Wouldn't it have been glorious to wear this dress and matching gloves in 1939? There is something resplendent and yet bittersweet about such luxuriousness on the eve of World War II.

I don't very often get to dress up and go out anymore. Twenty years ago, I had a closet full of evening gowns and cocktail dresses that I wore to a myriad of naval functions: The Trafalgar Ball, New Year's Soirees, Meet and Greet events held at the fabulous Wardroom (Naval Officer's Mess) in Halifax, or events held in one of many private clubs where our commanding officers would host evenings of food and wine and music. As a lieutenant, I could have worn uniform, and often did wear my formal mess kit, but more often than not, when non military members were joining us, I wore evening attire. Not quite like this dress, unfortunately.

But occasionally, events like last night's International Wine Festival are held at the same happy time as we are able to organize babysitting (hello, Grandma and Grampa!), and though I don't have many gowns left in my closet, I do have a little black dress that was perfect for the event.

Dressing up, doing my hair (which, for me means drying my hair. With an actual hair dryer), wearing high heels and - yikes - makeup...let's just say it doesn't happen often. But perhaps that is part of the charm of going out for the evening.

We had a wonderful time. International cuisine (the Indian food was superb), plenty of unique wines to try, good friends, plenty of socializing, a super jazz band, and an ice-blue mime that welcomed us to the event.

No, we don't get out to functions like this as often as once we did. We do enjoy good food and company, but have sort of evolved into homebodies who invite friends over for dinner where we duke out seating arrangements with the kids, or who host an afternoon of snowshoeing followed by an evening sitting by the fire and enjoying a casual pot luck, or who throw a bonfire party in the dusk at the last minute. Even the dinner parties we enjoy that are more formal don't exactly call for evening dress. And I like it that way.

But sometimes - sometimes - swanky events like last night just fit the bill.

History Mystery: Hero or Pirate?

Depends who you talk to. Like most historical figures, this man was a hero to some, and a feared enemy to others. The Spanish called him the dragon, and had a bounty on his head. He lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and she awarded him a knighthood in 1581. He is remembered for his cavalier attitude towards danger (anecdotal), one great sea victory, his capturing of gold treasure, and his exploites in sailing expeditions around the world. He died as he lived - on the high seas - and dressed in full armour, his body was laid to rest in a lead casket and consigned to the ocean's depths where it has never (yet) been found.

Check back Monday for the answer

It's not Monday - I am behind. But it is Sir. Francis Drake, known to the Spaniards as El Draque.

12-A The Green

I imagine it standing empty, forlorn, waiting. The three bedrooms that overlooked a garden, long since gone; the living room with an etched mirror and a gas fireplace bracketed by horse brasses and brass candlesticks that I loved polishing as a child; the large kitchen and walk-in pantry, and the small stone balcony that hung out over the front, over the grass that was the green.

I may have it backwards. It's been a long while since I was there. But I can see it all so clearly if I close my eyes.

It's not what it used to be. It's a bit derelict today, from what I understand, less gentile than it was 40 years ago, when we were admonished not to run because of the Misses Rastrick who lived downstairs and were getting elderly, when a neighbour tossed "sweeties" from her upstairs window to my brother and I as we played on the "green" on those weekends when we stayed there, visiting Grandma and Grandad.

I don't even have a picture, only memories. Stone steps and a huge expanse of grass to run in, all the way down to the tunnels that ran beneath the busy highway. My grandfather's whistle-loud and piercing-that meant it was time to come back for dinner. Many, many happy hours spent outside in the front, or in the back garden, overgrown and charming with a pigeon roost and a high brick wall or sometimes inside playing with toys and books that once belonged to our own father, and listening to the adults talk over the sound of the horse jumping on the television, loud so my grandfather could hear it.

The Green, as we all called it, was  a delightful spot to visit. And though I know it has gone downhill in the last 15 years, I remember it the way it was when we left England for Canada. Even when I have been back, the changes have been slight, but as I say, it has been some years now.

It has been there as long as I remember. Probably the most long-standing permanent place in my entire life so far. I wrote letters there so often over the years that the address is burned into my head and I never need to look it up. 

No more letters to go there though, so if I seem a touch maudlin, that is why. My grandmother turns 90 this year, and she is fading in and out of her past, now knowing who she is and where she lives, and now not. Reluctantly, the family has moved her into a home. For a rest, they tell her, keeping the Green flat. For now.

