Candy

Tags

All souls, Canada., Candy, Chocolate, corpses, Death, eternity, ghost, haunted, witches

Well another Halloween, this year did not buy a pumpkin, no candies, just quiet at home, it is the first time in my life that I have not gotten a pumpkin. No point in doing anything since where we live there are no kids and being in the tourist district, now that the Season is over, everything is closed until May next year. So it is very quiet here and pleasant. This is one section of Charlottetown that dies after Thanksgiving and will not come back to life until May 1 when the first cruise ship arrives, still most businesses will be closed until June 1, so you wonder why bother having visiting cruise ships, nothing to see.

We are going to a Halloween party tomorrow night at the Club and I think it will be fun.

A myth has been debunked by the media surrounding Halloween candy, apparently since 1958 there have been 200 reports of tampered candy and this has raised a lot of concerns amongst certain parent groups and media types who love click bait and ratings.

In Canada no children has ever been sick or died from so call tampered candies. It appears from Police investigations that it is a hoax. I remember as a child going out trick or treating  and coming home with a loot, in all those years never saw nor heard of anyone being poisoned. But there was always someone in need of 5 minutes of fame who made some kind of complaint about candy handed out. Then all manner of suggestions were made to protect children, basically keep them home and buy your kids candy. That way total freak control.  In fact the only death of a child by cyanide poisoning happened in the USA, the father poisoned his own child with candy laced with cyanide. He thought that if he told police that he could not remember where he got the candy they would assume that is was somewhere in the neighbourhood. But after a careful investigation it came back to this fellow who got the death penalty in 1984.

I also found a very useful chart of wine pairing with halloween candy, I am sure we can all use it.

Well happy Halloween to you all!

 

 

 

Singers and Palaces

Tags

Alexander Palace, Architecture, Europe, Italy, Nicholas II, Revolution, Romanov

We went to the Pour House / Old Triangle which is a pub on Great George street in Charlottetown for the first night of Winter Jazz. The band featured well known professional musicians and singer Dylan Menzie of Belle River, PEI. Dylan has a great voice and an easy way with the audience.  I did not know about Winter Jazz, year round we go to Island Jazz but this is different, the calibre of the artists seems better. We are going again on 15 November to hear another artist, Erin Costello from Halifax.

Both Menzie and Costello have won awards for their work and are successful. Again the music scene in PEI is great.

Now on a completely different topic, I have been interested all my life by history and archeology of sites around the world. I really enjoyed our time in Rome and travelling in Italy for all the ancient site one could explore and try to understand. Near Rome next to Fiumicino Airport is the original site of the ancient Port of Ostia with its great basins and warehouses, you can see how ships arriving from Egypt with their cargo where un-loaded and re-loaded on flat bottom barges to be floated down 35 Km on the Tiber river to the City of Rome. A site few people know because it is in a isolate and wild area once part of a Princely Estate, though it is next door literally from the Airport terminal. There are many other sites, in Jordan I visited many times the Graeco-Roman city of Gerasa or Jerash as it is know today. Built by the Romans it is fascinating to see, it is said to be one of the best preserved city of the Decapolis, it is mentioned in Mark 5.1  and Luke 8.26.

The Jordanian Government with the help of international archeological experts have preserved and enhanced Jerash. You can walk its streets and understand what a great city it was in its time.

In Poland which was devastated by the Second World War, cities like Warsaw were rebuilt to recreate the buildings lost thus reviving national history. Many other countries have done the same.

With the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union,  Russia has rediscovered its past, it is no longer taboo to talk about Imperial Russia or the Tsars. In the last 30 years much has been done to restore history to its rightful place. Vladimir Putin who is from St-Petersburg has invested enormous amounts of money to restore the former Imperial Capital. We visited the city a few years ago and I would love to go back to see more of it.

