Party time

Tags

2021, Canada, elections, life, Vote

Friday night at the Club we had the launching of our 25th Anniversary year. This party took some months to organize simply for the logistics of it, food, music, guests list, press release and much communications between various Official guests and VIPs.

The food was Lobster rolls which is always a big hit, we had other nice finger food and a beautiful carrot cake made by one of our members. The Mayor of Charlottetown hosted the party as a Patron of the Club and the Lieutenant Governor was also present as our Vice-regal Patron, the Premier sent his personal representative and ministers of the government were also present. Lots and lots of members came to the event. Our small orchestra played and the entertainment Chair composed a Club song to a famous tune by a well know Jazz composer. We had a lot of fun and it was a great success.

Lieutenant Governor’s limousine arriving at the Club, with the distinctive Royal Flag.

It helped that the weather was sunny and warm like a nice late Summer day and this week it will be more of the same.

This week the Coffee and Conversation series is starting up again and I organized for the TESLA dealership in town to bring cars to the Club so members can hear about it and test drive them. I expect a big turnout.

Well tomorrow is VOTING Day in Canada, because we have 6 time zones, to know the results we will have to wait a few hours until people living on the West Coast vote and their Voting Polls close 3 hours later than ours. In the meantime the news media has endless silly chatter and speculation trying to fill in air time until they are authorize by Elections Canada to announce the results.

The vote is close both main parties have split percentages 32% to 31% and the NDP has a 19% favorable rate. The Bloc Quebecois which only runs candidates in Quebec and only represents Quebec interests or so they say, could play a major role in that province which is vote rich. Ontario and specifically the Greater Toronto Region is also vote rich and very important in terms of the number of seats. Atlantic Canada votes first and the Liberal party has a huge unbeatable lead in the 4 Atlantic provinces.

It very much looks like it will be yet again a minority government Liberal or Conservative not clear yet. However I can see PM Trudeau being forces out by his own party if he cannot give them a majority. Same for the Conservatives who are not supporting the centrist approach in this election of their Leader Erin O’Toole, who looked desperate this weekend. Because the right wing vote is badly split between between right and extreme right and the more extreme fringe controls the conservative party, the possibility of seeing that fringe vote for the Neo-Nazis, ( I use this term because of their ideology), of Maxime Bernier and his People’s Party is very real. A strange coalition of white supremacists (Alberta) and anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-Feminist, anti-abortion, anti-vaxxers, anti-jewish, anti-gay, anti-human rights, and very much PRO-Assault rifles.

This election is unlike any other I have seen in my life time, if I think back to 1968. It was one of violence, assaults on candidates, violent demonstrations, hate mongering and very little substance. PM Trudeau did present his program which is progressive and clear with the costing done. The other parties not so much, Conservatives tell us WE have a Plan, really what is it. That is not clear. How much does it cost? Mystery.

The NDP of Jagmeet Sigh have a program but it is mostly about Provincial jurisdictions where the Federal Government cannot intervene. High fantasy in other words. Jagmeet does not appear to know the difference between Provincial and Federal competence. The public follows him because many are themselves ignorant of those differences. The Green party died during this election, it’s leader was totally unprepared for the job and she by taking a strong Pro-Israel stand destroyed her party and she is already saying that if she does not win a seat in the House she will resign.

The wild card is Bernier and his People’s Party, remains to be seen if he will make gains or not. So we shall see.

We do not elect the PM

Tags

2021, Canada, Election, life, Parliament

Canada being a Kingdom (Dominion of Canada) we do not elect a Prime Minister (Head of Government). The Prime Minister’s position as head of government is an Appointment by the Governor General. However the holder of the position is an elected member of the House of Commons. However because our general television news is abysmal in Canada you will hear on Monday night various talking heads and so called experts talk about our PM elect which is pure nonsense and only serves to confuse a public which is largely ignorant of the most basic facts on how our system of Parliament functions.

