Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Tuesday, November 17th - all over the map this week - literally and fuguratively!

Another busy week has gone by, bringing us one more week closer to Christmas! (I know, no one wants to hear that)

Firstly, a belated happy birthday to Patti, who celebrated yesterday. It was her good fortune that it was also timed that Tristen's school was hosting a special lunch for the parents, with a Parisienne theme.

It wasn't planned that way, but it was a little ironic in light of the terrible tragedy that struck that city last week. Our thoughts and prayers are with those in France, but also gratitude that Patti wasn't there, as she often does flights to Paris.

It was a very busy week for the kids. James participated in the Remembrance day ceremonies in Guelph with the Air Cadets, then a quick change into his kilt and off to several other performances with the pipe band, at various locations.

Sunday was the Guelph Santa Claus Parade, where Meg made her debut as a drummer.  Because a lot of members of the cadet band are also Pipe band members, the two were combined so James was a piping cadet and Meg was a kilted drummer.   It looks like they had a beautiful day for the parade with mild temperatures and lots of sunshine.



A much nicer day than we had here. It was cold and drizzly both Saturday and Sunday and  I had a new project that I've undertaken that needed to be started outside.

Our friend Charles had his lambs slaughtered last week and gave me two hides fresh off the lambs.. Now this is not something I had any idea of what to do with. How do you get from there to a lovely sheep skin rug?  Let me just say, it's not a task for the faint of heart!!!  It's messy business to strip the skin of bits of fat and flesh ( I know, it's kind of gross) but I've always been fascinated by how they did things in history before you could get almost anything mass produced.  I spent the afternoon out in the rain on Saturday washing them with a garden hose, as they were pretty messy. (I'll spare you those photos!) Once that was done, I laid them out to dry a bit as the fleece holds a lot of moisture when it gets saturated.

The next step is to lay them out and put on a good thick layer of salt. That will pull the moisture out of the skin so they can move on to the next step - tanning. I've been researching the process and there are various ways to do this. I haven't decided yet just which method I'm going to go with but  I have a few days to decide. That's how long the salting process takes before I can move on. Wish me luck!



Sunday I took some time off to attend the Christmas Craft show at the Confed Centre. I met up with Brenda, Meghan and Bernie at the show. Bernie and Meg had been out for brunch and Brenda had been away for the weekend with some old school friends. We toured around and  did some shopping and then headed upstairs to the Art Gallery to see the Samuel Holland map that's on display.


he survey of the Island of St. Johns is now before His Majesty, to the end that His Majesty may decide upon the Plan proper to be adopted for the future settlement."
John Pownall, Secretary to the Board of Trade and Plantations, 19 May 1766

In the fall of 1765, working under canvas at his base camp at Observation Cove, Samuel Holland finished the map he'd been working on for over a year. Then he shipped it to London. The map is a unique document in Canadian history. It was a remarkable technical achievement; the first step in the most ambitious mapping project that the world had ever seen, a complete map of Britain's North American Empire, which at the time stretched from Florida to Hudson Bay. No other colony on the continent had ever had been mapped with such precision.

It needed to be accurate. It would be the basis for a lottery that would turn the entire colony over to private landlords and make them responsible for developing it. In one way, Holland's map was only a tool. But in many others, it had an impact on Prince Edward Island that echoed across its history. The geography of our legal and political framework. A hundred of our placenames. The orientation of roads; even the hedgerows that border our fields. The fact you're reading this in a provincial capital named Charlottetown stems from Samuel Holland's survey.

For the first time since it left here 250 years ago, Holland's map has come home to where it was made; to the province it helped make.
- See more at: http://www.confederationcentre.com/en/exhibitions-current-read-more.php?exhibition=102#sthash.aqILGZwu.dpuf
he survey of the Island of St. Johns is now before His Majesty, to the end that His Majesty may decide upon the Plan proper to be adopted for the future settlement."
John Pownall, Secretary to the Board of Trade and Plantations, 19 May 1766

In the fall of 1765, working under canvas at his base camp at Observation Cove, Samuel Holland finished the map he'd been working on for over a year. Then he shipped it to London. The map is a unique document in Canadian history. It was a remarkable technical achievement; the first step in the most ambitious mapping project that the world had ever seen, a complete map of Britain's North American Empire, which at the time stretched from Florida to Hudson Bay. No other colony on the continent had ever had been mapped with such precision.

It needed to be accurate. It would be the basis for a lottery that would turn the entire colony over to private landlords and make them responsible for developing it. In one way, Holland's map was only a tool. But in many others, it had an impact on Prince Edward Island that echoed across its history. The geography of our legal and political framework. A hundred of our placenames. The orientation of roads; even the hedgerows that border our fields. The fact you're reading this in a provincial capital named Charlottetown stems from Samuel Holland's survey.

For the first time since it left here 250 years ago, Holland's map has come home to where it was made; to the province it helped make.
- See more at: http://www.confederationcentre.com/en/exhibitions-current-read-more.php?exhibition=102#sthash.aqILGZwu.dpuf
 I've been wanting to see it and didn't realize it was still here.

In the fall of 1765, working under canvas at his base camp at Observation Cove, Samuel Holland finished the map he'd been working on for over a year. Then he shipped it to London. The map is a unique document in Canadian history. It was a remarkable technical achievement; the first step in the most ambitious mapping project that the world had ever seen, a complete map of Britain's North American Empire, which at the time stretched from Florida to Hudson Bay. No other colony on the continent had ever had been mapped with such precision.

It needed to be accurate. It would be the basis for a lottery that would turn the entire colony over to private landlords and make them responsible for developing it. In one way, Holland's map was only a tool. But in many others, it had an impact on Prince Edward Island that echoed across its history. The geography of our legal and political framework. A hundred of our placenames. The orientation of roads; even the hedgerows that border our fields. The fact you're reading this in a provincial capital named Charlottetown stems from Samuel Holland's survey.

For the first time since it left here 250 years ago, Holland's map

he survey of the Island of St. Johns is now before His Majesty, to the end that His Majesty may decide upon the Plan proper to be adopted for the future settlement."
John Pownall, Secretary to the Board of Trade and Plantations, 19 May 1766

In the fall of 1765, working under canvas at his base camp at Observation Cove, Samuel Holland finished the map he'd been working on for over a year. Then he shipped it to London. The map is a unique document in Canadian history. It was a remarkable technical achievement; the first step in the most ambitious mapping project that the world had ever seen, a complete map of Britain's North American Empire, which at the time stretched from Florida to Hudson Bay. No other colony on the continent had ever had been mapped with such precision.

It needed to be accurate. It would be the basis for a lottery that would turn the entire colony over to private landlords and make them responsible for developing it. In one way, Holland's map was only a tool. But in many others, it had an impact on Prince Edward Island that echoed across its history. The geography of our legal and political framework. A hundred of our placenames. The orientation of roads; even the hedgerows that border our fields. The fact you're reading this in a provincial capital named Charlottetown stems from Samuel Holland's survey.

For the first time since it left here 250 years ago, Holland's map has come home to where it was made; to the province it helped make.
- See more at: http://www.confederationcentre.com/en/exhibitions-current-read-more.php?exhibition=102#sthash.aqILGZwu.dpuf

We also visited an exhibit of photos taken during the war by a local man who smuggled a camera onto the battlefields, which was totally not allowed at the time. I know a young man in Guelph who would have found the display fascinating.




Bernie went home after the tour of the art gallery, while the three of us girls stayed. A trip to the bookstore and then we were off to the Old Triangle as we had worked up a thirst and appetite. Some good music, cold beer and nachos and we were a group of happy campers. Not a bad way to end off the weekend.


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