Did you or you Mother or Grandmother collect the wee Red Rose tea figurines?

My Mom collects both the Red Rose, and Tetley tea figures, and over the years I've been given bunches of duplicates.

I remember growing up in the early 70's and eagerly awaiting the next box of tea my parents would buy with the little treasure inside.

My blessing this week comes in the form of someone putting out a whole bunch of these wrapped up in a tin box with a note saying "FREE" please take on it. It was like being a little kid all over again! I have no idea why these people were getting rid of them, but what is one person's garbage is another's treasure came immediately to my mind. The photos you see above are in part the newbies that were added to my own collection. In total there were about 50 figurines in the tin box.

Thank you for stopping by, and wishing you all the best this weekend, and in the week ahead

Abbey's (the originator of Nostalgic Saturday) blog no longer seems to be active, and I have no idea if anyone is participating anymore. I would like to keep it going so will continue posting Nostalgic Saturday entries. Please let me know if you participate.

Blog Your Blessings

The Iraq National Museum was re-opened this past week on Monday February 23rd.

I was so happy to read this as regular readers of this blog would already know. I have blogged a few times on how the looting of this great museum's artifacts greatly disturbed me.

I think the re-opening of the museum will aid in the healing of this country, and its citizens who have been subjected to so much.

My wish for this museum is that they will be able to recover much of what was stolen from them. According to a BBC report only about a quarter of the estimated 15,000 artefacts stolen from the museum have been recovered to date.

Image Credit: BBC

"The streets of Oruro, a high-altitude mining town in the Andes, have been filled with colour and song at the start of Bolivia's largest annual festival, La Diablada or Devil's Carnival."

The costumes including masks are quite elaborate, and gorgeous in my opinion.

Another brightly ornate mask

"Oruro is a mining town and the locals, spending so much time underground, decided to adopt a god of the underworld. Christian tradition dictates that this must be the devil and the Oruro faithful thus adopted Satan, or Supay, as their god. They would perform sacrifices to the devil on a regular basis to ensure their safety in the mines and the devil dancing in the carnival derives from their belief in Satan as their protector underground.

These days, the procession tends to focus more on the patron saint of mining, the Virgen del Sovacón and Pachamama (Mother Earth) than the devil, but devil dances are still an important part of the proceedings."

Tis' the season for carnivals as Spring is approaching, however this one is a party I would love to attend!

Image Credits: BBC

Travel Info: What's On When

I have lots of things to be feeling blessed for this past week. I'll start of with the kid being home from University for reading week. We had a lovely dinner with her, and her BF Jeremy (pictured above).

The sockets from my tooth extractions are starting to heal over, and I can finally eat solid food again!

I'm now off of the anti-thyroid meds in preperation for the radiation treatment in March, and I feel ok. So far, the symptoms of the Graves Disease are still manageable.

And finally I finished our income taxes. Yayyy!!! I hate doing taxes, so feel a great sense of relief when they are completed.

Oh, and the Doctor Who (4th Doctor) action figure I ordered from England has arrived! I just have to pick it up at the post office.

Thanks for visiting, and hope you are having a wonderful weekend, and week ahead!

Blog Your Blessings

One of my fave Christmas presents this year was a copy of Dark History of the Kings and Queens of Europe, by Brenda Ralph Lewis. It is a fun, romp through the darker side of royalty, that is easy reading, and therefore appealing to those who do not like their history lessons coming from a dusty text book.

"Beneath the splendor and sophistication of the monarchies of continental Europe are tales of scandal, mystery, and skullduggery. A Dark History: The Kings & Queens of Europe peels away the glitz to take a wry look at what really happened in the corridors, bedrooms, and dungeons of European power, from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Spanning the whole of mainland continental Europe, this history includes the burning of the Knights Templar, Vlad the Impaler’s stakes, Elizabeth Bathory’s bloodbaths, Louis XV’s womanizing, the mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask, King Ludwig I’s doomed love affair, the suicide pact of Austro-Hungary’s Crown Prince Rudolf, and the troubled life and tragic death of Princess Grace of Monaco.