You will also hear a lot about a mandate, there is no such thing in Canada as a mandate from an election victory. In the present case if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau government should find themselves with the most seats and can govern then they will just continue with the same program as it was prior to the election period. Any other party would implement their vision of governance but it is not a mandate. This is because again we elect 338 members to the House of Commons and each member represents one group of citizens and it is impossible to have one single mandate. Governing in Canada is based entirely on the will and the confidence of the whole House of Commons not just the government. But reporters get this wrong constantly because they look South and confuse the Republican form of government in the USA with our Westminster system.

It is sad that we still have to explain this in newspaper and other media platform, you would think people would know that, apparently not.

The other silly notion is that an election is not needed or not necessary, this is truly unbelievable, in a democracy election have to happen simply for the legitimacy of any elected Parliament. This election was required because as a minority governing body, the Prime Minister was constantly challenged by the Opposition who would then also invent so called scandals which did not exist. Controversies yes but nothing more and certainly not a reason to stop the work of Parliament. After 9 months of nonsense from certain actors in the House of Commons it was obvious an election had to take place to clear the air.

So late Monday night we should know. Some predict that it may be a majority for the Liberals. The Conservative party under Erin O’Toole are not doing well despite an early gain. His friend and someone Erin supported the Premier of Alberta Jason Kenney, is in big trouble with the Health system collapsing due to Covid 19 fourth wave which could have been averted entirely. O’Toole refuses to denounce his poor policies.

Nicky says thank you

Tags

Canada, dachshunds, elections, PEI

Well our Nicky is feeling better and he is a little tired of the rice and veal diet. But being born in Italy veal is sort of the thing for him. Nicky was happy for your good wishes and says in his native Italian, mille grazie a tutti.

Other items, well we are back to having to wear face masks everywhere indoors now. The big problem is Alberta out West where the hospital system is about to crash due to too many new Covid cases and the very low vaccination rate. Alberta is our West Virginia, very backwards. The Premier Jason Kenney use to be my Minister at the Federal level years ago, a complete incompetent fool, who caused by his inaction the death in his provinces of thousands of people because he deferred to private business over the public good, dollars before lives.

What is worse the Chief Medical Officer in Alberta Dr Heather Hinshaw went along with Kenney’s policy until yesterday after months of lying to the public, admitted that she was wrong, sorry folks she says. That is why we call them murder clowns.

Ontario is not much better, of the $2.5 billion dollars they received from the Federal Gov. for Covid to help the health sector, they instead sat on the money, did nothing with it. Another fool Premier Doug Ford, who created the fourth wave to help out businesses instead of the people of the province. This is the problem with those conservative premiers, they admire Trump and make no bones about it. I do hope people will vote them out of Office when the Provincial election cycle comes around.

Only 3 days to go before the Federal Election. Let’s hope Canadians will not elect a Trump wanna be.

Pancreatitis, Meetings

Tags

Canada, Dachshund, elections, Nicky, Vet

Well Nicky was not feeling well for the last 3 days and he obviously had some stomach issues.

He has a very delicate digestive system and anything can trigger a malaise. Last night he was very sick and I took him to the Animal Veterinary Hospital of the University of PEI. They are always open 24/7, though for a fee. The service is excellent and you get a Vet with experience and a fourth year student who is doing their practicum learning with the professional vet. Nicky got some blood work done and all was fine. He then got a shot to stop the nausea and he came home. This morning he was a little tired but he is bouncing back. For a thirteen year old he is doing fine. We do worry about them.

Earlier in the day I had meeting at the Club to plan the Friday party with lots of VIPs. At the same time the surge in Covid cases on the Island in schools amongst kids under 12 is worrisome. However what we see now is those who are not vaccinated are getting sick. Since 90% of the Island population is fully vaccinated those who get sick, the unvaccinated, really stand out. We have 22 cases which is not much and testing is going full blast in the last two days. So we should get to the bottom of this pretty soon.

