Flowers

Tags

flower box, Fox, PEI, Summer, York Nursery

The weather here in PEI has been more than unseasonably cold and abnormal, but this is Climate Change and we feel it. We have had frost at night in June, one or two days of above 19C and nights of 6C which again for mid-June is not normal. Everything is a month late, and so gardening and gardens in general have not appeared as they usually would by June 1.  There is a saying on the Island ”Don’t plant your flowers before the 10 June” Few have put their boats in the water, the marinas should be full by now but are half empty. If last year for the 150th of Confederation we were run over by tourists, not so this year. We will get tourists but I don’t think we will get the crowds of last year.

Today we drove to York which is 12 minutes from our house in the countryside to the York Nursery, they have a beautiful array of flowers and their prices are better than the big in town nurseries. So we got flowers to put in our boxes on our balcony. The price of flowers and green plants in general is way up from 3 years ago. I do not know what the explanation is to that one.

Hopefully the weather will improve and warm up, the Winter was dreary and rainy, we need sunny weather for the beach.

Here is a picture of my new front plate on my car for this year. We have foxes in cities and towns on the Island a left over from the fox fur farming days. Now they live in neighbourhoods because the coyotes have moved in from the mainland and populate the rural areas.

 

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TULIPES – TULIPS – LALE

Tags

Dromore PEI, PEI, Spring, tulips, Vanco

It is said that the tulip flower comes from Turkey and its shape inspired the turbans worn by Ottoman Officials and the Sultan.

Whatever the story here is a photo taken this week at Vanco Farms in Dromore PEI. A giant field of tulips about 25 varieties grown here on the Island for markets in Canada and elsewhere. Quite the sight to see, impressive, no need to fly to Holland to see this sight. It will be all over in a few more days when the tulips will be cut and will be available here and elsewhere. In fact I have bough tulips as early as a month ago at the local market, the price is anywhere from $5 to $8 dollars a bunch. Makes such a beautiful bouquet.

Spring is blooming in all directions at the Vanco Farms in the 50-acre tulip field in Dromore. Between 20 and 25 varieties – millions of bulbs – are planted, creating row after row of colour. The process of topping, which is cutting off the flowers, will take place in the next seven to 10 days.

Setting Day

Tags

Charlottetown, Food, PEI, Seafood, Summer, tourists

Today 30 April is the last day to do your income tax report in Canada and pay whatever you may owe, it is also Setting Day in PEI. This is the opening of the Lobster Spring harvest Season. At dawn from all the ports around the Island, lobster boats went off to set the traps, they will do this every day until 30 June. Setting means laying down the traps to catch Lobsters. It will be interesting to see what prices will be set for 1 lbs. In the supermarket today a pound lobster was selling at $14.99 I do not know if this price will fall or rise. Of course you can go down to the dock and buy your lobster directly from any fisherman and it is likely you will pay a lot less probably around $5 to $7 dollars a pound. Will see…

Many people come out to see them go, it is quite the sight. This also means that the Summer tourist season is about to open, in 48 hours the first cruise ship will arrive in Port at Charlottetown. I believe the first is a Holland American ship. Tomorrow morning the restaurants catering to the tourist crowds open at 11:30am for lunch.

 

 

# It has been 2 months folks!

Tags

Campaign, Charlottetown, City Hall, Councillor, Election, Municipality, PEI

Yes two full months already on the municipal campaign trail, a lot of work and meeting a lot of people, business people, investors, entrepreneurs, developers, social activists, new comers and just plain people who reside here in Ward 1 Queen Square in Downtown Charlottetown.

I am very proud of the fact that I have been able to talk face to face with so many people in our Ward. It has been very interesting and the reception has been very good, so thank you all. For those people I have not met yet, I will meet you soon, promise!

It is not over and I continue to hammer home the point that I am here for you and to work on your behalf. That my campaign is about accountability at City Council. Time for a new vision of progressive ideas at City Council, an up-beat can do attitude. There is so much to do in the next four years.

Charlottetown is a great multi-ethnic and multi-racial Capital, full of diversity and the future is here for us all. What is important now is how to approach the opportunities presented to us, what will we make of our Capital City.

I need your support and I need to hear from you. Please contact me and let’s talk. I have a blog on many topics and I continue to add topics as we go, all of it based on conversations with you, I am listening to you.

