Idle No More. A Christmas Gift to Us All.

 December 26 is Boxing Day in Canada.
Similar to Black Friday after Thanksgiving
in the States, it is the  day to shop,
that is if you are a shopper,
which I am not.

For many of the First Nations 

people in Canada,Boxing Day is not about getting 

a deal on an IPad or scoring American Eagle clothing at 80% discount.   

This day is about supporting the Idle No More Movement

of the first nations people in Canada.

Today is  about supporting Attawaspiskat Chief Theresa Spence's

hunger strike on Victoria Island in Ottawa, Ontario,Canada;

Victoria Island, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

a fast that asks for respect and the honouring

of the treaties between the First Nations people, 

the government of Canada and the Crown

(Canada is a Commonwealth country).

This fast is about land and water.
It is about poverty and education.
It is about honouring promises.
It is about wanting to sit down
with the Prime Minister and the Governor General of Canada.
It is about 4 young women who
care about the earth and are
Idle No More.

Late this afternoon, we visited Victoria Island,
where Chief Spence is on the 14th day of her hunger strike.
We walked through a wooden gate,
into a small enclosure where first nation
women were beating their drums and
chanting in front of a fire.


















Sheelah Mclean, one of the founders of Idle No More
tells us that

"the changes they(the government) are making to the 

environmental legislation is stunning in terms of the 

protections it will take away from the bodies of water 

– rivers and lakes, across the country". 

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence
before Parliament Building, Ottawa, Ontario

I can't help but wonder,

thinking about the children and teachers

we lost in Newton, CT,

the latest tragedy

in a long line of tragedies in the United States,

what if, like the four young women

who founded Idle No More,

other young people stood up in the country 

south of this border

and said,

Victims No More.  

I can't help but wonder,

what if the President of the 

county south of this border

stood up and listened

to the people and responded to

Victims No More.

"How can we not all be concerned about that?”

              Sheelah Mclean

              founding member of Idle No More 

How Does A Moose Cross The Road?

Love is a 17 hour-4 stop drive
from Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia
to Ottawa, Ontario to spend
Christmas with my brother Rick.

"Heh Alec, when you come to Ottawa
we will go to Cosco everyday and
taste the food samples."  This is
Alec's idea of fun!

5 a.m.  Jeff, Alec, Piper and I
 packed into our Subaru,
leaving  "winder" weather in Blue Rocks 
with her 75 km winds whipping 
the white caps into shore.  

After several hours we reached
Hwy 2 in New Brunswick and snow,
lots of snow.
The snow laden arms of the balsam fir
draped downward to the white banks
hugging the highway.

Miles of moose fencing also hug the highway.

How does a moose cross the road?

(Moose are bilingual in New Brunswick)

This is not a knock, knock joke 

but a serious question in this province,

the answer involving millions of

dollars in moose fencing.

Apparently before the fence
there were about 300 moose-vehicle accidents
in this province every year, usually occurring
between May and September.

Thankfully we were driving in daylight.

Alec, crammed in the back with Piper

did not win traveler of the day award.

Piper, you stink was his constant refrain.

Safe and sound though a wee bit tired

we are here in Ottawa, Ontario, capital of Canada.

Ottawa Rideau Canal and Ice Skating

parliament hill Christmas lights

Let the fun begin.  Beaver Tails anyone?

When you love someone....

When you love someone
you want them to be safe.

When you put your little
munchkins on the bus,
sending them off to school,
you trust that all will be well.

When you walk
into your classroom,
ready to greet your students,
you trust all will be well.

Driving home from grocery shopping
this afternoon I turned on the CBC news
and heard of the tragic shooting
at an elementary school
in Newton,  Connecticut,
a town of only 30,000 people.

My hand automatically
flew to cover my mouth,
an instinctual gesture of shock.

The tragedy at VA Tech came flooding back.
Then I remembered gathering
 in the library at Fallon Park,
at the beginning of the day
just before the kids got off the bus.
We were told that Fallon received a bomb threat
late in the afternoon the day before
but the threat was deemed a low risk.

How do we keep our children safe?
How do we protect our teachers?



All I know,
at times when tragedy arrives
during the darkest days of winter,
I need to light a candle,
for those we have lost,
and for those left behind
whose hearts have been broken open.

What Are Friends For.....

Oysters!

Erik, our neighbour has a friend Brian,
whose wife Claire's third cousin....just
kidding about the cousin.




