New look blog

Why? Because we wanted links and we couldn't figure out the html changes needed to introduce them into our previous template (I followed the help instructions, but it did nothing!).

Yay! Now we can link you all too!

(BTW I originally had bug and Nic listed as Slack Monkeys, but lumpy said that was too mean... : p )

Random stuff

Hi!

Did you know that Canada was originally named the Commonwealth Northern Development? The name Canada didn't come until later when people in the house of parliament in Ontario were thinking aboot the acronym CND. Someone said out loud: "So the acronym goes C - eh? - N - eh? - D - eh?" and the name CANADA was born...

I'm quite happy with myself because I actually wrote some music in the past week. And I _finished_ a song! This hasn't happened in a long time. So long in fact that my music files, even those that were on the "drawing board" have been compressed by the "compress old files" option of the disk cleanup wizard. I now have almost enough music for the second album! (ooooohh! aaaaahhh!)

Here's a couple of photos from our recent trip to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto (about 2 1/2 weeks ago). I didn't take many because they asked for no flash photography and my camera was being disobedient.

This is the ceiling of the main entrance. It's a pretty old and impressive building, some parts of which look more like a cathedral. The writing on the ceiling says "That all men may know his work," which is not something I expected to find in a museum...


The museum is being renovated at the moment - they're adding a big crystalline splat on the outside which you can see in this scale model. It reminds me of what they did to the Louvre, where they added a big "modern" bit to an otherwise extremely old and stylish building. As you can guess, there's lots of opposition to this modernisation. I think it will be interesting, but I agree that the new section will probably date pretty quickly.

We stayed at the ROM for most of the afternoon (making the most of the fact we'd spent 2 hours or so just getting there from Dundas) and we saw the Native Canadians exhibition which had lots of interesting items of weapons and clothing, early canoes, and a selection of native art. The exhibition was, unfortunately, a little too focussed on the explorers who obtained the items, at the expense of beign rather light on information about the items themselves. We're told a few graphics were still missing from a recent move of the gallery, so maybe it'll be better next time.

We visited a few other exhibits including the Lalique glass sculpture exhibit, the Egyptian gallery, some 16th and 17th century suits of armour, and a collection of art-deco furniture. They also had an Islamic exhibition which had a bit about the fundamentals of Islam and the history of Mohammad. As with Christanity, there are a few inconsistencies. For example, although Mohammad did a lot of preaching about adhering to a strict moral code, he saw fit to take over Mecca by force to establish the first Islamic state. I don't think this event plays a big part in Islamic teaching, but it's not a terribly good example for God's prophet to be setting. In the following centuries, the word "conquest" was used to describe the fashion in which the Islamic state grew; some of the areas converted willingly, but it's not clear what happened in the other areas.

Another interesting bit of information was that Mohammad sanctioned both the old and new testaments of the bible. Apparently Mohammad got some of his ideas - monotheism, rewards in an afterlife - from talking to Christian merchants from the west (Mohammad was himself a merchant). Mohammad presumably never actually read the bible, which would explain why he also said that Jesus wasn't the son of God, and didn't die on the cross (Christian websites focus on these differences rather than the similarities). Mohammad appears to have been illiterate, and chose to preach directly to crowds in Mecca where he lived. Some of his followers wrote down what he said, and this collection of writings were eventually put together to form the Koran.

It wasn't until about a century after his death that Muslim clerics saw fit to commit the Islamic moral code to writing (something Mohammad had argued against) in the form of a text called the Hadith. The Koran talks more generally about morals, but the Hadith prescribes things like prayers 5 times a day, and could be the origin of Sharia Law (as distinct from Sharia which just means practising Islam). The Hadith comes in various strengths, and appears to play a similar role in Islam that various sects and denominations of Christian churches play.

One point that struck me as amusing was that Mohammad was against the worship of monuments at Mecca. The ruined building in the middle of Mecca predates Mohammad by a couple of centuries, and Mohammad saw this as part of a bigger problem of idol worship. How exactly the pilgrimage to Mecca worked its way into being one of 5 core tenets of Islam isn't clear, although there is plenty of sense in travelling to the birthplace of Islam. Most likely the two ideas were amalgamated in much the same way that the Christian holy days of Christmas and Easter just happened to coincide with Pagan festivals. I'm not sure that Mohammad would really have cared that much. He was more interested in stamping out corruption, drunkenness and debauchery, which he saw as being the cause of poverty and hardship, which he'd experienced first hand when growing up.

