Car wash days

Tags

Africa, Canada., Charlottetown, Food, life, PEI

It looks like we are having 7 days of sunshine now, so today I got the car washed. The gas is now 1.40 a litre meaning that is $5.60 a gallon and this is not the top most expensive gas at the pump. The most expensive supreme is $1.60 a litre.

Another beautiful day, so very nice and not so hot, still at 22C very nice.

I am very busy at the Club with the newsletter every week, lots happening, events of all kinds and now that the PEI Government has announced the first relaxation of the rules, the only change is the number of people you can have inside. With this good weather, we have a large garden with big mature trees around 100 years old and the cedar deck, bar-b-q so we can do lots. Our membership is also getting more diverse, in the Maritimes there is a large African community, mostly educated West Africans and from Cameroon and Kenya. So one member who is from Kenya is doing a special dinner for the Club member this Friday, she is very well known and has cooked for lots of big names here in PEI and has her own restaurant for the last 20 years. Her food is wonderful, this woman has a sense for good food. Another member is from Senegal, a charming fellow and I am trying to entice him to do one of his signature dishes. He started to cook for friends and PEI is still a place where people are discovering exotic dishes. Some 10 years ago it was still pretty much meat and potatoes country, not anymore. So our friend also makes great desserts and pastries, however he is an executive with a big corporation and he can’t cook all the time for friends, our lost. Thanks to the Vietnamese and Africans community their grocery stores carry all manner of wonderful spices, you can find pretty much everything that the regular grocery stores do not carry.

A view below of one of our many beaches, quiet and clean.

Beautiful day

Tags

Anniversary, Berlin, breakfast, café, Charlottetown, Leonhard's, Prussia, Russia

Finally today we are having sunshine and mild temp, in the next few days it will go up to 14C, however for the Easter Weekend looks like rain and 6C.

This morning we went to Leonhard’s for breakfast, owned by a swiss german fellow, this café has a very elegant european flair to it, not only in its relaxed and elegant decor but also in the food they serve. All of it is clearly inspired by European cuisine and not the usual North American fair.

I had an omelette with vegetables, it was very fluffy and seasoned just right, something you do not encounter usually in restaurants here. Tables are set with fresh flowers, tulips at this time of the year. You could say that the atmosphere is clean, crisp and relaxed. No background music which is nice. In the summer they have ample boxes of flowers and hanging green plants on the front sidewalk.

We have another German bakery which just opened also on Great George street but on the South side of the Provincial Legislature, again offering a very different fair from all the other restaurants/café in town. More geared towards the local crowd instead of the tourist crowd.

This morning one of the blogs I follow, entitled Berlin Companion featured the National Monument to the Wars of Liberation in Kreuzberg on its 200 Anniversary.

View from Kreuzberg by Johann Heinrich Hintze, 1829 (currently at the Alte Nationalgalerie). The winding road leading to Berlin is today’s Mehringdamm.

For people who have visited the Invalides in Paris, under the dome is the Tomb of Emperor Napoleon, you will probably have noticed the 12 columns in a circle around the tomb, they represent the 12 military campaigns of Napoleon all across Europe over 12 years, basically continuous wars during his reign. The Monument on the Kreuzberg in Berlin also refers to the 12 wars which are named wars of Liberation from French oppression. There are all over Germany, other monuments were built celebrating that liberation from this constant warfare waged by Napoleon in his effort to conquer Europe and appoint himself the new Charlemagne.

This is something very rarely mentioned in history books and certainly never mentioned by French authors who prefer to present Napoleon’s action as a romantic endeavour. However if you follow the historical tread you will see that those wars sowed the seeds for further wars in the 19th century between France and German States and Prussia and after 1870 a unified Germany. It is almost a seesaw effect of trying to correct wrongs. Think 1870 Franco-Prussian War, 1914-1918 and then 1939-1945, in all those conflicts the underlying narrative is revenge, either by Germany or France.

