Little things I notice

Tags

Covid 19, dandelions, life, Parliament, PEI

I have an eye for details, somethings no one will notice, I will for sure, which will make others take a second look. It can be a small object in a corner of a photo, a detail that does not really fit in the picture, or a sequence of shots that will make me wonder about or notice how different it is from similar shots.

This week was the State Opening of Parliament at Westminster, it was very strange and so different. Because of the pandemic, it was a very paired down affair. Everything was done by car instead of by coach with mounted escorts and honour guards and bands along the way. Also instead of going down the Mall to Admiralty Arch, the cortege of cars, Land Rovers, turned into Horse Guard parade and crossed it. Again arriving at the Victoria tower of Parliament where the Sovereign’s Entrance is located, no honour guards. Everyone was wearing a mask except the Queen. Her Land Rover had her Personal Standard on the bonnet at the front. She was dress in what is called civil outfit instead of in her Robes of State and no decorations. Same for the Prince of Wales who as Heir to the Throne now accompanies Her everywhere and his wife the Duchess of Cornwall follows. He wore Morning dress and no decorations. The parade inside Parliament was sparse, when usually there would be lots of people everywhere, almost no one. Only one trumpeter and Lord Cholmondeley who is the Lord Great Chambelain carrying the Imperial State Crown on a cushion. His family have this job from father to son for generation. His ancestor was Sir Robert Walpole the First Prime Minister of Britain around 1721.

The speech was on a table next to the Throne instead of being given to the Queen. Everyone in the House of Lords was keeping the 6 feet apart and so the room was nearly empty. The Members of Parliament walked down the hall to the House of Lords in single file and only a handful were present.

At the end of the ceremony the Crown was carried back and placed in the State Rolls Royce to be conveyed back to the the Tower of London where it is kept. The Comptroller sit next to it and it must be clearly visible to the people as it travels back to the Tower, treated as a living symbol.

When the Queen’s car arrived at Buckingham Palace once past the central gate it turned right down the front of the Palace instead of going through the main gate into the courtyard. I wonder if this is because the Palace is going through major renovations at this time and she lives mostly at Windsor Castle. All the wiring and plumbing is being replaced, some of it goes back to 1910.

All in all still a beautiful ceremony but on a much reduced scale.

The rest of the week was busy with all manner of things to do around the house, being Spring time lots of cleaning, our cleaning lady is doing the 18 large windows we have all around, which is a big help. Our landlord came to clean the garden on three side of the property and that is also a big job.

Our Island is a sand bar of red sandstone, this means that all construction material including gravel, sand and stone like granite etc must be imported from the mainland by ship who dock about 1000 feet away from our home. The ships usually come in late afternoon and in the middle of the night. The unloading is a very noisy process and a dusty one to boot, parades of truck wait to be loaded, etc. The area use to be until about 30 years ago heavy industrial with a railroad freight yard. All that disappeared and has been replaced by parkland and condominiums. Only a very small area is left for unloading of these construction materials, which is unsuitable for what the neighbourhood has become.

Another beautiful day, it is only 14C or 57 F but this means that its flip flop and short season already. Some even go swim in the sea, I find them brave and of strong constitution. In the full sun light with little wind it feels much warmer.

We have also been asked to not cut our grass now, let the dandelions grow and bloom, for the sake of the bees and pollinators. At the moment we have carpet of yellow everywhere.

It really does not look like we will get our safety bubble this Summer after all, again this week we had an incident a few blocks away from our home, one selfish person went to work in a daycare and infected all around her. The Premier Dennis King was immediately on YouTube which he uses to speak to all Islanders and he was livid, pointing out that health regulations are here for a reason and the actions of one person impacts everyone else. Our Chief Medical Officer Dr Morrison looks frustrated and tired and who can blame her, with her small staff they have been performing miracles each day with testing people and vaccinations. You really have to wonder about some people.