I am convinced like you that change is in the air at City Hall, so many of you wish for it. Let’s make it happen!

Contact me;   Lbwardone@gmail.com

My blog on WordPress, Laurent Beaulieu in 2018 or click on the link 

Ward1councillor2018.wordpress.com

 This Municipal Election is about you!  What can I do for you? 

 Laurent Beaulieu for City Councillor, Ward 1.

 

Easter Sunday

Tags

Chocolate, Easter, lunch, PEI, Roast Lamb, tulips

Well I went out early today, well early for me, 10am to do all the shopping for tomorrow because everything will be closed for the Holiday.  The stores were full and so was the Farmer’s Market but it all went well. Will cleaned around the house and the weather was lovely and warm, really Spring now.

Got the table set for lunch tomorrow, we will have a few guests in for Easter Lunch on the menu roasted Leg of Lamb, two veg, roasted potatoes with rosemary to start we will have puff pastry with asparagus. The dessert is fresh orange slices with a syrup of honey and cinnamon.  The tulips are from Vanco just down the road out of Charlottetown. Yellow, red and purple bunches.

Tomorrow the weather calls for rain in the afternoon, will see. Got some good European chocolates, not a lot just enough to say we have some. I know some parents who have been feeding their kids chocolates all week with the result that the kids are now bouncing off the walls on a sugar high.

Here is the Easter photo of Will with Nora and Nicky.

Notice Nora sniffing at the Espresso, if left unattended she will put her nose in the coffee and drink it, must be the milk and sugar she likes. Nick just lounges.

A few mornings ago,  the weather was foggy at sunrise and the air had a lot of humidity in it, it created an icy fog on the trees which only lasted as long as it takes the Sun to rise and warm up the air.

I hope you all have a fine day and enjoy yourself.

 

62

Tags

62, Birthday, Election, life, Oysters, PEI, winter

Age is just a number, I think so. I cannot imagine feeling different at 32, sure you look older in the mirror but otherwise all is good. Yesterday was my birthday and we went to dinner with friends at my favourite restaurant in town, Claddagh Oyster House on Sydney street about 3 blocks from where we live. The owner is Liam Dolan, Irish from Galway. Claddagh is the oldest owned restaurant in Charlottetown, it was opened 36 years ago by Dolan and his family. The food is very good, they have a great selection of oysters from various bays around the island. The chef is great and it is very good value for money. He also owns the oldest Pub in town, the Olde Dublin. Charlottetown in 1983 was not the town you see today, it was pretty dreary and on the verge of huge transformation which have only accelerated in the last 10 years.

We started with oysters, they are very good at this time of year and champagne and then a rack of lamb it was wonderful. Lots of good conversation and laughs.

We made a mistake this Winter, everyone we know goes away in Winter for a minimum of 2 weeks to up to 2 months. The worst months are February and March, we should have gone away, anywhere for at least 2 weeks. So now I have an excuse to go away on 23 April to Montreal to see friends and to also visit the Fine Arts Museum and see a show by Don Andrus at the Gallerie Vu.

I have been on the campaign trail for 2 months now and I am going to take a break, its school March break now and Easter Week so the town will be pretty quiet. Just stay home re-organize the library, we have no plans for Easter at all. Don’t know what to do really. I am also planning to go to Europe in November after the Municipal election, even if just for a week, just for a break. I know I will need it, win or loose.

Campaign trail

Tags

2018, Charlottetown, City Council, Councillor, Election, November 5, PEI

For several months now I have been preparing for my candidacy as City Councillor in Ward 1 in Charlottetown. Ward 1 as the name indicates is the old original footprint of Charlottetown of 1765 when the city grid was designed on paper by Captain Samuel Holland and others. The story goes that the grid pattern is copied from a Roman Military Camp, the centre occupied by the Commander’s tent and his entourage, here we call it Queen’s Square with the Legislature building and other government buildings in a park setting. The other city streets all lead to this rectangular park, the main ceremonial avenue Great George starts at the river bank and is cut in two by Queen’s Park. Other green squares in the city are distributed in this plan. It is not a large ward physically speaking and can be walked easily from one end to the other, about 2100 people live in Ward 1.

Because of the many challenges facing our Ward in the coming years and the lack of effective representation at City Council, our present councillor has been missing in action for the last 7 months, I, like many others worry that we are not well represented and are forgotten at decision making time.

