HBC Blankets

Hudson Bay wool blankets are Canadian classics.  For over 200 years, the Hudson's Bay Company point blanket has been a familiar item in Canada and around the world.  It is enjoyed as much today as when it was first introduced into the fur trade in 1780.

Although these blankets had been a staple of the fur trade to the natives and company men before 1780, it was not until the first shipment to Fort Albany in the spring of that year that they were shipped to the posts on a regular basis.

The "point" system had been invented by French weavers in the mid-18th century to indicate the finished overall size of a blanket, because then, as now, blankets were shrunk or felted as part of the manufacturing process.  Later, the material in the blankets was also used to fashion coats.  Coats were not made after the year 2000.

Right now, I have a 6-point (queen-sized) HBC blanket on my bed.  The 8-point (king-sized) is the largest size made.  Mine goes on my bed every winter.  There's nothing more comforting than a heavy, warm blanket when the snow is swirling outside.

Unbelievable Weather

Today was partly cloudy here but with a high of 13 degrees.  Too nice at this time of year to stay inside.  So, this afternoon, Holly and I headed out to Beaudry again, to walk the grassy trails once more.  I can't believe how nice the days have been lately.  Our normal high is zero for this time of year.  And, we're getting back to normal over the next couple of days, with snow forecast for Thursday (sigh ...).

After our walk, I stopped in at Shelmerdines Garden Centre again.  I wandered through the greenhouse for awhile, looking at the poinsettias, Christmas cacti, peace lilies, and other seasonal plants that have been set out.  As an aside, I'm nursing Margaret's peace lily back to health.  Seems to like my attention because it's flowering now.  At the garden centre, I also wandered through the gift store area and marvelled at all the Christmas decorations that were for sale.  What an incredible variety of glittery ornaments!  With prices to match, unfortunately.

Now, I'm home again and starting supper.  How does Indian butter chicken, pan-fried potatoes, and my special Brussels sprouts dish with Parmesan cheese sound to you?

Bling

According to Wikipedia, "bling" is a slang term popularized in hip hop culture, referring to flashy, ostentatious or elaborate jewelry and ornamented accessories that are carried, worn or installed.

Although the concept was mostly associated with rappers until recently, it has now spread widely into everyday pop culture and seems to be the newest and latest "in" word.  Although not a word I would use in everyday conversation, I kind of like it for some reason.

Jewellery is not really my thing.  And, as one who gets his latest clothing from Mark's Work Wearhouse, I could not use the term in a fashion context.  But, I could see using it for the latest geek toys from Future Shop or Best Buy.  Things like cutting-edge electronics, televisions, computers, cameras, and so on.  Of course, they wouldn't be my things.

Unfortunately, one cannot be extravagant on a retiree's budget.  These days, I have lots of empathy for people who can afford such things but not much money.  So, I use the word 'ka-ching!' (the sound of a cash register taking my pocket money for groceries) instead of 'bling!'

Komainu

In Japan, a pair of stone guardian dogs, usually in front of a temple or shrine, is called "Komainu".  They are usually placed at entrances to ward off evil spirits.  They look a bit like a dog with a lion's head.  Japanese lion dogs were originally seen in India.  They were later brought to China and then Korea and finally to Japan, where they began to be used in the early 1600's.

Today, they can be found almost anywhere in the world where Asians have settled, even in downtown Winnipeg.  I first saw two komainu in front of a small grocer store in Winnipeg's Chinatown, where I sometimes shop for difficult to find tools and ingredients that I use in my Chinese cooking.  That store is directly across the street from my favorite place for Sunday morning dim sum, at Kum Koon Garden.

My personal, living komainu, here at 43 Carbutt, is alive and well.  My bouvier, Holly, seems to serve the same purpose of warding off evil spirits.  Certainly, she has a ferocious bark and any one coming to my door when I'm not at home would, I believe, think twice about breaking-in, after hearing that bark.

Believe Impossible Things

Words from Alice in Wonderland ..."There is no use trying, said Alice: one can't believe impossible things ... I dare say you haven't had much practice, said the Queen. When I was your age I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast".