Violence on the campaign is on the rise, one candidate was assaulted in his Office yesterday by a women, the PM got rocks thrown at him, his wife was called a whore by some idiot macho guy. Signs have been defaced with swastikas and the rise of the extreme right wing People’s Party (PPC) of white supremacist is difficult to believe, but they are at 7% in the polls right now. We have never seen this in a Canadian Federal Election before. Only 4 days to go before voting day 20 September.

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Voting, Golf and BBQ

Tags

BBQ, Canada, Charlottetown, elections, Glen Afton Golf, Golf, PEI

On Saturday I went to vote in anticipation. In Canada you can do that a week before the actual date, which is 20 September 2021. Voting in Canada either at the Federal level, Provincial or Municipal is a fairly easy affair. I am registered to vote by completing on the Elections Canada site the info they need to send me a card. The info is simple, your home address, your full name. Elections Canada is an independent body and is not in any way controlled or subject to politicians or political parties. Anyone working at Elections Canada is and must be fully neutral of political views. Same for all the volunteers at polling stations, in some cases you cannot even wear colours which might suggest support for a party, like red or blue or orange.

The advance polling is open from 9am to 9pm and is in one central location. Whereas on election day polling stations are located in neighbourhoods, in our case one block away from home. So I went to vote and the atmosphere is a happy one, helpful staff and a very simple process. I also have to bring with my voter card a piece of ID with my photo and home address, issued by the Provincial Government or the Federal Government. It is checked by the fellow at the door who then quickly directs you to the next person who registers you, then you are sent to the actual voting area, the fellow there has a big paper list, checked my name and crossed it, gave me a paper bulletin to register my vote with a pencil. I voted then return the folded bulletin and put it into the Urn. It took all of about 3 minutes. I really like the paper and pencil way to vote, simple and efficient.

So I am done now for this Federal Election, you can only vote for the candidate who will be, if elected, your member of Parliament. NO we do not vote for the Prime Minister, no matter what people say, you can only vote for your MP where you live. So this means we have 338 candidates to elect to form the House of Commons. The Prime Minister will be one of them. Currently Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is an MP in the riding of Papineau in Montreal.

An interesting fact in our Canadian System, Justin Trudeau continues to be Prime Minister until he resigns. So on election night if the Liberal party is not re-elected with enough seats to form a government, Trudeau will still have to decide to resign or not. If he thinks that he could by doing the math, form a coalition with another party and have enough seats to govern, then he will advise the Governor General accordingly and a vote will be held in the House of Commons to see if he has the confidence of the House. As long as a Government has the confidence of the House, he can continue to rule. An example of this, in 2006 the then Prime Minister Paul Martin, lost the election to Stephen Harper. However for several hours until the next day, Martin did the math and looked around if any other party would help in supporting his party. He needed 51 seats. He quickly realized that no other party would support him and he resigned. Harper was called by the Governor General to form a government.

GOLF AND BBQ

Yesterday was our Club’s Annual Golf Tournament at Glen Afton on the cliff at Rocky Point, which has spectacular views of the Strait of Northumberland. Great sunny day with a bit of wind, nice and around 22C perfect for the game. I was at the Club and set up the BBQ on our deck its a 6 burner and from 2pm to 5pm grilled 65, 10 oz steaks. You really have to watch the meat and I had a thermometer with me to check so I was able to give people what they wanted from rare to medium to well done. Got an ovation from the crowd for my work and many compliments. It was great fun being on the deck and talking to everyone.

We had trophies for the best ball and best team, everyone got a small gift for participating, the President thought this was the most successful tournament in years.

Haviland Club in old Charlottetown.

Cold and rainy

Tags

Orwell Bay, PEI, pumpkin, squash

In a matter of a few hours we went from muggy and 27C to cold, rainy and 15C with high cold winds. Now it is suppose to rain for a week, but it is not rain but a drizzle with wind.

Today Sunday I was hoping for some Sun and dry weather, 2 people I knew were getting married and you need good weather not rain. Today was a nice day if a tad cool at 12C definitely fall weather now. Fashions changed overnight and sweaters have come out. We will still have some good warm days but Fall is on the way.