It is a city of Palaces and its suburb Tsarkoye Selo (Tsar’s Village) was the private residence of the Romanovs since Peter the Great built it. It is a collection of Palaces and great Orthodox churches more splendid one from the other. The Second World War saw St-Petersburg endure a brutal siege of 900 days and more than 1 million city residents died, mostly of starvation. Much of the Palaces and gardens of Tsarkoye Selo where savagely vandalise, looted and destroyed. What you see today when you visit is extensively re-built and restored. Historical photos show the extent of the damage and it is a miracle to see it all re-born.  Some of it was rebuilt in the 1950’s but most of it has been restored in the last 25 years and some is still on-going at great expense and it involves a great deal of expert artistry. Russia appears to have an army of incredible artists who toil at recreating the past.

 

Peterhof a baroque palace built for the wife of Peter the Great by Domenico Trezzini 1714-28. The top photo shows the palace in 1944 the bottom photo shows the palace today. A miracle of restoration. We visited it and it is impressive. 

Currently the Alexander Palace built in 1792 by Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi is being refurbished. This palace was built by Catherine the Great as a gift to her grandson Alexander who would become Tsar and fight Napoleon. He is the Tsar in the novel Tolstoy, War and Peace.

Later in 1905 this palace would become a residence for the last Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their 5 children. The family lived there and not at the Winter Palace in town for security reasons. The Winter Palace was used only for Official matters, the Alexander Palace was a private residence. After the Tsar abdicated in March 1917, they lived for a time in the Palace until their arrest and deportation to Siberia, they were murdered by the Bolcheviks in July 1918 on the orders of Lenin. It was President Boris Yeltsin who gave the late Imperial Family a State Funeral and invited the senior Romanovs and others to come to St-Petersburg for the funeral in 1998. The Russian Orthodox church declared them Holy Martyrs.

After the abolition of the monarchy the Palace is then turned into a museum, but little by little all the personal artifacts belonging to the Tsar’s family is either looted by the Bolcheviks, sold off in international art markets. Some will end up in other palaces like Pavlovsk where it remains to this day.

During the Second World War the Alexander Palace is destroyed by fire and looted by the German Army. It will remain largely a ruin until the 1990’s when efforts are made to renovate and rebuild. In the last 10 years, enormous efforts have been underway to bring the Palace back to its former glory, in 2020 eight rooms will be re-opened to the public and by 2022 it is hoped that the entire palace can be completed. It will be a permanent Memorial to the Family of Nicholas II since it was their family home.

The left side of the Palace were the apartments of the Tsarina and her 5 children, the right side of the building was reserved for the Tsar. The palace itself is surrounded by enormous gardens with all manner of features, like a play house for the children, bridges over ponds, a hunting lodge for the Tsar and fantastical constructions to amuse and decorate the gardens.

The Romanovs employed both Italian architects and French garden designers, Charles Cameron a Scot was hired by Catherine the Great as her personal architect. She loved Roman antiquities and the neo-classical style.

Needless to say the restoration of these palaces is a great asset in promoting tourism and the Russian State and the regional authorities in St-Petersburg have done a lot to ensure that the memory of the Romanov are kept alive.

Here are some photos of the work done so far. Remember that the Alexander Palace was in a very poor state.

The Maple room in 1945 used by the Tsarina as a living room.

The Mountain Hall in 1946 with Soviet Officials posing.

Another room in 1946, the tiles around the ruins of the fireplace are a deep greenish blue glaze.

Second floor rooms waiting restoration. Structural work has already been done.

The Maple room in 1920 some decorative elements have already disappeared, most of the large plants are gone. Much worse was to come. This room is under complete re-construction now since the war devastated the palace.

Some elements were saved by the Communist Curators of the Palace before the arrival of the German army in 1941.

Some pieces of furniture did survive, because they were taken away before the war. This lapis-lazuli console table has been returned to the Palace.

Original furniture and tiger skin rug which also survived, easier to move smaller objects in an evacuation. Now returned to the Palace.

