Take a Stand

21 Jan 2010 at 14:15

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Advocacy, Canada, Politics

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Bring Back Parliament - Send Your Letter

Here is your chance to take a stand. Write to the PMO, your MP, the opposition leaders and let them know how you feel about this. You can do it online at www.bringbackparliament.ca.

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing to express my concern about your decision to shut down Parliament.

Some days I don’t feel like working. If I decided simply not to show up, I’d lose my job. There’s too much work to be done to allow for that kind of irresponsibility.

The same is true for our country. There are too many pressing issues to shut down Parliament for weeks: joblessness, climate change, the war.

MPs have important work to do on these and other issues. It’s not right that they should be prevented from doing that work because you don’t want to face the House of Commons.

I urge you to bring back Parliament on schedule.

Yours sincerely,

Say NO to Proroguing Parliament

20 Jan 2010 at 12:31

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Advocacy, Canada, Politics

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Come out on January 23 and be heard.

Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament

Constitutional Fairytales

17 Jan 2010 at 11:11

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Advocacy, Canada, Politics

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Debunking the parliamentary myths Mr. Harper would have us believe … a refreshingly clear and concise article about Canadian parliament.

http://historywire.ca/en/article/19578

Vacation Reading – Scotland

03 Nov 2009 at 19:41

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Books

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One of the best things about vacation and traveling is that you have time to read. I love that moment when you click the seat belt shut, pull out your book and settle in for a 6 hour affair with a book you have been saving for just this moment.

And our recent trip to Scotland was no different. I have just passed my birthday and thanks to some wonderfully thoughtful friends I had a couple of good books to keep me company on my journey.

The first book I picked up was No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod. And how completely appropriate that I should read this on the flight to Scotland. I won’t recount the plot here as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who might yet read this book. As a Canadian of Scottish heritage, this book touched something very deep in my past and put me in the perfect frame of mind to embrace Scotland as we toured the Highlands and walked Culloden Moor. Thank you Mr. MacLeod for a wonderful and touching story beautifully executed.

The second book to grace this vacation was Suite Francaise. How I could have missed this book during the five years since it was first published is a mystery. That I have found it and read it now is a blessing. Reading the book while knowing the fate of the author made it one of the most intimate literary experiences I’ve ever known. In a gross over-simplification, I categorize fiction as either action or character development. Suite Française has both and Irene Némirovsky is a master. It is our loss that she did not survive to publish many, many more works.

The last of my vacation reading was a little lighter … Suite Francaise by Peter Mayle and Mr. Mayle had me chuckling pretty much the entire flight home. This book was so delightful that I think I’ve convinced Roël that we need to visit Provence very soon – and not the tourist hotspots, but the smaller villages and out of the way restaurants that I feel I have already visited.

As far as vacation reading goes, this past vacation has been a major success. All three books that I took with me were excellent reads … each in it’s own way. Very different books, very different (and talented) authors and all of them well worth the time to read and enjoy.


Scotland: Stonehaven

29 Oct 2009 at 06:00

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Travel

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As we headed to the east coast we lost most of our sunny weather and were treated to a storm, compliments of the North Sea. There is nothing quite so inviting in a stormy little fishing village as a warm and welcoming pub. We were heading to Stonehaven to have a look at Dunnottar Castle. The town of Stonehaven was so inviting and the Marine Hotel had such great food we ended up staying two nights.

Here are our first glimpses of Stonehaven.

And after a very long walk, much of it uphill, here is Dunnottar Castle and the surrounding area.

How can any collection of photographs of Scotland be complete without a Scottish thistle?

I loved the look of the rolling fields with the bales of hay and straw. When the sun struck them just right, they positively glowed.

And finally, a parting shot of the Marine Hotel as we left with the storm still raging. This is taken from the inside of a dry car. If you are ever on the east coast of Scotland I highly recommend the Marine Hotel for lunch, dinner, a pint or an overnight stay.

Scotland: Skye to Inverness

28 Oct 2009 at 06:00

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Travel

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The next leg of our journey took us from Lochalsh toward Inverness. The countryside between Skye and Inverness is stunning. The weather was starting to turn rainy and the skies were overcast, still the sun managed to make a couple of appearances.

This is the cairn on Culloden Moor. Appropriately, the day turned completely grey while we were here. The Moor is pretty much as it was 260+ years ago.

Scotland: The Isle of Skye

27 Oct 2009 at 06:00

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Travel

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I’ve been looking forward to visiting Skye for quite some time. And it was even more beautiful than I expected. One of the branches of my family emigrated to Canada from Skye a long, long time ago and it is amazing that I still feel a connection to this place.
We were fortunate enough to have a clear and sunny day for our tour of the island – something the locals assured us was quite rare in October.