Friday night we had a party and in Island style at the Club, several people showed up and because this is a small place, everyone knows everybody else and all went to school together. Lots of funny stories about younger days. In this group are prominent citizens of our town.

Day of Mourning

Tags

Canada, Covid 19, mourning, Remembrance

Today 11 March is the National Day of Mourning for all the Canadian victims of the Pandemic, some 22,000 Canadians died from Covid 19 in one year. Half of those victims lived in the province of Quebec, something I still do not understand.

All flags were at half-mast and Radio-Canada had a lovely music program this evening in memory of our dead. We remain very fortunate in PEI with no hospitalizations and no deaths.

Parliament Peace Tower, Ottawa.

Fruit Cake, a tradition

Tags

Canada, Covid 19, Friendship, fruit cake, tradition, Vaccine

For the last 40 years our friend John H. sends us one of his famous home made fruit cake. He makes usually a dark and a light version in both cases they are soaking in Brandy keeping the cakes very moist. It is by far the best fruit cake I have ever had. No one else I know makes such a delicious cake. He does make quite a few because he gives them as gifts. We always had a fruit cake at home from John even in my far away postings.

Tonight for dessert I opened the cake he gave me, I believe it was made about 18 months ago. The cake as aged and it is the richer tasting fot it. It had a heavy smell of Brandy and all the fruits in it where sweet and juicy.

Absolutely delicious fruit cake, it won’t last long.

I mentioned previously that in years past we sent electronic Xmas cards but this year we decided to send paper ones. Now the work is to get all the addresses, I may have to go get more cards. Trying to complete the job in the next few days only 23 days before Christmas now.

The big news today in Canada from the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health is that the Government has bought about 9 doses of the anti-Covid19 vaccine from 4 companies for each Canadian. There are 38 million Canadians this means we have 342 million doses total. The problem in Canada is logistics given are huge geographic area and 6 time zones, a lot of logistics will be required. But it looks like we are in the home stretch now.

Today is 19 November

Tags

Canada, Christmas, Covid 19, Holiday, life, Music, PEI, politicians, USA

I had to go to an early appointment today and then to the pharmacy. Everyone as mandated by the Provincial Government of PEI is wearing their face mask, no fuss, no must. Happy to see that degree of cooperation.

While waiting to speak with the pharmacist I heard that music, you know it is mandatory to play that music at this time of the year to apparently get us in the mood. Bing Crosby and Burl Ives, yes Christmas music from the 1940 and 1950’s, it is nice of course if for no other reason that it is historical and belongs to a long ago age when things in retrospect appear more genteel.

The music expresses a more relaxed happier time none of the stress of post-modern living and other concerns like identity politics, erase culture, PC speak in our unraveling ultra consumer society, split in two by extreme partisan views in Canada like in the USA.

Was the world ever like that? Not really, other times, other worries. The media is already painting as they do each year the Holiday Season as extremely stressful and full of danger including of course this year the pandemic concerns and people behaving like spoiled kids who can’t control themselves and be mature. Horror of horrors there will be NO Santa this year in shopping malls, the world is coming to an end. The solution, Virtual Santa and you can schedule a visit via Zoom. I honestly have to say I cannot remember as a child going to sit on Old Santa’s knee, maybe once at Eaton’s in Montreal when I was 4 or 5 years old. Santa for us was more a mythical person, you did not see him, he simply came in the night when you were sleeping.

In the last 5 years or so of living here, one point of discussion that comes back daily is mental health, if you listen to the media you would be forgiven if you believed every one on the Island suffered from some kind of mental health problem. It is a non stop discussion, not enough support. There is a real split between the Capital and the countryside, yes there is more services in Charlottetown and less so out in rural areas which represent 98% of the Island, however being a small Island the further away from a medical centre is about 45 minutes. We have 2 psychologists for 150K population, we have social workers and counselling services but it seems that it is insufficient.