The Turkish Bath of the Tsar just completed with a large pool. This room had to be totally re-built and the tiles recreated from fragments found on the premises. Many photos of the era also helped.

The study of the Tsar another room just completed in the renovations.

The Maple room undergoing a complete reconstruction, this included recreating the delicate plaster work of guirlandes of flowers in an art nouveau style.

The great library getting a new floor which will be an exact copy of the original.

Ornate ceiling recreated.

This work at the Alexander Palace has been on-going for 8 years now. I cannot help thinking that once it is completed it will remain a very sad place knowing the fate of this inhabitants in 1917. Somewhat like the Miramar Palace in Trieste, once the home of Maximilian of Hapsburg and his wife Charlotte, before they accepted to move to Mexico at the invitation of Napoleon III to rule that country until Maximilian was executed by Mexican revolutionaries in 1867. His wife Empress Charlotte of Belgium returned to Europe but suffered a life of mental illness, living in seclusion and dying in 1927, quickly forgotten by her royal relatives in Austria, Belgium and Britain.

 

 

 

 

41 Months

Tags

bigots, Canadians, myths, PEI

We have lived on this Island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence for 41 months. Prince Edward Island is the smallest province geographically and population wise. Prior to 1769 it was part of the Colony of Nova Scotia (Now Province of ), in 1769 the Island of St-John became an independent colony of British North America and in 1799 the name of the Island was changed to Prince Edward Island to celebrate one of the many sons of King George III and Queen Charlotte. It turns out that Edward would be the father of Victoria, later Queen. He died in 1820, the year after her birth, so Victoria never knew her father.

The French known as Acadians settled on the Island from 1720 coming mostly from Isle Royale (Cape Breton) and the peninsula we know today as Nova Scotia. Most lived in the Eastern part of the Island until 1750 when they were deported in an act of genocide by British troops, when some later returned after 1770, they settle in the Western part of the Island without any compensation since their farms and houses had been confiscated to be given the English settlers.

So in the developing history of this Island province land ownership became an important topic from the beginning. To this day Island families identify by Lot number and everyone knows where each Lot is located around the Island, indicating ownership but also belonging to the first English, Irish, Scottish settlers after the French. Renting is seen as suitable only for people who are poor and marginal or persons coming to the Island for a short time i.e. 6 months or less.

We rented, in Ontario and Quebec total population 22 million compared to 150,000 in Pei, 75% of the population rent, owning a house is not seen as a priority and is becoming more and more unaffordable.

However in conversation with people we know, the topic of ownership of home comes back all the time. Some people we know own dozens of houses and buildings, including large tracts of land. This in PEI is seen as a sign of great success, of gravitas. People know we rent and will ask; so when are you buying a house or a condo? Why don’t you buy a house since you live here permanently now. Gently being nudge into the real estate market. I always wonder if we would look more acceptable, respectable, more solid kind of folk, if we bought a house. We have owned properties in the past. Currently being renters and living in a house which has stood on this site for 180 years, people know who the original owner was and who is the owner now. Who rented before us, with accompanying stories about them. The rental situation here now is dire with zero vacancy in Charlottetown. As for the housing market it is limited and prices have risen dramatically in the last 3 years. So the question, inflated value for money spent, comes into play.

So the underlying question of these round about conversations is; Why are you not buying? An indirect way of saying, do you have money? Are you worth my talking to you.

The population of the Island is divided along the lines of people whose families have lived here for the last 200 years and those who came here recently, most of whom are Canadians from other Provinces and now some immigrants, though they do not stay in PEI, the Island province has by far the worst retention of newcomers (immigrant) of any Province in Canada. The reasons for this are multiple, lack of housing, lack of jobs or well paid jobs with benefit, lack of quality schools, lack of international airport, the closest one is in Moncton some 2 hours away by road across the Strait and difficulty for anyone who comes here to integrate. It is especially difficult for foreigners and simply difficult for Canadians who come to work or retire in PEI. The Government of the Province does not appear concerned, though it is loosing millions annually in lost investments and opportunity.