The north side of the island is sparsely populated and once outside the towns near the bridge (Broadford and Portree, the capital) we found ourselves on a single track road pulling off to the side infrequently to left a car pass by and more often slowing down to admire the local sheep. But more on the sheep of Skye later.

This picture was taken in Trotternish and shows off the Old Man of Storr.

And now back to those sheep. At first they looked friendly enough. Willing to pose for a picture or two while trotting down the highway.

I’ll leave the sheep alone for a while and return to the natural beauty of Skye.

Somewhere about now, we had made our way to the south of the island and felt it appropriate that we take a short break and tour the Talisker Distillery in Carbost. It was a fine tour, with a wee dram offered as a sample and then we were back on our way.

Ahhh, the return of the Sheep of Skye. There is a bit of an inside joke about the sheep. I wanted a picture of me with the sheep on the road and I wanted that picture very badly. I had Roël stop several times so I could get out and mingle with the sheep while he got the picture. Every time I stepped out of the car, the sheep made for the hills. So one more close-up of my friend, the sheep the way they look when you are in your car. And then the view we had most often. The sheep, actually airborne, and from the rear.

A couple more shots of the incredible scenery on Skye.

And then back to the bridge at Kyleakin.

A Few Days in Scotland, cont’d …

26 Oct 2009 at 06:07

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Travel

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It seems amazing now to think that in one fell swoop we caught an afternoon flight from Toronto to Glasgow then drove for five hours to Kyle of Lochalsh, stopping to take in the beautiful scenery, booked into our hotel and still when the afternoon sun showed up we had the energy to grab the cameras and set out in the car to see what we could find.

Scotland and the Highlands, in particular, are indescribably beautiful. And when that perfect afternoon sun shines on this part of the world, sleep seems to be less important.

This little fellow was very friendly and agreed to pose right in the sunlight for me. He seemed to like us and hung around for a while letting Roël get quite a few great shots of him.

These red berries seemed to be everywhere. I couldn’t resist the colours against that blue sky.

A last, brave sprig of heather in bloom. One thing still on my list of sights to see – the Highlands when the heather is in bloom.

A few rays of sunlight catching the ferns in the shade.

Roël hard at work. I am never quite sure what he is seeing and I am almost always speechless when I see it on the back of the camera afterward. He will be posting some of his images on his blog. You can watch for them at www.roelphoto.com/blog.

The afternoon sun can make anything, even a cemetery, beautiful.

A Few Days in Scotland

25 Oct 2009 at 06:28

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Travel

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October may not seem like the perfect time to visit Scotland …

Roël and I were very fortunate with the weather on our most recent trip, and Scotland generously offered up some beautiful scenery, a spectacular history and many friendly and helpful people.

We spent our time touring by car and, as we prefer to do, wandered where the winds blew us.

After landing very early in Glasgow, we decided to make our way north toward the Isle of Skye – which was definitely on our list of must-see destinations.  Little did we know we would make the entire drive to Skye that  first day.

Here are a few of my favourite images from that drive north.

The sun rising over Loch Lomond:

A hint of the fall colours that were all around us as we drove:

We stumbled across the incredibly beautiful Loch Awe. First the castle,

then the trees in the morning mists.

Roël saw this out of the corner of his eye as we were driving.

And this too. I’m not sure the name of this loch, though the absolute stillness of the surface gave us some amazing reflections.

More mists rising out of the trees.

Everywhere we looked we found views like this

and this.

This was a little bizarre and interesting scene. We had a chat with some locals about what this represented. It is a recent change. A funeral cairn seems to have been dismantled and turned into hundreds of mini-cairns.

Sun over a lake. The key point here is that I managed to produce a starburst with my camera. A first for me and something I’ve been trying to accomplish since we were in Portugal last year. :-)

And finally, two views of the bridge connecting the Isle of Skye to the mainland. On the right (mainland) is the town of Kyle of Lochalsh and on the left (Skye) is Kyleakin.

Five Things I Love About Being a Mom

05 May 2009 at 20:45

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Motherhood

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  1. 4:00 am feedings. The only people awake on the planet are the two of you in the still of the night.
  2. Year after year, the pictures on the front porch as they set out on their first day of school and the way the spruce tree in the picture gets bigger and bigger as the years go by.
  3. Visiting the 6′++ son in first year residence and having a big swinging hug right there in the lobby in front of his friends.
  4. Having the world-traveling daughter return home after two years and need some good old-fashioned Mommy-love.
  5. Waking up each morning knowing you have given two wonderful new people to the universe.
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