A troubling statistic, PEI has 50% more drunk drivers than the entire National Canadian average, given that you have to drive everywhere on the Island, since there is no public transport, the police cannot explain the spike in the last 9 months of the pandemic. We also consume a lot of drugs on the Island more so than anywhere else in Canada by a country mile. Which leads to a lot of serious accidents. A darker side of PEI not mentioned in the tourism brochures.

Finally one statistic that truly shocked me yesterday, listening to the PBS NewsHour, I have been listening to it for at least 40 years, love the presentation and the reporting. It was mentioned that 250,000 Americans had died of Covid 19, an extremely sad statistic, another 11 million are sick, it did not need to happen, it could have been prevented but politicians clearly dropped the ball on this one. In comparison the events in NYC at the World Trade Centre in September 11, 2001 seem despite the horror of that day, pale. I cannot understand how this can be and how some State Governors, Republican Senators and the out-going President wash their hands of it all, call it criminal stupidity.

In Canada 11,000 Canadians have died so far and 300k are sick and this in the most populous Provinces like Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and now Manitoba. Here conservative politicians are far more concerned with businesses than average citizens. As someone pointed out, you cannot have a business with dead customers, unless of course you are in the Funeral business.

Values

Tags

Canada., Covid 19, economy, humanity, life, PANDEMIC

During this pandemic which is unlike anything any one living today have ever experienced, there are many discussions on life and the world and our medical authorities have tried their best with what they have on hand to inform us on how to avoid infection. Some have listened others not so much, then as we in Canada are starting to emerge slowly from the worst of this crisis, some have advocated a quick return to a normal life and a re-opening of businesses others have advocated patience and careful approach to avoid a second wave of this virus. We have to accept that there are many viewpoints on this matter and it is shaped by individual beliefs and life experience.

Re-opening to quickly to satisfy those who wish to return to what is dubbed normalcy out of frustration will create another problem. Are we not all frustrated with this unusual and abnormal situation.

Someone will have to pay the price for re-opening too quickly. Would you be willing to sacrifice your family, your children, parents, friends? It is likely many will pay with their lives having no choice but to work in unsafe conditions to satisfy this requirement and others will be infected without knowing it.

I am fascinated and horrified with the many commenters who justify the death of others by saying that it is justified by the economic benefits it brings because those who die are elderly (over 60) so a natural process. Such false equivalence arguments are often used in journalism and in politics today. A logical fallacy in which an equivalence is drawn between human life and re-starting the economy in order to save businesses and jobs based on flawed or false reasoning. We have all read or heard the arguments.

There are many such voices in Canada in the media, in politics and in the public in general. A very sad comment on our society and the mentality of the callous present amongst us.

We should never have to choose between a human life and/or the economy, there is no equivalence. Those who would have us make a choice are clearly in the wrong. We all need a strong economy so that our society prospers but not at the expense of the people in that society.

 

Another Covid day

Tags

anxiety, Canada., cooking, Covid 19, cuisine, Food, PEI, shopping, Stress

So this Monday we have lovely sunny and warm weather, so I went for an hour long walk to the end of our street and along the Hillsborough River to Victoria Park which is the former Royal Park of the Lieutenant Governor’s Residence. It’s a very big park about 90 acres of forest and parkland. On one side is the Residence of the L.G. with its 10 acres of manicured park and old trees. The grounds are usually open but the L.G. told the groundskeeper to close the gates during the pandemic.

It is so quiet and pleasant to walk along the streets by the river with its beautiful parks and old trees, mansions and nice homes. No cars and just a few people who seeing you coming simply take their distances.

I was at the supermarket yesterday and I just became anxious, nervous and tired of the place. There was not many people in the store it was quiet and no waiting at the cashier station. Still I just dislike it and find people in general to be self centred and not aware of their surroundings. I only go now about once every 8 days and try to go early to avoid people. There is stress in all of this and I am also tired of constantly sanitizing everything.

