A Windy and Cold Day Part 1

 

Checking the weather map in the morning, we decided that heading west and south was our best bet for finding some sunshine yesterday.

 

Knowing from experience that there is always a wind chill factor at White Rock, we brought a variety of jackets, vests, hats, gloves, and other diverse clothing layers.

 

The wind was fierce and bitterly cold but we bundled up and hoped that the brilliant sunshine and the fact that it is mid-March would somehow make the promenade walk bearable.

 

We walked the street, where it is more sheltered, all the way west and then with the wind at our backs and pushing us so hard we had to apply the brakes, we walked along the water on the way back.

 

The whitecaps were beautiful in the sun and it was a glorious day, but for the cold.

What is Going On?

 

As I write this, the last votes are being counted in the Crimean referendum. Just what is going on is a bit mystifying. Consider this:

-there was an 80 percent voter turnout and the vote was 95% in favour of joining Russia.

-only 58% of Crimean residents are ethnic Russians and 12% are Tatar Muslims who oppose joining Russia. Did the Tatars not vote?

 

The ballot question was rigged, the two options were to join Russia or become an independent state. There was no option to remain part of the Ukraine.

 

There is something fishy about all this. At first I thought this mess in the Ukraine was a call to democracy as opposed to going back to the old Soviet style regime. An alignment with Europe more so than an alignment with Russia. Is not the Crimean referendum democracy? Should the west condemn a democratic referendum?

 

Putin has been described as an old school Soviet man who wants to restore Russian fear and respect in the world, as in the time of the 'Cold War'.

 

Yes, the old Ukrainian leader was corrupt and was skimming money for his own personal opulent lifestyle, but who exactly was  behind the up-risings. During WWII many Ukrainians joined the Germans to fight the hated communist Russians. They became Nazis. It is a heritage that many in the Ukraine kept to this day. There are numerous ultra right wing groups in the Ukraine and they go by various names but many are what we would call 'Neo-Nazis'. In fact, it was these people who were on the font lines of the violence a few weeks ago. Is it these people that Putin is referring to when he says he wants to protect ethnic Russians in the Ukraine? Is his concern legitimate? Would there be a regime of ethnic cleansing if the new leadership were to have their way? Actually, it is probably the far right interests that control the new government right now. Could Putin actually be justified in his actions? The referendum might suggest this is true.

 

Add to this, the power plays between Russia, the west, Europe, and the fact that 70% of Europe's gas and oil flow through Ukrainian pipelines. Add to this Obama's weakness or perceived weakness on foreign policy. Add to this egos.

 

If it all comes to violence once again, it will be many ordinary people who will die to satisfy the machinations of a few world leaders. What else is new? Some of my family's ancestors were Ukrainians and I am glad they got out when they did. At that time they were running away from both the Nazis AND the communist Russians. There will be many more running to the west if it comes to war once again.    

 

 

Dutch Tower

 

As you can tell, I have been browsing through some of my old photos, all of which have been converted to digital. Here is a scene that some of my 'older' readers, who have lived in this area for a while, will recognize. Or maybe you are saying, "That looks familiar, but where is it?"

Back in the 70's and 80's we had a high profile gardener here in BC who ran a successful chain of garden stores. He entered politics and was successful there also, eventually becoming Premier of the Province.  He had good looks, charm, personality, and charisma, not to mention a good looking wife. In his heyday, he built Fantasy Gardens in Richmond, a replica of Dutch architecture and horticultural features. We went there several times and always found it to be immaculate and very beautiful. The above photo is one scene along the garden tour.  There is a brief history of the Gardens here . Sadly, all that remains there today is the historic castle that was moved onto the site, and now stands as an historic monument and a prop for the occasional movie production.  

Cole Road

 

This photo was taken around the late 70's at the south entrance to Hougen Park on Cole road. I had some very good clients just south of here and worked there a lot. At noon I would drive to the park and have my lunch. There have been changes since those days. You will note, that if you were to drive through this park today, that those Weeping Willows along the bank of the Sumas River are now huge. And just beyond the park there is a freeway rest stop.

I sometimes go here when I am in the neighbourhood and if I stop, I notice that there is usually some neighbourhood patrol or a cop car that eventually cruises through, taking licence plate numbers. Apparently, it is, or was, a popular spot for drug deals.

 

This photo was taken with my old SLR, a Pentax Spotmatic, with Kodachrome slide film, and I scanned the slide and processed it with a program called 'Silverlight'. All my slides are now digital so they can fade away if they want. I am happy that those days of film are dead and gone. One chance for a photo was all one could take and then just hope for the best until the slides were developed.

Been Sick

 

Spring is coming, or so they say, and with it comes allergies. I can run in a field of daisies, snort raw grass pollen, and tickle my nose with Ragweed and nothing happens. But one little stroll anywhere near a Birch or Alder tree in late Feb. or early March, and I am caught in a fit of sneezes bad enough to blow my brains out.

