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PROGRAMMING NOTE from the Author and Archivist


So obviously I just stopped blogging on this platform. I'll get back to it eventually. Or not. I'm taking a break from all social media. It seemed necessary for my mental health.

The last few years have been busy and … challenging:

- 2015 Happened.
- 2016 Let's call it The Lost Year. (Obviously words failed me.)
- 2017 about broke me. Literally. Mentally.
- 2018 was ridiculous, proving 2017 was just a warm up. (Good thing I was already broken so it couldn't hurt as much.#2018TrashCanFire I thought things were going okay, but maybe not?)

- 2019 was such a blur. I know there were highlights, but then stuff happened and carried into the next year...

- And then in March#2020 really took a turn. Who can even categorize 2020? Do we dare?


I kinda want a do-over of some of the last few years. But life doesn’t work that way.


So for now, I'm hunkering down. Regrouping. Trying to stay safe and sort some stuff out.


Stay safe everyone. Stay well.

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Saturday, August 31, 2013

Friday, August 30, 2013

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Photo of the Day: Hooked on History

Thursday, August 8, 2013, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Soldiers' Barracks, The Citadel

It's like they just stepped out of uniform just out of the frame.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Photo of the Day: Oh, but for a wee bit of wind!

Thursday, August 8, 2013, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Historical Interpreters, The Citadel

Whoo, and there are 7!?

A Magical number, or so my Friends tell me.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Photo of the Day: Meet me at the Gazebo

Thursday, August 8, 2013, Public Gardens, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Gazebos vs Bandstands

In my brain, THIS is the gazebo where Ms. Anne Shirley met her Gilbert. 
(But just in my brain.)
Sadly, my Gilbert did not appear on this sunny Canadian day, eh.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Photo of the Day: A Porch of One's Own

Thursday, August 8, 2013, Halifax, Nova Scotia


Forget a room of one's own, I would like a porch of my own .. just like this, with a water view.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Photo of the Day: Canadian Bacon, eh?

Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Saint John, New Brunswick


So it's true! They do just call it BACON in Canada. No word on the geese though, eh.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Photos of the Day: Sacred Seafood


Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Saint John, New Brunswick

Lord's elevates seafood to a higher plane. According to some people. 
I had scallops and chips.
 If I posted the picture of Christine face deep in her lobster roll, she would KILL me.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Photo of the Day: Retail Therapy

Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Saint John, New Brunswick

City Market

We never did spot what was cheaper than therapy.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Photo of the Day: Something Caught My Eye


Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Saint John, New Brunswick
Loyalists Burial Ground

So many Mason symbols, where to start? 

Plus, this guy was actually, really, named Crookshanks. Like ... Harry Potter, Hermione's cat, Crookshanks.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Friday, August 16, 2013

Saint John Statues: John Hooper's Public Art

Above/Below: People Waiting, John Hooper
Saint John, New Brunswick
For more on People Waiting, please see this 2009 CBC News article.

My boyfriend's commuting cohorts over at Market Square, part of People Apart Moving Together.
 He also did Time Piece outside the Market. More on this work here.
 Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Saint John, New Brunswick

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Photo of the Day: Strong Silent Type

Wednesday, August 7, 2013, Market Square, Saint John, New Brunswick
part of People Apart Moving Together, 1983, by John Hooper

Doesn't this seem to say:

Hey Girl. I brought these flowers for you.

like these Ryan Gosling memes

(Photos found on Google images - sorry for no photo attributions.)

And Dad told me to:  "Pack tight and enjoy the north country, stay away from the single men on the ship!"

I did. He wasn't on the ship.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Photo of the Day: Read the Fine Print

Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Loyalist Burial Ground, Saint John, New Brunswick

Pause Stranger!
drop one tributary tear - 
For know that Worth and
Genius slumber here!

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Photo of the Day: New York Harbor Highlights

Monday, August 5, 2013,  New York Harbor
Rush Hour on the Water

How many New York City 'landmarks' can you spot?

Staten Island Ferry
Statue of Liberty
Liberty Tower
Brooklyn Bridge

Monday, August 12, 2013

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Photo of the Day: Good Morning New York!

