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| No. 7576 - 12 Nov 2010 - 12:36:10 |
Showing posts with label heritage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heritage. Show all posts
11 November 2015
28 June 2012
Pilgrimage - Part two
No. 9067 - 28 Jun 2012 - 14:59:13
In the copse up ahead is the house in which my mother spent a dozen years of her childhood. I visited it with her 18 years ago and even though it had already been abandoned to the elements we were able to enter and go up the stairs to the little room she used to share with her two sisters. Unfortunately the photographs I took inside the house did not turn out and I must rely on my memory to recreate the place that nurtured my mother's shared remembrances of a
depression-era upbringing.
The homestead was built on another's land, a tenancy farm, after her family lost their land in Cayer due to the 1929 stock market crash. It was situated a few miles north of Gilbert Plains, a small town on Highway 5, north of Riding Mountain National Park and west of Dauphin in Manitoba. The relocation precipitated their eventual departure from the prairies and permanent move west to British Columbia 13 years later, at the end of World War II.
In the copse up ahead is the house in which my mother spent a dozen years of her childhood. I visited it with her 18 years ago and even though it had already been abandoned to the elements we were able to enter and go up the stairs to the little room she used to share with her two sisters. Unfortunately the photographs I took inside the house did not turn out and I must rely on my memory to recreate the place that nurtured my mother's shared remembrances of a
depression-era upbringing.
The homestead was built on another's land, a tenancy farm, after her family lost their land in Cayer due to the 1929 stock market crash. It was situated a few miles north of Gilbert Plains, a small town on Highway 5, north of Riding Mountain National Park and west of Dauphin in Manitoba. The relocation precipitated their eventual departure from the prairies and permanent move west to British Columbia 13 years later, at the end of World War II.
Nos. 9012, 8989, 9000, 9032, 9002, 8992, 9014, 9020 - 28 Jun 2012
A thicket of poplar trees has grown tightly around the little house my grandfather built for my grandmother - out of sight as if a Sleeping Beauty. I could not see it when I first drove by and only spied part of its fallen roof after I turned the car around. With some difficulty I breached the barrier of little trees to discover the roof had collapsed through the second floor and through the first where once stood the parlour and all is sinking into the cellar.
A tree grows through the front porch.
A thicket of poplar trees has grown tightly around the little house my grandfather built for my grandmother - out of sight as if a Sleeping Beauty. I could not see it when I first drove by and only spied part of its fallen roof after I turned the car around. With some difficulty I breached the barrier of little trees to discover the roof had collapsed through the second floor and through the first where once stood the parlour and all is sinking into the cellar.
A tree grows through the front porch.
Nos. 9041, 9037, 9024, 9025 - 28 June 2012
No doubt my grandparents would be puzzled and fairly amused at my sentimental feelings for this pile of rotting timber. It is my understanding that, once the decision to leave was made, they left and never looked back. And yet, as a second generation survivor of the Great Depression, I feel as though I too know that house from hearing my mother speak of it often and lovingly
when I was young.
Old farms die like this on the prairie - slowly and with plenty of melancholy.
No doubt my grandparents would be puzzled and fairly amused at my sentimental feelings for this pile of rotting timber. It is my understanding that, once the decision to leave was made, they left and never looked back. And yet, as a second generation survivor of the Great Depression, I feel as though I too know that house from hearing my mother speak of it often and lovingly
when I was young.
Old farms die like this on the prairie - slowly and with plenty of melancholy.
27 June 2012
Pilgrimage - Part One
No. 0147 - 27 Jun 2012 - 17:45:30This is the church that my great grandfather built - St. Jean de Brébeuf.
I was unable to visit the Cayer District, Lake Manitoba last year due to the 2011 flood situation. The strong winds that have been lately will go a long way to drying out the land however the basement of the church is full of water and nothing will be done while it remains de-commissioned.
Nos. 8795, 8826, 8864, 8907, 8911, 8912 - 27 Jun 2012
I would like to buy it and turn it into an art gallery or museum
but the chance of visitors at the end of a 35 km gravel road and
north of the 51st parallel (next stop, Crane River) is slim.
