Love Grows...

Our 20th grandchild, 8th granddaughter, was born this evening but I promised her mother (our daughter Sara) that I wouldn't blog about her, especially pictures, until after she has a chance to do her own blog. So...stay tuned...and hurry up Sara!

What's The Deal With.....?

Seagulls???

When we lived in Nova Scotia...on the east coast...surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean...seagulls were an expected part of life. We'd see them everywhere. We became very familiar with their songs (?) at the beach, in parking lots, everywhere.

These ones were where they belonged...in the small but famous fishing village of Peggy's Cove, NS.




Why, then, when we moved to the middle of the prairies out here in Alberta, do we still see and hear the creatures? We see them in grain fields, parking lots, and especially in fast food restaurant parking lots.

These ones were at Henderson Lake in the middle of Lethbridge, AB, which is in the middle of cattle and wheat country. Not a likely place for SEA gulls, one would think.

Are they lost? Homesick? Or just different gull families who migrated inland? There must be a story somewhere and I suppose if I took the time to Google it, I'd find out. But I'd rather just think of the gulls as one of those mysteries of nature.

I remember when we sailed from Quebec to Germany in 1960 with Dad's army regiment, we used to watch the gulls follow behind the ship and dive down to snap up kitchen scraps that were thrown down for them. I thought they must be very brave and strong to follow the ship for 6 or 7 days across the ocean with no sign of land.

Interesting birds, for sure. I like them.

My Lucky Day?

I used to pride myself on being able to spot things - as a kid I'd often find quarters, dimes and pennies on the sidewalk - Mum used to say that I walked with my head down too much. If there was a 4-leaf clover in a patch of 3-leaf clovers, I'd find it. It's nice to know that 'talent' hasn't totally left me.

Today as I was leaving Sara's house, walking through the back yard, I looked down at a patch of clover and immediately spotted not one, not two, but three 4-leaf clovers.

There are two of the little beauties in this picture.



The first one I spotted...


Then Charlie came out to find some too....I believe these two are the ones in the first picture.

She picked them and took them in to press in a heavy book.

Now I think I'll go out and buy a lottery ticket.

Guardians of the Grain

When I first came west in 1968, I travelled by train from Halifax, NS to Edmonton, AB. Once Ontario was behind me, the prairies spread out endlessly for mile after flat mile. It quickly became apparent that by watching out the window I could easily tell what towns and settlements the train was passing through. It seemed that each little whistle stop along the Canadian National train line boasted at least one 90 ft. tall grain elevator. I had seen pictures of them in history books and knew they existed, but not in such abundance. Over the years I've come to appreciate them for the "Signposts of the Prairie" that they are. They're also called Prairie Giants and Prairie Castles, and, at capacity, hold 25,000 bushels of grain.

Magrath, Alberta

This type of wooden grain elevators were built in the early 1900s in every town along the railroad right-of-ways and quickly became the commercial and social centres of the west.

Raymond, Alberta

They are gradually being phased out in favor of the larger more efficient concrete grain elevators. From a total of 1651 in the canadian west in 1951, there were only 156 left in 2005. 12 have been designated as provincial historic resources. It's sad to see these beautiful old historic buildings torn down, but that's the way of progress. At least some are being saved.

Mossleigh, AB

These three elevators at Mossleigh can be seen for what seems like miles away. They start out as three identifiable specks on the horizon which grow larger as you approach them. They they disappear as you go around a couple of bends and suddenly there they are - right beside the road.

Carsland, Alberta

This is one of the new design grain elevators...huge, concrete structures. Not as many are needed because of their greater capacity so they no longer mark all the towns as you travel through the prairie highways. They have their own esthetic beauty though.

In reading an article about grain elevators last night I was surprised to learn that I didn't have to come west to see one. There is one independently owned grain elevator in Nova Scotia in the small town of Tatamagouche - not far from where I used to live. Huh!

As much as I like and appreciate these symbols of western Canada, my heart still belongs to the lighthouses of my Maritime roots. But I'm adaptable.

Which One's the Antique?

When Lloyd was young his family lived in a rural community called Harvey Station, New Brunswick. Their home was surrounded by acres of farm land so his parents invested in cows, an infamous nasty bull, a dog, cats and chickens. Lloyd loved the years spent on the farm in spite of the chores that fell to him to complete. For one thing, almost before he could reach the pedals, he was allowed to drive the tractor. Such freedom and responsibility! He loved it.



