27 July 2011

18 July 2011

Succulents

No. 4156 (detail) - 18 Jun 2011 - 17:15:42

I live in a rain forest and seldom complain about the weather. I have often mused (this time of year) that, if it is still raining by July, I too may become grumpy but after a spring spent on the prairie flood-plain I am keeping my perspective. I returned to Vancouver in the thrall of a cool and wet early summer and with the natives none too pleased about it and yet the gardens were and are full of flowers and flowering things.
No complaints here.

17 July 2011

Horsetail

No. 4483 - 25 Jun 2011 - 13:23:35

16 July 2011

Buttercups

No. 4468 - 25 Jun 2011 - 13:19:09

15 July 2011

Hemlock

No. 4466 - 25 Jun 2011 - 13:18:47

14 July 2011

Clover

No. 4452 - 25 Jun 2011 - 13:15:51

09 July 2011

Family Plot


No. 2028 - 29 May 2011 - 10:48:49 * No. 2037 - 29 May 2011 - 10:58:58


No. 2057 - 29 May 2011 - 11:10:13


No. 2055 - 29 May 2011 - 11:09:36 * No. 2066 - 29 May 2011 - 11:12:19

I have been to this Catholic cemetery, in St. François-Xavier (turn off the Trans Canada Highway west of Winnipeg at the statue of the White Horse), three times in the last twenty years because this is where my grandmother was born and she and her nine siblings were baptised in the church pictured above. I spent three days in the Manitoba Archives recently, searching through Henderson's Directories on micro-fiche for any mention of the great grandparents who came to settle in Manitoba from Québec after 1875 and found evidence for Narcisse Cayer II and Marie Perras having lived in the parish before they died. Upon returning to the cemetery this year it took only five minutes to locate these people, my great great grandparents,
who came from LaPrairie, Québec.

Happily and unexpectedly I was also given access to an ancestor chart which lays out 400-500 plus years of my maternal grandmother's Quebec and French ancestry. Additionally, I have discovered, through further research, that the very Marie Perras buried here represents the family's direct line back to Charlemagne and the merovingiens. A large percentage of French people can trace a similar link and it is exhilarating to connect to history, in such a familal way, with names and dates. My field of interest is in the migration of human populations and rather broader than the study of my personal genealogy but smaller, independent and community based stories often reflect the larger movements just as a tree in the forest appears to be
a fractal of the entire forest.

The cemetery is showing its age and the current state of flood affairs in the province of Manitoba. The sinking tombstone, in the bottom left corner above, belongs to Father Kavanagh, the half-blind, Irish priest who baptised my grandmother and her many siblings and
whose messy French longhand is a struggle and satisfaction for me to read and translate.
I was happy to find him resting next to my
great great grandparents.

08 July 2011

Mosaic Creek Park


No. 4589 - 02 Jul 2011 - 18:03:54 * No. 4584 - 02 Jul 2011 - 18:02:59

07 July 2011

Zsa Zsa


No. 4630 - 05 Jul 2011 - 11:50:47 * No. 4653 - 05 Jul 2011 - 12:25:34

The Drive

This bloG is powered by photography.

I am briefly on hiatus while recuperating from knee surgery and as I am unable to walk the beat for new pictures and find myself preoccupied with an academic project requiring the collecting of data and a spot of serious writing I must be content with musing on the great shaggy feline who sprawls about and keeps me company. She hates having her picture taken and would rather groom her big fur coat, prowl the great outdoors or eat tuna than submit to my creative attention (boredom). I am allergic to my old friend and our live-in reunion is as temporary as my immobility.

Tomorrow: pictures of the garden across the street where I took a walk the other day.

01 July 2011

Windows By Canada

No. 6561 - 18 Mar 2011 - 20:09:18