But I know it's the end of our time at the Green. And that saddens me. For many reasons.

Revisionist History: Leader or Butcher?

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Edward Cornwallis was the Britsh Governor who founded Halifax. Streets and parks, a military base, and a school are named after him.

Sorry, a school WAS named after him. It is being renamed. Here is the Globe and Mail article.

The basic facts are that British policy at the time (mid 18th century)  offered a bounty for Mi'kmaq scalps, and even though part of the reason for this was retribution for the British scalps the Mi'kmaq were taking, native leaders called for the removal of his name from Cornwallis Junior High School to correct what they perceive as a historical wrong. The school board vote was unanimous.

So Cornwallis Junior High will be named something else after community debate. I never went there so that is only of minor interest to me. A school, after all, is just a school.

But this kind of revisionist history does concern me. I feel the same way about the new re-printing of Huckleberry Finn which removes the N word from the book. About our governement spending money on apologies and payments to people that were wronged in some cases hundreds of years ago.

I am all for opening up the past, to look at it in light of the present and our current societal values and mores. And I understand that some terrible things were done through the years to people who did not deserve them.

That's history. It's not nice. In fact it's quite terrible. Always has been. History, after all, is just a record of what men and women have done to each other over the centuries. Proof if you will that humanity is brutal. But you can't whitewash it all and pretend it didn't happen. And if we stopped honouring those whose great deeds were marred by less heroic aspects...there'd be no-one left to honour.

It has been said that history tells the story of the winner, and that is often true. I am glad there are historians who bring forward the other side of the story, who paint in the brushstokes to give us a more clear picture of what really happened. I am glad native Mi'kmaq historians are giving us their persepective of what Cornwallis did and how it affected them. This only adds to the great historic tapestry and weaves a more complete picture.

But where, I wonder, will it stop? For every hero, there is dirty history. For every conquerer, there is the vanquished. They were judged in their own time and made into the figures they were. To say Cornwallis was not a hero because of what he did to the Mi'kmaqs essentially dismisses the other merits and values that were prevalent in the 18th century.We can't apply our standards to the past and if we do, if we topple them all in the name of political correctness, does this do any of us any good?

The past is what has defined us. We can't change it. It would be better for all of us if instead of trying to reconstruct the past using our version of what is right and wrong (and remember, we only think we're enlightened - future generations may disagree), we recognize each other for who we are today and move forward on that basis.

Together.

Princesses

Tomorrow is the much anticipated Royal Wedding, and I confess that while we are not getting up at 3am to watch an endless procession of people arrive at Westminster Abbey, we will get up in time to watch the highlights on the internet. I was 11 when Charles married Diana, living in England, and remember that royal wedding quite well. I remember being bored by the television coverage, excited by the street party, and secretly delighted when my dog and my uncle's dog raided the cake table devouring the elaborately decorated royal cake (etched with Charles and Di iced faces) made by our neighbour who was not amused.

I don't consider myself a royal watcher, but I'm aware of them, and I like that. I like the Queen, I like Prince Philip and his wonderful gaffes, and I like Charles who I always picture in his wellingtons and carrying a walking stick, spouting eloquently about art and the environment. I think it's thrilling to have another royal wedding, and so yes, I want to be part of this historical event, even if its just watching live coverage.

My girls do too. They want to see the Westminster Abbey where William the Conquerer was crowned in 1066. They want to see Prince William and Prince Harry. They want to see the Queen. But mostly, they want to see Princess Catherine. It's all about the princesses.

It's interesting that I am reading this book right now.

A book about princess culture and what, if anything, it is doing to our daughters. Most of the time I don't think about it. We went through that princess period in our house where everything was pink and frilly and I despaired even while taking pictures because it was so darn cute. Today, the girls are 8 and 9 and that period is gone. Today they prefer pants which are easier to run and jump and play in, they race around the fields, and hardly ever do anything that is dainty. They have green belts in karate and are learning to stand up for themselves in ways that continuously impress me.

And yet, the excitement in the air over the fairy tale wedding of Kate and William is palatable.

I think, in our hearts, we all want to be princesses.

I just haven't decided if that's a good thing or a bad one.