So socially speaking the Island divides itself into segments, those who are from away and those who are Islanders. It remains a very white Island and diversity is not really a thing though politicians talk a lot about it.

So all this to say we have been here 41 months and though we have been active socially, I often wonder if we have not reached a plateau now. If you come to live here and think it will be like the rest of Canada, no it won’t in many ways this small Island is a world of its own cut off from the rest of the country, a microcosm you simply have to accept that but you do not have to buy into the myths about this place. I see how other Canadians who came here and invested are treated, polite indifference.

I don’t think we fully realized this when we came here 41 months ago. To be continued…

The bridge across the Northumberland Strait. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Events and Photos

Tags

Brian Burke, Canada., CCAG, Charlottetown, figurative painting, Jazz, Music, Painters

As I said before in Charlottetown we are busier than we ever have been socially. There is always something going on.

In the last 10 days we have been to the opening of the Winter Show of the Art Gallery of the Confederation Centre. A retrospective of the work and life of Brian Burke, displaying 110 paintings,  a small fraction of this life’s work from 1980 top 2016. Burke died at his home in PEI. He had lived in Lucerne, Switzerland until last year. Many of the paintings are from private collections, unseen by the public, some came from Europe. He has a style all his own and you know when you see one that this is Brian Burke.

From The Guardian (Charlottetown) eulogy:

Born in Charlottetown in 1952. “One of PEI  most significant painters, Burke pursued his long interest in expressive figurative painting with passion and commitment. Brian was an artist who inspired a generation with his body of work, and for making his way in the world as a painter and musician.

Over the years, his paintings were exhibited in private and public galleries in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts. His work is in public, corporate and private collections, including the permanent collection of Confederation Centre Art Gallery, TD Trust, the Bank of Nova Scotia and the Canada Council Art Bank.

The Summer Cruises are coming to an end, we saw about 100 ships the biggest carrying 4500 passengers. In one day several ships arrived at once and upwards of 15,000 passengers got off for a 5 hour stop, roaming a 4 block radius of the downtown area of this small town of 36,000 people. Is Charlottetown becoming like Venice ( same square mileage area) Should be like the Mayor of Victoria BC on the Pacific coast call for a reduction in cruise ships and the enormous pollution they bring with them in terms of garbage and air pollution. Difficult to say, the Charlottetown Port Authority is a private concern and they make tons O’Money with the cruise ships and passengers.

According to the Tourism figures of the PEI Government, cruise ship traffic is up 60%, no wonder, we only had about 30 ships a year four years ago now it is close if not at 100 per year or in the Season (May to October). Tourism in other areas like visit to the National Parks is down, tourism by car or coach is also down, only special festivals still bring significant numbers to the Island but this is a one off and no repeat. So our elected officials cling to the cruise ships. However don’t try to get numbers on what this traffic really bring, it’s a big secret and must not be discussed. There is also the problem that after 1 September most businesses dedicated to the tourism traffic close only to re-open on 1 June. So yes we need to think seriously about where we are going with this tourism thingy.

With the artist Tyler Los-Jones and Gallery director Kevin Rice on opening night.

Then here are some city views around the neighbourhood.

Thursday Night Island Jazz at Baba’s Lounge and the 200th show. Every Thursday night of the year, jazz with a variety of musicians from local to international and only $5 bucks. Always fun night to meet friends.

 

 

Smell the flowers

Tags

Dick Van Duijn, flower, Photo, squirrel, Vienna

The Dutch photographer Dick Van Duijn took this photo in Vienna, Austria of a ground squirrel stopping to smell the flower. This was a photo shoot project in a park in Vienna. Taking an entire day to observe the behaviour of ground squirrel. Van Duijn says that this photo was taken at sunset.