Hmmm... so it's possible to pick and choose the parts of the Islamic story to justify some pretty extreme action. It's also possible to pick and choose the sensible parts and come up with a moderate religion. Sounds like most religions really... Please note that I haven't rigorously checked many of these facts, and I suspect many of them are disputed by historians anyway. And I've left bits out (like I didn't bother to mention the Archangel Gabrielle at all...). So there.

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Gavin & Betty-Ann have an adventure

This is really an adventure we had about three weeks ago and hadn't gotten around to putting it on the blog yet...

Our land-lord Alex is a great guy and has been doing some music stuff with Betty-Ann. He also grew up around here. He asked us if we'd like to go a hike with him to Tews and Webster falls. I was feeling a little tired so I asked whether there was much up & down. HE replied that the escarpment wasn't very far so there wasn't much you could do in the way of up and down... We obviously have different views about what a lot means.



It's true that there is only so far you can go up here, but you can go up and then down a bit and then across all on steep slopes... Which is exactly what we did.

He did show us the place were people used to have outdoor parties (remember the prohibition on drinking outside in Canada). Apparently they used to lower an old bath-tub down the hill and fill it with ice and beers. Drunk people wandering round on steep slopes above a creek? Yes people did sometimes get injured!



These falls are nearly as tall as Niagara falls but obviously have much less water. Much of the water freezes as it sprays out over the edge leading to weird formations. This is a picture looking up the valley towards the falls at the end. It doesn't really given an impression of the height because all the trees here are so tall and thin! These are maple and oak.

Most people go to the top of Tews falls and look down. Not Alex! He likes to go to the bottom and climb out.




He had never done this in winter before, but he's a sensible guy and luckily he brought a rope!! (He's a sailor so he knows his knots etc as well). Shale, bit of dirt, dry leaves overlaid with ice from the falls... Nice... Betty-Ann asked me the next day why his arms were sore. I pointed out that we had been climbing up using our arms a lot of the way!! Here's a picture of Alex pulling me up the first bit.







And this is the view from the top, looking back where we've come from.










We then took a leisurely walk along the top (i.e., the path) to Webster falls which was also very pretty. The water coming off the falls makes these weird cauliflower looking ice sculptures... This is from the top of the falls looking down. There is a nice kind of park at the top.

We then walked back along the path to where the car was parked. It's all within easy walking distance from our house. While not volunteering to pull anyone up the slope we'd love to show people the falls when the visit!


Tune in soon for more adventures of Gavin & Betty-Ann!

The New Adventures of Gavin and Betty

Hi all!

I hereby announce that I will be changing my name to Betty-Ann Teabing. Rachel will also be changing her name to Gavin Rachel Rebecca Robbins (GRRR).

Look what lumpkin got me for my birthday!

A magic bean that says "I love you!" Cos after all, nothing says I love you like a magic bean. This will learn me for my mad ravings about beans all the time!

... and called it macaroni ...

The Dundurn Castle guide told us a story that, when MacNab was occupying the house with his family in the mid-1800's, one of the latest rich-person delicacies was Macaroni Cheese. If you could serve Macaroni Cheese at your house, which MacNab did, then you were considered pretty hip as well as very well off for being able to transport such an exotic food from abroad to your tabletop. In fact, the term "macaroni" became synonymous with "hip" or "cool", which is why Yankee Doodle "stuck a feather in his cap, and called it macaroni..."

Dundurn Castle

Well we're a bit behind on the blog! The weekend BEFORE last we went to Dundurn Castle the home of Sir Allan Napier McNab who was the first Prime Minister of Upper Canada as well as the first lawyer and banker in Hamilton. This was all AFTER his distinguished military career and as you will see he had a pretty fancy house! It has been restored to how it would have looked in 1855 at the height of his term. Restoration was done based on the diary of his daughter who would have been 13 at the time.

The front of the house


The front hall


The drawing room (pink for the ladies)


The loo!! McNab was the 1st person in Upper Canada to have a flushing toilet. He also had indoor plumbing for his bath and sink! This house was ULTRA modern (it also had gas lighting before there were street lights in the area)


The servants quarters were also very modern, although built below ground there were light wells, gas flares in the kitchen and a pump in the scullery. The kitchen had a copy of Mrs Beeton on the table! : )


They also brewed their own beer. : )
The cock-fighting ring (in it's own little house) is now used for weddings!

The guides were really great! They knew their stuff (both about the castle itself and other information about the time). We had lunch at the coach house and also went to the war museum which is very close by.

More on our adventures soon!
love lumpkin

by popular demand!

Thanks for the comments on the first picture! They're great!

I've set the comments so that people don't have to be members of blogger to post comments, but please leave your initials or something so WE can enjoy who said what.
: )

Here's some more...