed game
of cribbage going in the bedroom.

Different Night, Different Room

Uno and Brian playing Cribbage
Photo by Donald MacBeath

All in all, it was a most pleasant evening.
Quite relaxing, after the bang-up day we spent.

Well, that winds up Saturday,
so I will sign off for now,
and get Sunday’s edition written.

Bye now,
Love,
Don.

Fortunately Uno and Dad both liked a clean place.
Their bachelor's shack had only two rooms,
a small front room and a tiny bedroom;
so when company came to call,
their bedroom was pressed into duty.

Two Thirds of a Tiny Bedroom

Baby Duncan Gets Away
Photo by Donald MacBeath

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue

The Brier Island Nature Reserve
Bay of Fundy
Photo by Roy MacBeath
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

Links to Earlier Posts:

TLL: What's a Teacher to Do?

TLL: Fun Is What You Make It

Notes:

1. Room and Board:
Dad and Uno rented their humble "cottage" from Father Ouimet.
It came with electricity, cold running water, and a cranky wood stove.
Dad and Uno joined Father Ouimet and Brother Bernier for meals at the rectory.

2. Brother Bernier:
Brother Raoul Bernier ran the sawmill in Lansdowne House.
He was blasting out a basement for a new church.
He and Father Ouimet were members of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate,
a missionary religious congregation in the Roman Catholic Church.

3. Uno: The teacher at the Roman Catholic School.

4. Duncan, Maureen, and Baby Duncan:
The MacRaes lived on the Mainland.
Duncan worked for the Department of Transport,
and his duties included running the DOT Weather Station.

5. Brian Booth: The clerk at the Hudson Bay Post.

6. Mike Flaherty: The nurse at the nursing station.

And for Map Lovers Like Me:

Location of Lansdowne House

Sketched on Map of Ontario

from Atlas of North America:

Space Age Portrait of a Continent

National Geographic 1985, pages 166-167.

Location of Lansdowne House

On River Emptying into James Bay

by Akimiski Island, the Largest Island in James Bay

Wikispaces

Province of Nova Scotia

Brier Island is at the very tip of the long red thin finger in the Bay of Fundy,

and I am at the very tip of the island.

Wikimedia

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, Canada: Chinatown

The Ever-Patient Terry and I have been
in Victoria almost two weeks now,
and we've been all over the downtown area.
It is one of the most walker friendly cities I've explored.

Victoria's Harbour Area

We've walked over most of this!

cruisemapper

One of the fascinating areas we have visited

is Victoria's Chinatown, the oldest in Canada

and the oldest physically surviving in North America.

San Francisco's Chinatown predated Victoria's,

but it was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

The Gate of Harmonious Interest

Victoria, B.C.

The heart of Victoria's present day Chinatown

is the 500 and 600 blocks of Fisgard Street,

with The Gate of Harmonious Interest in the middle.

map

This beautiful arch was built by the city of Victoria

in 1981 and funded by the urban community

and the municipal and provincial governments.

The arch was modeled after the entrance to China's

Dunhuang Caves and the Pingshan Hall gate in Yangzhou.

library.uvic

The two granite lions
flanking the arch
were presented to Victoria
by its sister city
Suzhou, China
in September 1981.

At first glance Chinatown seems crowded and chaotic,

a mishmash of buildings, alleys, shops, balconies and fire escapes,

apartments, signs, lanterns, and sidewalk vendors.

The 500 Block Fisgard Street

But once you start walking up and down its streets,

you begin to glimpse the mystery of old Chinatown
with its storied history of gambling, prostitution, and opium.

Along Fisgard Street

The Gold Rush of 1858 brought hundred of Chinese miners
to British Columbia along with 30,000 other gold-seekers.

Wealthy Chinese merchants from San Francisco
soon arrived in Victoria by boat that same year.
They bought land and built huts in anticipation of laborers
arriving to work in the Fraser River placer deposits.
Simon Fraser University

Within a year, Chinese immigrants were sailing
from China to Victoria seeking gold,
but also fleeing war, drought, and famine.
Chinatown became the gateway to the mainland gold fields.

Chinatown connected to Victoria by small bridges
across the Johnson Street ravine.
Tenements, businesses, stores, and warehouses
sprang up in an area where the Chinese hoped
they would not experience the same discrimination
the Chinese had in the California gold rush.
Royal BC Museum: Gold Rush! El Dorado in B.C.

Chinatown provided a haven and a base

for Chinese immigrants beginning a new life in Victoria.

victoria.ca

Ah Hoo, a Chinese Miner in British Columbia

wikimedia

Over time, Chinatown became a home to Chinese

who worked in the gold regions, salmon canneries,

and logging camps during the better months of the year,

but returned to spend their winter in Victoria.

There they frequented Chinatown's tea houses, stores,

brothels, gambling dens, opium parlors, and theaters.

victoria.ca

Chinatown had its Forbidden City
hidden behind the streets fronts
by heavy wooden doors or gates.
vmacch.ca

This warren of alleyways

and courtyards

was open only to Chinese.

Its gambling dens had

elaborate escape routes for

clients fleeing police raids.

bcarchives

You can explore part of the Forbidden City
by slipping into a narrow crack between
two towering red brick buildings on Fisgard Street.

This passageway is Fan Tan Alley,
reputed to be the narrowest street in Canada,
only 35 inches or 90 centimeters wide in places.
wikipedia