Robert Paterson's Weblog

Rare Breeds of Dogs - The Island Raindog

This a very rare sighting of the almost extinct, Island Rain Dog. Once common among the Mikmaq people in Atlantic Canada, the Island Rain Dog helped hunt salmon. The Rain Dog would swim in the rivers - herding the fish into the nets. All that is really left of this trait is a great love for getting wet.

Technorati Tags: Dogs, Island rain Dog, Mikmaq, Rare Breeds of Dog

Recalled to Life Part 2 - English Food - Setting My Taste Buds for Life

Some ignorant people think that English food has no class. But the great inside secret is that for many of us our fondest memories are of food in the nursery and English sweets (Candy to you).

I hope today to give you a glimpse of some of the highlights of this great cuisine and the best Sweets in the world.

Here I am in Cornwall in 1956 looking into a pub window at my parents. They are tucking into something nice like Steak and Kidney pudding and washing it down with a real local beer - I can hardly think of a better meal.

So let's start with Sweets. In 1954, rationing had just ended. Sugar had been hard to find since the early 1940's. Many kids had never seen an orange. "Yes we have no bananas" was a song written in 1923 but was very relevant to kids after the war. No wonder I am indifferent to fruit. I never saw any until I was almost a teen.

All kids love sweets - we lived for them as a crack cocaine addict lives for crack. Here is a wonderful link to many of our favorites. Murray Mints, Black Jacks, Sherbert Fountains etc. We also liked Gobstoppers. For those who have never heard of a Gobstopper - this is what they look like.

Here is a pack of Murray Mints - we loved them as well. These were the kind of sweet that you could make last.

Diana and I got a shilling a week pocket money. This was a fortune at the time. Remember this was the pre-decimal age and there were 12 pence in a shilling. Black jacks were 4 for a penny. A Cadbury's chocolate bar was 2 pence! So with 12 pence, we could get enough sweets to make us ill.

We would walk down to Kensington Church Street to a little corner shop every Saturday to get our fix. What a wonder the shop was! Tiny full of papers and comics and rows and rows of sweets in the front and jars that seemed almost as big as us at the back packed with delights like Lemon Sherberts.

Crisps were just coming in. They were made by Smiths. No flavours just plain. The salt came separately in a little blue bag. You had to be careful not to eat too fast. Many a time I bit into the bag and got a mouthful of salt. It was the later advent of Wonder crisps and Flavors that really expanded the crisp business.

In about 1956, Iced Lollies arrived. Popsicles to you. We were so mean to little Fiona, who was the little girl being comforted by Mrs Cushing in the previous episode. We tied her to the railing and danced around her eating our chocolate Iced Lollies - taunting her with how delicious they were. This caused yet another visit to our mother by her angry parents.

Mars Bars were however the Holy Grail. If I needed a favour from Diana, I would buy her a Mars bar.

In the 1950's there were no frozen foods in England. We ate what was in season or from a tin. There were no supermarkets. On every high street there were small stores that would deliver food by boy and by bike. Fishmongers with slabs of ice covered in fish and crabs. Butchers with rabbits and game hanging in the window. In the war much of the rabbit was really cat. Green grocers with bins of potatoes, greens and cabbages - no Kiwi fruit in those days.

A critical supplier was the milkman. For some time, he arrived with a horse drawn float. For Diana and I he also had our only real luxury. The cream at the top of the milk.

This is what an English Milk bottle still looks like. In the summer birds would often make a hole in the cap. In the winter, the milk might freeze and push the cap up off the top. Diana and I took turns with the cream on our porridge. We still love cream and miss it terribly in Canada where we only get a sad chemically filled substitute. The milkman delivered eggs and butter as well. Dairy is still my favorite part of food.

So what would have been a typical food day for Diana and I in say 1956?

Breakfast would have been porridge and cream - if it was your lucky day. Followed by maybe a boiled egg and soldiers. Lunch might have a stew or Mince with potatoes and cabbage in the winter. There was no dinner. We had Tea at about 4 pm. Tea might be a mix of sandwiches, chocolate rolls. It might have biscuits. For many English children though tea was synonymous with a product that I never liked - Marmite.