The National Monument on Kreuzberg (Cross Hill) leads down the avenue to Belle-Alliance Platz this alliance/Treaty between Great-Britain, Prussia, Austria and Russia created and maintained an army of 600,000 men until such time as Napoleon was completely defeated and overthrown. This Belle-Alliance ultimately led to Waterloo. Since 1945 Belle-Alliance Platz has been renamed Mehring Platz and sadly completely modernized.

On March 30, 1821 – the seventh anniversary of the Prussian charge of Montmartre and of the conquest of Paris, which unavoidably triggered Napoleon’s demise in 1814 – King Friedrich Wilhelm III arrived on top of the Tempelhofer Berg (also known as the Weinberg, soon to be renamed Kreuzberg). The highest natural elevation in what is now central Berlin but back in the days was still part of a district outside the city limits.

Accompanied by an illustrious guest, Russian Tsar Alexander I – Friedrich Wilhelm’s brother-in-arms in the conflict with Napoleon Bonaparte – Prussian monarch came to witness the unveiling of a monument commemorating their victories in what came to be known as the Wars of Liberation, 1802-1814.

As Prussia’s military ally in the wars against Napoleon it was Alexander who prevented the king – as well as the Austrian emperor for he was wavering, too – from making what could have been the biggest mistake in the history of the Coalition: he convinced them to take Paris instead of withdrawing their troops. Now it was time to celebrate these good choices.

National Memorial for Wars of Liberation – a 200-tonne cast-iron tapering structure installed on an octagonal stone base – was the work of Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Johann Heinrich Strack (who was responsible for the stone base).

Schinkel, supported by several renown contemporary artists with Christian Daniel Rauch as the most prominent among them, created an artwork which truly had everything a memorial of this kind should possess: it was impressive, it was elegant, it was positively oozing with symbols which everybody understood and was happy to see included and, last but not least, it had twelve extremely good-looking statues with faces the crowds back then were often able to recognise.

The memorial’s leitmotiv was a cross: it was a direct reference to a new military decoration introduced by King Friedrich Wilhelm III in 1813 after the Battle of Leipzig: the legendary Eiserne Kreuz, the Iron Cross. The foot of the memorial itself is shaped liked one, too, and you will see the shape repeated from the memorial’s bottom to its very top.

The 200-year-old memorial in Viktoriapark inspired the name of the hill and the neighbourhood.

The Nationaldenkmal am Kreuzberg – truly worth the climb. (Photo by Beata Gontarczyk-Krampe, author of the Berlin Companion.

End of Season

Tags

Charlottetown, Friends, life, lobster, PEI, Seafood, Water Prince

Well one of our favourite restaurants in town closed last night. Usually it stays open until mid-december but this year with the lack of tourists and the pandemic, the owner Shane C. decided to close a month early. He will be back in mid-April. Hopefully 2021 will be a better year tourism wise on PEI. Another quiet year like 2020 will spell bankruptcy for many in that sector.

We always make a point of going on the last night to close the restaurant with a dinner amongst friends. This year we went twice before closing, once on Tuesday night and again on Thursday night. The Water Price Corner Shop is an institution. Regis Philbin who died recently loved the place, in fact he is one of the many celebrities who love this place and drop in during the Summer, a small restaurant with that Maritime souvenir decor with a solid quality seafood and Lobster, no pretensions.

Thank you to the staff, Maureen, Fiona, Theresa, Doug, Coady and Shane for many good meals and looking forward to seeing you again in April 2021.

We had a great dinner of Oysters on the half-shelf, beautiful fishcakes, grilled Halibut, boiled 1 pounder Lobster and Lobster roll. All excellent, great service and fun people.

