Canada Day 2010 dawned gray and cold, and even rained. Not to be completely deterred Jim, Barb, Betsy (Barb's niece, not my sister. It'll get confusing when sister returns to Victoria in a couple of weeks) & I decided to brave the elements and do downtown to, as the Griffiths all say about everything and anything, "see what's going on". Of course there was a lot going on and a lot of people enjoying the festivities. The international food-fair was a non-event but the buskers were great and the atmosphere happy despite the cold wind. Three of us managed to get into the living flag on the grounds of the 'Legde', which was fun. I started out in the red section but the flag was short of whites so I took off my sweater and 'crossed the floor' in that great Canadian political tradtion. It was pretty chilly in just my white shirt and I was glad of the relatively dense press of people. Then we followed the crowd up Governmnet Street and home again, without the corwd, for hamburgers and potato salad under the gas heaters. It was a unanimous decision to forgo the fireworks and mega concert along with the 50,000 spectators. Probably the only disadvantage to our northern long evenings is that it isn't dark enough for fierworks until almost 10:30pm which means the organizers have to keep everyone happy for a couple of hours, the police have to worry about inebriated teenagers, and we old folk are ready for bed. Some years we go and always enjoy the spectacle because the setting is absolutely stunning, but often we don't, curmudgeons that we are becoming.
Speaking of curmugeons, how about the gangsta in our midst, aka cousin Barb who hates wearing hats but felt the need to (literally) wave the flag.
It wasn't really cold enough for the Tweedies to wear their Olympic mittens but it wasn't that far off. Reference was made to the year Alan Bull wore his Raccon coat and snowshoes to one of our CD parties. We hope you fellow Canadians marked the day somehow and that our US friends enjoy local festivities on 'The 4th". We always need to remember how lucky we are to live in free and affluent countries even if they aren't perfect.
1 comment:
What a lot of fun! I think we should go next year, too. We were busy with the chickens yesterday, so we sort of didn't remember it was Canada Day, but you're right - we should all spend the day feeling lucky to live where we do.
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