Some how or other I just couldn't bounce into the new year without some acknowledgement of the milestone. MK did the first post of 2011 with her usual thought provoking comments. I thoroughly enjoyed the piece but some readers were a little perplexed because it didn't sound like me. Sharp readers!!!
For 2010 I struggled with some blogging challenges. I am somewhat limited when it comes to how blogger actually functions. As a result some of the things I set up or did not set up have puzzled me. Some of the things I am not aware of. I'm searching and learning. I'm still puzzled as to why when I follow someone blogger does not say that I have a blog. It only shows sites I follow. As a result some people don't realize that I have a blog so do not follow me. So If anybody has some hot tips I would be most appreciative.
It's been interesting to watch what sells and what doesn't sell. Some of the things which bring readers have been surprising. Each of these events teaches me something.
I've also discovered that I have to work harder to gain more traffic. I have been doing eight to ten posts a month. In December I worked harder and did 15 or 16 posts. I will have to make a list of things I should do on a regular basis. I have done some things with pictures and then forget for awhile. I also know that I should research and use links. Too often I get something in my head and run with it and then afterward say, "Oh, a picture would have been nice with this." To do pictures I find that I have to start with a picture and then plan the post as I did with the soapstone carvings.
When I look back over the year I am amazed at how much was written and were the blog took me. I seem to wander widely when it comes to topics. If any one has ideas of what they would like to see changed on the blog let me know. I would look at it as constructive comment. I know that I have to do something with my title page to make it more attractive. One day I will be brave enough to dig in there and throw the thing away and start with something new and hopefully more pleasing to look at.
Needless to say I have enjoyed the blogging for this year. I certainly look forward to another year. As always the readers make the blog so much more interesting. Thanks for dropping by Hiawatha House in 2010. Thanks for the comments which really keep me going and give me new ideas.
All the best to you in 2011!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Thoughts on the New Year
Red asked me to write a message for the start of the new year...and I have been trying to think of something meaningful to say on the subject. My mind pretty much wandered over the usual things, like starting anew, resolutions, and all such things that I suppose most people consider at this time of year.
But then I got to thinking of things a tad broader, and perhaps more philosophical (or annoying?). Like, how do we really know what year this is? According to whose calendar? Calendars, after all, have been changed and adjusted over time, and vary from culture to culture. Many religions follow a separate calendar with other dates as "new year" markers, along with various traditions, festivities etc.
Which leads to more questions... like, how does anyone know if any of these calendars are right? There are all kinds of accounts of ancient peoples and their star gazing accuracy, predictions and so forth. All the hype over the so-called "end of the world" coming thanks to the Mayan calendar, which presumably will stop counting time as of late 2012. I'm quite willing to bet there will be as much disappointment over that day coming and going as we experienced back with the Y2K scare. Which, incidentally, was out by a year anyway, as there was no acknowledged "year zero" in the Judeo-Christian calendar (the BC/AD thing, or, if you prefer, BCE and CE now) so therefore the new millenium actually started on January 1, 2001 - you need a full 1000 years to get there, you see. But, I digress.
Back to the end of the world... likely more anticipation leading to a whole lot of nothing. And just imagine the disappointment and confusion for all those folks who were so counting on that day to be the end...and not being at all prepared for the next day when it comes! No disaster, no doom and gloom. What a letdown to see all the gadgets of the world carrying and functioning, and all these people going about minding their own business like any other day.
Maybe the Mayans just ran out of space, or figured that working up to 2012 was pretty far enough into the future for their purposes, and left the rest to generations to come (who, of course, didn't - did they see that coming??) to figure out. Seems as silly as thinking that when your "modern" wall calendar is done on December 31st, there's nothing more to follow.
This, of course, just leads me further into my questioning of time and our relationship to it. Certainly today doesn't feel different than yesterday. I don't feel different. It's much like your birthday; it's supposed to feel special, but somehow it just ends up another day. My dog certainly has no sense of any of this. The fact that we (struggled!) to stay up to midnight for a toast with our friends was completely lost on little Maggie; she had abandoned us for a comfy bed hours before we finally called it a night. She seems no worse today for having done so. I'm pretty sure a lot of people can't claim the same this morning! ;)
In the end, yes, it's lovely to have another "new year" with new beginnings, where at least another 365 days of possibilities lie ahead, and there are things both known and unknown to look forward to. But for all the excitement and celebration, I do have to wonder how and why we are so tied to this strange certainty of time and place, when we really have no valid reference point to work from. And does it really matter in the end?
Ah well, I need to get my new 2011 calendar up on the fridge, and start planning ahead for all the things that need to be done this year. Enjoy what you have, while you have it, whenever you may be!!