Historical Dinners

This week in history marks the 99th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic. For a while the kids have wanted to see the movie, so we thought this would be a good time to make that happen.

 

We got to talking about the event, the girls started to google facts, and before long we had discovered interesting things such as the music played, lists of passengers, and the menus for the first, second and third class.

 

Menus...Hmmm.

 

With a rainy afternoon before us, and Anna at a birthday, Grace and I set to work to recreate a Titanic dinner menu. Now 10 courses seemed a bit over the top, so we scaled back a little. And I took a little liberty with the actual food served on the ship. This is what we made:

 

Titanic Menu

• Roasted Garlic Soup (a Chez Piggy recipe) 
• Mixed greens with chevre and almonds

(This is where the fish course would go - we skipped it. Likewise the sorbet which would be course 4)

• Chicken Lyonaisse with cream sauce
• Lyonaisse Potatoes (Lyonaisse basically means with onions, and was served on Titanic)
• Green Beans Almondine
• Broccoli with cheese sauce
• Victoria Sponge cake (not actually a Titanic dish, but only fashioned and sweet. And delicious. Thanks Nigella Lawson)

(Courses 8, 9 and 10 - we skipped them too. I imagine a cheese course, a sweet pastry course, and no clue what the other would be. Seemed like overkill. We were all stuffed.)

 

And then we sat down rather corpulently, to watch the movie. I should note that we did not have wine with every course as they might have in 1914. We had sherry with our soup, wine with our dinner, and a snifter of brandy with dessert. And the kids had juice.

 

So successful was our historically themed dinner, that the kids are keen to do it again. It struck me that with the date also being the anniversary of Culloden, we could have done that too...but maybe we'll save it for another time.

 

Now I am racking my brains for another event to mark with a feast. History is more fun when you can eat it! If you have any ideas, feel free to pass them along...

History Mystery: Steaming Along

I made what is widely considered my first true movie debut this week in 1928. The movie also featured the gal who would become my main squeeze - although we actually met in a short piece about six months earlier. My most famous role came in a classical piece made about 11 years later, and which is still popular to this day. I received my star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame on Nov. 18th, 1978 - on the 50th anniversary of my movie career.

I have been in movies, books, and video games. I have been translated into countless languages, and used politically. The British navy unofficiallly bestowed my name on some of their WWII era minesweepers as a friendly nickname. Sometimes, my name is used pejoratively, which hurts my feelings, but at least in Australia they use my name to mean excellent. I like that.

Who Am I?

That's right, Leanne!

I am Mickey Mouse!!!  M-I-C K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

History Mystery: Canadian Women

October is National Women's History Month, so I thought we'd take a look at some of our Canadian ladies - not all of whom are as well known as perhaps they should be.

1. Born in the UK in 1838, this woman married a Hudson's Bay official, and spent years living in Canada and travelling by canoe. She sketched her adventures, and later turned them into paintings. Her work shows voyageurs in their canoes, and she is probably our best known artist of this kind of work. In 1988, one of her paintings was featured on a Canadian stamp.

2. A suffragette, a teacher, one of the founders of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design were just some of the qualities describing this lady. But this world traveller, born in India in 1931, and buried in Montreal after her death at age 83, is mostly know for her role as a royal governess.

3. Canada's first female Member of Parliament was elected in 1921. "I want for myself what I want for other women, absolute equality," she said. Equally famous is her quote, "If the preservation of the home means the enslavement of women, economically or morally, then we had better break it." This early feminist was an advocate for prison reform, disarmament, and old age pensions.

4. Born in 1901, this Nova Scotia woman was a nurse, an actress, and a resistence fighter who lived in Holland rescuing downed allied airmen from the Nazis. Betrayed to the Gestapo, she is the only Canadian woman to have been imprisoned and condemned to death by the Germans. She escaped, and returned to Nova Scotia where she died in 1976.

Monday Answers:

This must have been tougher than usual. I intentionally made it that way because friends who know me said I usually make them too easy:( Still got to find that balance.  The answers are....(drum roll):

1. Artist Frances Anne Hopkins
2. Anna Leonowens (of The King and I fame)
3. Agnes MacPhail
4. Mona Parsons

Way to go Julie with a score of 2/4. (kinda reminds me of our marks in 1st year philosophy! Bwa-ha-ha!)