Tales of murder, insanity, obsessive love, and horrific torture illuminate the troubles of royal dynasties, inter-breeding and empire, with examples drawn from Spain, Belgium, Romania, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austro-Hungary, Germany and France. Illustrated throughout with contemporary paintings and engravings alongside modern photography, A Dark History: The Kings & Queens of Europe offers a fascinating portrait of the dark side of European monarchy."

I came across this vintage poster of a dog show from 1913, and wanted to share it with you. Something about this ad is very appealing to me, and I think it would make a great full sized poster for a variety of rooms or decor. Currently we have several vintage French ads that hang in our kitchen, and I will make a note to share them on this blog in the near future.

Please note WW is now played all week.

For a list of other Wordless Wednesday participants please click here.

Aged two - 1969

Just like last week I have been able to combine my weekly blessings with Nostagic Saturday. This week's blessing has been my ability to get over my extreme fear of dentists, and actually have a positive experience while having two bad teeth extracted.

That kiddo you see above with the toothy grin is me approx. aged two. It was while I was still very young that my parents learned that my teeth were coming in far too big for my jaw, which resulted in 6 teeth being extracted as they grew in, and numerous visits to the dentist as a kid. To say I developed a phobia is putting it mildly. I used to scream at the news I had an appointment!

My phobia followed me through most of my young adulthood, and while I stopped screaming at the very thought, dentist visits have never been easy for me.

Thankfully in the past year I have found a really great dentist who I am comfortable with, and she has helped me to overcome my fears to the point where I was only slightly nervous during the double tooth extraction this week.

How about you? Are you afraid of the dentist? Are your childhood dental memories worse then they are now? I can say that dental work now is seemingly far better than it was in the 1970s when I was growing up.

Thank you for stopping by, and wishing you all the best this weekend, and in the week ahead

Abbey's (the originator of Nostalgic Saturday) blog no longer seems to be active, and I have no idea if anyone is participating anymore. I would like to keep it going so will continue posting Nostalgic Saturday entries. Please let me know if you participate.

Blog Your Blessings

"Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief archaeologist, next to a 4,000-year-old sarcophagus discovered at the Saqqara necropolis, near Cairo."

From the CBC:

A storehouse of 30 Egyptian mummies has been unearthed inside a 2,600-year-old tomb, in a new round of excavations at the vast necropolis of Saqqara outside Cairo, archeologists said Monday.

The tomb was located at the bottom of an 11-metre deep shaft, announced Egypt's top archeologist Zahi Hawass, and eight of the mummies were in sarcophagi, while the rest had been placed in niches along the wall.

Hawass described the discovery as a "storeroom for mummies," dating to 640 B.C. and the 26th Dynasty, which was Egypt's last independent kingdom before it was overthrown by a succession of foreign conquerors beginning with the Persians.

The tomb was discovered at an even more ancient site dating back to the 4,300-year-old Sixth Dynasty.

Most of the mummies are poorly preserved and archeologists have yet to determine their identity or why so many are in a single room. One of the sarcophagi is made of wood and bears the name Badi N Huri, but no title.

Full article here

Very exciting news! The article mentions how this latest discovery indicates the sprawling necropolis south of Cairo is even larger than previously thought, and who knows what still is awaiting discovery!

Image Credit: BBC

This is a photo of a War of 1812 event that the Norfolk Militia Heritage Regiment Re-enactment Group took part in. These living history lessons are a great way to teach kids about our past, and the horrors of battle in my opinion.

Please note that this entry is for both the Tuesday, and Wednesday editions of WW. Thank you for stopping by!

For a list of other Wordless Wednesday participants please click here.

It has been awhile since I have been able to participate in either of these memes so I thought I would combine both today.

My little sister, and I in our backyard circa 1976-1977

Here we are colouring Easter eggs in our oh-so 70's kitchen

My blessing this week is my sister who has always been a very supportive, and fun friend! I am blessed to have a close, and loving relationship with my sister. I was reminded via my blog surfing this week that having a good, strong relationship with siblings is not always possible nor even necessairily the norm.