But then I got to thinking of things a tad broader, and perhaps more philosophical (or annoying?). Like, how do we really know what year this is? According to whose calendar? Calendars, after all, have been changed and adjusted over time, and vary from culture to culture. Many religions follow a separate calendar with other dates as "new year" markers, along with various traditions, festivities etc.
Which leads to more questions... like, how does anyone know if any of these calendars are right? There are all kinds of accounts of ancient peoples and their star gazing accuracy, predictions and so forth. All the hype over the so-called "end of the world" coming thanks to the Mayan calendar, which presumably will stop counting time as of late 2012. I'm quite willing to bet there will be as much disappointment over that day coming and going as we experienced back with the Y2K scare. Which, incidentally, was out by a year anyway, as there was no acknowledged "year zero" in the Judeo-Christian calendar (the BC/AD thing, or, if you prefer, BCE and CE now) so therefore the new millenium actually started on January 1, 2001 - you need a full 1000 years to get there, you see. But, I digress.
Back to the end of the world... likely more anticipation leading to a whole lot of nothing. And just imagine the disappointment and confusion for all those folks who were so counting on that day to be the end...and not being at all prepared for the next day when it comes! No disaster, no doom and gloom. What a letdown to see all the gadgets of the world carrying and functioning, and all these people going about minding their own business like any other day.
Maybe the Mayans just ran out of space, or figured that working up to 2012 was pretty far enough into the future for their purposes, and left the rest to generations to come (who, of course, didn't - did they see that coming??) to figure out. Seems as silly as thinking that when your "modern" wall calendar is done on December 31st, there's nothing more to follow.
This, of course, just leads me further into my questioning of time and our relationship to it. Certainly today doesn't feel different than yesterday. I don't feel different. It's much like your birthday; it's supposed to feel special, but somehow it just ends up another day. My dog certainly has no sense of any of this. The fact that we (struggled!) to stay up to midnight for a toast with our friends was completely lost on little Maggie; she had abandoned us for a comfy bed hours before we finally called it a night. She seems no worse today for having done so. I'm pretty sure a lot of people can't claim the same this morning! ;)
In the end, yes, it's lovely to have another "new year" with new beginnings, where at least another 365 days of possibilities lie ahead, and there are things both known and unknown to look forward to. But for all the excitement and celebration, I do have to wonder how and why we are so tied to this strange certainty of time and place, when we really have no valid reference point to work from. And does it really matter in the end?
Ah well, I need to get my new 2011 calendar up on the fridge, and start planning ahead for all the things that need to be done this year. Enjoy what you have, while you have it, whenever you may be!!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Hiawatha House wishes the Best to you in 2011
To all Hiawatha House readers and visitors:
Have very good 2011!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Experience with Inuit Soapstone Carvings
One of the more interesting experiences that I bumbled into in my life was to be in a position to buy soapstone carvings from Inuit carvers. As I've said before I spent five years in the Arctic. It was an experience that was a major influence in my life .
In one remote settlement I was teacher, school principal and local administrator for the Canadian government. One of the jobs as administrator was to buy soapstone carvings from Inuit carvers. A program had been established before I arrived and I just carried on. I had a single signature bank account from the government which allowed me $1000.00 per month to buy carvings. Single signature because there was nobody else to sign besides my wife.
Each week day I had an hour after school where locals could come to see me about Govt. business. Each day people would bring carvings. Now I had a crash course from the previous administrator on how to "evaluate" carvings. I looked at such basic things as size, finish, detail, shape and artistic expression. I was quite the judge! In the late 1960's most carvings were in the $12.00 to 16.00 range. Little seals and birds which were numerous and were about two bucks. So you see the producer of the carving received very little as you are familiar with retail prices in stores.
Some carvers had some artistic talent as they could look at a piece of stone and see something in the stone. Others tried to create something that was representative of some aspect of their cultural background. But many carvers just worked hard to produce something which they could sell to get some cash. When I arrived there was a pile of stone in front of each house. This stone had been brought in by ship and had come from a nickel mine at Sudbury Ontario. There was local stone but it was of rougher quality. It was harder and not easy to work with. I had one stone mining project while I was there where men went out for a week and by hand mined local soapstone. Tough work!
So most of the project was basically a handcraft production. It was meant to give the people some opportunity to earn some money. As I said before some of these people had artistic talent.
