Sunday, September 30, 2012

Sunday Stamps- three kings

It took nearly 2 years for the new stamps bearing a portrait of King Edward VII. The 1 cent stamp was issued on July 1st, 1903 and shows the King at his Coronation.











The 2 cent stamp of George V was issued in 1911 designed by a composite from photographs and shows him in a uniform of an admiral.
George VI is shown in these 1942 (3 cent) and 1943 (4 cent) stamps in a military uniform 
the theme was open this week, so who knows what you'll find from the other links at Viridian's Poscard Blog
today I am off to the Golden Horseshoe Postcard Show. I have never been to one of these shows before and have been looking forward to it. it could be a dud, or I could come away with a bagful of what seems to be morphing from an accumulation of postcards and stamps to a (small, oh so small) collection.

Friday, September 28, 2012

details

You might think, from reading my posts over the last few months, that I am only into stamps and cemeteries and gravestones with little else to offer.
okay, maybe that is true...

so, I offer up this pretty diversion

the photo really doesn't do it justice





it is all in the detailing. the fabric. the design.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

pies and other things

As happy as I am to see the back of summer, with all the too-hot temperatures and insane amounts of humidity that drained all my energy and left me dripping at all hours, I will miss parts of summer. Like the farmer's markets. I know, there are a few year round markets, like the Hamilton Farmer's Market and the St Lawrence Market, but they are a different breed. More of a business than farmers out selling their produce.


Considering I live in a very urban area - or maybe because of that - there are a LOT of markets around here. I thought I might try to get to as many as possible this summer, but I failed miserably once I found a few favourite stalls and kept returning to the same markets each week. I never even made it to any of the local markets held all over Toronto.

From Wednesday through Sunday there is a market somewhere. There are morning markets and afternoon markets of all sizes held in vacant lots, parking lots, church lots, and in barns. 
Some towns close off the main street for a few blocks
The street markets tend to have a greater variety of things for sale - crafts and such as well as food. And of course there are the shops and restaurants on the street to also tempt you.


But by far, my favourite market is the one in Ancaster that is held on a church green surrounded by trees and flowering hedges. There is entertainment provided. A bunny for the kids to pet and hold. And free samples at many of the stalls.










I am fortunate to have the ways and means to take advantage of these markets. I have driven for up to half an hour to get to some, whereas I usually just shop at the nearest grocery store, or on my way home from work. And, I would never pay the prices these markets charge for food at a grocery store - but then you don't get the flavour at the grocery store. You don't get the produce picked that morning and bundled into a truck and transported a half hours drive or so. And you don't get the individual attention with explanations of the produce. Or the free tastings. Grocery stores aren't usually big on giving food away. They also like their produce to be perfect and uniform in size, which really doesn't affect the taste. 

Just look at the size of that broccoli! And you would not believe how heavy that $2 cauliflower was. 
Or how much soup it made.
I have fallen in love with the soups and pot pies from a certain catering company and am starting to stockpile to get me through the winter. If you are not first in line, you may be out of luck. Many times I have gotten there and they are sold out of the soup or pie you want. They can hardly keep up with making them and can also only bring so many in their van. Apparently someone came by within the first quarter hour and bought 20 of the chicken pies last week. Really. They are a catering company - could you not have contacted them and put in a special order so the rest of us could still have some?
goodness oozing out of this chunky chicken pot pie
Sometimes, you end up buying foods you never would have considered before. There is a salami stall that is the first one as you enter the far end of the market. I am not really into salami, I don't mind it say, on a pizza, but I don't particularly like it enough to buy a chunk. So I have always walked right past this stall. Last week, there was a lull in the crowd and the man standing behind the counter offered me a delicate, paper thin slice... and waited for my response. Quietly counting, 3, 4, 5... ahh. "I always tell people to wait between 5-8 seconds and suddenly the flavour bursts throughout your mouth". You end up saying something ridiculous, like "man, that is delicious", just in case they don't already know that. A couple other samples and I walked away with a small chunk of the most sublime tasting salami I have ever had. The trick, apparently, is to slice it very thinly to get the best flavour. There is probably only one or two good weeks left before it gets too cold for the vendors. 
And now I only have five pies left.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Sunday Stamps - books, literature

this stamp shows a book
being read by Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad. this 1984 stamp is based on a Mathew Brady photograph. 
I have already shown the boy half of this pair of stamps from Lithuania for the Europa series in 2010 for Children's Literature. it featured an open book with a boy on one side and a girl on the other. now, thanks to a friend who has started saving her stamps for me (she is addicted to ebay), I have the set. this group of four with the girl and her cat is a bit wrinkled, but Suzanne very smartly decided to keep them together because of the postmark.

for more stamps on books and literature, visit Viridian's Postcard Blog and click on the links of the other participants.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

do they know we are laughing at them?



I dare you to look at these sleeping cats and not laugh uproariously.