Pumpkin & Toads

Tags

Charlottetown, cuisine, Food, PEI, Scarecrows, toads

At this time of the year the harvest is coming in and the variety of vegetables and produce is plentiful. There are lots of places to buy pumpkins and small gourds and the prices are all over the place. I went first to the Riverview Market on Riverside drive, this is a good market for produce and high end food products. I took a look at their pumpkins and they were priced at $5 for a medium size one. Then the small gourds which are only good for display or arrangements with fall flowers, they were selling at $5 for one. Given how small they are, smaller than an apple, I thought this is silliness. So I went across the river to Mackenzie farms on Hwy 1 in Stratford, only 5 minutes by car from where I was and found an incredible array of pumpkins and gourds and other fresh produce. This is a large farm specialty is cabbage and other root vegetable, they also produce corn. No middle man to muck up things and no transport cost.

I bought 6 small gourds for $5 and larger gourds for another $4. They also had green tomatoes and Will has a recipe for Green Tomato Pie. So got a basket of those. Better quality and better prices. I did not know it but they also have 35 Mexican seasonal workers. This is a big farm. They also make 4 tons of coleslaw per year that is sold all over this Maritime region. Lots of families came to choose their pumpkin looking for the best shape traditional pumpkin. I like the odd looking ones, they have more personality. All over the Island there are farms who do direct sales to the public just off the main road. Same for eggs and meats, we buy our meat from a producer who is just 25 minutes from us on Drake Road on the way to Montague. You can ask for any cut you would like and he is very accommodating.

I just love this type of Farm direct sale market where the Farmer and his family are present and serve you directly. We have a 58 vendor Farmer’s Market near the University but it is very different and it tends to be pricey. What was nice about the Farmer’s Market on University ave. was the socializing but in the age of Covid that is gone. We are encourage to shop local but often that may mean you pay more, we support our favourite spots and the merchants we know. If you go to the large Super Markets the produce is not good quality and expensive, per examples a bunch of mediocre looking asparagus is $7 and one avocado is $2.

Recently I find that prices in grocery stores have exploded, it is difficult to find anything under $5.99, it appears to be the base price. Of course everything has to be trucked unto the Island and often some 1100 Km distance. So there is something to be said about shopping with smaller shops locally, you can buy all dairy products, breads and cakes, meats and vegetables right here on the Island, it may mean shopping at several different stores but the prices can be better with fresher quality.

Every night we have a different menu for dinner, last night was homemade Lasagna for two, tonight it’s Toad in a hole, now I have to go shop for toads I need 4 nice big ones. Served with roasted potatoes. Yummy! In French it would be Crapaud dans un trou not to be confused with a frog which is grenouille. PEI has a village called Crapaud (toad) and we also have another village called Souris (mice) no one seems to know where these ancient names came from. We also do wine pairing for each dinner.

Did I mention this is a British recipe. My friend Sheryl in Scotland provided this recipe. Disclaimer no toads in PEI were harmed in anyway for this dish.

With our changing tourism scene due to the Pandemic, new festivals have been created for local consumption. This week it’s Scarecrow in the City. The hope is that locals will go out and shop and use venues like Founder’s Hall who has been faltering for the last 2 years.

Good weather will help a lot.

Scarecrows across the street.

Gold Plate and Saucer

Tags

café, Charlottetown, Food, Horse races, Japan, Kewpie, Music, PEI, Red Shores, Restaurant, Vietnam

Old Home Week is a tradition here in PEI, it is in support of the race horse industry. Charlottetown has a race track that goes back to the 1880’s and many fine horse are bred on the Island. Some will tell you that Charlottetown is like Kentucky when it comes to racing horses in terms of traditions. Red Shores also has a casino and a very good restaurant.

This year again the race takes place and people make bets on who will win the race held on Saturday 22 August. Yesterday Friday we went across the yard to our neighbour for a drink in the garden and some food. It is our fifth year to do this.