Much of what I learned was taught to me by the carvers. They were somewhat competitive. They didn't like to see someone play tricks on me. To polish the stone and make it shiny some people rubbed it with lard. I was told how to watch for this. You could smell it. Others polished with silver paper that was in cigarette packages at the time. They were quite interested to watch as I bought the carvings as I think they maybe had side bets with each other as to how much would be paid for each carving. Keep in mind these people did not speak English. I had an interpreter too help me.
At the end of the year I had a small warehouse of carvings which I had to wrap and box up to be ready to load on the ship and send to Ottawa.
I got to know each carver very well and appreciated the effort they had to expend to make a carving. I once tried to carve a little seal, but I gave up. So you can see that with the intensity of this experience I was deeply influenced in several ways.
I did not buy very many carvings for myself. I have regretted not buying more. I did buy carvings to give to my family for Christmas. I'm always surprised when I visit relatives and see a carving I sent them . It's like meeting an old friend after a long absence. When my step Mom and Dad died they gave me back the carving I gave them. I was really pleased to get the carving back.
In one remote settlement I was teacher, school principal and local administrator for the Canadian government. One of the jobs as administrator was to buy soapstone carvings from Inuit carvers. A program had been established before I arrived and I just carried on. I had a single signature bank account from the government which allowed me $1000.00 per month to buy carvings. Single signature because there was nobody else to sign besides my wife.
Each week day I had an hour after school where locals could come to see me about Govt. business. Each day people would bring carvings. Now I had a crash course from the previous administrator on how to "evaluate" carvings. I looked at such basic things as size, finish, detail, shape and artistic expression. I was quite the judge! In the late 1960's most carvings were in the $12.00 to 16.00 range. Little seals and birds which were numerous and were about two bucks. So you see the producer of the carving received very little as you are familiar with retail prices in stores.
Some carvers had some artistic talent as they could look at a piece of stone and see something in the stone. Others tried to create something that was representative of some aspect of their cultural background. But many carvers just worked hard to produce something which they could sell to get some cash. When I arrived there was a pile of stone in front of each house. This stone had been brought in by ship and had come from a nickel mine at Sudbury Ontario. There was local stone but it was of rougher quality. It was harder and not easy to work with. I had one stone mining project while I was there where men went out for a week and by hand mined local soapstone. Tough work!
So most of the project was basically a handcraft production. It was meant to give the people some opportunity to earn some money. As I said before some of these people had artistic talent.
Much of what I learned was taught to me by the carvers. They were somewhat competitive. They didn't like to see someone play tricks on me. To polish the stone and make it shiny some people rubbed it with lard. I was told how to watch for this. You could smell it. Others polished with silver paper that was in cigarette packages at the time. They were quite interested to watch as I bought the carvings as I think they maybe had side bets with each other as to how much would be paid for each carving. Keep in mind these people did not speak English. I had an interpreter too help me.
At the end of the year I had a small warehouse of carvings which I had to wrap and box up to be ready to load on the ship and send to Ottawa.
I got to know each carver very well and appreciated the effort they had to expend to make a carving. I once tried to carve a little seal, but I gave up. So you can see that with the intensity of this experience I was deeply influenced in several ways.
I did not buy very many carvings for myself. I have regretted not buying more. I did buy carvings to give to my family for Christmas. I'm always surprised when I visit relatives and see a carving I sent them . It's like meeting an old friend after a long absence. When my step Mom and Dad died they gave me back the carving I gave them. I was really pleased to get the carving back.
This carving was done by Ningiuk. He was a hard worker and wanted to support his family. However , all his carvings were mostly the same.
Masiu carved this piece. He was more artistic and had great skill. However , he didn't produce many pieces. He was an excellent hunter so spent much of his time hunting seals. His wife helped him in the finishing of a carving.
This carving was different than many pieces produced and showed great skill in using the piece of stone.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
All Old Guys Should Cross Country Ski
Okay, here we go again! Another old guys should post. Yes, all old guys and girls should cross country ski if they have an interest and are able.
Now just how old?" you ask. I have seen ninety year olds skiing up high in the Kananaskis. So they were able to ski up and also get down. These people were amazing. They just kept going. They had their hearing aids turned off so you couldn't talk to them.
I started cross country skiing in 1970. Some years I've skied a lot and others very little. It depends on the snow cover we have. Some years we just don't get enough snow. I ski on groomed trails. In Red Deer we have two areas with groomed trails which gives us quite a few kms of trails. There are some interesting hills as both areas have some river escarpement.
Tours with a group are very pleasant. We usually go to a mountain area and again ski groomed trails where terrain can be challenging. Going up takes great effort and coming down requires great skill as you are on a narrow trail between trees. You don't won't to wipe out. Sometimes you are above the tree line so just deep snow to land in if you loose control. We can rent accommodations at a reasonable price in the middle of the week. One lodge is for handicapped people. Seniors are second in line if the handicapped groups are not booked.So great times on the trails and great evenings.
