Brentwood Ontario Reunion 1937

 Brentwood Ontario is not a big place, an intersection west of Angus Ontario. But back in 1937 over two hundred people gathered for some kind of reunion in High Park in Toronto which at the time would have been a nontrivial distance away probably requiring a train ride from Barrie and Barrie itself would not have been a short distance. My mother is one of the children seated on the ground in front of her parents and brother.

Do Not Look Back

I had the pleasure of visiting Haida Gwaii last week. For anyone who enjoys walking under the shade of a tall tree there will be few more remarkable destinations. The photo below shows how a Haida mortuary pole that would have stood for more than a century is now wrapped by a more recent spruce.

At Kuna

The Haida were pushed to the brink of cultural oblivion by government policies that criminalized their unique language and culture. Fortunately, those last 500 Haida must have been exceptionally resilient individuals.

Along the trail to the Golden Spruce -- I am nature and a lesson of the Haida Culture. Look after each other and be generous. Never take more than you need. Enjoy, share and respect the lands and waters that sustain you. Everything I have has a purpose. Look after me, and I in turn will look after you. Do not look back, there is much more to see, feel and love.

Nothing lasts forever

Whether you like canoes or you like wood working or neither, I hope you will enjoy this video. In an interview he explains more about his reasons for building and then destroying the boat. In short, it was a symbolic gesture to leave behind a time in his life. I haven't personally seen a Buddhist sand mandala, but it is a work of art that is ceremonially dismantled after it is completed to recognize impermanence.

All is well

I found a small stack of photocopies in my mother's things. It seemed as if she had prepared them with some future eventuality in mind, but she never discussed it with me. Assuming that her intent was for those words to be shared with those who knew her throughout her life, I will also share it with you. It is attributed to Harry Scott Holland (1847-1918) Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral

Death is nothing at all.  I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Pray, smile, think of me, pray of me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was, let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was; there is unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner. All is well. 

We kill them

I recommend everyone read the Globe & Mail article written by Jim Balsillie which begins with his account of a U.S. business leader describing a tactic for dealing with successful Canadian businesses: "... We wait until they get big enough, then we go after them. And we kill them.”  In case it wasn't obvious that business is a full contact sport, the article points out several gaps in how Canadian institutions -- legislative and education especially -- are failing to fortify our national economic interests. Since Jim is a well noted hockey fan, he could have used a hockey metaphor – you must skate with your head up or someone is going to flatten you!

Bighead River

Last weekend we paddled the Bighead River into Meaford. We put-in at the 11th Line bridge and spent two pleasant hours paddling a few class 1 sections to the 7th Line bridge before lunch. But the next 45 minutes to the take-out at Beautiful Joe Park (Edwin Street) was fantastic – essentially continuous fun, shore to shore, genuine class-2, river. In hindsight, we would have just paddled the last section twice because the car shuttle is so quick. A solo paddler could use a bicycle or probably even a local taxi.

There aren't any complex ledges; there are plenty of mid-river boulders for catching eddies, especially in a kayak; and as you will see in the video, lots of fun maneuvering for a tandem canoe. Higher water might push the take-out about 100m down to the other end of the park and if the water level dropped another foot it might have a couple fun sections but it would also be rather shallow. The first five seconds of this video clip show me doing a little ender.  The water office graph shows a 16 discharge and 11.45m water level.

Back on the Mag

In June we paddled the Magnetawan River from my house to Britt. I didn't do much in the way of video or photos this year -- just one clip of Kevan & Tom running a typical drop we encountered. The water level was at least two feet higher this year -- compare some of the shots in Jean's video to the video I made last year. There are more photos on the canoe club site.

First time on the barrens

In 2005 I paddled with Alex Hall of Canoe Arctic Adventures on my first trip on the Barrens. The video below was my first effort editing video and Youtube have an excellent new feature that stabilized some of my unsteady video which has fixed a couple scenes, such as the wolf and muskox clips. It may be easier to watch on the Youtube site.

Land Value Taxation

This video briefly explains an alternative concept for taxation. Setting the relative values of land would of course be a complex detail of such an idea, but no more complex than the underpinnings of our existing tax labyrinth. It would be a very big software model to test before delivering the news! Nonetheless, the central notion is very interesting and more details are available at the Earthsharing site.

Crowd-sourced copywriting

Last year I met a student named Asad Khan during a University of Toronto class where I volunteer.  Asad has graduated and started an interesting business that will operate a marketplace to match crowd-sourced copywriters with companies seeking creative ideas. If you think you are can compose the type of catchy phrase that can win an online competition (or you simply want to pretend you are on Mad Men) then you might want to sign-up to be notified when the service goes live. Naturally, Asad is seeking initial funding through a crowd-sourced funding site -- indiegogo.