Monday ~ Canada Day

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

I hope your weekend is going well.

Source:  Freepik

  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA

🎉🎊🎉

🎆🎆🎆

It's Canada's birthday on July 1st. The country celebrates it's 157th birthday. I'm taking it easy today in preparation for a busy week.

It's Sunday as I sit and write this short post. I did little work as I'm in need of a rest day after all the busy-ness of the past weeks.

Yesterday I had a small harvest of swiss chard and kale from my community garden.  I made a juice with it to which I added beets, carrots, ginger, lemon and a small amount of green protein powder.  The protein powder is not my favourite as it uses stevia as a sweetener which I really don't like. I also found that the beets had a very strong, earthy taste even though I only used a small one.  Nonetheless, it probably did my system some good to get some fresh nutrients into my body.

I washed one load of towels and bed clothes. Normally I do laundry 2x per week but I wash the bedding once per week on weekends.  Since it's a long weekend I'm pushing the bedding laundry to a day later.

I also enjoyed getting a good start on the latest novel I'm reading called The Enchantress of Numbers, a historical novel based on the life of Ada Lovelace.  She is only legitimate child of the romantic poet, Lord Byron. Apparently, Ada was an early pioneer in the field of computing and is considered the first computer programmer. Somehow I never heard of her. Let me know in the comments section if you have heard of her and how you came to know of her.

Canada Day and a Few Beach Photos

Another Canada Day has come and gone. My visiting cousin and I started the day with a bit of shopping at Oakridge Mall.  We then carried on to Granville Island where the International Jazz Fest is happening.

Granville Island had a host of  festivities organized for families.  They even had it's own parade but these were all over with by the time we arrived.  We hadn't planned to participate in these events because we were on our way to the fireworks display.

While at Granville Island we had a small snack and listened to this wonderful duo of buskers.  I didn't get their name but the man in red had a fine singing voice and the keyboardist was very good too!

We then boarded this little ferry boat to go across the water to English Bay.

The small ferry was quite busy.

Once on the other side we took a nice long stroll.

It was already approaching 10 p.m. when I snapped these photos with my cell phone and so the light was not that good.

We were having fun enjoying the scenery and  ambience but we had to hasten our walk along the beach to get to the fireworks venue on time.  We decided to walk rather than wait for the bus because of how slow the buses can be in the West End.

We walked along the beach past Sunset Beach and turned onto Cardero Street where we walked toward Coal Harbour.Our destination was Harbour Green Park along the waterfront from where we watched the very nice fireworks display.

I took a 5 and a half minute video but don't have time to edit and upload right now.  After the display we took our time walking east along the waterfront (out of view of this graphic image).  Everyone was taking their time talking to friends and enjoying the evening.  We stopped and had gelato and visited with a few women who were also enjoying their evening before heading home.  Later we continued our easterly walk past the  newly built convention center and Canada Place and beyond to the bus that would take us home.   We didn't arrive home until 1:30 a.m. and both of us were completely wiped out. My cousin kept saying how much she enjoyed herself and it was nice to know that she enjoyed her short visit.  We've made tentative plans for some touristy things to do next year.

Thanks for visiting :-)

In closing let me wish all my American readers a very happy and safe Fourth of July!

Canada Day & the Maple Leaf Flies Abroad

I started a series on my Kenyan travels several months ago but for various reasons have taken a hiatus.  One of the reasons included having to continue the recovery process of most of the photos I took on my trip.  Recently, I made some time to complete the photo recovery process for the trip I took to Kenya in November/December 2010.  I hope now to re-start my travel series on Kenya.

I thought this particular post was fitting given that it relates to Canada's flag abroad and the fact that Canada just celebrated it's birthday on Canada Day, July 1st. I hope you enjoy it.

One of the delights of travelling in Kenya is crossing the equatorial line.