Some months ago, I dreamed something that I thought would probably be impossible.  Then, I slowly began to believe it might be possilbe after all.  Then, it happened.  Dreams can come true.  Happiness is ...

Only 48 days left until Christmas ...

With the way that I hate crowds, especially in shopping malls, it's a good thing that I've got most of my "gift getting" done already.  One of the perks of being retired is that I can do my shopping when most people are at work or school.  No crowds; no line-ups; no waiting to part with my money.

Last night was a little different.  I accompanied Margaret on some of her shopping errands.  One place on the list was Costco.  The parking lot was nearly full.  I kept repeating to myself, "chill out, Roy ... it'll be over soon".  This place always seems to be busy.  Looking at the number of shopping carts inside the door, I thought the place must be empty.

Not so.  This store simply has way more carts than it needs.  It was very busy inside.  Looking into some of the carts going by, I knew a lot of Christmas shopping was underway.  After pushing the cart around for a half-hour or so and leaving Margaret at the check-out area, I waited outside to escape the crowds.  Surprisingly, she appeared only a few minutes later, with a full cart and an empty purse.  Costco is very efficient when it comes to their check-outs.

Just looking, thanks ...

Brooks Anderson, painter and photographer, once said, "the virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking".

Over the past year, I've resumed my habit of going nowhere without my camera.  For a while, that habit lapsed.  Too much was happening in my life for me to take time to just enjoy myself and my photographic pastime.  I was caught up in so many changes in my life, including retirement, getting rid of the detritus of my consulting business, and moving from the country to the city, that I lost my hold on the things that I enjoyed doing.  The stresses associated with major changes in one's life can do that to you.

Now, I'm back on track, more or less.  I now spend many hours just learning new things (e.g., perennial flower gardening, reading about philosophers), doing new things (e.g., going to plays, musicals, galleries, restaurants), getting out into nature more (e.g., while walking with my dog or with friends), spending more time with old and new friends, visiting with family, entertaining, learning new cooking skills, and so on.

One of the great things about all these activities is that, when I have my camera with me, I pay more attention to what's around me and I look for opportunities to record the slices of life that I see.

Treasures

As we go about our lives, we collect treasures.  Most people collect something: it may be baseball or hockey cards, art, ceramic bowls, marbles, crystals, figurines, teacups, matchbooks, stamps or coins, pinned insects, small mammal skulls, orchids, sea shells, or whatever.  Over the years, I've collected many different things.  Some collections have been passed on to my kids or simply given away to others.  Currently, I collect digital  photographs.  My own, mainly.

Well, I don't really 'collect' them.  I just make all sorts of images and save them.  Way too many of them, I guess.  But, unlike many of my other collections, my photographs don't take up very much space in my home, especially now that my images are digital.  Someday, I may even convert all my old negatives, prints, and 35 mm to the digital format as well.  It would certainly mean less dusting and free up some space for other things.

Digital images definitely are easier to share.  For example, I can go to the birthday party of one of my grand-children and take a series of photos and, within hours, save the best images onto CDs which I can then distribute to the parents and grand-parents.  Some images, I may print and stick on the fridge door to show off to visitors to my home.  Some, I may post to this blog or my Facebook page for my friends to see; others, to my Flickr page for the world to see.

Why do I collect photographic images?  Good question.  Maybe, I do it because I have a need to create something that either pleases me or someone else?  Maybe, so the images will serve to bring to mind memories of good times I've had or good places I've been?  Maybe, because I sometimes see something out there that most people do not and I want to record it and show it to them?

Veterans Week Starts Today

As Remembrance Day nears and many of us reflect on members of our family who lost their lives during the past two World Wars and the conflicts since then that our troops have been deployed to, I started to think of my father, who served in the Army during WW II and, fortunately, survived.

I only have a couple of pictures of him during that time, one of which is shown below.  Here, he's standing beside my mother somewhere in Toronto, probably on Northcote Avenue where her parents, Mary and Eddie Hiscock lived.  My grandfather also served in the Army.  My grandmother served in the Salvation Army.

It's odd how so many people in my family have been connected to our Canadian Forces.  I never wore a uniform but I was a volunteer member of a DND advisory committee for over 25 years.  My son-in-law is currently Detachment Commander at the Recruiting Centre, here in Winnipeg.