We are in PEI in a privilege situation in North America and Canada, no cases and no one sick or recovering. The down side, people immediately feel over confident thinking its over and let’s return to before 11 March when it all started.  Our Island borders are still closed but there is a lot of political pressure to re-open to allow people from elsewhere in Canada and the USA to come to their Summer cottages. Like many I am firmly against such an idea, Canada has 70,000 cases now most of them in Quebec and Ontario the two most populous provinces. With numbers still climbing each day though not as fast. Montreal is a real disaster area, it is so bad that the Government of Quebec may quarantine the entire Island of Montreal some 4 million people to flatten the curve.

We will have a quiet Summer in PEI our tourism traffic is down 90% and now operators are hoping in Islanders as customers, renting camp grounds and staying in resorts or renting a cottage by the beach.

Here are some pictures of what we have been cooking or got from the Water Prince restaurant across the street from us now open for take-out. You may know this restaurant where many celebrities comes for a lobster. It is a simply unpretentious place but the food is superb and we know the owner and his son and all the staff. Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee ate there a few years ago.

Malpeque Oysters on the half shell prepared for us at the Water Prince. A nice appetizer for dinner.

Haligut and chips. At the moment Halibut is in Season and I prefer it to Haddock.

Made at home, puff pastry stuffed with meat and vegetables served with Brocolletti.

Pastry stuffed with raspberry jam and sliced almonds.

Made this meat pie with vegetables for an evening dinner.

A 3 lbs Pork Roast in a cast iron pan, using a marinade of garlic, thyme, rosemary and Cayenne pepper. The cast iron pan is perfect and it goes into the oven. It was soooo good.

Banana Foster a New Orleans recipe with Rum, brown sugar and vanilla ice cream.

Banana Bread,  Nicky and Nora love a piece of banana in the morning after their breakfast. So we had too many bananas and made bread out of the more ripe ones.

 

Things I picked up reading

Tags

cicero, Covid 19, Food, majorca, william graves

I will often pick up information on a website I am reading, a fact I did not know or had never heard of.  Today I was reading about Gestalt, now this is a word you hear or heard in the 1970’s but I never knew what it meant and did not pay much attention to it.  So I  was reading about the history after 1919 of the Berlin City Palace I came upon how the University asked for research, teaching space in the abandon palace across from the Humboldt University and they were granted a series of rooms in the West facade area. Gestalt therapy is a client-centered approach to psychotherapy that helps clients focus on the present and understand what is really happening in their lives right now, rather than what they may perceive to be happening based on past experience.

The conditions for researchers conducting these experiments in perceptual psychology in the palace rooms during the 1920s was perfect. The institute’s location in the palace spurred on the research and ensured international fame for the Berlin School of Experimental Psychology under Dr. Köhler. It attracted guest researchers from all over the world and put Berlin researchers on the map of international science. But the palace’s unique rooms not only brought research success; they also created practical problems when the laboratory was drawn into disputes with palace administration, which viewed the building as a heritage monument.

The university’s psychological institute remained in the palace until 1945, even though Berlin’s reputation as an international centre of Gestalt psychology came to an end in 1933. The entire institute staff fled into exile, apparently the Nazis where not fans of Gestalt.

The first victim of the new research agenda was the cinema laboratory which was used for experimental work in the field of visual perception. The rest of the institute’s remaining equipment was destroyed by fire in bombing raids carried out towards the end of the war. Other than a few photographs and construction plans, nothing remains of the golden age of Gestalt psychology in the 1920s. Furthermore, hardly anyone today is aware that the successes of Gestalt psychology are due – at least in part – to the unusual working conditions enjoyed by the laboratory in the Berlin Palace.