Thank you for stopping by, and wishing you all the best this weekend, and in the week ahead

Abbey's (the originator of Nostalgic Saturday) blog no longer seems to be active, and I have no idea if anyone is participating anymore. I would like to keep it going so will continue posting Nostalgic Saturday entries. Please let me know if you participate.

Blog Your Blessings

The following was sent into us by our friend Richard Fiennes Clinton:

There was a story that broke at the end of 2008 about an amazing discovery at the Grange. For those of you unfamiliar with the Grange, it is the historical home located behind the newly renovated and restored Art Gallery of Ontario. It was constructed in 1817 by the Boulton family, who were a prominent clan in early Toronto (York). The Boultons lived in the house for a few generations and "The Grange", as they called their manor, eventually passed to the widow of one of the Boulton men. She remarried, and along with her new husband Goldwin Smith, set the wheels in motion for the house to eventually become an art gallery. Through many transitions over the last century, it evolved into the Art Gallery that we know today.

The "amazing discovery", pieced together from various accounts that I've heard, is more or less as follows. A descendant of Henry Whyte, a long time butler of the Grange, who was living in Boston, came across his ancestor's papers. Having no real interest in them, he sent them up to Toronto where they eventually ended up as a donation to the Grange. They arrived in the midst of the flurry that was the regeneration of the AGO, complete with Frank Gehry's curvy glass installation on the Dundas side of the Art Gallery. When the documents arrived, they turned out to be relatively mundane journals documenting the day to day life below stairs at the Grange. They chronicled how many bottles of wine were consumed and how many dinner parties were thrown. But out fell a map of the property, complete with a number of enigmatic "x" marks. It seemed a mysterious treasure map, and while the modern twenty-first century additions were being constructed, anthropologists and archaeologists apparently went to work, digging up to see what could be found in all those spots marked with an "x".

According to the story, the "x" marks identified the location of a number of strange wax and clay bundles. Another long time employee, Mary O'Shea, had apparently started working at the Grange at the tender age of 17. For about thirty years, it seemed, she would take a number of small items - sugar, spices, a children's doll, a braid of hair, a rabbit's skull, deer bones, and even small quantities of human blood - and then roll them up in spent candle wax and clay and then bury them all over the house and property. One of the prize finds were some letters that had been intended for her family back in Ireland, but had been returned. They were sent back sometime at the end of the 1840s, presumably after Mary O'Shea's family had been wiped out in the Great Irish Potato Famine.

I was intrigued by the story, as many were. Who was Mary O'Shea? Why drove her bizarre compulsion to capture these items and preserve them in wax and clay and then hide them all around the house and grounds? Did she intend for them to be discovered, or did she hope that they would be eternally hidden away? Was Whyte really responsible for the map, and if so, why did he do nothing to bring her strange actions to a close? Most of it might have seemed harmless enough, but some things, especially sugar, were of great financial value.

I went on the first tour of the archaeological dig in mid January, and was amazed! It was like the set of "CSI : Toronto", only set in the mid 1800s. It seemed that one Dr. Chantal Lee, an anthropologist with an organization called "Anthropological Services Ontario" was heading up the dig. The entire thing had been suspended to help celebrate the re opening of the Art Gallery. AND it was great to have an opportunity to see the Grange again. It was closed done, like much of the rest of the AGO during the construction. It seems that there will no longer be admission to the general public, at least after these special tours have ended, as it is to become an exclusive lounge soley for AGO members.

The following two websites gave some introductory information. The first is the website of the "ASO" and the second links to the AGO / Grange itself.

http://www.anthserv.ca/Grange_2008.html
http://www.ago.net/grange-tour

Shortly after my euphoric visit, it came to light that the whole thing was a hoax. The following article appeared in the Toronto Star on Thursday, January 22nd.

http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/575058

There never was a Mary O'Shea (well, okay, there probably was, but there was never the Mary O'Shea as mentioned in the tour at the Grange). The strange little bundles that were credited to her, the archaeological dig to uncover them, and even, presumably, the diaries themselves were all fabricated. Even Dr. Chantal Lee is a total fabrication. The whole thing is "art", I guess, put on by one Iris Häussler.