Sometimes I just go out to the park behind my house and make my own trail. This way I can get ready and be on the trail in minutes. I can choose to go out when I have a few spare minutes. I can also go out in the evening. Don't worry about cold as your body produces lots of heat if you are able to put in the effort. After five minutes I never wear gloves as my hands are warmed up and stay warm.
So I highly recommend cross country skiing as it gives a great work out and is pleasant on your own or in a group. You can ski until you're quite old if you keep your skills up and work on conditioning.
Now just how old?" you ask. I have seen ninety year olds skiing up high in the Kananaskis. So they were able to ski up and also get down. These people were amazing. They just kept going. They had their hearing aids turned off so you couldn't talk to them.
I started cross country skiing in 1970. Some years I've skied a lot and others very little. It depends on the snow cover we have. Some years we just don't get enough snow. I ski on groomed trails. In Red Deer we have two areas with groomed trails which gives us quite a few kms of trails. There are some interesting hills as both areas have some river escarpement.
Tours with a group are very pleasant. We usually go to a mountain area and again ski groomed trails where terrain can be challenging. Going up takes great effort and coming down requires great skill as you are on a narrow trail between trees. You don't won't to wipe out. Sometimes you are above the tree line so just deep snow to land in if you loose control. We can rent accommodations at a reasonable price in the middle of the week. One lodge is for handicapped people. Seniors are second in line if the handicapped groups are not booked.So great times on the trails and great evenings.
So I highly recommend cross country skiing as it gives a great work out and is pleasant on your own or in a group. You can ski until you're quite old if you keep your skills up and work on conditioning.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
My Enjoyable Laidback Christmas Day
My Christmas day was very low key but pleasant and enjoyable. In a previous post I briefly described the changes my Christmas day celebrations had gone through. My 71st Christmas is a continuation of the changes. Slow and steady change. No hard and fast lifetime traditions for this boy.
This year there was only Home Farm Girl and I here for Christmas. Our day was fairly close to a normal daily routine. The old guy got up promptly at 7:00AM and made breakfast. By the time Home Farm Girl made it out for breakfast I was close to finished the crossword puzzle. When Home Farm Girl appeared we wished each other Merry Christmas. A highlight was when our daughter and partner phoned from Chicago to wish us a Merry Christmas. A two hour pleasant chat took place and only ended when they had to get their act together to be ready for the arrival of their only guest ...the mother in law.Usual morning chores were done.
After lunch dishes were done we decided that gifts should be opened before we forget. Now I have to warn you, Home Farm Girl has been streamlining gift giving and wrapping for quite some time. She got tired of wrapping gifts and more tired of supervising me wrapping gifts so she began wrapping boxes which were stored away to be used again next year. Take a gift and drop it in the box...done! Open a gift?...Open the box. No wrapping paper all over the place. Now gifts for some time have been another development. Home Farm Girl squirrels away things that we buy on a normal basis. Of course , I'm easily fooled and forget what we bought. So what I find in the boxes are socks, slippers, shirts and what ever else that was bought throughout the year. Big surprise for me and low stress all around.
So after this mini gift opening preparation for the Christmas dinner begins. Our dinners have been cut down for years. No more aspic, five cup salad Christmas pudding, fruit cake and shortbread. We're down to the basics. This year we decided to have duck with orange sauce. It was super. The pecan pie from the store finished things off nicely
So we celebrated with a minimum of stress and enjoyed life.
This year there was only Home Farm Girl and I here for Christmas. Our day was fairly close to a normal daily routine. The old guy got up promptly at 7:00AM and made breakfast. By the time Home Farm Girl made it out for breakfast I was close to finished the crossword puzzle. When Home Farm Girl appeared we wished each other Merry Christmas. A highlight was when our daughter and partner phoned from Chicago to wish us a Merry Christmas. A two hour pleasant chat took place and only ended when they had to get their act together to be ready for the arrival of their only guest ...the mother in law.Usual morning chores were done.
So after this mini gift opening preparation for the Christmas dinner begins. Our dinners have been cut down for years. No more aspic, five cup salad Christmas pudding, fruit cake and shortbread. We're down to the basics. This year we decided to have duck with orange sauce. It was super. The pecan pie from the store finished things off nicely
So we celebrated with a minimum of stress and enjoyed life.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Merry Christmas from Hiawatha House
To all readers and visitors:
MERRY CHRISTMAS
From Hiawatha House
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