The latitude of the Equator is 0° (zero degrees). The length of Earth's equator is about 40,030.2 kilometres (24,873.6 mi). To calculate the actual length of the Equator would require taking into consideration that the Equator goes up and down various mountains and hills in South America, in Africa, and on various islands. The Equator is one of the five notable circles of latitude on Earth, with the others being the two Polar Circles and the two Tropical Circles: the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The Equator is the only line of latitude which is also a great circle. The imaginary circle obtained when the Earth's equator is projected onto the sky is called the celestial equator.

The sun passes directly over the Equator twice each year, at the March and September equinoxes. At the Equator, the rays of the sun are perpendicular to the surface of the earth on these dates.

Places on the Equator experience the quickest rates of sunrise and sunset in the world. They are also the only places in the world where the sun can go directly from the zenith to the nadir and from the nadir to the zenith.  Such places also have a theoretical constant 12 hours of day and night throughout the year, though in practice there are variations of a few minutes due to the effects of atmospheric refraction and because sunrise and sunset are measured from the time that the edge of the Sun's disk is on the horizon, rather than the center of the disk.  (source: Wikepedia)

A new tourist centre has opened up at the Equator. Jointly sponsored and funded by the Government of Kenya and the European Union it is a wonderful addition to Kenya's growing efforts in supporting tourism in the country.

It is a beautiful site with many flags of various countries flying there in the stiff wind.  There is a stylized metal globe standing next to the flags.

I found the Canadian flag was hanging upside down and I let the tourist official know that.  He was good enough to promptly correct the problem and we shared a laugh about it.

Here is a scene of the premises and the buildings on the site.

 

You can see our van as we were the only tourists stopped there at that moment. The Kenyan flag is waving in the background.

The grounds are quite lovely considering that this is a dry area. These fields lay just beyond the tourist centre.

On the other side of the highway you will see the original site marking the Equator. This is where I stopped several years ago to take photos on my first trip across the Equatorial line.

Here is the tourist official re-hoisting the flag.

While I visited the site the young man called his superior on the cell phone and asked me to speak with him which I promptly did. The boss was very engaging and had no problem speaking to a complete stranger. He asked me if I would be so good as to find a new Canadian flag for their centre as the one they had was getting a little worn. I promised to see what I could do and I haven't forgotten my promise. I need to get on this and see if one of the government offices could send our flag abroad.

Here is a map I found in the centre. I wanted to study it as we were on our way to Lake Baringo and Lake Bogoria.

July 1st, is the national holiday of Canada on which we celebrate the anniversary of the July 1, 1867 anniversary of the enactment of the British North America Act (today called the Constitution Act, 1867).  This year the celebrations were extra special in our nation's capital city, Ottawa.  The reason is  because the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are here on their first royal tour together. I couldn't be there because Ottawa is a 5 hour flight to the east, but I did manage to catch the festivities on television. I also managed to enjoy some of the fireworks in our city. This latter part was a huge and pleasant surprise for me.

Canada Day 2011, fireworks from my patio. I wasn't aware that I could even see the fireworks from my home until after they began. It's too bad I didn't have a proper video camera for taking night shots.

To read earlier installments of my Kenyan travel series you can go to this post where you will find links to most of my Kenyan travel posts. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this series or any of my other posts. It's great to hear from readers!

Click here to see more beautiful scenery from around the world.

Canada Day 2010

Thursday, July 1st, 2010 is Canada Day. 

Canada Day (French: Fête du Canada), formerly Dominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Confédération), is Canada's national day, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act (today called the Constitution Act, 1867), which united two British colonies and a province of the British Empire into a single country called Canada. Canada Day celebrations take place throughout Canada as well as internationally.

Canada Day is often referred to as "Canada's birthday".  The occasion marks the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, into Ontario and Quebec) on July 1, 1867. Canada became a kingdom in its own right on that date, but the British Parliament kept limited rights of political control over the new country that were shed by stages over the years until the county's Constitution was repatriated in 1982.  The Queen of England was here to mark that occasion. 

The monarch is here again today in Canada to celebrate the country's 143 birthday. She is not travelling to western Canada on this trip but I was fortunate enough to see her many years ago. Here she is in Ottawa earlier today.