When he was 14 his family left the farm for the 'big' city of Fredericton, and he never had the chance to live on a farm again.

When one of our city-raised daughters took her city-raised sons to a farm museum in rural Alberta, her #4 son, Micah, discovered that he too loved 'driving' a tractor.

"Look Mom I'm a farmer"

I guess some traits skip a generation. On look, I just noticed, the 'antique' tractor Micah is driving is the same as the 'modern' one Lloyd was driving back in the late 1950s.

Old Pictures

This weekend, spent in Lethbridge, Lloyd and I became the recipients of a dozen or so of Lloyd's mother's photo albums. I think because I'm a scrapbooker everyone considers me the custodian of the photographs. This past year I have also become the caretaker of my mother's photo album collection.

It's fun to go through those old pictures 'remembering' events and people caught in snapshots of daily life and special events. However, many of the pictures are mysteries to us - who are these people? why do we have pictures of them? how important or trivial are they to our family? Others are considered important, milestone, classic pictures with stories to tell.

Mum and Dad with their three children and spouses, and 11 grandchildren - 1986

Dad (center) with his parents and sisters - 1930

Dad and me - 1948

Going through my mother-in-law's photos this weekend we found several albums full of pictures of people we didn't know, fuzzy out-of-focus pictures, yellowed discolored pictures, etc. Thelma was very good at writing the who, where and when on the back of most of the pictures. That helps a lot. Still, Lloyd and I don't want to have albums full of people and events that mean absolutely nothing to us. His sisters aren't very interested in old pictures. So we have decided that we'll put them all on display at the family reunion in August and let everyone go through them and take any pictures they want (Lloyd and I have already taken the ones we want). The rest of the unwanted pictures will be trashed.

It made me think of all the thousands of pictures I've taken and collected. What will happen to them after I'm no longer here? Not every picture is a treasure so a lot will be thrown out I'm sure. However, the ones I put into scrapbooks will live on - the journalling on the pages will tell the family stories. Hopefully they'll be treasured.

Very important to Lloyd and me - the story of how I came to move from Nova Scotia to Edmonton in 1968.

A family classic - me in 1953 and a story to tell.

This whole process of going through old photos has made me realize that I must work more on my scrapbooks, especially the ones I consider heritage ones. I want our grandchildren and their children to be able to look at these books and enjoy the stories being told and gain insight into who they are and where they come from. I don't want our stories to die with us, and I want to preserve the stories of our parents and grandparents through these scrapbooks.

So, a final word of advice. Take a few minutes to write names, dates, locations, etc. on the back of your photos so that those coming after you will know the important data when they do their scrapbooks. And keep taking pictures! And if you're looking for a new hobby to take all your time and money, consider scrapbooking. You'll never regret it.

School's Out - The Art Class

Remember how great it felt that first day of summer, when you wake up at your regular time only to realize that - yea! school's out for the year! Then do you remember what your first activity of the day (after all the necessary wash, dress, breakfast stuff was done) after the last day of school was??? That's right!!! You got out your half full notebooks, leftover paper, pens, pencils, crayons, etc. etc. etc. and played school. Go figure. It just felt so good to be the teacher and boss the students (your dolls and friends) around. It just lasted for a couple of days - until it really had a chance to sink in - no school for two months! It just doesn't get any better than that when you're a kid.

Tuesday, June 29, was the last day of school for our kids here in Edmonton. On Wednesday, Kenzie, Charlie, and Elly got together. In a slight twist on the playing school theme that we used to love so much, they got out Charlies art set and played Art Class, with Charlie as teacher, Kenzie as apt pupil and Elly as class troublemaker! They played at it for several hours. I wish I had taken pictures of their finished projects but I guess I got distracted somehow. Anyway, the following pictures show how absorbed they were in their 'class'.

Watch out - Elly's casing the paint set.

Elly really concentrates when she's working on a project.

Charlie is so serious

and so is Kenzie. She's making pencil rubbings of sea shells

They all worked together so well. I guess I was the teacher for this small project, showing them how to do the rubbings. They learned quickly. And now the long summer looms ahead. Kenzie has a brand new baby brother to learn to help her mom take care of, and in a week or so Charlie and Elly will have a brand new baby sister to teach and learn from.

Happy holidays all you lucky people who have been granted a temporary reprieve from your regular work/school day schedules. Enjoy.