Part of our History

Relics from the past, insulators, like the one pictured below, were used for railroad phone and telegraph wires.  Back in 1865, an American carpenter, Louis Cauvet, invented and patented the threaded pinhole design we may still find in insulators lying along old railroad track beds throughout our country.

They were designed as a method for threading the inside pinhole of the insulator, which then could be screwed down on a threaded wood or metal pin.  Unlike earlier, slide-on insulators, these screw-on insulators stayed in place when the poles were battered by strong winds.

Millions of them were made and used for about 100 years.  They are now, of course, obsolete for the most part, replaced by fibre optics or wireless communications.

Most people, these days, wouldn't even know what these objects are unless they were explained to them.  If you're walking along old railroad tracks in the country, you might be lucky enough to find one still, maybe lying in the railroad-bed weeds. Maybe, even on some still-standing post.  More likely, you'll see one at a garage sale or flea market, mixed in with a box of other strange objects.
 
Most older Canadians have had a glass insulator in a window or on a bookcase in their house at some point in their life.  I still do.  No longer made in Canada, they now are an interesting piece of Canadian history.

Beaudry Revisited

This park is like a magnet, drawing Holly and me back to it, day after day.  While my 'to do' list gets longer and longer (and my guilt about ignoring it, greater and greater), I still think every sunny day, at this time of year, is meant to be enjoyed.  Holly agrees.  So, back to Beaudry we go, time after time.

It's not the scenery, at this time of year, that draws me away from home and my chores.  Indeed, there's little to excite me, from a photographic point-of-view, at Beaudry these days.  You have to look hard to see beyond the browns of early winter.  I think, in large part, it's the sheer joy I see in Holly as she cavorts along the trails.  She rarely is motionless.  Only when I'm a little too far behind her does she look back to see that I'm still following her.  Very occasionally, she may even sit and wait for me.

The Assiniboine River flows through Beaudry.  Maybe, it's appropriate that, these days, I just go with the flow, too.

Life is good in the present ...

Country Roads

There's a Danish proverb that the road to a friend's place is never long.  Such was the case yesterday.  With Holly beside me, I drove out to Carman.  The warm, sunny weather was made for getting out of the house.  First, I visited with my guardian angel, Karen, at her clothing store in Carman where we caught up our news with each other.  Karen is celebrating 30 years in business at her location.  Quite an achievement in small-town Manitoba.  She's been putting shirts (and other clothes) on me for about 20 years.  Our friendship has grown closer and closer over the years.

Next, I headed down some back roads, taking a few pictures along the way, to visit a couple of other long-time friends, Denis and Gwen.

Travelling these gravel roads brought back some good memories of my life, living near Carman.  John Denver's song, Country Roads, kept going through my mind.

Along the way, it was neat to see most of the fields in the Carman-Homewood area already tilled and waiting for winter.  There was still the odd farmer working, mowing down the already harvested corn stalks or doing some final tilling and harrowing.  Most of the crops in this area are already in the bin or on the way to terminals.

Coffee and conversation with Denis and Gwen was great.  Catching up on the local news with them was fun.  They're now preparing to sell their country acreage, to move into town, into a new seniors' housing development where life will be a lot easier for them.  But, I think they'll miss maintaining their yard site and the privacy that they now enjoy.  I know I still miss my old place out there near Carman.  But, you have to adapt to changing times and circumstances.  Often, the changes we experience are good ones.

It Starts with an Idea

I know a few very creative people.  Most of them note their ideas or thoughts in a sketch book, in a notebook, or on scraps of paper.  Every once in a while, one of those ideas begs to be taken a step further, sometimes all the way to completion.

If I'm very fortunate, I get to watch one of their ideas go, step by step and over time, all the way from a vague note or sketch to a finished piece of art.  It may take days, months, or years.  The idea may end up as a painting, finely-crafted furniture, a quilt, or a piece of pottery.

The Path We Follow

Someone (was it Tim McGraw, the country singer?) once said, "we all take different paths in life, but no matter where we go, we take a little of each other everywhere".

And, sometimes, we take the same path others have taken, again and again ... just at different times and under different circumstances.