Friday was a funny day, the weather was grey and cool at 20C with some kind of humidity that gave everything a September look. Next week school starts and there is a lot of trepidation in the air. Parents, teachers and students are a bit on edge and plans are still being worked out by the Provincial Dept of Education on what to do. Interestingly on this topic the Chief Medical Officer gave her advice but is leaving final decisions to the Premier and the Minister of Education. Everyone is keeping fingers crossed and hoping for the best. Also today I was at the grocery store and again observed that most people do wear masks and only a few don’t. Lots of people also use hand sanitizers in the store or in the parking lot, many carry it in their cars and you see people sanitize before driving off.

I think we have a couple of Covid cases left on the Island, overall for several months now Covid has disappeared from the Island, the only new cases came from people who arrived from abroad. Since March we have had no deaths and no hospitalization. But this pandemic is still weighing in on us, you cannot forget about it.

I was at the new Japanese grocery store SUMMIKO MART this week and I was looking for Japanese mayonnaise called KEWPIE. The recipe is different from North American mayo. It only uses Egg Yokes not the whole egg.  I remember when I visited Japan, I had a egg salad sandwich made with Kewpie Mayo and it was so good, the taste was rich. I found some and will try it next time I made egg salad sandwich.

They also make fresh Japanese food all ingredients imported direct from Japan and made in front of you. This is truly a first in Charlottetown.

We also have a new Vietnamese Coffee House called Madame Vuong preparing coffee the Vietnamese way which is very different from North American Coffee, the roasting process and choice of beans is a new experience. They also have Vietnamese style sandwiches, etc. It would appear that the Vietnamese are replacing the Chinese who, many, have left for Toronto. Alambé is another Vietnamese Coffee shop on Kent Street, it is very nice to see such new additions to our local scene.

Gert Van Hoef is a young Dutch concert Organist, he started learning to play the organ at 13 from his grandfather and as he says, he became obsessed with the instrument and decided to make his career of it. He has been successful and gives numerous concerts in Europe.

Here he plays as you will recognize the tune played by Big Ben in the Elizabeth  clock tower of the Parliament in London, the Carillon de Westminster, Opus 54 deel 6 van Louis Viërne (1870-1937).

 

 

Remembering

Tags

Charlottetown, covid19, film, isolation, PEI, Rome, the past

With the crazy state of the world at the moment and being mostly confined to home due to the so called lock down it gives us a lot of time to think and reflect on the past and on where we are now. You hear a piece of music or an image and you are send back to another time in your life. Today we learned of the death of an old work colleague of W. and given her age it got us to think that W had retired some 22 years ago. I retired 7 years ago. We have been in PEI 4 years now. We left my last post Rome some 9 years ago. I graduated from University some 41 years ago. Amazing how time flies by quickly and it always seem like it was just yesterday. We have not really seen anyone in 7 weeks and not likely to see anyone for another 4 weeks, if there is no second wave.

This week in the mail was 2 documents from the Government of Canada, I thought someone is keeping watch, it was a reminder that in 11 months I should apply for my Canada Pension Plan commonly known as CPP, as Canadian taxpayer, I like everyone else have to pay into it and when you reach a certain age you can apply to get it back in monthly sums. Then the next day it was another letter and documents to apply for my OAS which is the Old Age Security and there is a third pension program for persons who are poor under a certain income level. This last program does not apply to me. The OAS I can wait I don’t have to apply for that one for another 5 years if I so choose. In terms of social programs who support you in life, Canadians are damn lucky since 1965 when most of those programs we take for granted including Health Care came into being. It is all about maintaining a social net. The amounts of money are a support to avoid you ending up in the street with nothing. They are also indexed to the cost of living yearly.