This is truly adorable in its simplicity. Stop and smell the flowers.

A blogger in London

Tags

Bethnal green, Gentle author, London, Shoreditch, Spitalfield, Stepney, UK

For some time now I have been reading The Gentle Author who has a blog on an area of London I do not know at all. When you travel to London usually travellers will stay in an around the famous spots and those widely known around the world and miss out on the equally fascinating but not well known unless you happen to live in the Capital and have all the time in the world to explore.

The Gentle Author specializes in unknown places of London but once you read about it you want to see for yourself. Recently he was re-publishing stories he had written about people in the East End of London around Spitalfields, Bethnal Green, Shoreditch, Stepney, a cosmopolitan area of the City, poor and not necessarily affluent. However by reading The Gentle Author  one understands there are lots of treasures to see and appreciate outside of the well trodden path.

Recently there was the story of Malplaquet House a Georgian house at 137–139 Mile End Road, Stepney, London. The four-storey house was built as one of three in 1742 by Thomas Andrews. Here is the link to his blog:

https://spitalfieldslife.com

On 22 October The Gentle Author wrote about the Dead Man of Clerkenwell, a fascinating story and well worth reading, do have a look. He has also written books on topics of interest to him, his most recent on Facadism the modern way of saving historical facade of buildings but demolishing everything else behind. Canada is not spared this architectural fashion. Think of Sherbrooke Street in Montreal in the area of the Musée des Beaux-Arts. Or in other cities like Toronto where giant condo buildings are built behind or on top of much older buildings who are dwarfed by the modern additions.

I find his blog has a way to make you think of what is around you and appreciate it more.

Canada Voted!

Tags

Canada., Liberal, NDP, scheer, Trudeau

Canadians voted on 21 October and the choice was between a progressive social agenda and a corporatist nativist agenda. Parliament has 338 seats, Liberals have 157 seats, the Conservatives (CPC) 121, New Democratic Party (NDP) 24 and the Bloc Quebecois 32. The Green Party does not have official party status in the House of Commons but have secured 3 seats which is a gain of 1 seat for them. There is also 1 sole independent Jody Wilson-Raybould a former Liberal who decided to leave the party over the SNC-Lavallin affair and is now sitting on her own and likely to disappear behind the curtains of the chamber.

You can see by the topics that the progressive social agenda is that of the Liberal and New Democratic Parties of Canada. The Corporatist and nativist agenda is that of the Conservatives under Andrew Scheer. A very stark difference amongst this two group of voters.

Some 27.7 million people had the opportunity to vote yesterday. Canada’s total population is 38 million.

The campaign was extremely divisive, full of hate and at times bordering on the violent. The Conservative not learning from past mistakes under Stephen Harper doubled down with the negative agenda full of fear of what a progressive social agenda would do. Also the Conservatives under Scheer made the mistake to concentrate their campaign on the issue of pipelines and oil which is the sole topic of one province Alberta with a population of 4 million people. Forgetting that World markets at keeping the price of oil low and private companies are not interested in building pipelines. Scheer during the debate made the mistake of telling the French Speaking Province of Quebec what to do and said he would build the pipeline across the territory of Quebec. How could anyone be so clueless.

The Liberal and NDP represent multicultural and pluralistic Canada, the Conservative represent mostly White, Christian, Anglos, gun lobbyist, evangelical christians, if you do not belong to that group, they don’t want to hear from you. But this is the minority in Canada now. Canadians with this election showed that we do not care for American Trump style political campaign. Andrew Scheer who hid the fact that he is an American, until he was outed and had to admit employing Trump campaign strategists and receiving campaign contributions from Republican groups in the USA created a lot of unease amongst Canadian voters.

Trudeau in his first mandate had controversies and broken promises. He is arrogant and his style can grate on people. However he is more of a people person, whereas Scheer is phony as a $3 dollar bill, something the average person can sense.