Today we went for lunch in the countryside at friends who live part of the year on Orwell Bay. We met their new little schnauzer Lucy only 5 months old. It was so nice to be out of town for the day.

Orwell Bay at low tide, the island is all sand and red sandstone. There is a lot of annual erosion every winter and the shore line use to be a good 40 feet further into the bay than today and this erosion is just in 50 years.

On the way we stopped at Mackenzie which is a farm off Highway 1. Lots of wonderful vegetables, got great tomatoes and some beets, their corn on the cob is buttery super good, blueberries, and two big pots of Mums yellow and red. Better to buy flowers at the farm, the price is 50% less than at the grocery store. I noticed that they were also starting to display a variety of pumpkins and squash of all size and types. I will go back in 2 weeks to get a pumpkin and will probably pay only a few dollars, again instead of the high prices of the grocery chain.

THIS is only a first sample of what will be on offer for September and October. The really big pumpkins are coming later. I am looking for a good 20 lbs pumpkin with a nice shape. The also have the little ones perfect for an arrangements on the table.

This week we are having visitors from Ottawa, our first visitors this year. Old colleagues from my days in the Foreign Service, we met in Cairo in 1989.

Wednesday we will take them out to dinner at The Dunes Gallery at Brackley Point, the gardens are beautiful and their restaurant is truly great, an excellent chef works the kitchen and the menu is imaginative. Next day both Nick and Nora will be going to Kensington to the groomer. Then on Saturday it’s the Club’s Annual Golf Tournament. I will be on the golf cart passing along adult refreshments and sandwiches. After that I return to the club to grill 60 steaks on our BBQ. It will be fun and I am looking forward to it.

Last week tragedy struck at the Federal Dock where the Coast Guard usually docks when on town and where HMCS Charlottetown docks on annual visit. Usually a lot of amateur fishermen cast their lines into the Hillsborough river, apparently its a good spot for fishing. However one of them fell into the water, a drop of 25 feet and the current is very treacherous and swift, the poor fellow drown in front a crowd, it all happened so fast and because of the current no one dared jump in. Only the police with their speed boat can intervene.

This week the weather promises more rain and cold weather. Will see has it can all change quickly.

I will finish by mentioning that the famous Canadian Schooner the Bluenose II which is usually in the port of Halifax came to visit PEI stopping in various coastal towns. The Bluenose is celebrating 100 years, it replaced the original Bluenose which won many speed records and is featured on our 10 cent coin. A beautiful ship.

The Bluenose II is the property of the Government of Nova Scotia and is used as a school for training sailors. Wherever it goes it attracts a lot of attention. Happy it came to Charlottetown.

Restoration

Tags

Alexander Palace, Russia, St-Petersburg, tsar Nicholas II

All around the world many cultural sites are being restored by Governments and private groups in order to rediscover history and appreciate the beauty and value of architecture.

In Athens a 25 year program restored many important buildings of the Acropolis, the work requires expertise and scholars, archeologists, historians and artisans and buckets of money.

Barcelona will complete the Sagrada Familia Church in 2026 with the donations of tourists who pay an entrance fee.

Versailles continues its restorations of the chateau bringing back elements that were neglected for decades with a comprehensive program of restoration of furniture, the gardens and fountains and other buildings.

Berlin has done much work in the last 30 years since reunification changing the look of the city making it more people friendly and restoring its 18 Century look.

Everywhere you go it seems much is done to enhance the heritage component of cities. All this work also brings more tourist dollars or Euros as the case may be.

Russia under Vladimir Putin has also done much to enhance its heritage. Restoring countless monasteries, churches and palaces. Last week the Alexander Palace re-opened to the public after 8 years of restoration.

In the case of the Alexander Palace which is located in Tsarkoye Selo some 25 Km from St-Petersburg, it was a gigantic effort and a costly one. The original palace was built by Catherine the Great for her grandson Alexander I and his wife. They did not like living in the palace and so remained in their suite of rooms at the Great Catherine Palace across the street. Around 1820 the palace became the Official Summer Residence of the Heir to the Russian Throne. Finally in 1894, Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra moved in and made it their private residence. They would live there until August 1917, when they were exiled to Siberia. The Palace was closed by the Bolcheviks and turned into a museum until 1939 when the invading Nazis and Spanish Fascists troops laid siege to St-Petersburg (Leningrad) for 900 days.