Same with the Pandemic now, everyday the Government of Canada and some Provincial Governments have announced financial support for individual Canadians, from students with no Summer Jobs can get between $1200 to $1750. There is rent relief for individuals, salary relief covering up to 75% of employee salaries so employers do not lay people off. Commercial rent relief for small businesses, Income for Canadians who are unemployed, more income support for seniors, etc… and the list goes on. It is costing so far about $285 Billion dollars to the Government of Canada. Still people complain it’s not enough, sheesh some people really. We have nothing to complain about. But I never thought we would ever find ourselves in this world situation. War, nuclear annihilation, climate change disaster yes of course that I expected, I grew up during the Cold War but not this. So I have now a very strong desire or feeling to go back to 1989 or before, though not perfect we were I think in a better place relatively speaking. I am also appalled at the selfishness of people, grasping for easy solutions. Constant whining about nothing.

This bring me back to remembering better days and better times. People who are gone or distant friends. I also wonder what the world will be like after all this has pass, if it passes. I am not confident that we are or will be out of it, to say nothing of climate change. I remember the world prior to September 11, 2001 and we have not gone back, it will be the same this time. I can see how travelling will be more difficult and complicated and not nearly as affordable as before.

This little clip of La Grande Bellezza (ROME) a movie I have seen many times and love. Reminds me of our time 10 years ago in a city I know so well. The main character Jep is played by a very good Italian actor Toni Servillo. The film won many awards in 2013. You can actually see the city this way either early in the morning before 8am or at dusk around 7pm, the streets can be so peaceful or in August when everyone is away on vacation. I wish I could return but that has to stay as a memory.

Today 2 May is our first day of relaxed restrictions, the main point is you can meet with up to 5 people outside but everyone must keep 6 feet apart from each other. I also got news today that a favourite restaurant is re-opening on 8 May, doing only take-out of course. In house dining will come later probably in July if all goes well.

If this issue does not resolve itself, we will have to re-invent life because no one can go on living in isolation forever.

Anniversary 4 Years ago

Tags

Blossom Dearie, Charlottetown, Easter, memories, Music, Peggy Lee, PEI, sunshine

On this beautiful and Sunny Easter Sunday listening to Blossom Dearie sing accompanied by Joe Harnell and Miss Peggy Lee, music chosen specifically to remind us of life or time long ago, a month ago!

In April 2016 at this time in Ottawa we were actively packing and cleaning our apartment, the move to PEI was upon us. The condo where we lived had been sold and we had to decide where we were to move next. The new owners were not planning to move in, their plans were not clear and on the day before the movers where to come and pack it all for us, the new owners asked out of the blue, would we stay and continue living there. It was too late, we were committed to moving and had signed a lease in Charlottetown, plans were made and PEI was calling.

So it has been four years in Prince Edward Island living here in the Capital Charlottetown, a big village really at 36,000 persons, compared to Ottawa with more than a million people. We were packed in 2 days and I left with the puppies in the back seat of the car for the East Coast, I drove it in two days. It is 1100 Km and can be done in one day, the highway system is fast and follows the Saint-Lawrence river to the Gulf. But despite having a co-driver, a dear friend who was most helpful, he told me suddenly just after we passed Montreal some 3 hours into the trip that he had forgotten at his house back in Ottawa, his wallet and drivers licence. We had a laugh, but despite him telling me that it was not a problem because if we were stopped by the Sûreté du Québec (Provincial Police in Québec) he would explain to them that he had a permit and it was at home. Yeah sure, I know the Officers of the Sûreté du Québec and they are not the type to be understanding especially if you have out of Province plates. So I did all the driving. We stopped in Rivière du Loup at a point where the Saint-Lawrence river is very wide as it enters the Gulf and where the highway will turn right towards New Brunswick. The scenery in that area is very nice with great forests and mountains, lakes and the Sea not to forget a lot of Moose on the road, which is a dangerous hazard and so much so that you are warned to be on the look out and not let your guard down. There is also a special 3 digit number to call if you do see a Moose on the road.