I felt upset at being duped by the whole thing. I mean, Chantal Lee's business card has a gmail address. What kind of anthropologist has a gmail address for professional purposes? And reviewing the tour in my mind, I suddenly realized that there were all these little quirky bits of history that I should have been suspicious about.

I actually feel kind of angry about the whole thing - angry at the AGO, angry at the "artist", and angry at the volunteers who conduct the tours, if indeed they realize that they are fooling the masses. If they had advised people from the start, that the whole thing was a set up, I think I'd find it much more acceptable. We'd all know it was fake, but even getting people excited about fake archaeology can point them in the right direction. But I wonder how many people will walk away from this thinking they've been exposed to real history. Will they be angry if they discover it isn't? What if this was their one and only exposure to this kind of thing?

I think what really upsets me the most is that we actually do have enough interesting history in Toronto to promote, without relying on made up crap. Spadina Museum ~ that overshadowed neighbour of Casa Loma ~ has a wonderful gallery on the archaeolgical dig that went on underneath the 1866 house. Fort York has a great archaeological exhibit too. The Parliament buildings that were torched by American soldiers in 1813 lay under the parking lot of a car dealership ... but staring through the chain link fence and imagining what's underneath the asphalt is a more worthwhile and "truthful" historical pursuit than visiting the made up junk at the AGO.

I went on the tour again today, a week after the Toronto Star published their article (mentioned above) revealing the whole thing as a hoax. I had hoped that at the end, there would be a disclaimer, something maybe only slightly apologetic but leading into something encouraging ... "See!! We made this up by archaeology and history CAN be this fun!!" But no. They're still pretending it's real.

My final question is "What's the point?" Are they going to reveal to all us suckers that it's all made up? Are they going to contact everyone who signed in for the tour, and let us know it's a sham? Is this their attempt at "performance art"? Or is it a way to increase tour sales and help pay for Gehry's additions and help get back all that admission money that they lost when they were closed?

Even if it is "art", I'm still angry. I wonder how long it would take them to notice that I'd snuck in, pinched a nice Group of Seven, and replaced it with a crudely drawn replica, rendered in crayon? That'd be a hoax, too ... but what's the difference?

Happy Groundhog Day!

An early American reference to Groundhog Day can be found in a diary entry, dated February 4, 1841, of Berks County, Pennsylvania storekeeper James Morris:

"Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate."

In the United States the tradition may also derive from a Scottish poem:

This tradition also stems from similar beliefs associated with Candlemas Day and Groundhog Day.

Candlemas, also known as the Purification of the Virgin or the Presentation, coincides with the earlier pagan observance Imbolc.

Source: Wiki

Ach! We STILL need some more time to get our offline projects off the ground... So last week, we did seven "recipes" from history, had 'em done ahead of time, and then time-stamped them to ensure a full week's worth of new posts for you!

This week, I'm hearkening to a favourite series of books for a little historical fair... The Book of Lists... and share some of the more "interesting" samples of historical tidbits from various books in that series...

#6: Janis Joplin - 51.15 Oz.

#5: Leon Trotsky - 56 Oz.

#4: Marilyn Monroe - 50.79 Oz.

#3: Walt Whitman - 44.87 Oz.

#2: Robert F. (Bobby) Kennedy - 51.15 Oz.

#1: George Gordon (aka Lord Byron) - 82.25 Oz.

PLEASE NOTE: This is only a SAMPLING from the original list... to full entry is in the book and well worth the read!

The information and images in this post are being used assuming "Fair Use"/"Fair Dealing" as we do not profit nor make commercial use of the information. This information and/or images may be removed at the request of the original copyright holder within seven business days of notice.