Before the arrival of the Nazis, the Soviet Government rapidly emptied the palaces all around Tsarkoye Selo of their most valuable contents shipping them East for safe keeping. In the case of the Alexander Palace not all the contents could be shipped off due to time constraints. Some less important art works where hidden in the basement. This did not stop the looting and vandalism by foreign invaders. In 1945 with the end of the war, the damage was assessed and no one believed that the Alexander Palace and its park would be restored given the amount of destruction. However some officials of the Culture department started to work on saving and restoring what they could. The Palace was re-opened to the public with limited displays but it all had a very sad look. The roof leaked and some rooms were beyond salvage.

Only in 2014 did very serious work start to restore the palace to its former glory as a private residence of the last Tsar and his family. On You Tube, you will find recent videos of the opening of the Palace to the press and experts explain how the final results were achieved. Some 6000 personal objects, from clothing to paintings, vases, other bibelots, books, even personal diaries kept by the Tsarina until 2 hours before her murder are in the collection returned to the Palace and placed in the various rooms. The Bolcheviks kept everything and catalogue it all. It is in many way ghoulish and says a lot about Lenin and company. The children’s toys are particularly poignant, they will eventually be placed in their bedrooms on the second floor.

The work done in the restoration is spectacular, fragments of tiles, fabric and wallpaper have all been reproduced meticulously. In one room, rare Brazilian Rosewood called Palisander, panel the walls. The Tsar and his family could walk back into those rooms today and find them as they left them in August 1917, in all its splendor with all their personal items, clothing, family photos etc.

The Palace will be their memorial, though the family was murdered in a dark cellar some 103 years ago, this refurbishment is eerily real.

https://youtu.be/zwN2L-ySpwg

#election 44

Tags

#44, Canada, Election

There is 22 days left in this National Federal Election and it has been a big bore. Prior to the Governor General accepting the request of the Prime Minister to dismiss Parliament, we had a minority in Government ruled by the Liberal party, meaning that it was a hung Parliament and that no party in the House of Commons had enough seats to command a majority. So in such cases the party in power must at all times keep the confidence of the House and rule by compromise in order to stay in Office. The last election was in 2019 and it has been about 2 years which for a minority government is a long time in Office.

The reason why the Prime Minister thought it was better to have an election now, was because the business of Parliament was becoming bogged down in horrible partisan fights and nothing was being achieved. Many bills were caught up in endless and fruitless debates in Committee, the Opposition would not allow them to get to a vote. Personal attacks on the Prime Minister and his family, including his mother and brother who are not public figures had become the norm. Both the Conservatives of Erin O’Toole and the NDP of Jagmeet Singh did all they could to block the business of government.

Unfortunately the call for this election came on the day Kabul fell to the Taliban and also when the 4th wave of COVID 19 started in earnest in Provinces like Ontario and Alberta where Trump like Conservative Premiers rule, refusing to work with the Federal Government.

As of tonight the Prime Minister despite his best effort to shelter Canadians from the worst economic impact of Covid and the lockdown, has been painted by the Conservatives and the right wing Press as the ennemy. The Conservatives including their Leader Erin O’Toole love to agitate with Q-Anon and other white supremacists against Trudeau. In the last few days Trudeau has received death threats and his campaign bus has been attacked by violent mobs, composed of anti-vaxxers, white supremacist, Q-Anon and neo-nazis. His security detail, members of which are persons of colour and women have also been attacked. It is a miracle that no one has been shot. However the blame for the violence rests entirely with Erin O’Toole and other members of his party who constantly speak of conspiracies. Yes there is some of Donald Trump in Erin O’Toole and he is hungry for power despite the fact that he has no plan or program, though he tells us that he has a plan, what is it? No one knows.