Will did not come on that trip to PEI, he had to finish a work contract. The puppies were funny, both slept through the car trip, not a peep out of them, Nora was happy and exploring at pee stops the new unfamiliar scents, Nicky was not happy, he was bewildered and stressed by this break in his routine. It would get worse in the week to come, he became skittish and would vomit his food and not sleep well and this despite all the re-assurance we would give him with hugs and treats. He lost his appetite and I became worried about him. We did see a Vet in Charlottetown on arrival and she kindly explained that he was suffering from nerves because his routine was broken and was coming to a new home. We did arrive 3 days ahead of the truck transporting our 4 and a half tons of furniture and stuff. we did live in an empty house for a few days. This did not help Nicky who wanted his furniture, rugs, and other furnishings. Nicky has always been the delicate one. Nora was perfectly happy, new place Wow!

The truck arrived carrying two containers and everything was brought into our house. It was a sunny day and then the neighbours showed up to welcome us. We had a kitchen party with 65 boxes and and furniture everywhere, but that is the way things are in PEI.

In the last four years, we learned PEI, by this I mean that being an Island with a total population of 150K and far is only a 15 minute drive away anywhere. Everyone knows everybody and went to school since kindergarden and probably married so and so cousin, etc. There are strong political and family loyalties and the Island is divided between Irish,Scotts on one side and the Acadian French on the other. Protestants and Catholics, Conservatives and Liberals. Born on PEI and CFA (come from away) who are mostly Canadians who move to the Island from other parts of Canada and then the new element the immigrants from all over the planet.

It is not like other large provinces in Canada, it is not an easy place to live in at first and pitfalls are many, it takes a lot of ploughing through. Most people who have second homes on PEI come for two or three months a year in the Summer and then leave, so the so called Islanders treat them as nice tourists and they in turn are not aware of the under current of society. We living here full time including not leaving the Island to go South for a few weeks in Winter makes us Islanders by adoption.

We have wondered sometimes why we were here and had we made a mistake being so accustomed to large metropolitan cities and capitals around the world to come to such a small place. But as I say in the title page of this blog; The World is a small village, so we see our home here in Charlottetown as our new home, this is our place now.

The last four years has been very busy, no sleepy retirement for us. Volunteer opportunities are numerous and everywhere. For Will and I there was the Art Gallery of the Confederation Centre. Will got involved with our 52 year old Symphonic Orchestra with its Maestro from Juilliard in NYC, fundraising and organizing numerous events and programs for the loyal following. Then one day I went knocking on the door of Government House. A friend had suggested I go speak with the E.A. of the Lieutenant Governor of PEI and offer my services given my past work experience. I was somewhat hesitant to do that, but why not, had to walk up past the gates and see if some guard would chase me away, no not at all. Yes of course said the E.A. I could come and help I was told. So I started there as a volunteer.

With elections coming on at the Provincial and Municipal level, I started to study the social and political issues, the trends and various opinions floating around. I did run for City Councillor in my Ward. It was a very interesting experiment, I learned an awful lot about society and life in PEI and Charlottetown, Political factions and the ever present and influential wealthy first families who control the economy with a very tight grip. I did become well known and a lot of people were curious about why I wanted to get involved in what many saw as quick sand. I also got involved with the Acadian Cultural Association and their many activities, 2020 marks the 300th Anniversary of Acadian presence on the Island and the terrible events which would lead to mass ethnic cleansing in 1750-55. PEI has a very rich history and a complicated one at that.

In the last four years Will and I met lots of people from the Lieutenant Governor to the Premier to the Mayor to many Artists and cultural figures, developers and business people.

So it has been four years, we think of it sometimes as a ”posting”  which would correspond to the period we would spend in one Capital around the world before moving on. The difference now is that we are here and God willing we will stay here and continue to learn this Island.

So since we cannot have a party to celebrate with our friends on the Island, we will have to plan for sometime later. In a departure from tradition we also cannot have people over for Easter Sunday Lunch, it is only the two of us, but on the menu we have roasted PEI lamb chops, Greek roasted potatoes, carrots and brocolini, a nice French rosé wine and the German Easter Bread turned into a bread pudding with all its lovely flavours of apricot jam, raisins and almonds.