History Mystery: Dark Lady

Who is the best selling novelist of all time? She has sold between 2 and 4 billion books - only the Bible and Shakespeare have sold more (sorry, JK Rowling). Her first manuscript was rejected by six publishers before being published in 1920 and she earned £25 for her first story.

She created two characters, so well loved that when she killed one of them off in 1975, The New York Times ran a full obituary - the only fictional character ever to be given such treatment by the paper.

After a fight with her husband, she disappeared for 11 days, causing a huge manhunt, and fears of her death by drowning, but she was found unharmed and refused to talk about the incident even in her autobiography.

Her books were made into plays and films, and when she died in 1976, London's West End Theatres dimmed their lights for an hour to mark her passing.

She was born 120 years ago today.


Who Am I?

Monday Answer: You are all so clever - of course it's the First Lady of Mystery - Dame Agatha Christie.

If you haven't read her books, get thee to a used book store or the library. Murder should always be so gentile! They are perfect for a Fall afternoon.

History Mystery: Adventurous Dreamer

He came to fame initially as a dramatist, but his legacy is that of a writer of swashbuckling fiction. His characters are legendary, his stories sweeping and adventurous.

His grandfather was a french nobleman and his father a general in Napoleon's army. It was these stories that captured his young imagination. He was a gourmet cook and wrote non fiction articles on politics, history, literature and travel.

Although wildly successful, he spent more than he earned and was frequently in debt, eventually having to sell his country house, with its separate work building.

He also battled racism because of his mixed race heritage (his grandfather married a African Carribean woman) and was banned from Russia by Czar Nicholas I because of one of his novels

130 years after his death, his body was exhumed and reinterred by French President Jaques Chirac who in a televised speech claimed, "with you, we dream." 

Who Am I?

Tuesday Answer: 6 guesses in total, split 50-50 between Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas. Hugo, best known for Les Miserables, was incorrect.

Fortunately the one person who posted their response got it right: Leanne, you win, um, you win....the satisfaction of knowing you're a literature whiz.

Dumas of course is remembered for his adventure stories such as The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.

History Mystery: Christmas Legend

The Duke of Bohemia, (907-935) known by his subjects as a just and rightous ruler, was also docmented as being noble in deed. According to 12th century chronicler, Cosmos of Prague, he "gave alms generously to widows, orphans, those in prison and afflicted by every difficulty, so much so that he was considered, not a prince, but the father of all the wretched."

Murdered by his brother, he was martyred, post-humously given regal title by Pope Otto I, and later canonized as a Saint. The patron saint of the Czech people, he is also the subject of the most famous statue in the Czech republic which sits in the square also named after him in the city of Prague.

He has inspired many legends, (such as the one which claims that when the motherland is in danger, his equestrian statue will come to life, raise a sleeping army and destroy the enemy with a legendary sword) and a well-known Christmas carol.

Who is he??

Answer: Good King Wenceslas

History Mystery: Queen of Castile

1451-1504

Married to the King of Aragon, but Queen in her own right, she and her husband unified Spain. She spent much of their reign purifying the Catholic Faith, and is renowned for her institution of the Spanish Inquisition in 1480,  and the slow expulsion of the Spanish Moors (Muslims).

She sponsored Christopher Columbus' voyages to the New World and was sympathetic to the North American Natives who were brought back as slaves.

Widely read and well educated herself, she insisted on the same for her sons and her daughter.

Although she died without an heir, she was grandmother to one of the great tragic Queens of England.

Who Is She?

Monday Answer: Queen Isabella I, also known as Isabella the Catholic, also known as the mother of Katherine of Aragon (1st wife to Henry VIII) and grandmother to Queen Mary I (later known as Bloody Mary).

Leanne, I thought you said you didn't know your history... nice guess then.

I picked this one in honour of my beautiful 3 month old niece, Isabella, who I went to visit in Toronto this weekend.

Remembering

It was good on Sunday to see the turnout at the local Cenotaph for the Remembrance Day ceremonies. The Canadian Air Force was there, the local Air Reserve, and the Air Cadets, the highland regiment, the Glengarry Pipes and Drums,representatives of the police and fire departments, legion members, and bringing up the rear, our Scout troop - a few rows of scouts, cubs and beavers with their sashes and caps and flags. They did well, these kids, starting with the church service at 11am, and followed by the parade at 2pm. Then, I dragged them off to the legion for our annual drink and sandwich, and Grace managed to avoid spilling coke on someone's bagpipes like she did two years ago, and it was nice enough to sit outside with some of the legion members and have a drink in the sunshine.

