Magnificent Trees

This is the second blog about our trip down the Washington and Oregon Coasts.

We witnessed immense, towering hemlock, spruce, fir and cedar trees, similar to the giant Kauri trees we saw in New Zealand. To think that all these trees start from a tiny seed, and grow to be as tall as 200 ft. with as much as a 59 foot circumference and live for a century!

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.       

Joyce Kilmer

Douglas Fir Trees along Rialto Beach, Washington

One of the world's largest Sitka Spruce trees - high winds last year knocked the top off this 700 year old tree. 

Moss covered Maple trees 

in the Hoh Rainforest,Washington

Giant 1000 year old Sitka Spruce tree at Quinault Lake

191 feet tall, 59 feet in circumference and 100 years old and still magnificent and growing! 

              

Beautiful Beaches

Keith and I just finished a wonderful week long trip south. We traveled down the west coast of Washington State and in Olympic National Park then continued down the northern Oregon Coast before heading east to Portland then north to Anacortes where we caught a ferry back home.

Our main reason for taking this trip was to see Stefanie while she is on a school break, between her first and second year.  But we also wanted to cross off something on our bucket list, the Oregon Coast, a trip we have wanted to do for a very long time.

It was the beautiful beaches and vistas that attracted us, similar to the Great Ocean Road we traveled in South Australia in 2012. The views did not disappoint!

Sea Scags make for breathtaking sites. Rialto Beach, Washington

Rialto Beach, Washington

Ruby Beach, Washington

Ruby Beach, Washington

Seaside, Oregon - beautiful but cold water, only about 12 Celsius! 

Looking South from Arch Cape

The view of Cannon Beach, Oregon from Ecola State Park

Cannon Beach Rock and Haystack

Cannon Beach, Oregon

Rockaway Beach Arch

Oyster Shell

Cape Lookout, Oregon

Cape Lookout, Oregon

Cape Kiwanda, Oregon

Cape Kiwanda Haystack, Oregon

Immense logs on many of the beaches from the huge trees.  For more trees, check out the next blog!

Visitors in Victoria

Having lived in Edmonton for a long time, living in a tourist town is a new experience for us.

The best part is people come and visit us!  We’ve had lots of visitors this summer who want to see us and the sights.  So we went to see the sights with them… thus getting to know our new town even better.

Some highlights.

Keith’s daughter and son-in-law Kristine and Jeremy and granddaughter Mary came for a week.  We had Mary all to our selves for a couple of days so we took her to:

Moss Street Market to eat organic strawberries

Beacon Hill Park to see the peacocks

and pet the goats 

What's Victoria without a walk (or ride on Grandpa's back) on the beach?

Hatley Castle aka Royal Roads University

The gardens at Hatley Castle

 My sister was just here visiting Mum on Pender.  She came over to Victoria and we decided to try out the restaurant at the Robert Bateman Gallery which overlooks the Inner Harbour.  We also experienced a tea and chocolate tasting at Silk Road, which have been operating in Victoria for 23 years and even grow some of their own tea on the south island.

My sister Jennifer and my Mum and I at Medicine Beach, Pender Island

Jen, me and Keith at the Steamship Grill with the Coho Ferry behind us 

Jen and I at a tea and chocolate tasting at Silk Road Teas

.

Surprises!

Some people don't like surprises, even the spontaneous, fun and well intentioned ones.
I don't mind them.  I've had lots of good surprises in my life.
It was my birthday yesterday.  My Mother invited me over to Pender Island, where she lives, for the day. She said to bring old clothes as I would be doing something creative but she wouldn't say what.
So I packed my bag and Keith dropped me off at the ferry terminal bright and early in the morning.

As I sat on the ferry for the 40 minute ride e-mails and texts kept coming in on my phone from friends and family from all over the world. I couldn't believe how many people remembered my birthday. I was feeling very blessed!

My Mum and her husband picked me up at the Otter Bay ferry terminal on Pender and as we were walking to the car I heard someone singing Happy Birthday.  I turned around and there to my shock was my Aunt Judy - my mother's sister and her daughter, my cousin Angela.

Aunt Jude, Mum, Allen and Angela

When we arrived at the house a craft table full of stuff - styrofoam, tin foil, wire, masking tape etc.had been set up for us to do Paverpol, a Dutch invention that is a form of goop that covers these items to make ornaments of any size and shape.
Here we are ready to go.

And here are two of our creations, my owl and Angela's birds.
They still need a final coat of paint and finishing touches but they are pretty good for a day of fun and playing!
A day of surprises!

Choices

The following is my one minute convocation speech which I delivered to the graduates of the 16 health and human service programs at Camosun College. 

Good morning graduates,

I bet we look like we’ve stepped out of a Harry Potter novel.  

My VP, John Boraas, and I in my Flinders finery

To quote that popular story, headmaster, Dumbledore said:

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

Think about it.

When you reflect on your journey here, the choices you made were crucial, right?

Some of those choices were good ones – like taking a break before starting school or getting extra help from the writing centre.

Some choices may have not been so wise? Remember? Parents I’m sure you remember?

Your instructors, your family and friends supported you to make good choices and are here today continuing that support. 

Your supporters deserve applause!

And despite your talent, smarts and experience, which you have in abundance, it was being able to make choices that led you on your journey.

You had a choice.

As you go out in the world with the knowledge and skills you gained in your program in the school of HHS I want you to remember.

Not everyone has a choice.

I am here on this stage today because I had choices. 

My mother had musical talent and good grades.  But as a young woman in the 1950s she had limited access to college, contraception, or career choices. 

As we have learned through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, generations of First Nations children and their parents had no choice in being sent to residential school.   

And the working poor in our city, in some cases single parents with young children, have limited choices for nutritious food at over-subscribed food banks.

Smoking, drug use and homelessness are not a choice.

As you leave today and head out to support and serve people in the community help them to have choices and… do what you can to make the healthy choice the easy choice. 

You will change the world.

Congratulations and best wishes! 

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg

I returned to Winnipeg last week, a city I lived in during my formative years. 

Having been born and raised in the cosmopolitan city of Montreal, moving to Winnipeg in my early teens was a huge let down. My father thought it would be romantic to travel by train to our new home. He seemed to forget that it was it was the dead of the winter. There wasn’t much to see and our poor small dog had to stay in an unheated rail car.

This was our first site upon arrival!

I had no friends for the first few months.  I came home one Friday from school to ask my parents if I could attend a rumble. I recall my father looking at me incredulously asking:  “A rumble? I haven’t heard that word since the 50s!”

But I survived. I went to high school as well as graduated with a degree from the University of Manitoba. I made lots of friends and through my first marriage, gained a family, with whom I am still in touch.

Winnipeg hasn’t really changed much.

My father still lives there. He and I visited The Canadian Museum of Human Rights.  It’s the only national museum outside of Ottawa. The architecture alone is stunning but the 7 floors and tower with a view of the famous ‘Muddy Waters” is filled with stories of the diversity of human rights issues in Canada and elsewhere.

St. Boniface Cathedral 

As I read and interacted with the exhibits, it struck me how many times while growing up in Winnipeg I faced a human rights issue.  Whether working with marginalized aboriginal youth, helping my gay friends to conceal their sexuality, sitting beside two older couples at Winnipeg Beach and noticing that both men had numbers tattooed on their forearms - survivors of the holocaust; or the racism my father-in-law faced as a Canadian-born person of Chinese descent, especially being married to my mother-in-law who was not Chinese.  

The Redress Project  - Engaging people about Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women 

In fact it was because of the FLQ Crisis in Montreal, and the resulting War Measures Act, that my family relocated to Winnipeg in 1973.

The museum educates its visitors on human rights struggles, and challenges us to action.  I was inspired and hopeful that the world has changed and is moving towards respect for all peoples, regardless of race, religion, colour or sexual preference.  

I intend to do my part to protect human rights.  

Hope

I forget that people read and even enjoy my blog until someone reminds me I haven’t blogged in a long time.

So here goes.

I was in Toronto last week for a conference and to visit some colleges.

Living in Victoria, the flashy skyscrapers, hustle and bustle and wealth of Bay Street have become foreign to me. 

In contrast to the opulence, Toronto is the place where social democrat Jack Layton started his political career as a City Counsellor before he went on to be the leader of the federal NDP and official opposition and who knows, had fate not intervened, probably the next prime minister.

I met Jack when he was in Edmonton on the campaign tour in 2011, a couple of months before he died.

He was short in stature, charismatic, smart, focused on restoring social programs, ensuring equitable wealth distribution, appropriately taxing corporations and helping the middle class.

Here is a photo of me (and Jack) at a memorial to him which says “Jack's Got your Back”. 

 

 

 

When he died most of the country felt that we’d lost hope.

But hope was restored this week when Rachel Notley swept Alberta to a majority NDP government. Some of the adjectives I used to describe Jack also describe Rachel.

And her victory speech was reminiscent of Jack. 

 

As Jack said: “My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.”

I am optimistic!