Saturday, August 10, 2013, around 6:40 a.m.
Aft Deck, Carnival Glory
Looking out over the tip of Manhattan, Battery Park, Liberty Tower

I guess if you have to get up early to get off the ship, it's worth it to look out the balcony and see glorious sights like this welcoming you back to home port. The home beacons beam brightly.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Dreaming Out Loud - Canada Calling Me Home

Image from here
A few months ago I got a text from my friend Christine that read something to the effect of:

Do you have a passport?

Yes ...

And a few texts later:

Do you want to go on a cruise?

Depends on when and where ....

And still later:

To Canada?

I had to call her back after that one ... because I was shaking. A lot.

NB & Nat'l flag image from here
Back at the beginning of the year, when I started jotting down the preliminary notes for what would be the seeds for these future Dreaming Out Loud installments, I made the following entry: 

NOT a cruise, but a smaller boat trip – maybe to:

Prince Edward Island – for my Anne of Green Gables addiction, and to find the port of entry where my ancestors came in from England

Or

Alaska

I don't think I had ever articulated this dream to Christine. There are more times than I care to count, however, when Christine and I have been on some weird karmic connection when it comes to calls, cards, e-mails, jokes, observations and other odd things. 
Carnival Glory: Photo credit

After talking to her I got the details of this proposed cruise, and while it may not be the EXACT dream, it's pretty darn close. I've learned to start taking advantage of opportunities like this when they come up. Call it a prompting. An opening. What have you.

So I'm getting on a boat. A big boat. A ship even. This Carnival Glory cruise liner, actually. With over 5,000 other people and spending a week doing something I never envisioned at the beginning of this year when I started to dream. Cruising. Me. The introvert. Who would have thought? It will be an adventure to say the least. I hope poor Christine realizes what she's in for. (And, hopefully, The Shushing Librarian is coming with us, so who knows what will happen.)
Nova Scotia flag image from here
 
While it turns out this cruise won't be heading to Prince Edward Island, we will be getting close enough ... this time ... and spending a day exploring Saint John, New Brunswick and Halifax, Nova Scotia. While Saint John is also a port city, Halifax was a major port of call, especially back when my ancestors were migrating to North America and I feel there's this mysterious connection calling to me.

I just can't tell you where and what and when that connection is ... but it's there. In the seas. In the land. In the songs. In the breeze. And, in the genes.

 This trip is just whetting my appetite for the Canadian Maritimes.
Image from here
With a day in port in both cities, there is not time for major island hopping or genealogical explorations, so the plan includes touristy things, like:
 




Pier 21, Halifax: Photo credit
Citadel, Halifax: Photo credit
Public Gardens, Halifax: Photo Credit
Saint John, NB City Market: Credit
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As more of our family history has been explored, more and more of the "pull" back to PEI can be explained due to family connections. I thought it was just my love for that "Anne Girl," but turns out my father's ancestors ended up settling in, and being buried, in the same mid-Island area that are close to the roads and lanes of L.M. Montgomery's beloved books. 
Photo credit
Photo credit
About two weeks after I agreed to go on the cruise, I got an e-mail from Cousin Frank, (the aforementioned author of the book about a paternal grandfather), outlining plans for the first Annual International Reunion scheduled for Prince Edward Island from July 25-29, reconnecting some of our family lines which have long been severed ("slightly") since the family left the island in 1850. 40 odd "cousins" were planning to visit family sites on the island, including homesteads, the port from whence the family sailed from PEI to the USA, the graveyard where a great+ grand-father and mother are buries, AND, (this is what got to me):
  • "All of the Anne of Green Gables "stuff" ... Mongomery gravesite, schoolhouse, etc."
People who don't believe in mysterious heavenly influences having a tug on our heart strings and collective consciousnesses ... I don't get them. 

*MY* ancestors are definitely up there trying to get us all headed in the right direction --back up north -- but as usual, my timing is all off and I was overcommitted.

I still dream of PEI, but for the next week or so, I'll just be out to sea, coming close to "home" port, but not quite. I have a feeling I'll still be having sweet dreams.

Wish me luck and ... Bon Voyage  
until my return to the Attic and blogging in general.

Photo credit information
O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

"Sea" you soon ... or later.