Claire, a biologist, works at L'Étang Ruisseau Bar Ltd
a family owned business that produces oysters in
Shippagan, on the northeast coast of New Brunswick.


Brian and Claire gave Erik a box of 100 oysters,
an early Christmas gift. These oysters go for about
 $2.50 a pop in restaurants.

Move over lobsters here come the oysters.




Oyster  Farming at a glance:

1. Seed is obtained from Chinese Hat Collectors

What???  

No, this is a Chinese Hat Collector

which obtains the oyster spat or seed,

during July/August which is then 

retrieved in September.

Each of these stacks yields 7,600 oysters!

From the stacks the wee babes are

put into a nursery called

The Floating Upweller System .
With a constant flow of water
surrounding these juveniles they
grow to be 1 inch.

From the nursery these inchers
are transferred to floating bags.
In three to four years a cocktail size oyster emerges and in 4-5 years a choice oyster.




And now onto the table, except not ours.
From the bags the market size oysters
are moved to off bottom tables.  Here they
rest until they are shipped far and wide
or come to their finally resting place here
in Blue Rocks.

Safety precaution:
Wrap a towel around the hand holding 

the oyster to avoid stabbing yourself!   

      It seems that our lobster boy, Jeff,

      didn't envy jabbing a knife into

      his hand while shucking the shells so this task

      was delegated to Erik and me.

One down, 99 more to go!  

After a few shucks we got the hang of it and whipped this oysters out.

I think we actually shucked about 45 or so.

Our Blue Rocks friends, Katrina, David and Kerri

all joined us for the feast.   Jeff was thrilled to learn

that none of them really liked oysters!

Jeff was not thrilled to learn

that they loved his homebrew!  

Shakespeare's Why then the world's mine oyster

                                      takes on a whole new meaning.

Healing At Our Fingertips

Don't turn away.
     Keep looking at the bandaged place.
     That's where the light enters you.
Rumi

Heal, from the Anglo-Saxon word "haelen,"
means to be or become whole.

 If you don't cringe when you read
this word---heal--- or retreat into
your frontal lobe where heavy
thinking and problem solving
reign, read on.

For those who who have already made a hasty retreat,
 
I'll see you in my next post.

Rod of Asclepius   

According to one version
of the Hippocratic Oath  the doctor says,

I swear by Apollo, the healer, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, 

and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath and agreement...

The Doctor continues as she or he promises 

to prescribe regimens for the good of my patients
according to my ability and my judgment
and never do harm to anyone.

I like regimens, though I prefer the word practice,

that open oneself up to healing.

Dr. Adam Perlman writes about healing
on his Integrative Health and Wellness site.
He talks about the concept of holism that lies within
the original intent of the word "heal." He says that
"true healing is a process of emerging into something new,
rather than simply returning to a prior state of being."


What does healing have to do
with our fingertips?
Like fingers that strum a soothing melody upon a harp
or palms that tap a soulful rhythm onto the skin of a drum,
so too our fingertips can tap us and others into wholeness.

The following two practices that promote
the healing of the body, mind and spirit
belong in my toolkit of soulful living.


Tapping, a simple technique that uses 

the fingertips to tap certain pressure points 

on the body that relate to the meridians or
 pathways through which the life energy, or qi (chee) flows.
When qi is blocked, dis-ease is felt within the body.
Surrogate tapping is when you tap for someone else,
a wonderful way to be present
to a friend in need.

Chunyi Lin of Spring Forest Qi Gong
teaches a simple technique
that allows the healing energy within you
to help heal someone else.

"We are all born to be healers,"
he says.

"Oh mum, you're such a hippy,"
Alec says as he hears me talk
about my practices or worse,
sees me practice.

"Oh Ye of little faith," I reply.

This is not some hippy, new-age technique I tell Alec.


Healing is as ancient as the gods and goddesses;
Panacea, goddess of Universal remedy
and her sister Hygieia, personification of health,
and their father, Asclepius, god of medicine and healing,

all practiced the power to heal.

Whatever your  practice, choose one,
keep looking at the bandaged place
in yourself or another,
for that is where the light enters.

It's The How That Makes All The Difference

The next time you eat lobster
know this;  at 1:00 a.m this
morning the local lobster men
left the wharf here and headed out to sea. 
They returned around 3 p.m
and unloaded a boat full of lobster.



These guys pulled up 250 traps,
measured the lobsters, rebated the
traps then dumped them back
in the ocean.
  

"This looks like hard work," I
quipped to a red cheeked man
who was sliding into the cab of his truck
as I walked by with Piper.

"It's mighty cold out there, that's
for sure," he said.

Jeff talked to a couple of guys
who told him to come back
at 1 p.m. tomorrow to pick
up a few lobsters, probably
$5 a pound.

"We should bring them hot coffee"
I said to Jeff.  I get cold just
looking at these guys.

Lobster season brings a whole
new meaning to knowing where
your food comes from.  Sure,
I always knew lobsters came from the
sea but I never knew the how.  

It's the how that makes all the difference.

Prepare the way for the.....

Homarus Americanus, 
known around these parts as
LOBSTER!

 I know that for some Christians,
the advent season is just around the corner,
a time to settle into the darkness of winter
while preparing for the LIGHT.

But here, in Blue Rocks, Region 33,
we have been preparing for
Lobster Season which starts
the last Monday in November,7 a.m. sharp.

Lobster Traps ready to be loaded onto the boats
The Point, Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia

For the past month or so,
the lobster folk have been
down by the docks
preparing their traps and
colourful buoys in preparation
for the first day of Lobster Season
here on the Southshore of Nova Scotia.

rope, a weight, a buoy, a tag

traps and boats are out to sea

more traps ready to load onto the boats

each trap is tagged

Dumping Day   began today,
a day late due to 50 kilometre winds
whipping up the whitecaps yesterday.
Lobster season begins a day late in N.S. | CTV Atlantic News

Though the thermometer has
dipped into darned cold temperatures
these fishermen (and here they are all men here)
brave the weather to race out,
drop their 250 traps and
set their buoys to mark their territory.




Just around the corner from us, the docks have been empty since 7 a.m.

 Finally, around 3 p.m. one boat
returns, empty of all her nets.

There are quite a few regulations surrounding

fishing for this crusty clawed crustaceans.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada monitors the regulations

• a limited number of licences issued, 250 in this region
• limited and staggered fishing seasons – lobster fishing is generally prohibited between July and the end of September to protect summer moults;
• protection of egg-bearing females – females bearing eggs must be released back into the environment alive to ensure the reproductive cycle continues (harvesters may voluntarily cut a small v-shaped notch in the female’s tail prior to release to ensure it will be released in the future, even when not bearing eggs);
• minimum lobster size limits – a measure to increase the likelihood that lobsters reach full adult maturity and reproduce;
• maximum lobster size limits (or a closed window size as an alternative measure) which protects large lobsters that proportionally produce more eggs;
• trap designs that allow undersized lobsters to escape and that include biodegradable escape panels to ensure traps lost at sea will not continue catching lobsters and other species; and
• ongoing monitoring and enforcement of fishing regulations and licence conditions.

Licenses don't come cheap 

and they are hard to come by,

usually being passed down in the family.

Kijiji, the equivalent to Craigslist in the States,

posts ads for a license.

Lobster License For Sale Lobster License - Area 31b This is a core license, selling license only.

$450,000.00

19-Nov-12 Halifax

But really, when all is said and fished,

this season is about the lobster and their sex life;  

without that we wouldn't be 

dining on these delicious invertebrates.

Speaking of their sex life, stay tuned!

Waiting until midnight before she can go out again to check the traps.

You can be sure that we will

be braving the winds and the rain,

in solidarity with the fishermen,

to walk down to the wharf

and buy our lobster right off the boat.

Christmas Parade in Lunenburg

Well, our beautiful, fall-like weather
of blue skies and warm weather
has come to an end.

A wicked wind is blowing off
the shore and we even saw
a few snow flurries this morning.

Lunenburg Harbour

Perfect weather for the Santa Parade
in Lunenburg this afternoon.



Dories were definitely the theme
of this maritime parade.  Oh how
I lust after the red dory in this
clip.

The Wee Bluenose

the christmas couple?

Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD)
Artist Residents in Lunenburg

Not sure who this guy is?  Sleigh maker????

I never knew the Grinch rode in a Dory

Christmas Mischief Makers

More music.

The Object of Jeff's lust
 (not the snowman!)

Those were the days.

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

After seeing all the "Dories"
in this Christmas parade
you may be wonderin' what
the heck is a Dory?
 Ah, that may just have to be another post.

25 days until those who have been good will
reap their Christmas reward.