The trouble with Trudeau is his arrogance and his constant virtue signalling, his woke agenda, his so called Feminist views and his constant sympathies for every cause from BLM to Indigenous issues. He seems to forget that millions of Canadians do not necessarily share his views or even care for them. Though he has desperately tried to paint himself as the man for all, he fails at it. Feminists denounce him for not doing enough, same with the Natives who smell a day of reckoning and now want more, but in reality Trudeau or his government cannot deliver on the spot, especially when Premiers do not want to play ball with him.

This is the trouble with our Federation, jurisdictions are divided between the Federal Government and the Provinces and no one wants to give an inch.

The big issues for a lot of Canadians is the cost of housing which is now for a single house or condo in the $ 700,000 and up and often over $1 million dollars. The vast majority of Canadians cannot afford such prices and rents on average now are in the $2000 per month and up. Again this has become an impossible situation for far too many people. Canadians are heavily in debt, for the average person on every $1 earned they owe $1.64 in credit card debts. They are simply choking on debt, if you have no debts now you are amongst the privileged. Trudeau made the classic mistake of thinking that with generous programs to help out people during the pandemic, he would be rewarded with a majority government. But humanity is not necessarily grateful to those who help out. An example of Winston Churchill who in May 1945 as the war ended in Europe, thought that Britons would return him to power given his leadership. The Election of 1945 was a disaster for him and he was swept out of office, people wanted changed, despite it all, showing no gratitude.

Trudeau also forgot that if change is good in general, too much change all at once is not a good thing with a population pampered with social programs of all kinds. Life is and remains pretty easy in Canada, despite difficulties. The pandemic also exposed how whiners Canadians are in general, social responsibility is not a thing, the Me first attitude rules.

Trudeau also believed that the under 40 would support his change agenda, but that is not the case. Not everyone is on the Woke agenda, not everyone accepts feminists precepts, not everyone likes BLM or the more contentious Truth and Reconciliation agenda with the Natives. In fact with the Pandemic its the opposite people are often heard expressing how sick and tired they are to hear about those groups and their demands.

The Conservative love to present themselves as the voice of the little guy. Pandering to the lowest common denominator.

What is truly difficult to understand is the amount of hate against Trudeau. In some demonstrations its pathological and sickening. It could very well be that people simply do not connect with Trudeau and he is seen as someone belonging to the elite. But then people like O’Toole is also a member fo the elite and Jagmeet Singh with his 10K rolex and his big luxury BMW is far from the little guy, but hey, he plays the populist card, it seems to work for him despite the fact that his speeches are a jumble of nothing.

So who is going to win this election, I really do not know, however I am pretty sure that it will be another minority government simply because the country is so deeply divided. So far the Liberals hold on to the big provinces like Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic which can guarantee the most seats in Parliament. Because in Canada % of votes means nothing, our system is based on the number of seats you win to give you the prize. We also no not elect our Prime Minister, we elect only our Member of Parliament in the area where we live, so we are having 338 seat election and they all count on election night. Trudeau needs 170 seats to get the majority he wants.

The fear with a Conservative government is that history of the last 43 parliament going back to 1867 shows that when they are in power we go backwards on all levels.

PM J. Trudeau, Erin O’Toole, Jagmeet Singh F. Blanchet, A. Paul

Perfect weather

Tags

Brackley, Brudenell, Dunes Gallery, life, Montague, PEI

The Summer has been so so in PEI for people in general, though farmers are happy, a wonderful potato harvest is on the way. Corn also looks very good. This weekend is the last of August and we went to two sites outside of town on sunny days, with light winds and little humidity. Very nice all around, the tourists are leaving, THANK GOD ALL MIGHTY!!!!!

We had a funny crop of tourists this Summer, first they arrived in July when non-residents of the Island were allowed to come with proper documentation on vaccination. Then later Americans were allowed across the border but few choose to come to PEI.

So Saturday we drove towards Brudenell and Montague, two small communities about 35 minutes from Charlottetown. This area before 1745 was called Trois Rivieres (three rivers) and was home to French Speaking families (ACADIANS), they were connected to the French Fortress of Louis Bourg on Cape Breton or Isle Royale as it was then known.