To quote Her Majesty, We will meet again. Wishing you all a very Happy Easter.

Nicky enjoying the Spring morning sunshine on his favourite chair, he is looking forward to hot Summer days.

 

Quiet

Tags

Charlottetown, cooking, Covid 19, cuisine, flowers, Nourooz, PEI, Persia

Charlottetown PEI, city centre Kent Street at Queen Street, the building with the tower is City Hall. This is the look of what should be a busy intersection on any day. Parking is usually a big problem, how things have changed since 11 March. There is no end in sight, though it has to be noted that Prince Edward Island only has 2 cases of Covid 19 and both persons are at home in quarantine. So far 165 people tested all negative. Our isolation as an Island in the Gulf of St-Lawrence and our very small population at 150K helps.

So what do we do all day? Well cleaning house, washing clothes, taking care of our two little monsters Nicky and Nora and cooking a lot and discovering new website with good recipes. So Lori Brown in Imoden, Arkansas, Whipperwill Hollow and Sheryl who lives South of Glasgow, Scotland, What’s for tea and the Lazy Cook, Pete Thomas.  There is also a lady from Newfoundland who does typical Newfie cuisine which is very typical of The Rock, Bonita’s Kitchen, she had a recipe today for Corned Beef patties, she also had another one for White Bread Cod Pudding with a butter sauce. I know it is good because years ago Mrs Crosbie who was the wife of John Crosbie then Minister of Finance in 1980 in the Rt Hon. Joe Clark’s government made a Cod au Gratin dish that was superb for a dinner I was attending. Cod was and still is important in the folk cuisine of Newfoundland.

I did make a Potato, Leek and sharp cheddar cheese pie with puff pastry that the Lazy Cook Peter Thomas showed us, that was very good and very British, something to have at Tea time which I have now come to understand is a full meal like supper for us. This dish can be eaten cold or hot, versatile.

Before going into the oven at 400 F or 200 C. for 35 minutes. The puff pastry with the  Star pattern makes it festive. Very good pie! I think the sharp Aged Cheddar makes a big difference in the taste.

This is a little dessert I invented with the left over puff pastry, simply butter, raisins and cassonade (golden brown sugar) in the oven at 350 F for 18 minutes. Delicious!

Will also made banana muffins and today he made a beef Goulash 

Also because we are not under total lockdown like in some other countries, it is possible to walk around town for the moment but that could change at any moment. Charlottetown’s core is still very much a residential district with one main business street, Queen. Other streets are either commercial for one or two blocks like Kent Street or Euston, or Grafton. So it is pleasant to walk around. On these walks I do notice how much gentrification is going on and how the prices of properties have shot up in the last 24 months. Now with this on-going Health crisis with no end in sight, prices will probably tumble.

This weekend is also the beginning of the Persian New Year with the Festival of Nourooz so I took a picture of my miniature Orchid by friend Minoo of BelFiore on Elgin Street had in her shop 6 years ago. It flowers 4 times a year and it is my sunshine in the kitchen. Very vibrant colours.

Despite the quiet, we phone our friends and talk to people on Facetime, keeping in touch and busy is very important and only listen to the news twice a day no more, simply so we don’t go bonkers. Take care and stay safe.

 

Winter in PEI

Tags

CCAG, Charlottetown, Garlic flats, PEI, Regina, Romania, VIctor Cicansky

Though I chose this song with Jo Stafford we are far from September. It is a song I heard many decades ago and always liked. On 7 March the Winter show at the Art Gallery opens it will showcase Victor Cicansky (Czekanski) a Canadian artist of Romanian descent, born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan. He is a known gardener and ceramist, he is 85 years old. Art and gardens have been Victor Cicansky’s life since boyhood in Garlic Flats, a neighbourhood of East Regina known for its vegetable gardens and large Eastern European Immigrant population. I went to the Art Gallery to see the pre-opening exhibit. it is beautiful, fun, colourful. Here are some pictures I took.