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

grave post - Harmidarow

There were a couple of other grave posts I was working on, but I got bogged down in details, and the tradition of family names being passed down so that father and son and nephew all have the same first name as great-grandfather... Do people still do that, I wonder? There aren't as many birth notices in the newspapers these days, but I am sure that particular trend has passed on to giving each child his own identity, with maybe a family name as a middle name if necessary.

Anyway, for this week's Taphophile Tragics, in honour of the brilliant sunshine we are having today and the brilliant sunshine we had on this day in early April when I took this shot, I am showing a modern marker for John and Sophie Harmidarow. Sophie passed on 7 years before John who "died peacefully at home with his family by his side" in his 85th year, on Christmas Eve, 2010. Together John Walter and Sophia had three children (Walter, Michael and Irene) and three grandchildren (Mathew, Michael, Ryan). Other than the fact that son Walter John is, among other things, a Sherlockian and wrote a novel in 1998 called The Final Solution (click on link for a critical review), i could find no information on this family.

They have a lovely view from their small plot in the Woodland Cemetery over the bay to Hamilton.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Sunday Stamps - pets

I admit, I am not a dog lover, 
but how could anyone not melt a little at this face?








now, on to the cats......   with blue eyes

these cats are usually very affectionate and playful. 
they are also sometimes a bit loud with lots of attention demanding crying


Tajski means Thai in Polish
and for a pet of a completely different kind, we have this terrapin, sometimes called a turtle. this particular one is a black marsh terrapin/turtle that is endemic to Southeast Asia. according to wikipedia they are commonly kept as pets. they live in marshes and are completely black except for a small yellow mark on the heads. apparently, they are also shy and nocturnal. they are also quiet.
In parts of Thailand and Japan they commonly released into temple and castle ponds and cared for by Buddhist monks where they're treated as sacred by the public, being believed to contain the souls of people who died while trying to rescue other people from drowning.

I know this isn't exactly a pet, but I like it.       
a "correctional services dog" from Hong Kong


Saturday, September 8, 2012

cats and me

This past week has been spent in the company of Willie. I am not sure I much like Willie.
He is a bit noisy - always has something to say, even when there really is nothing to talk about. And really, for someone who never goes outside, he seems to have an awful lot of opinions.

He is also a bit thin and leggy. And is black and white. For some reason, I have no idea why, I am not drawn to 'tuxedos' or black and white cats.

And next week, I get to visit with Maggie. She has become a lot less frenetic since the first time we spent time together about three years ago. But she still tends to look down on me.









All this cat sitting is making me want to get one of my own again.
like the one on this postcard that came in the mail from Postcrosser Jodie in Thailand.





Tuesday, September 4, 2012

grave post - Rigg

"James Frederick Rigg, one of the best known and most highly esteemed residents of Niagara-on-the-Lake died last evening at the family home on King St."

"Dr Rigg had been ill for many months but during the past several weeks had showed some improvement and his recovery seemed assured. his death comes as a great loss to residents of this town and district where he was loved by rich and poor as a real friend as well as a doctor."

Married Margaret (aka Marguerite) Lowrey in 1912


He leaves behind two sons, Dr Charles Bruce Rigg of Niagara-on-the-Lake and Frederic Jackson Rigg of University of Toronto. 

Both sons followed in their father's footsteps and became a family physician in their home town.

Frederic would care for the residents of Niagara for 29 years until his passing and Charles for 48 years before he, too, passed.

The mystery is Thomas Bruce Rigg who was born in April of 1941 - five months after the death of James Frederick.

I am assuming that Mary Morris Rigg, born 1927 may be Frederic Jackson's wife.




Since Charles and his family are on the other side of this memorial stone, I am making another leap and assuming that Mary and Frederic Jackson did not have any children.

But I could be wrong. They may be still alive.

more grave stories at Taphophile Tragics

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Sunday Stamps - music, arts

This stamp has an interesting cut out shape to it that the Finns seem to like.For a brief few years in the early 1980s this band, Dingo, was one of the most popular rock bands in Finland and caused many a teenaged girl to swoon as their counterparts in England may have done for Duran Duran (with whom they were compared). They broke up in 1986 but have had three resurrections though with little success outside of Finland and never to the same success as their early years. I found a sample of their music on lastfm which you may want to listen to. I can't say as I found it to my taste, but then I was never a Duran Duran fan either.
The two musical artists below, however, are very much to my taste. 
I love these stamps of Edith Piaf and Miles Davis. The backwards stance, the great fingering... and the black background is very cool.


and then there is this man from whose television show we may have had the privilege of hearing these musicians.
ED Sullivan died in 1974 at age 73 For anyone unfamiliar can read about him here.
 Sunday nights at 8pm were reserved for the Ed Sullivan Show which ran live from 1948 to 1971 and pretty much every kind of entertainment was introduced to thousands of Americans and Canadians on his show - ballet dancers, opera singers, circus performers, comedians, vaudeville acts, dramatic readings and the music of the day (when he would often admonish the teenagers in the audience to behave themselves and not scream to loudly!)
see more music, dance or artistic talents at Viridian's Postcard Blog