The News Media especially PostMedia, the Sun, and CTV and the Globe and Mail had concerted campaign with the Conservative Party to attack and create fake news, even now after the Liberal victory, they are still questioning the legitimacy of the Trudeau victory. This is not good for a democracy because it set people up against each other.

The second term of Justin Trudeau in a minority government looks like what happened in 1972 when his father Pierre E. Trudeau got a second mandate with a minority victory.

We will now have continuity and stability. I do not expect the right wing media to stop attacking the government or Quebec or anyone who does not agree with CPC agenda. However the #Scheer nightmare is over, he will be most likely be replaced pretty quickly by a new contender for the Conservative leadership.

A view

Tags

baroque, Berlin, City Palace, Frederick II, Humboldt Forum

One of the great avenues of the world, Unter den Linden (under the linden tree), love walking down this avenue from the Brandenburg Gate to the Island where all the museums and City Palace is located. The avenue is lined with palaces, a University, Opera house, Embassies and 5 star Hotels.

A lot of work has been done since 1989 on the avenue. Including re-installing the old street light designed in the late 19th century at a cost of 60,000 Euros per . Here we see the equestrian statue of Frederick II The Great riding down the avenue. Originally this avenue was the ceremonial street starting at the Gate and ending at the Palace. It was also used to ride into the hunting grounds of the King of Prussia just beyond the Gate in the Tiergarten (520 acres) the best loved park of the city. The pink building in the photo was built by Frederick II it’s the StaatsOpern Berlin built in 1741 and completely restored in the last 5 years. Baroque building of the era usually have soft colors of pink or yellow. Interiors are painted in the favourite colours of Frederick II and used during his reign, green and gold, white and gold or black and gold. Those same colours found their way into his regimental flags. Frederick II is ever present in the centre of the City, he build and designed the whole area during his reign from 1740-1786.

the re-construction of the City Palace will be finished by the end of the year. It will house a museum, library, meetings rooms, conference halls, a restaurant and is now called the Humboldt Forum. A new subway station is also in the final stages behind those barricades.

One of the portals on the North Side of the Palace. Re-built with all of its baroque details.

the dome of the chapel with men working at preparing the footings to receive the Lantern decorated with angels which will be installed shortly once the dome’s covering in copper is completed.

Sketch of the Lantern atop the dome,

Interior portal in one of the interior court. The cartouche F R is for Fredericus Rex.

All the details and figurines you seen are giant and sculpted in sandstone as were the originals.

I hope to return to Berlin for a visit in 2021.

 

 

 

 

Who Gets to be Prime Minister and Why — Philippe Lagassé

Tags

21 October, elections, Parliament, Prime Minister

Philippe Lagassé is an academic and an associate professor and William and Jeanie Barton Chair at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University. His current research focuses on the Crown, the royal prerogative, and legislative-executive relations in Westminster states like Canada.

Currently completing a project on legislative oversight of military affairs and beginning a project prerogative power reform in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Both projects are funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

In addition to his academic work, he is a part-time public office holder with the Government of Canada as a member of the Independent Review Panel for Defence Acquisition.

Professor Lagassé is truly a National treasure in Canada, a very learned fellow for whom I have a great deal of respect. Monday is Election Day in Canada, this is helpful to understand where we are going as Canadians.

 

I recently published an article in Constitutional Forum that analyses the rules of government formation in Canada. You can find the article here (click where it says pdf): https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/constitutional_forum/index.php/constitutional_forum/article/view/29384 To address the current debate about who governs after the 21 October election, I’ve updated my tables:

via Who Gets to be Prime Minister and Why — Philippe Lagassé

Part II London UK

Tags

George II, Germany, Hanover, Hanoverian dynasty, Kensington Palace, London, Peter Pan, Queen Victoria

After our visit to the Victoria exhibit, we re-entered the hall of the Palace and walked up the King’s Staircase to the Royal apartments under the Hanoverian Dynasty. Which started 1714 to 1837.  With the death of Queen Anne having no heir the House of Stuart ended. George I of Hanover was the closest relative, 52sd in line to the Throne eligible to succeed in England because he was a Protestant Prince and the Act of Settlement stipulated that you had to be Protestant to be King. His successor was his only son George II also born in Hanover, however unlike his father, he spoke English.

