Ay Up Me Duck

Yesterday we celebrated Canada Day, and, before we moved on too far, I thought I'd blog about what this means to Canadians.

Canada Day is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act (today called the Constitution Act,1867),which united three colonies (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the United Province of Canada) into a single country called Canada. Originally called Dominion Day, the holiday was renamed in 1982. BTW, this what I love about blogging-I'm learning all this neat stuff all the time!!

For all the Brits out there: the Maple Leaf has been the national emblem of Canada since the 1700's; the colours red and white are the Canadian flag colours and the beaver is the most well known animal symbol of Canada. Of course, we also have the moose, and here he is wearing the uniform of another proud Canadian institution, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police:

Most communities across the country host organized celebrations for Canada Day, usually outdoor public events, parades, carnivals, barbecues as well as citizenship ceremonies for new citizens. And Callander was no exception:

Callander celebrated it's Canada Day festivities on Saturday, which was just as well as we had warm weather. On the actual day, July 1st it poured with rain!!

Early in the morning, the municipality was setting up for the day's activities

I even did my bit!!! I'm talking about the flag -not the puddle!

Inside and out!

The day started with a Pancake Breakfast at the Firehall and then proceeded to the annual parade:

I had a great vantage point at the beginning of the parade!

Lots of floats decorated in red and white

Loved this elderly lady who was keeping up with the Firefighters float.

You go, girl!!

Live music!

Lots of vintage cars

And, of course, the Shriner clowns and miniature bikes:

The Shriners, an appendant body of the Freemasons, are best known for the Shriners Hospitals for Children that it administers and also for the red fezzes it's members wear. The headquarters are based in Tampa, Florida.It is a fraternity based on fun, fellowship and Masonic principles.

Most Shrine Temples support several parade units which are responsible for promoting a positive Shriner image to the public by participating in local parades. It's quite common to see the Shriner clowns, miniature cars and bikes, at local parades.

And, at the VERY end of the parade, this poor tanker driver! He had obviously taken a wrong turn and ended up on Main Street and at the very end of the parade. The side roads were all blocked off and he had no alternative but to join the parade. He took it all in good stride as we waved our flags madly at him and cheered him on!

Later on that day, down at the waterfront:

Lots of activities taking place

Later that evening:

A great way to end the day.

Of course, last but not least and only in Canada eh!

For my Brit friends:

Happy Canada Day!

Talk soon and sooner than later

Zoe

And, as with the titles of previous blogs, the inspiration for this blog title comes from one of the songs on the Beatles' Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band!

Apologies for the looooong lapse between blogs, I've been spurred on by guilt. I have lots of excuses, but, for now, the main one being is that I have been struck down by this bug:

Which is all good! I used to be a very avid reader, yet, for the past few years I have been totally disinterested in books and have spent more time on computers. I was hoping the book bug would strike again and would rekindle my passion for the written word. And it has, with a vengeance! Any spare moment is spent reading. The dishes aren't washed, the grass looks like this:

Of course, I always have a list of things to do, which I totally ignore when in reading mode.

And I'm totally in agreement with this guy:

Because:

It looks like someone else has caught the bug too!!

These are some of my reads, all highly recommended:

I have a few more good reads in the back of my car. That is where they'll stay for a few more days until I get back on track again!

So, where was I? A day in the life …..

Last Saturday I got up bright and early …. It was the annual Friends of the Library yard and book sale:

Lots of books and bric-a-brac to sort and sell. Lil, the lady in pink, is a born seller. She could sell ice cubes to Eskimos and had me totally in stitches with her sales patter!

Lots of goodies for sale!

And LOTS of books!

David, one of our Library Board members, deciding which Beanie Baby to buy!

Brock, our Library Assistant, holding fort at the check-out desk.

After a quick lunch I headed out for a date! I had promised someone a surprise:

The North Bay Heritage Railway Mini-Train, now open for the season at the waterfront in North Bay.

This is a miniature railway which runs on 2700' of 15 gauge track and runs both a diesel and a steam engine. It is manned completely by volunteers, many of whom are old railroaders.

Someone couldn't wait to get on:

Of course, he HAD to wear his Thomas the Tank Engine hat!

And, after a few rides, we headed over to the North Bay Carousel:

Where we had a great time riding horses and in carriages:

The North Bay Carousel was conceived by an original volunteer of the Heritage Railway. It has a very interesting history and deserves a blog of it's own. Local artists were approached to paint 33 horses and 28 original paintings of local scenes and the carousel was assembled by its dedicated volunteers and now is totally run by volunteers.

And also, a surprise. A Pow-wow was taking place at the waterfront. The sound of drums and singing drew us here:

A modern Pow-wow is a specific type of event for First Nations people to meet and dance, sing and socialize and honour their cultures. Amongst the tribes represented here were the Ojibway and the Cree:

Drummers and singers

One of the drums used, made from deerskin and birch bark.

Dancers of all ages taking part.

The costumes were breathtaking when seen in close-up. All VERY intricately put together:

This bevy of beauties graciously allowed me to photograph them.

This young man called himself The Grasshopper and let me take a close-up of his neck adornment:

The beadwork is amazing. I did try this craft years ago and bought myself a small bead loom from the Hudson's Bay Company in North West River, Labrador. The intricacy of beadwork was just too much for my English brain and I gave it away!

And, a sad reminder of the past history of the Native peoples:

Indian residential schools were a network of boarding schools for Native Canadians. They were funded by the Canadian government's Indian Affairs and Northern Development and administered by Christian churches, predominantly by the Catholic Church but also by the Anglican church of Canada and the United Church of Canada. The policy was to remove the children from the influence of their families and culture and assimilate them into the dominant Canadian culture. Over the course of it's existence, the system removed approximately 150,000 children from their homes and placed them in residential schools. At least 4,000 of them died while attending the schools.

There has long been significant controversy about the conditions experienced by students in the residential schools. While day schools for First Nations, Metis and Inuit children always far outnumbered residential schools, eventually a new consensus emerged in the early 21st century that the residential schools did significant harm to Aboriginal children who attended them by removing them from their families, depriving them of their ancestral languages and by exposing many of them to physical and sexual abuse by staff members. In 2008 a public apology was offered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and leaders of the other federal parties in the Canadian House of Commons.

A similar history was shared with the Aboriginal people of Greenland, Australia and New Zealand and also, no doubt, in other parts of the world where "the government" was always deemed to know what was best!

And, continuing with our train theme ….. we headed to the old North Bay train station, unfortunately no longer used for it's original purpose but home to this: