90 days ago

Tags

CCOA, Charlottetown, Dunes Gallery, first quarter, new home, PEI

It has now been 3 months since we moved to Prince Edward Island. We are now settled into our new home and have a life routine. It was a lot of work setting up house, more so than I can remember, the last time being in 2011. There was a lot of little details, by changing Province you also have to get a new driver’s permit, car licence and registration, Provincial Health card with its 3 month wait period. Also have to change address with people like the National Revenue Agency, so that income tax is calculated based on your new Province of residence.  Then there is work around the house, painting, decorating, arranging closets and emptying boxes. so many details, enough to make your head spin.

All the while discovering this new Province, the smallest in Canada with a total landmass of 5,656 sq. km (2184 sq. mi) and a population of 140,000 people. Everything seems to be 30 minutes away.

I got my family pass to enter the National Parks where some of the nicest beaches in North America are located. We now have a butcher, 2 green grocers and 2 gardening centres where we can buy annual flowers and plants for our balcony. I think my favourite spot is Point Prim where the oldest lighthouse of the Island is located. I have discovered that we do have a lot of lighthouses on the Island given the rocky and dangerous coastline.

I also like to go to Brackley Beach and visit Dunes with its beautiful gardens. http://www.dunesgallery.com

I also started a new volunteer job at the Art Gallery of the Confederation Centre for the Arts. http://www.confederationcentre.com/en/  This keeps me fairly busy and I am enjoying myself.

It has been a good 3 months and every morning I sit on my balcony, enjoying my espresso and just looking at the park and the river and all the activities on the water or at the marina, a morning ritual I follow, listening to the CBC Island Morning. Speaking of which for PRIDE Week in PEI, 25-30 July, the Island has turned this event into a big festival where everyone is participating. The street intersections in Charlottetown have been painted in the colour of the rainbow flag, the CBC has changed the colours of its corporate logo from Red to rainbow colour, etc. It seems that Pride Week is just another excuse to have lots of fun.

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Ethics and where we stand

Tags

Ethics, film, Germany, Goebbels, history, morality, Nazi, office politics, Pomsel

I came across the name of Brunhilde Pomsel and the award winning film A German Life which is to be released in North America today 24 July 2016. http://www.a-german-life.com/trailer/

Although Brunhilde Pomsel always described herself as just being a side-line figure and not at all interested in politics, she nevertheless got closer to one of the worst criminals in world history than anyone else presently alive. Today aged 105, Pomsel used to work as secretary, stenographer and typist for the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Brunhilde Pomsel’s life mirrors the major historical ruptures of the 20th century and German life thereafter. Nowadays, many people presume that the dangers of war and fascism have long been overcome. Brunhilde Pomsel makes it clear that this is certainly not the case. “A German Life” forces viewers to ask themselves what they would have done and whether they would have sacrificed any possible moral principles in order to advance their own careers. Her extraordinary biography and unique personal journey into the past lead to disturbing and timeless questions:

Have we moved on or are we still unclear about our own morals and humanity and more importantly:
Where do I stand on these issues today?

Evil is never far from us and it is important that we ask ourselves questions, privately, no need to stand on a public square,  as an exercise in reflection on who we are and on where we stand on important moral and ethical issues. I am not talking here about liking this or that or making mundane crowd choices where we know that we are unlikely to be challenged because we reflect the majority view.

Is advancing your own career or making money and getting that promotion more important to you than taking a moral stand, even quietly, refusing to go along because you know it is morally wrong. It is easy, even today to blame Germany and the Germans for the 12 years of the Nazi dictatorship, they lost the war and the losers are always wrong. So it is easy to blame them even 75 years after the fact and knowing that the those who lived then are now dead. Only survivors like Brunhilde Pomsel can remind us that the monopoly of evil does not lie with one group but is something all of us, individually or in a group are quite capable of, it is human nature after all, but we are imbued with the capacity to reason and make choices, moral choices and ethical ones and take a different course of action.

Since 1945 there have been other conflicts in the world, other genocides to numerous to name and there are horrible conflicts now. We are quick nowadays with the internet to take position on a question, thanks to the Media who fans obsessively news items making us fearful of those who are different or by misrepresenting facts to get a reaction.

At 105 Pomsel is at the end of her life and beyond what we may think of her. She speaks as someone who will be leaving soon and has nothing to gain or loose. In her life testimony she forces us to see that as humans we do whatever will benefit us and maybe this is why the Nazi were at first, successful. But they are not the only ones to have been successful with ideology and mass communication and manipulation. We are so willing to believe what ever our leaders say. It is also important to remember that it does not have to be a stark choice like the ones of the Nazi dictatorship period. It can be questions on immigration, social justice, minority groups, etc or simply something in society that is unjust.

What I found frightening about her testimony is how willing she was to look away simply to get ahead, she does say I was not interested in the politics or the speeches, I was young and I wanted to get ahead, everyone was doing it. On hearing that I thought, I know quite a few people like that, I worked with people like that.

I hope that those who will see this movie will not simply nod their heads and think like donkeys, but make the effort to ask themselves, how would I act in such circumstances or how do I act now when confronted with a situation.

Pomsel says she believes people would have done the same as her and would still do today. I believe her, many would.

 

EOLO

Tags

cruise, EOLO, Italy, Mauro Stoppa, Venice

Many of the vacations we have taken and are taking now are somewhat exotic in the sense that they are not what an average traveller would do, Will is always finding vacation options and ideas based on articles he has read in magazines like Gourmet or Condé Nast and I have to say in the last 40 years it has always been exciting and very different, never mundane. This exclusive cruise to unknown areas of the greater lagoon of Venice is just one example.

Eolo is the name of wind and air in ancient Latin and the symbol of the flat boat cruise on the larger Venice Lagoon. The owner Mauro Stoppa has been operating this cruise to the greater lagoon of Venice since 1998. The greater lagoon of Venice is rarely seen by tourists and few can even imagine it exist. Venice is a lot more than San Marco Square or the Rialto Bridge most people are satisfied in seeing on a day excursion. Little do they realize that they have seen nothing of the real or for that matter ancient Venice. How many go to Torcello or even know it exist? What about all the other islands and farms in this greater lagoon?

Mauro Stoppa who is a retired businessman from the Veneto region, has developed a cruise of 3 to 4 days over the greater lagoon of Venice, using one of the last Venetian flat bed fishing boat, called a Bragozzo and turned it into a cruise boat taking people around various islands and sites and presenting the story of La Serenissima, which is the name of Venice. The boat is used to bring you to various points and also to prepare wonderful meals always served in various ever changing dish ware with colours to go with the theme of the day, in other words very elegant. You do not sleep on the boat, at night we stop in various Palazzi, all truly in magical and exotic settings on the great lagoon.

The cruise we were only had us and another couple from California who were delightful well travelled people.  But groups of up to 6 people can be accommodated which makes for a unique and intimate experience.  On the first night we stopped in Torcello where the original city of Venice stood, nothing remains today except for the great Cathedral built in the year 1000 for the first millennium and everyone thought then that the world would end, funny we thought that in 2000, little changes obviously.

The Cathedral with its 1000 year old mosaics is impressive and one feels the legacy of the ages, of all those centuries of faithful who came to pray or seek sanctuary. That night we stayed in the great Villa of an Italian Senator who only comes to Torcello in August every year, the villa had wonderful gardens with roman ruins and its own vineyard. We tasted this wonderful wine slightly frizzante and a little salty, the vines drink the water of the lagoon, thus the taste. The house was filled with rare books, art works and beautiful furniture, in the morning Mauro’s mother had sent by boat fresh pastries stuffed with apricots from her garden, all of it her creation.

The previous evening we had dinner on the boat, at the back, moored to the dock of the villa on a quiet private little canal by candlelight. Mauro had invited two fellows, one was a surgeon and the other a professor who had jointly written a photo book of the great lagoon in Winter, with stunning photos, Giuseppe Frigo and Paolo Spigariol.

On another day we visited on a lonely little island, not open to the public and ancient monastery founded by Saint Francis of Assisi around 1200. One friar received us, this old fellow had been a missionary in China before 1949 and the communist take over. We also visited a hunting preserve and a fish farm, the farm house dated from the 14th century and had the most impressive stone kitchen where our food was cooked in the same way it would have been during the Renaissance, on a great stone table. Our meals were either fish or a variety of seafood. One day out of the blue a shipment of baby purple artichokes arrived, delivered by a friend of Mauro, who brought his boat alongside ours. Mauro made a tasty risotto with them.

We visited many islands and got the story of each, many stood no more than a foot above the water level. To the South of the lagoon is the City of Chioggia (pronounce KIO JIAH). There Mauro invited us to join him at 04:30am to visit the Fish market when the fisherman return and open the market. There was all manner of sea food, most I did not know the name, but Mauro explained the dishes he could prepare with this or that fish or sea food. He bought whatever we wanted and prepared dishes for us.

You can consult the site of EOLO at http://www.cruisingvenice.com/the-lagoon/

 

Eolo at the Island of Torcello in the great lagoon of Venice 

 

The Northern Sea shore

Tags

Beaches, Canada., Parks, PEI, Seashore

I live in Charlottetown and the Capital faces the Hillsborough River and further afield the Straits of Northumberland and the Mainland of Canada, all visible from the city. So today I went down hwy 15 to the PEI National Park which has some of the beaches on the North side of the Island, such as Dalvay, Covehead, Brackley Beach, Stanhope. From Charlottetown to the PEI National Park it is about 25 minutes by car. The beaches are clean, well kept, with people here and there, some stretches you are on your own. The road of the park is newly paved and a new bridge has been installed at Covehead. Parking in the park is in designated areas only and is free, there is also a bicycle trail and lots of paths. Nature conservation is the name of the game, so no dogs and people are asked to keep to the paths and not walk on the dunes which are fragile. Some weeks ago I got a Family Season pass to enter the National Park so you save money. On the way back home I decided to follow the road and exited the Park at the other end, then on Hwy 6 to Tracadie and turning right unto Hwy 2 back into the City. This was helpful to my understanding of road directions, I took Hwy 2 a few days ago to go to Mount Stewart and recognized the name of places. Hwy 2 becomes St-Peter’s Road to Longworth and then I am home down Prince Street. Coming into the City by St-Peter’s Road I past Jewell a well known Ice Cream, fresh fruit, vegetable, bake goods and garden centre.

Here are some photos of today’s excursion.

The beach at Stanhope, pines in the background, dunes, a few people here and there.

At some points, there is a line of dead pine trees, grey and dried up, immediately behind them are beautiful pines forming a thick curtain against the sea wind.

A broken and washed up lobster trap on the beach

there is also some drift wood washed up on the beach, the sea water and wind has polished the wood giving it the look of stone.

Dalvay by the Sea on Dalvay Lake. The beach and the seashore are just to the right. This former private home built in 1895 is now an exclusive hotel, it is quite beautiful inside, as a protected building it has kept much of its former grandeur. This so called summer cottage was used by the MacDonald family. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had a canoe race on this lake in 2011 during their visit to the Island.

Aerial view of the area

The house was built in 1895 by Alexander MacDonald, a wealthy businessman and one-time president of Standard Oil Company with John D. Rockefeller. He named the house “Dalvay By The Sea” after his boyhood home in Scotland.

Spring lobster season 2016 — Mussel Beach

Tags

Canada., cuisine, Food, lobster, Musselbeach.wordpress.com, PEI

Something so Prince Edward Island, I thought I would re-blog this entry from a blog I follow entitled Mussel Beach. musselbeach.wordpress.com

 

No recipe today, just gratuitous lobster photos from the spring season that ended at the end of June. We didn’t get to the wharf as often as we usually like to. So we made the most of the opportunities we had. I packed up my propane lobster cooker (I think it was actually designed in order […]

via Spring lobster season 2016 — Mussel Beach

Exploring the Island

Tags

Food, horses, Mount Stewart, Music, PEI, Travel

When you live on the Island you quickly realize that you are never far from any destination. At most the next big town Summerside, pop: 14,000, is 50 minutes from Charlottetown. Most other points are about 20 to 30 minutes which in terms of commuting is minimal. How many times in any large city you need one hour in traffic just to get to a destination within the city. In some cases you may need more time and anyone living in a large city knows this.

Here it is the opposite, I am 8 minutes from the Airport, 5 minutes from any major retail outlet, I can walk to everything else. People go to their cottage which is 20 minutes away, might as well say I live in another part of the city. What is funny though is that Islanders will say that such and such destination is too far if it is more than 10 minutes away by car.

On one afternoon this past  week I decided to go to Point Prim, which is a finger of land jutting out into the Strait of Northumberland and on which stands the oldest lighthouse still in use of the Island. It is also the only round lighthouse in Canada built in 1845. It welcomes ships entering the mouth of the Hillsborough River and the port of Charlottetown. The Island has many lighthouses due to the very rough and dangerous coastline. I left Charlottetown by crossing the Causeway Bridge over the Hillsborough River into Stratford and down the Highway to road 209 which is a dead end, since it ends at the lighthouse. I was there in 25 minutes, little to no traffic on a quiet road with great vista.

The Point Prim Lighthouse, it is automated since 1969 and maintained by the Canadian Coast Guard. The architect of the Lighthouse Isaac Smith will go on to build more famous buildings in Charlottetown, namely Province House which is the Legislative building of the Province built in 1847 in Georgian style and Fanningbank, the Official Residence of the Lieutenant Governor of PEI in Palladian Style in 1834.

Point Prim Chowder House restaurant only open from June to end of September. Open daily from Noon to 8pm.

Marguerites on the road side.

There is no sand beaches here, it is all red sandstone. The land in the distance is Charlottetown and Rocky Point.

The men responsible for building this lighthouse were George Coles and Edward Palmer, they were shareholders in an outfit called the Prince Edward Island Steam Navigation Company, the land was given by Lord Selkirk, who had developed a scheme to resettled Scotsmen and their families, since they were being pushed off (clearing) the land in Scotland. The idea of building this lighthouse was to protect Mail Ships coming into Charlottetown Harbour from the mainland, the ships were privately owned and the contract was very lucrative. The Mail Ship was an important and vital link between the Island and the mainland, without the guidance at night of this lighthouse the approach to the Island is dangerous and many ships sank on the rocks prior to its erection. When the Steam Ship carrying the delegates to the Charlottetown Conference in 1864 approached the Island, the beam of the Point Prim Light house guided them safely.

On HWY 209 I came upon this tree decorated with boat buoys in various colours, looks like a Xmas tree

A few days ago I also went to Mount Stewart, travel time 20 minutes,  to have dinner at the Trailside Music Café & Inn and to listen to Andrew Hunter and the band Royal North perform. Now on the Island we have a lot of areas named Mount Edward, Mount Stewart, Mount Mellick, Mount Herbert, etc. however do not look for a mountain, there is none, it designated at one point a community, some have disappeared but the local name stays on the maps.

Mount Stewart had a train station, which is a bakery nowadays and it is still a functioning community. The Trailside Music Café & Inn is owned by a young couple Meghann and Patrick. trailside.ca

The building was originally built by community residents in 1937 to house the first cooperative store on Prince Edward Island. Known by local residents as “The Coop”, it operated as a general store, saw mill and potato warehouse until the 1970s. In 1996, Doug Deacon and his family took over the place and made the badly needed repairs. The Deacon family successfully restored the place into an Inn, café, and bicycling rental shop until 2011. It is now an important music venue, twice nominated in the last few years as the best music venue in Canada. The food is also very good with a nice affordable wine list and great cocktails.

Next to the Inn is the Confederation Trail which runs on what use to be the rail road tracks. It is now used by pedestrians and bicyclist to tour the Island from one end to the other. Meaning that you go through communities as you walk or bicycle, like the train did. Many old train stations have been turned into shops, bars, restaurants featuring local food and goods, it’s low key and not commercial in a touristy way, which is refreshing.

Nearby is the Hillsborough River, designated a Canadian Heritage River in 1997. This river was a very important resource for the Mi’kmaw people and was the main transportation route for transportation route for the Europeans who came to settle the Island.

Royal North Band in concert at the Trailside Music Café & Inn

Featured coming musical attractions, the regulars know these artists who perform in the Maritimes.

The United Church across the street

On a quiet morning, as I was walking up Great George Street, I came upon the lady who drives this old fashion bus with her horses who each weigh 1900 lbs. or just under a ton. One is named Cookie, am not sure of the name of the other. She also has a team of black horses.

Sunset at Point Prim

Tags

PEI, Point Prim, Seafood

This photo taken from the deck of the Point Prim Chowder House, a famous seafood restaurant next to the oldest lighthouse (1845) on PEI, this is a well known place for the spectacular sunsets and it is recommended you go, if for no other reasons but to see the Sun setting into the Strait of Northumberland. It is only 30 minutes down the road from Charlottetown, so stay for dinner at the Point Prim Chowder House, the food is the best and highly recommended.  http://www.chowderhousepei.com, they are open from Noon Time to 8pm so you can have lunch or dinner, half of the restaurant’s tables is on the deck facing the Hillsborough Bay. You need reservations to dine here, usually 24 to 48 hours notice. I was told that the Steamer Pot on the menu is highly recommended, it is composed of  jumbo crab legs, quahogs, mussels, and fresh fish steamed in a ratatouille stew. They also have a lot of daily specials, fish and lobster. The restaurant is only open from June to end September being exposed to the sea it would be too rough and cold in winter.

Church at Point Prim, typical Island architecture for a church not made of red sandstone, the steeple is always two tones in colour, making it distinctive.

Point Prim is truly a magical place, so quiet and rugged, you just don’t want to leave.

 

 

In Lobster City

Tags

Canada., Charlottetown, lobster, PEI, Seafood, tourism

With the opening of the Lobster fishing Season in late March in the waters around PEI there is a lot of Lobster on the market. Because of dwindling stocks and raising prices, one pound lobster is sold in restaurants from $25. to $31. and the two pounder is over $40 dollars. The little canners are now banned, too immature and a measure in need of preserving stocks. Seafood stocks in general are down 40% due to over fishing in the Maritimes. Fishermen over fished the Cod and the Atlantic Salmon and now it is all farmed which is pretty awful when you think of it, especially if you are old enough to remember the taste of it before it disappeared. A bit like the worm infested Tilapia fish sold frozen in supermarkets.

Charlottetown does not have a Fish Market, which is surprising given the amount of fish brought to shore, it has stores like Mr.Seafood which sells fresh seafood and fish. There are also many restaurant in the Capital serving Oysters and seafood and out of town eateries like the famous Point Prim Chowder House in Belfast PEI. http://www.chowderhousepei.com

Point Prim Lighthouse, PEI

But right across the street from my humble abode is the Water Prince Corner Store, the old corner store disappeared years ago but the name endure and this gold mine of a seafood restaurant is open from May to October only. The owner was a former bricklayer who purchased the property and re-invented himself into a restaurateur. In the process he did very well. This very simple restaurant is known for its Lobster at one , one and a half and two pounds, cooked in the traditional way and served with lemon juice. Nothing fancy here, just honest seafood. He also export the world over. The menu also has many other seafood items prepared in the traditional way, it is all good. It must be if you consider the line ups from lunchtime to dinner.

Happy tourists stuffing their faces with seafood at the Water Prince

Despite the empty tables outside the inside is standing room only. 

Lunch crowd gathers, people fight for tables.

Public transport for tourists

Coming down Prince Street to pick up the happy wanderers off the cruise ship.

We also have Lobster Ice Cream now which is available from certain restaurants for a short period. Now this is not as strange as you might think, a few years ago in Sicily in the town of Ragusa we came upon a very well known ice cream shop which had Beet Ice cream amongst the many un-traditional flavours, I tried it and can say it was quite good.

You can also get for breakfast at the Farmer’s Market on Belvedere street Oysters on the half-shelf at 10am, now in my book that beats eggs and bacon any day, which just go to show how civilized Charlottetown is.

 

I am the personal attendant to Nicky

Tags

Capena, dachshunds, Dr. Buzzanca, Italy, Roma

We have had Dachshunds for 26 years now, the first two where a smooth hair female and the other was a long hair male. In 2009 we got our two wire hair Dachshunds in Rome, they are not related. This breed is known for being stubborn and controlling, they always try to control the situation and see how far they can push things.

Our Nicky who is 7 years old now comes from a line of show dogs, his father was Hungarian-Italian, National Champion in Italy and also in the EU. Nicky is very clever and calculating, he only weighs 7 Kg and is a miniature Dachshunds but that does not stop him.

Like dog of this breed he has loads of personality and is very different from Eleonora (Nora) our female Dachshund whose comes from a line of Champion Boar hunting family. She has the hunter instinct, is very determined and independent.

Here is Nora watching the park across the street for anything that might need her to raise the alarm, which she does with regularity.

Both of them speak, using facial expressions, looks and an endless modulation of whines, grunts, puffing through the nose, low growls, barking, paw stomping, to signal what they expect from us.

Meal time is a fix time exercise, God help me if I am late or forget, Nicky becomes agitated and you feel he is upset and will complain to management for poor service. Nora will let him do the circus number but you can tell she too is none too happy about tardiness. Both are walked separately because of question of the order of precedence and who leads, it is complicated.  Dachshunds are very difficult to train as dogs, they can easily be trained to track and hunt from birth, which they do naturally as it is a breed characteristic. But the other stuff house dogs do, they don’t.

With Nicky, he does not like to walk, so we do not go out for a walk, we simply go out for a simple do my business here and here and back in the house we go. If I want to go further, I have to carry him, put him down and then he will walk back quickly home. You may wonder well what if you don’t carry him, Nicky sits down and simply proceeds to ignore me completely. Treats don’t work, he does not walk, how difficult is that to understand.

Nora on the other hand loves to walk, run, jump and use her nose as a radar, sniff out things, run after the big black Crows, we have a lot of them and they are an aggressive bird. On the other hand Nicky ignores it all, as if he is above it all.  He also does not like to go out after dark, too scary, or if it rains or snows, no not going out unless an umbrella is provided. Try moving a miniature Dachshund, Nicky can make himself weigh 10 tons simply by his will power.

The Farm in Capena, minutes from Rome, where Nicky and Nora were born in 2009, owned by the well known Veterinarian Massimo Buzzanca and his spouse Tiziana Tola.

 

PEI Strawberries

Tags

Oysters, PEI, Potato, Strawberries

Well from mid-June to sometime in July it is Strawberry time here on the Island. They are luscious, very sweet, no sugar needed and have a strong pungent strawberry perfume, something I had not encountered since childhood, so use we are to imported fruits from the other side of the Earth who are usually stale upon arrival due to excessive refrigeration. PEI strawberries are also cheaper to buy by about $2.00 a pound box if compared with the awful imported stuff from Loblaws (Atlantic). What I found truly stupid was Loblaws importing blueberries from British Columbia which is 7 hours by air from PEI on the other side of the country on the Pacific. You can get blueberries here or on the mainland some 90 minutes away. You should have seen the price.

If we do not have Beaujolais Nouveau we have instead PEI New Potato which are now in the market and quite good.

I am also looking into this old saying which nowadays with modern refrigeration does not appear to apply anymore.

“Only eat oysters in months with an ‘R.'” This little pearl of folk wisdom carries some truth, since the months without the letter “R” in their names (May through August) coincide with summer in the Northern Hemisphere.

The advice dates back at least to 1599, when it appeared in Englishman Henry Buttes’ cookbook, “Dyets Dry Dinner,” though some historians trace it to an ancient Latin saying.

Warm months, historically, made for bad or even toxic oysters for a number of reasons: First, in the days before refrigeration, shellfish were more likely to spoil in the heat. Second, the summer months mark spawning season for oysters. Since most of their energy goes toward reproduction, the oysters’ meat can become unpleasantly thin and milky.

This warning, however, applies only to oysters and shellfish you might harvest on your own. Commercial oyster farms employ enough safeguards that oysters you buy at the supermarket or in restaurants usually stay safe year-round.

Combined with modern refrigeration, and the use of non-spawning oysters in farms, the old reasoning behind the R-month advice mostly falls apart today — as long as you refrain from amateur oystering when it’s hot. Because once an oyster goes bad, no amount of cooking will make it safe.

Evening sky as seen from the house.

The setting sun from our kitchen window over the park looking South