Portal III, Western facade, Berlin City Palace, c.1900  

Given that we are mostly confined to home at the moment and so we are left with amusing ourselves with chores, cooking, reading and walking the dogs. It is clear now for those of us who listen carefully to what our Premier Dennis King is saying and what the Chief Health Officer Dr Morrison mentions daily that our period of isolation will go on for months, September or October have been mentioned as possible time period for an end to this crisis, but it is clear that no cure or vaccine will be found for at least 24 months. I cannot imagine what this means for life in general.

So we have been looking at various cooking shows on YouTube and recipes, some are easy and fun and other makes you wonder if it would work if you tried it. There is apparently a blog where the writer points out what recipe would not work simply by pointing out mistakes in measurements or cooking temperature.

On the reading front, well I finished the biography of Italian writer Primo Levi and now I have started The Republic and the Laws by Marcus T. Cicero, a very ancient text.

Cicero’s The Republic is an impassioned plea for responsible governement written just before the civil war that ended the Roman Republic in a dialogue following Plato. Drawing on Greek political theory, the work embodies the mature reflections of a Roman ex-consul on the nature of political organization, on justice in society, and on the qualities needed in a statesman. Its sequel, The Laws, expounds the influential doctrine of Natural Law, which applies to all mankind, and
sets out an ideal code for a reformed Roman Republic.

The other book I started is by William Graves the son of Robert Graves and is entitled Wild Olives. The action is based on childhood memories. As a five-year-old child, William Graves is taken in 1946 from England to a mountain village in Majorca, where his father, the poet Robert Graves, had returned with his new family to the place where he had lived before the war with Laura Riding. Young William grows up in the writer’s shadow, while experiencing the way of life of the Majorcans which have hardly changed for hundreds of years, and participating in the day-to-day activities of the village.

This is an enjoyable beautiful book and an easy read.

We have also started to FaceTime with friends over drinks since we cannot meet in person. We will have to invent a new social life, despite the fact that most wish to think that all this will be over in two weeks.

 

 

Pensée du Jour

Tags

Alberta, Covid 19, Oil, PEI, society, Tar sands

The misunderstanding of the present grows fatally from our ignorance of the past.

Marc Bloch 1886-1944

Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch was a French historian. A founding member of the Annales School of French social history.

Given the very troubled time we live in at the moment, I find this quotation by Bloch apt. I see on social media whining and complaining about not getting enough money from all the financial support announcements both at the Federal and Provincial Level of Government. It is never enough everyone wants more. Others blame the current situation on those who are sick. There is also a growing fear of the other or the foreigner. A profound hatred of Public Servants in general. We can do without the Government is the refrain. All of it, petulant, the cry of the spoiled child. In Alberta today, the Premier Jason Kenny fired 25,000 educators and school support staff, reasoning that since schools are closed we do not need these people, who he portrays as indulged, lazy and useless. His supporters comment that Alberta would be so much better if part of the USA under President Trump. Premier Kenny is also denying medical service to anyone living in Alberta who do not have a Health Card, they can pay out of  pocket, this would be vulnerable people. Again his supporters chant make Canada pay, we hate Canada and Canadians. Much of the hysteria in Alberta is due to the fact that the Canadian Barrel of Oil, (Western Canadian Select) is now at $5 USD. this means that the Tar Sands exploitation will shut down completely.  If only Alberta had 30 years ago diversified its economy and impose a modest sales tax. If only!

PEI is also facing many economic difficulties in the Fisheries sector, the lobster market to China has collapsed, Tourism for 2020 is nil, many tourist sites will not open and now the collapse of the AIR B&B market. Charlottetown has 825 such units in the old downtown alone which has a permanent population of 2500. I can see a total collapse of this segment of the market but we will see a return to long term rental leases and many houses coming on the real estate market cheap, which is urgently needed.

I can understand, I should say, I can see the anxiety and the fear in the comments of people. I went for a walk today, it was sunny and mild, Spring like conditions. People are mindful of the 2 meters or 6 feet rule on the street and in the parks. In general people are self-isolating but many still don’t. No one talks, in a society known for being chatty. It is all sad, but a new normal, at least until this passes. Yes I know some will have extreme reactions to this situation and despair.

