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Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!
I wasn’t planning to write about the semiquincentennial of the birth of Jane Austen, born on this day in 1775. After all, I’d already written a post on the bicentennial of her death some years ago. But...
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Happy Birthday, Canada House!
Canada is a great country: alike in the literal sense of vast extent from sea to sea and great in achievement and in promise, and it is right and necessary that its official representatives here...
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Paris 2024
I cannot lie. Paris 2024 hit all the right notes for me. I love the spectacle of the Olympics. The biggest sporting event on the planet bringing together thousands of athletes from more than 200...
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Coronation Day
Many years ago, I toured the Tower of London with my parents and my siblings. Included in our tour was a viewing of the Crown Jewels. I remember entering a room that seemed (to me, anyways) something...
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Queen of Canada
To you, she was your Queen. To us, she was the Queen. — Emmanuel Macron, President of France I don’t remember how old I was when I became aware that I shared my name with Queen Elizabeth. But you can...
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Remembering John Keats
When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain, Before high-piled books, in charactery, Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain; When I behold, upon the...
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Happy Birthday, William Wordsworth!
I wasn’t planning on writing a post to celebrate the birthday of the English poet William Wordsworth, but somewhere on the Interwebs today, I came across the last verse of his most famous poem. That...
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Red Arrows Over Burrard Inlet
Every once in a while, I manage to be in the right place at the right time. Such was the case this afternoon. The Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows have been on a North American tour. This afternoon, they...
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Happy Birthday, Queen Victoria!
Are you tired of all the royal baby talk? There’s been an awful lot of it this month. Bear with me though, because we should all take a moment to mark a significant anniversary of yet another royal...
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World’s Most Boring Place
The Internet is rife with rumours that Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex are honeymooning in Jasper National Park. Yeah, right. And I’m the Queen of England. What I find most remarkable is that...
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Wandering Through the Lake District
I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the...
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Remembering Jane Austen
I could not let today’s date go by without acknowledging the bicentennial of Jane Austen’s death. She died 200 years ago today at the age of 41. Bibliophiles around the world are celebrating her legacy...
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Through My Lens: Fountains Abbey Windows
For Palm Sunday, I’m posting a photo of a wall of windows from Fountains Abbey. These windows are located on the bottom level of the abbey’s tower, which was built not long before the abbey was...
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Through My Lens: Fountains Abbey Narthex
Here is a photo of the narthex of Fountains Abbey, which I am posting for the Fifth Sunday of Lent. A narthex is the entrance to a church. Nowadays, we usually call it a foyer. You get an idea of the...
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Through My Lens: Fountains Abbey Nave
Without the lay brothers who built the abbey and did all the daily chores necessary to keep body and soul together, Fountains Abbey would never have become as wealthy as it did. At the time of...
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Through My Lens: Fountains Abbey Cellarium
For the Third Sunday of Lent, I’m posting a photo of the cellarium at Fountains Abbey. Cellarium is a fancy monasterial word for “storeroom,” and this one was located beneath the dormitory where the...
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Through My Lens: Fountains Abbey Great East Window
Fountains Abbey was founded by 13 rebel Benedictine monks from St. Mary’s Abbey in York. They were sent packing because they wanted to live by a stricter rule than the Rule of St. Benedict that the...
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Through My Lens: Fountains Abbey and the River Skell
For this year’s Lenten series, I’m going to follow up on last year’s series of photos of Mission Abbey with photos of another abbey. This time, though, we are once again back on the other side of the...
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Through My Lens: Bayeux
Heh. Why Bayeux? Why today? Wait for it. It’s because this history geek can’t let the day go by without acknowledging the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. Yes, 1066 and all that. The...
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