And so, I thought it was the allergy season for me, about two weeks late this year, when I came home from a walk in the woods on Monday and started blasting everything in sight. I was sure it was not a cold because there was no sore throat, cough, or headache. Until later that evening.

I am now four days into a fierce head cold and have been laying low, very low. Today I turned the corner and seem to have re-gained my will to live, which had abandoned me completely just yesterday. Is it my imagination or is it more difficult now, with the years accumulating, to handle a bit of infirmity? I do not get under the weather often, but when I do it seems to sap the strength and energy and zest, and just about everything else out of my life. Am I getting a glimpse of the reasoning that the elderly have that when they reach the end and get sick, they lose the will to live? I may be exaggerating a bit when I say that it happened to me, but it was a new feeling, though faint. Even when the sun was out yesterday for a few minutes, I could not have cared less. This is not normal for me. But it is only a cold, and with a few box of tissues and a whole lot of Dristan, hot tea, Vit C, etc., etc., I will soon be done with it.

 

And that little cartoon at the top of this post ..... that was totally me for two days.

A Cold Blast From the Past

 

The year is 1978 and the location is north of Grande Prairie in northern Alberta. That Subaru was my transportation and it was not built for cold weather. With its very small 4 cylinder horizontally opposed engine, there was not enough heat generated to operate the engine, let alone heat the interior of the car. Did I mention it was -52? It was the coldest temperature I had ever experienced.

I was to leave for home the next day and we took the battery inside overnight to keep it warm and charged. It was not enough because the oil was gelled from the cold and the engine would not turn over, even in the closed garage.  We then put a lit camp stove under the oil pan, and after another hour or two we got it started. It was sluggish and powerless all the way to Hinton Alberta where the temperature suddenly warmed up from a Chinook wind. It was only another few miles down the road when the car literally jumped under the gas pedal and I was 'out of the woods'. When I got home I installed a core heater, which I never needed or used.

Subaru was one of the first front wheel drive cars imported to Canada. It was a great car and served me well for about 10 years.

As you can tell, I have been digging in the archives.

Transfer

 

I have been working on some ideas for my photos. I met a woman in Mexico who is a photographer and she transfers her photos to wood. I picked her brain and then came up with some ideas that I am experimenting with. The photo below is the original and the one above is the same photo transferred to a piece of solid fir about one inch thick. I was going for an antiqued distressed look and I think I got it. The image is permanently transferred to the wood and then clear coated. I will be working with other mediums and will keep you up-dated as to their failure or success. There is a bit of a learning curve here so I do not have really high expectations just yet. I have already learned that my images have to be a bit brighter so they print brighter.

Reminder to Myself

 

Digging out some of my Mexico photos from December, I am reminding myself that there are warmer places in the world and I was at one just recently.

 

When we are there it is difficult to believe that we are only 5 hours away from wet, cold home.

 

The colours, the warm, moist, soft air in the evening, and the heat of sun during the day are just some of the features that attract us to Mexico.

 

Oops. How did this photo get in here? Oh yes, this is what we were avoiding.

Where are You Spring

 

We tried to encourage Spring by putting out these Primroses. They brighten up our front door step, but so far Spring still seems to be a long way off. As you can see, we did get a dash of sun for the photo session.

 

 

 

The first batch we put out looks like a week old salad. No photos.

 

Can't wait for summer.

March Snow

 

 

Yesterday, Sunday Mar 2, we went for a walk in the snow.

 

Will it be the last snow of the year?

Adventures on the Mississippi

 

Samuel L. Clemens a.k.a. Mark Twain published this follow-up to 'Tom Sawyer' first in England in 1884. A year later it was in America and soon became a classic. It is the first novel written throughout in vernacular English. In the introduction, Twain explains in detail the three different types of dialect he has painstakingly researched and tried to reproduce in the novel. Then he makes the disclaimer that he explained this because he did not want the reader to think that all the characters were trying to talk like each other and were failing.

Mark Twain has a remarkable sense of humour and his imagination comes into full play through the character of Huckleberry Finn.

 

Huck comes from a single parent upbringing, his father being constantly drunk and continually beating on Huck. Huck believes he has been raised to be bad so on the few occasions when he wants to 'get right with God', he abandons the idea because he doesn't think he has the breeding to hold to it.

To escape his imprisonment by his lout of a father, he fakes his own murder and escapes down the Mississippi on a raft. Along the way he picks up a black slave who has been accused of the murder and they begin to have adventure after adventure. The pickles they get into defy imagination and through the clever and devious mind of Huck they are always able to come up with a plan to escape. They get tangled up with some of the most unsavoury characters the Midwest can produce and always they drift further south along the river. The final adventure finds the slave captured and for sale, and a reunion with Tom Sawyer. The plot to free Jim, the slave, is hilarious and becomes outrageously more complicated than it has to be. These two boys are 'rapscallions' of the first order.

 

It is all in great fun as the main thrust of the book is humour mixed with a satirical look at attitudes toward the slave industry. I read this book when I was a kid and I think I appreciated the skill of Mark Twain much more this time around.

3 1/2 stars