It's good to remember. And I think it's important. And hanging out with the kids and explaining it all to them felt right. But when Erik asked why, if war is so terrible, there still is war, I had no answer for him. I don't know if there is an answer to that.

from the song Willie McBride by Eric Bogle

Did you really believe them when they told you the cause?

Did you really believe that this war would end wars?

For the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame,

The killing, the dying it was all done in vain

For Willie McBride it's all happened again

And again and again and again and again.

History Mystery: The Plot Thickens!

Erik had no trouble guessing the last History Mystery so if a 9 year old can do it, I obviously need to make it more difficult.

This man was born in 1570, and at the age of 35, was sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered for conspiracy against the King. He avoided being drawn and quartered by throwing himself off the scaffold, breaking his own neck.

He and his deeds served as inspiration for the poet, John Milton, who modelled Satan in Book 6 of Paradise Lost on this character. Although he has been vilified since his treason, he is also known as, "the last man to enter (UK) Parliament with honourable intentions," and his reputation has been somewhat modified in recent years.

Who is he?

(Wed Answer: Guy Fawkes. Congratulations Julie Queen, NB for getting the right answer. You win....um....the satisfaction of knowing the right answer.)

History Mystery

Children love him, songs have been written about him, even his enemies reportedly admired and respected him. He is renowned for bravery, and stands for all that is chivalrous.

He was an English King who spent little time in England, spoke but little English, and (according to a renowned British historian) was, "a bad son, a bad husband and a bad king."

He revolted against his own father, was betrayed by his brother, and was adored by his mother. He survived mighty battles and a lengthy capture, yet died of a gangrenous arrow wound fired inside his own castle walls at the age of 42.

Who is he?

Answer: Richard the Lionheart (King Richard I)

Katherine

I've been lost in this book by Anya Seton for the past week or so, reading snatches when I can. But I finished it in peace early this morning, in between raindrops, sitting on the low stone wall under the yellowing maple tree. And when I finished it, I was left with a sense of desperation.

This was not just because of the book, which I shall talk about in a moment, but because (warning: run-on sentence to follow - it nicely captures the sense of panic I feel when I think about this) this book was so good and so well written, and it was written half a century ago yet the first time I'd heard of it was the day I ordered it from the library, and so my desperation stems from the realization that if this book exists, others like it do as well, and I'm left wondering how many great historical novels are still out there that I haven't read and how I'm going to find them all and read them while keeping up with all the great new historical novels that keep getting written.

(This is the point at which my youngest daughter, karate girl Grace, will call out Mokuso and remind me to breathe: in through the nose, out through the mouth.)

Calmed now by breathing exercises, I have to say that this true tale of 14th century romance between John of Gaunt (third son of King Edward III) and young Katherine Swynford nee de Roet was one of the best books and most beautiful love stories I've read. For a complete and cohesive review, you can do no better than read the online one posted by Kit Thomas: Why I love Katherine, who ends her review saying that, "he (John of Gaunt) has dragged me kicking and screaming into the fourteenth century never wholly to return. I hope he and his good Lady Katherine will do the same for you as their story leaves a little warm glow in the heart which never really goes away and the conviction that somewhere, sometimes fairy tales really can come true..."

For my own part, suffice it to say that I too have been unrequitably fixated by John of Gaunt since first reading this book. Anya Seton's meticulous research and well crafted story brings him to life against a backdrop of plague, betrayal, and war, and though traditional romantic hero he is not, there is something about his unswerving passion for Katherine that touches the heart and makes this a love story never to forget.

History Mystery: Name This Man

He lived 1340-1399

Kenilworth Castle was his home.

And Shakespeare immortalized him with these words:

This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise,

This fortress built by Nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war,

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea,

Which serves it in the office of a wall,

Or as a moat defensive to a house,

Against the envy of less happier lands,

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England

Who is he?

(Monday Answer: John of Gaunt, House of Lancaster, uncle to Richard II, ancestor of Henry VIII)