Curious Hybrid. Bronze, patina, acrylic paint. In 1975 Cicansky broke is big toe while renovating his house. This sculpture answers the question: What do you do with a crutch.

Beef, this is a giant installation on the wall of the gallery.

up close detail of this sculpture.

Love this table, the foot representing the limbs of an apple tree.

25%

Tags

Charlottetown, Christmas, PEI, poverty

Here in PEI with the approaching Holiday Season the many, many campaigns to help the poor are underway. Every year it’s the same story, tons and tons of food and clothing are collected for poor children and poor families. PEI is the smallest Province of Canada and our total population is 150,000, that is the equivalent of one neighbourhood in Montreal or Toronto.  The Provincial Capital Charlottetown has a population of 36,000. a small town really.  If you visit PEI from May to September like most tourists do, you will see zero poverty, we are very good at hiding it. You will see beautiful properties, manicured gardens, beautiful clean beaches and tons of greenery. We are known as the garden province. Restaurants serve lobster and seafood to tourists but that is not the diet of poor people who are reduced to eating food from the large food banks, mostly canned goods, powdered milk and other non-perishable. If you look on the internet you will find no photos of impoverished areas anywhere on the Island, it is all about affluence and pretty snapshots to maintain the myth and to make tourists happy.

Speaking with doctor friends about their daily encounter with poor people they mention a lot of mental health problems caused by poverty. We also have a zero housing vacancy which creates another layer of difficulties. At the moment and for the last 3 years the old original Downtown of Charlottetown is going through extensive gentrification. Properties which were former mansions or large houses turned into rooming houses are now being sold and thoroughly renovated and re-sold as luxury condos or high rent apartments pushing out a precarious population. For a small town we also have 800 Air B&B or STR as they are called now. The owners at the moment pay no taxes on such units and it is enormously lucrative. Most are not registered as STR’s and many do not meet the fire code regulations but no check is being made by the City.  New regulations are coming in 2020 but again we are dealing with powerful and wealthy people who are very well connected, this is a small place after all.

PEI also has the lowest minimum wages in all of Canada, so the waiter or the store clerk you meet is making a pittance a day in salary. In many ways the history of this Canadian Province is far from progressive and in its history from Colony to Province (1755 to today) the wealthy landowners and business people have ruled with arrogance and impunity.

So Officially according to the Department of Statistics of Canada the level of poverty in PEI is 15% and the number of children living in poverty in Charlottetown alone is 25% according to 2017 figures, that would be 9,000 children, an incredible number.

So in December the CBC will have a charity drive usually hosted by the local Weather guy collecting turkeys for families who cannot afford a meal at Christmas. The Churches will do free concerts for all. The Food Bank will collect food and many gifts come from large companies who have surpluses like ADL the big dairy producer. Many farmers will give excess potatoes from the last harvest. The media in general will interview donors and thank them for their generosity. But the poor themselves are mostly invisible, no interviews for them, no photo-ops. Last year the Feed a Family Campaign collected over 2000 turkeys. Other social clubs will give away free meat pies, upwards of 100 per day until Christmas Eve. Clothing for children, toys and cash donations are also taken.

Of course such charity drives exist in all cities and communities during the Holiday Season, however it is more shocking here on this small Island given the small population. I am aware of the need in the City but someone pointed out to me the need also exist and is more acute in rural areas where people are very isolated and often must make a choice between buying fuel to heat the house or food.

I wish our politicians would try to seriously address the housing shortage and minimum wage crisis more effectively and our Media stop presenting these Charity Campaign as a great gesture from the well to do for the deserving poor.  The current system is entrenched and keeps the poor in this vicious circle. Lack of education, lack of opportunities, lack of meaningful jobs and clean housing is part of a societal change required for PEI. This situation is nothing to be proud of PEI.