When he ascended the throne he shared his father’s problem of having to fend off opposition from Jacobite supporters, with 1745 seeing ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ raise a strong army of rebellion in Scotland. This was famously crushed the following year in the notoriously bloody Battle of Culloden Moor. We got General Cornwallis, safe to say that by today’s standard, Cornwallis was a war criminal, he is infamous amongst Scots and also in Canada, despite being the founder of Halifax.

During George II’s later years he showed little interest in politics but he did involve Britain in the Seven Years War, which saw many European countries rise up against one another. In Canada, this war produce the deportation of the Acadians and the fall of New France in 1763. His reign also saw the foundation of the Industrial Revolution. After thirty-three years on the throne, he died while on the toilet and was buried at Westminster Abbey. As his eldest son Frederick had died of an abscess, the heir became the King’s grandson, George III.

The people you see in these Italian Renaissance style paintings are Courtiers of George I.

The King’s Staircase which is decorated in the Italian style and illuminated by these glass boxes in which candles were placed.

Music of Georg F. Handel played in the background, it really made our visit atmospheric.

King George II was married to Caroline Princess of Brandenburg-Ansbach, they had a happy marriage but she died young of bowel obstruction. They loved parties and Kensington Palace was party central for the Aristocracy.  We saw card games displayed which at the time were very popular. People also put wagers on who might win. Dancing and music was another pastime and Georg F. Handel was the favourite composer of the King.

The Game of Court, somewhat like modern Monopoly. Some of the rules below.

Kensington Palace belongs to Queen Elizabeth II and is a Royal Palace, London home to William, Duke of Cambridge and his wife Kate and their children. Many other Royals live in the Palace, that portion is not open to the public.

What we visited are known as the King’s State Apartments and decorated in the fashion of the time 1727-1760. Queen Anne lived here and at Hampton Court. Queen Victoria was the last Sovereign to live at the Palace, she moved in 1837 to Buckingham Palace.

The window treatment here in the King’s Gallery recalls Government House in Charlottetown.

Here is Will with the statue of William III of Orange who was Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the 1670s and King of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1689 until his death in 1702, co-reigning with his wife, Queen Mary II, they were the first monarchs to live at Kensington Palace in 1689. The building at the back on the left is the portion where members of the Royal family live today.

Back in the 1600’s prior to the purchase of the house and land by the Crown, it was known as Nottingham House. What we see today is the modified and enlarged building made by William and Mary, Queen Anne and George II and Queen Caroline. Today several apartments are allocated by H.M. the Queen to members of her family. The apartments vary greatly in size depending on rank within the Royal family. Per example when Prince Harry was single he had a small 2 bedroom apartment whereas his brother William being Heir to the Throne had a far larger apartment. Nowadays he has a 21 room apartment. Once his father Prince Charles becomes King, at that point William, Kate and the children will probably be moved to their own palace.

Part of the gardens in the orangerie, that day gardeners were busy putting the garden to sleep for Winter. Queen Anne created this space.

Apartment flats in the area, neo-classical architecture. Will told me that Mr. Darling’s, Wendy and the family in the book of James Barrie, Peter Pan, lived in this neighbourhood on the border with Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Note the palm trees.

In the book not the play, the Fairies find baby Peter Pan in Kensington gardens after he has fallen from his pram.

The Italian Gardens within Hyde Park built on the orders of Prince Albert as a gift for his wife Victoria in 1860.

So with this last day we returned to Canada. From Paddington Station to Heathrow airport the Express train takes only 12 minutes. Flying to Montreal.