Photo credit: National Post, July 1st, 2010, Reuters/Blair Gable

Read here about how I spent last year's Canada Day.  This year I plan to stay home and have a nice, quiet, relaxing time.

HAPPY CANADA DAY

On a personal note, I got the breast cancer diagnostic results Wednesday. After testing over a period of a year (involving x-rays, biopsy, ultrasound) I am cancer free. Yeah! This news is a great Canada Day gift.

I don't have to get checked again for another year and after that, every two years, if all is well. I am especially thankful given my aunt just had a recurrence of breast cancer and a full mastectomy last Friday. Her surgery seems to have gone well and she is recovering nicely.

Scenic Sunday in Kamloops

Kamloops, British Columbia is a very different place from where I live in Vancouver. Kamloops is about 4 hours drive north and is located in what is called the Interior of the province. It is cattle country and for years this small city was more like a frontier town.

[Panoramic shot of the North Shore, Kamloops]

I'm happy to say that in the past decade or so things have changed a lot. New commercial buildings have gone up aplenty. New areas of the city have seen significant residential development and there are new facilities and services to be used such as the new downtown library and the one that will open on April 19, 2010 on the north shore. There are also new hotels and restaurants.

[Photo of the newest hotel opened in February 2010]

If you are a golfer there are numerous golf resorts. If you are a mountain biker, the city is known for it's mountain bike trails. If you love the outdoors the entire region is known for fishing and camping. If you like hot weather you are also in luck as the summer temperatures can frequently get over 30ºCelsius. So you will likely want to hang out in one of the city's many beautiful parks just to stay cool and relax. Or you might participate in a community or national event like Canada's birthday on Canada Day, July 1st.

[Collage of photos taken at park on Canada Day 2009. 
Click on photo to enlarge]

Whatever you want to do, you will likely be able to do it in Kamloops. But you better hurry. Those real estate prices have been going up, up and up.

Here now are a few photos taken downtown in February 2010.

[Plaza Hotel, a landmark in the city centre]

[Zack's Coffee shop, a long time business in downtown core]

[City sidewalks are nice and wide downtown and planter pots await Spring]

[Traffic is not exceptionally heavy]

[Buildings downtown retain their history. Big malls are on the hill & across the river]

[This mall has undergone about 3 complete renovations in last 40 years]

[One of the local radio stations]

[Bus routes are extensive and run every 15-30 minutes depending on time of day]

Click on the badge above for more scenes from around the globe.

Water, Water Everywhere

I received this short message from Pastor Jonah in Kericho, Kenya. It really shows the power of what one person can do to help others. May it encourage you to step out in faith for what God would have you to do. Please see more of Pastor Jonah's daily life and service at www.jonahsmissions.blogspot.com

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Hi,

You will love this story of the Canadian who has invested alot in searching for water to help the people here in Africa
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/622290/-/item/0/-/9c49xtz/-/index.html

If the link doesn't work, you can also see the story here http://allafrica.com/stories/200907130414.html

God bless.

Jonah

Enjoying Canada's Birthday

It is a week late but better late than never! I wanted to share a montage of pictures from the July 1st Canada Day celebration I went to in Kamloops, BC. We spent the better part of the day in the beautiful Riverside Park where attendance was one of the largest ever to turn out for the event.

There was music, ethnic foods, official presentations, cultural events and dance, arts and crafts, face painting and water games and people just generally lazing around in the park.

One of the newly elected federal politicians tattooed my niece's face with the Canadian flag after a late lunch of Chinese food and a cool down snack of ice cream. We then headed to the main band stand where we thoroughly enjoyed some Taiko drumming music (see the short video below).

My niece enjoyed some cotton candy before heading home. These kind of days remind me of when I was a child and I so looked forward to the annual carnival. When the carnival came to town we enjoyed rides and "exotic food" like corn on the cob, candy apples, popcorn, corn dogs & cotton candy. It gives me joy watching other children enjoy the same things.