I don't know why I don't like Marmite. I love all savory foods. Just could not stand Marmite. When we got a bit older, Fluffy - the greatest nanny ever - would take us out occasionally to Lyons Corner House where we would have Egg and Chips! If I was to be executed for murder, my last meal would be a toss up between a traditional English breakfast and egg and Chips. If its not fried it's not food became my motto and still is.

So tea was it. Then baths and bed by 6. Where is the TV you ask. What TV? We did not get one until 1956 - a whole chapter on TV later for all you Bill and Ben fans. We were very thin. We ran around all day and as you can see had very little to eat. I was hungry a lot. No one I knew was fat. Most of us looked like we had just been released from a concentration camp.

Later, when I get to prep school, I will talk about the real English food adventure - Toad in the Hole, Dead Man's leg, Treacle Tart and Treacle Pudding.

Next though - Life in the nursery - my relationship with Diana, nannies and Fluffy

Technorati Tags: Black Jacks, Gobstoppers, Lyons Corner House, Murray Mints, Mars Bars, Rob Paterson, Rob's Life, Smiths Crisps, Sweets

Rare Breeds of Dogs - The Diviner

The Diviner is a rare breed of dog originally from the sub sahara whose great skill was in finding water.

Today, in the domesticated version, they can often be found in your bathroom.

Technorati Tags: Dogs, The Diviner, Rare Breeds of Dog

Rare Breeds - The Sharpeicameleon

This very rare breed of dog, the Sharpeicameleon, has found an excellent evolutionary way to sleep on humans beds without their owners knowing. Being able to blend into the bedclothes and blankets has meant that they are rarely spotted by watchful humans.

Unfortunately the advent of the duvet has made it easier to see the dog and it is unlikely that they will be able to breed to fit this new environment soon enough.

Technorati Tags: Dogs, Sharpeicameleon, Rare Breeds of Dog

The Commons is Spreading

This in the Globe and mail today - The idea of a Work Place Commons is emerging spontaneously across Canada

By SHANE SCHICK

They weren't really friends, at least not at first -- they were bloggers who got to know one another electronically. Then the group in Charlottetown started to wonder: Wouldn't it be great if they all worked in the same building?

That's when an actor-comedian, the head of a software development firm called SilverOrange, and a consultant decided to create a space called Queen Street Commons. Inside, it looks like a comfortable house, the walls painted in rich shades of blue, orange and green. Its purpose, however, is not to shelter a family. It's to establish a community for entrepreneurs and small businesses that can't afford office space in a downtown high-rise, but don't want to be working in isolation at home.

"They needed a community. We knew that, because we are those people," says Cynthia Dunsford, the actor-comedian in the founding trio.

"We worked out of our homes and met clients in coffee shops, primarily because they offer wireless to lure you in. You'd be sitting at Timothy's or Starbucks and holding court all day with all your meetings. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not completely professional."

The alternative is what some are calling a "third working space," which attempts to create the atmosphere of a coffee shop along with the privacy and amenities of a regular office.

Read on to find out what is going on elsewhere

Technorati Tags: Commons, Community, Culture, Cyn Dunsford, Dan James, Queen Street Commons, Rob Paterson, Work

Tip to Tip - Marion Clorey's Journal

Here is Marion's Journal and her lessons for Tip to Tippers

Thanks to everyone for the great pictures. Not being a camera buff myself, I 've created this log of our adventure for my funders - mostly family members who hail from Kinkora. Hence, some of the names and details may not be familiar or relevant. For clarity, John and Monica are 2 of my 4 kids, Doug is my husband, Grammy is the matriarch who lives by the trail in Kinkora and Greg is my brother who has a cottage in Anglo.

Thought I'd share it with you so you can do some reminiscing. Thanks Cynthia for taking my picture so I could send it along as well.

Warmest Regards,

MarionMarion’s Log: May 19-22, 2006 Tip to Tip for Africa

Technorati Tags: Marion Clorey, Tip to Tip