Ward 1 is a hub as the business downtown core, tourist central, cruise ship terminal, cultural and artistic centre and a residential neighbourhood of beautiful and well preserved mansions on average 180 years old. It is very difficult to imagine Charlottetown without Ward 1.

Given my decades long work experience in government, national and municipal, on the international scene and in Canada, I know the processes and I am interested in applying myself to modernizing the municipal government in Charlottetown, to make it more responsive to what the residents want. I propose to do that during this election campaign by visiting each resident of the ward and also businesses and service groups.

The actual voting day is November 5 but there is a lot of work to do and people to meet. I do not want to leave anything to chance and do not take victory for granted. This is a great opportunity to learn.

 

 

A picture of town

Tags

Canada., Charlottetown, cruise ships, home, PEI

The picture of the waterfront of Charlottetown in mid-1960’s show how industrial the waterfront was with its port facilities, railway yard and vestiges of the 19th century ship building period. If compared to today’s waterfront park, the area is unrecognizable. In 1989 with the demise of the railway in the Province, all rail equipment was removed and instead parks and hiking trails were built, now covering extensive areas not only in the Capital but across the Province.

At the bottom of the photo is the old potato storage terminal, today it’s the Cruise ship terminal completely rebuilt and renovated. Behind it the rail yards  and a rail car repair shop now transformed into a great hall soon to become a Farmer’s Market. Next to it the old oil tank park of a giant oil company, the tank park disappeared and now the area is totally transformed into a lush green park known as Confederation Landing, a gift of the City of Quebec who shares with Charlottetown in 1864 the honour of hosting the conferences which led to the formation of Canada. Next to that more empty land now occupied by the Conference centre and the Delta Hotel, shops and restaurants. This coming Summer Charlottetown will welcome 94 cruise ships from various companies with over 100,000 passengers landing a few meters away from my house.

The waterfront today, you cannot recognize it.   

Winter perspectives

Tags

Canada., Charlottetown, Fanningbank, PEI, winter

Today Sunday is a bright sunny day and the temperature is mild for Winter at -5C, in the sunshine you feel warm. Though there is now snow on the ground since 17 January, it is a mild Winter with the exception of the wind.

The entrance to Fanningbank the Official Residence of the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of PEI.

In the countryside at dusk

I came to a realization….

Tags

age, Charlottetown, generation, Laurent, life, Me, PEI

Last night I suddenly came to a realization, we were at Baba’s Lounge which is upstairs from Cedar’s Lebanese Restaurant on Great George Street. Baba’s is an institution and is known by all musicians on PEI. Several nights a week they have music, on Thursday nights it’s Jazz night and last night Island Jazz was performing. The group is Ben on piano, Marlee on saxophone and Evan on bass guitar and Brandon Roy sang and what a wonderful voice he has. All are either music teachers or musicians and Brandon is a professional singer with that wonderful booming voice appearing in several shows here and in Toronto. The age group last night was between 25 and 35, the new up and coming generation, in this case talented, fun, full of energy, nice people.

This is not a pity me post but more a sudden realization that I am older now by about 30 years from that generation. I have turned a corner like you do at 20 or 50, life changes and you change. People also react to you differently, I hear references to being older meaning you belong to a different generation. We socialize with people more our age or somewhat older, though I do not necessarily share the same world view. This may have to do with the fact that I travelled around the world and my views are maybe more based on my own life experience in different cultures. If we meet with younger people I am very aware that we may not speak the same language because age can create a distance.

I had pictures taken recently by a professional photographer, the results were quite good, this has to do with a project I will speak of later, looking at them though I thought do I look this old now or is this what people see.

Maybe it is, by looking at pictures at another time in life I see a familiar face at a different time, this is where I am now. Maybe this is why I find the change so shocking in some ways, but then it happens to all of us.

I do not really see myself at 61, it just does not make sense to me. I do not feel older, just the same. I do think from time to time that I may have another 25 years to go, if I look at my close family relations and my parents, if good health holds then another quarter century is not bad. It’s just that everything looks shorter now in terms of time span. One might think that at 30 or 40 you can still think I got decades in front of me, but the reality is that no one can be certain of what they have left.

Maybe this is what comes with age, you know the past, you have experience and your life is shaped by all the years of living. Is this what is meant by, Life changes us, I think it does, we stay the same but life experience and time changes us. So maybe this set of photos are what I do look like today, just make the best of it and move on.