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Showing posts from October, 2016

Chasing dinosaurs in Harrisburg, Pennyslvania

As people who read this blog know I love quirky colourful pieces of art work and sculptures and especially whimsical temporary ones that lead me on a chase around a city.   London had Paddington Bears and Shaun the Sheep and Liverpool had its ducks. (which reminds me, I never did do a blog post on that...hmmm...) So you can imagine how excited I was when I was doing the capital city walk in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and saw the second dinosaur.  The first one I saw was from across the street and while I was vaguely interested it didn't occur to me that this was a "thing" until I saw the second one.  Then the chase was on!  It was a Dinomite Summer in Harrisburg and funds raised from the auction of these guys were to benefit a shelter for women and their children. Needless to say my walk that day was a "teensy bit" longer than the 6 km route I was to follow.  So without further preamble here are the characters that lived on the streets of this pretty Pennsylvan

Facing the past in Helmsdale, Scotland

After my morning visit to Brora  back in early May it was time to hop the bus and head further north to Helmsdale which took about twenty minutes. The purpose of my trip was to visit the Timespan Museum and learn more about the Highland Clearances .  The Highland Clearances were the forced removal of crofters from their rented land in order for English landlords to graze their newly acquired sheep. Sheep, it turned out were much more profitable than the rent the landowners received from their tenants. Tenants and their families were either moved to the coast to work or given one way tickets to Canada for a new life.  Families were forcibly separated never to see each other again. The museum had a fantastic virtual reality area where you could see what a croft would have looked like in the early 1800's.  It was really an amazing little museum and gave me a better understanding of what my ancestors' life would have been like before moving to Canada.  I must say that while the hea