Like all things this will pass, life will become normal again. Our world will be changed and many will have died or suffered economically. We are still in shock and cannot quite believe how our humdrum world has been upended. We should remember that we are still living in a peaceful country and that access to Social Services and Health care is here for all. Many people have offered to help neighbours with shopping, hot meals, or any kind of help they may require. There are lots of good people here in PEI and elsewhere in Canada. If only people could remember how life was 90 years ago and ponder.

Display made by a neighbour on our current situation, the ducks are named after her children and grand children.

The Residence of the Lieutenant Governor of PEI on the Fanningbank Estate.

 

 

 

 

 

Things you buy

Tags

Birds, Carabinieri, Covid 19, PEI, Spring, Vinyl gloves

Well today is a sunny day, 5C or 42F no wind and a pleasant day. Same tomorrow and we took a walk from our home along the riverside in the Confederation Landing Park to the Coast Guard Dock. The walk on the river is quite nice, the ice is gone and looking at the opening of the Strait of Northumberland, no ice is visible. Lots of birds everywhere singing, it’s Spring.

As of today PEI only has 11 cases, all at home. Everyone we encounter on our walk keeps the 6 feet distance or more, which is a huge relief seeing how serious people are.  Earlier we went to Murphy’s Pharmacy to pick up a regular prescription and some other supplies. On the way in at the door was Ray Murphy, the owner of the drugstore chain. He is well known and his drugstores have wonderful staff and good service. He said to me, I have to stay away from you 6 feet you know. Usually he would chit chat, he is quite affable.

I really do not want to go to the grocery store, this being Saturday. A friend went yesterday and they only allow 4 people in at a time and so you line up outside 6 feet apart. Best to go to a store you are familiar with and go in grab what you need and get out quick. Also only one person per family allowed, no family groupings or taking the kids in to run around the store as some parents like to do.

Today  at Murphy’s Drugstore I was looking for surgical gloves, many people are buying them and wearing them when shopping. I never bought them before, no need to, but given that it seems to be the height of Pandemic Fashion, I wonder if Louis Vuitton will come out with a brand. The funny thing is that one Health recommendation about going to the grocery store is to wear gloves and this reminded me of what we were told when I was working abroad. We were told to clean, wipe and wash fruits and vegetables and not buy some type of vegetable or fruits to avoid parasites and contamination. Per example; Strawberries and any type of berries, leafy salads was off limits absolutely, because they were probably watered with night soil (aka human excrements). Other fruits & vegetables you peeled still had to be washed or scrubbed, washing hands afterwards or wearing gloves was best practice. I always had DETTOL at home and large bottled water jugs of 40 litres, never use tap water for that job. It was a job and it took 2 hours to clean everything, but that was the price to stay healthy.

I also believe in the wisdom of dogs or in the philosophy of life they follow.  Our Nicky is always looking for sunshine and then he will lie down and snooze. Why worry, enjoy the moment, the Sun is good for you. Nicky has been practicing this all his life and he is happy, happy.

Oh!!! did I show you what I bought myself for my Birthday? I looked at Land’s End Catalogue and bought myself a new Squall Jacket, the old one was 25 years old. The colour is US Air Force blue, in Canada the RCAF has a more Prussian blue to its uniform.

So I accessorize with a cap that matches the new jacket. I got this cap from a friend of mine in Italy who was an Officer in the Carabinieri, which sports the Golden insignia of a grenade.

Stay HOME!

Tags

Covid 19, Health, home, Italy, message, people

This little film is basically saying to all people living in Rome, don’t be stupid tonight just stay home. This way Rome will remain the Rome we know and love and we will all be safe. A simple message for all easy to follow. Italy has been hit very hard. Not all people have been careful. Enjoy this gentle poetic video addressed to us all.