25 June 2012
Panorama
No. 0126 - 25 Jun 2012 - 11:35:09The cemetary at Cathédrale de Saint-Boniface on Taché Avenue is stretched and flattened with the aid of a camera app.
Left of centre in this image and encircled by stone is
the grave of Louis Riel.
24 April 2012
Regeneration
No. 4378 - 26 Jan 2011 - 15:13:06 * No. 1959 - 25 May 2011 - 18:53:03
The St. Boniface church-yard on Taché at Rue Provencher in
Franco Manitoba.
Franco Manitoba.
02 November 2011
One Saint For All Saints
St. Begga of Landen (615 - 17 December 693)
After an evening, spent singing a tricky High Mass by William Byrd at
St. James' Anglican, I forgot to post on All Saints' Day (yesterday).
In its place I present one saint.
St. Begga is purportedly a distant but direct grandmother/ancestor of
mine through my matriline - discovered during a research inquiry into
mitochondrial DNA and its implications for the social constructs of
womanhood and feminism.
Once widowed, she took the veil and founded seven churches and a
convent where she died and was buried. As a wealthy and powerful
woman, within the confines of her time, her greatest act possible was
religious patronage for which she was rewarded with sainthood.
Many people with a franca-matriline can trace their way back to this
saint - mother.
31 October 2011
28 October 2011
Exhibit
No. 0094 - 08 Oct 2011 - 15:05:23Heart of the City
This neo-Gothic church building set in a neo-Dickensian downtown neighbourhood is St. James' Anglican* - frequent photographic muse, home to my beloved High Mass Choir (alto) and on Saturday, October 29, from 12 noon to 4 pm, host of an Open House for the Heart of the City festival.
It comes with a guided tour (12:30 pm), John Donne sermon in costume (1:30 pm), St. James' Music Academy performance (3 pm), photo exhibit (12:00 - 4 pm) and all for free!
This neo-Gothic church building set in a neo-Dickensian downtown neighbourhood is St. James' Anglican* - frequent photographic muse, home to my beloved High Mass Choir (alto) and on Saturday, October 29, from 12 noon to 4 pm, host of an Open House for the Heart of the City festival.
It comes with a guided tour (12:30 pm), John Donne sermon in costume (1:30 pm), St. James' Music Academy performance (3 pm), photo exhibit (12:00 - 4 pm) and all for free!
* 303 East Cordova at Gore
11 September 2011
Beachcomber Shrine
No. 8575 - 10 Sep 2011 - 15:59:41 * No. 8599 - 10 Sep 2011 - 16:41:30
"Now sit right back and I'll tell you a tale ..."
oops wrong seafaring TV show.
This is Gibsons Landing, a charming seaside town on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia and former film location of that international icon of Canadian television, The Beachcombers. The cast and crew are long gone but Molly's Reach lives on as a real restaurant and the village is chock a block with artists, galleries, award-winning gardens,
friendly locals and good food.
"Now sit right back and I'll tell you a tale ..."
oops wrong seafaring TV show.
This is Gibsons Landing, a charming seaside town on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia and former film location of that international icon of Canadian television, The Beachcombers. The cast and crew are long gone but Molly's Reach lives on as a real restaurant and the village is chock a block with artists, galleries, award-winning gardens,
friendly locals and good food.
07 September 2011
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.
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.
01 July 2011
01 June 2011
Saskatchewan
No. 2687 - 01 June 2011 - 11:32:57
Nos. 2641 ... 2667 - 31 May 2011 - 15:34:52 ... 15:40:38
Roadside photo-ops.
28 May 2011
Toutes Aides
No. 2394 - 29 May 2011 - 17:47:56
It's all fun and games until the kids find out there will be no summer holidays at the cabin this year.
* Photo of moi is by Leslie (Hammerquist) Currie.
26 May 2011
La Forche At The Forks
No. 1930 - 25 May 2011 :- 18:32:39 * No. 1917 - 17:04:46
No. 1919 - 25 May 2011 : 17:04:58 * No. 1921 - 25 May 2011 - 17:05:39
Almost bilingual city of the Canadian West.
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