Captain Jean-Pierre Roma established at Three Rivers a trading post and built 9 large building plus a large dock to load ships. What is today the Georgetown area is the deepest and best seaport on the North Coast of PEI, a great spot for trading. Roma did have some difficulties in developing the area. This was wild country, marshland and thick old growth Acadian Forest. He and his men cleared a lot of the land and managed to cultivate it. Interesting to read that in the 18th century people did not know or if they did, would not eat potatoes, thought to be poisonous, because it is part of the night shade family. So the food they grew was what you would find on tables in Europe.

In 1745 it all came to a violent and crashing end, Roma and his family had to flee to Quebec City while advancing British troops coming from New England would destroy and burn all in their path. The Acadians who were caught, were deported in an act of Ethnic Cleansing.

The site was abandoned, but then after 1765 and the end of wars in Europe between England and France, Acadians were allowed to return to PEI only if they could purchase land that formerly belong to them. Often they would find Irish refugees deported by the British on their old farms or Scots who were also cleared from their homeland in the Highland of Scotland and shipped to Canada. Both the Irish and the Scots did not own land, they were renter farmers and the owners were absentee British Aristocrats.

The Roma site at Three Rivers is interesting, you can visit the trails on the site which cover a large area, buildings have been rebuilt recently to showcase what life was like and many archeological digs in the 1960’s unearthed a lot of information and artefacts. The area where the docks were are clearly visible, the view is quite beautiful of Georgetown across the bay and Panmure Island in the distance. You can also have a nice lunch of typical Acadian food served on chinese ware as it would have been back in the 18th century.

The flag they fly at the site is the White flag of the King of France. It was quiet and beautiful like so many sites on PEI.

On Sunday we drove to the Dunes Art Gallery at Brackley Point Beach. Our friends Peter and Nash own this gallery. The expansive gardens are full of wonderful flowers, Asian stone statuary and they grow a lot of the vegetables and eatable flowers in the garden for their restaurant. The restaurant does lunch and dinner service and the food is truly first class. They have an excellent chef and this is one of the classiest places to eat, surrounded by wonderful artworks and large views of the flower garden and the sea. Really a magical place and so relaxing.

Not to worry Summer only ends on 21 September, so relax!

Rebuilt original building of the 1732 period when Jean-Pierre Roma and his settlement were in operation.

Brudenell Point where the Montague and Brudenell rivers meet. Georgetown named after George III. It is an excellent spot for Oysters known as the Brudenell Bullies and mussels.

The harbour of Georgetown which is a natural deep harbour but is underused. Currently a lot of Oysters and mussels are cultivated in the area and of excellent quality. Seen from the old dock area of the ROMA settlement.

A buddha statue in the beautiful gardens of the Dunes Art Gallery in Brackley. The garden is full of these statues in water elements surrounded by flowers. Peter and Nash brought them back from Indonesia and you can buy them for your home garden.

The sunflowers towered over my at a 8 feet height, the stocks where impressive. A team of 4 gardeners work every week and it shows, impressive results.

The restaurants also gets all its vegetables from this garden.

The Dunes gallery and more flowers

Found the painting

In my previous post I was asking if anyone knew the painter and the title of this painting.

A very nice person Don Campbell took the time to reply and the painting is in the Prado Museum in Madrid, one of the great museum of the world. It is entitled The Allegory of Justice and Peace by painter Giaquinto Corrado, who was Court Painter to King Ferdinand VI of Spain. The work was done in 1753-54.

The site of the Prado gives the full description of what we are looking at, like many paintings done for Official reasons or propaganda, the moral message dominates and glorifies the King and his policies which God approves of. Like many great painters of his time Corrado studied and worked in Rome before going to Spain. He would later retire to Naples which then was under the rule of Spain.

https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/allegory-of-justice-and-peace/1e7c0108-b36f-4ff1-91d0-4bb49d6e99da