Beautiful color, and it's all green

Deep woods ferns found in Canada's New Brunswick. I don't understand why they don't grow as well in my shade garden as found in the middle of the woods, with no one pampering them.

Oh. I think I just answered the question.

Fiddles on the Tobique River

Once a year for the past 19 years, quiet, tiny Nictau, New Brunswick--population of only eight-- becomes a busy, noisy town with police directing drivers through traffic jams.

Cars and trucks and buses are loaded down with canoes, kayaks, platforms, paddle boats, row boats, inner tubes-- most anything that will float,or is expected to.  French speaking college students, through the music cranked up to fortissimo, help senior citizens unload their boats. The seniors' music will have to wait until they are on the water.

It's the annual "Fiddles on the Tobique", and about 15,000 boaters, family and fans flock to this unique musical experience. Some enjoy maritime fiddle music, others heavy head-banger rock, and others, well, they'll drag along far behind, far enough to enjoy the quiet of  this picturesque Canadian river. The Tobique River (pronounced TO'-bik) will float  more boats today than the rest of the year.


It's an excuse to be outdoors and soak up the beauty in this forested back country.


Riley Brook is about 850 miles and a 15 hour drive from York, Pa.  The Tobique River is probably about triple the width of York County's Conewago Creek.

It all started 19 years ago when canoe builder Bill Miller, one of Nictau's eight residents, promised a canoe ride to a fiddler, but only if he'd play along the way. That first event included just seven people, one fiddle,  two canoes and a kayak. Since then Miller says fiddlers from all over world, including Europe, New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan, Egypt and South Africa have joined the fun.

The night before this year's mass launch, fiddle players practice in concerts at Plaster Rock, the area's most immediate big town (about the size of Loganville), or in smaller groups on back porches of hunting camps/restaurants like Bears Lair in Riley Brook. Most of the boaters will take out at Riley Brook, population 85, which is about six miles from Nictau. Dining at the Bears Lair is casual, comfortable and family style, with old friends trading jokes across the room, suggesting menu items to strangers and generally smiling to the world.

 Poutine, as Canadian as an American hot dog, is on the menu and suggested by a man across the table. He looks like he lives here. The potatoes, gravy and cheese curd that make up the poutine is excellent, like the french fries with gravy and cheese that's the lunch staple of every American college student. 

The three or four fiddles, guitar and squeeze box are set up outside, looking toward the river. People are laughing, singing, whistling long after the sun goes down.

The next morning,  Riley Brook opens the day with a pancake and egg breakfast at the community center. Leah Parish stands in the middle of the road with a pitcher, asking for donations to the center. Parrish, whose pickup truck boasts that she's a "Fearless Flirt", knows nearly everyone, trades jokes with those she doesn't, and collects coins from every driver.

The fiddlers' launch time is 1 p.m. Two hours earlier, cars and trucks start unloading, and the narrow one-lane dirt road leading to the river starts getting jammed up. They toss the boats off and sneak the trucks back to the highway.  One raft is floated by inner tubes, and is hauled to the water by four young men who have already christened it "The Party Deck".  It is proudly adorned with Canadian flags --"We're not Americans", says a boater.  Their costumes range from grass skirts to motorcycle helmets.

They decide to get a head start by launching 45 minutes early. One of the canoes is loaded with three full coolers and two paddlers.  They head to what has become known as Tequila Island, and don't show up at the takeout until long after everyone else has gone home.

One French Canadian extended family exits their pickup trucks in a fury, like bees from a hive. They all wear Mexican-style straw hats, and each jumps to their task, which includes attaching the eight canoes side-by-side to make two four-canoe platforms.

Hundreds of people are now at one of the four launch sites, but no fiddlers. The skies threaten rain and some fiddlers are apparently hesitant about taking their instruments into what might be a rain storm.

Finally, a few fiddlers show up. Then a few more. It's going to be OK, after all, although it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference-- people were going to float the river anyway.


At launch time, everyone hits the water.  The Tobique River is moving quickly, because a hydro dam up river has released water so no craft scrapes bottom. There won't be much paddling needed.

Most boaters are Mom, Dad and the kids with inflatable rafts and a canoe. Some small kayaks, a pedal-paddler and some platforms decorate the river.  Some solo canoes carry a lone fiddler.

Signs point out the public viewing areas, and cottage owners along the route become suddenly popular-- or at least their parking spots.

The float takes about three hours or so, and most of the time, no fiddlers are heard. Spectators yell out to the boaters and they wave back, happy to be the stars of the show. Some boats make frequent stops at trees to loose some beer. A six-canoe platform with fiddles, guitar, squeeze box, keyboard and amplifier comes around a bend in the river and is heard a half mile away.


The flotilla reaches Riley Brook, the boats are dismantled, taken out of the water and everyone goes home.
Fiddles on the Tobique is adjourned for another year.


But founder Bill Miller is already planning something special for next year's 20th anniversary. 

Basketballl camps in high gear

Madilyn Collins shoots, while Makaela Frey waits her turn.

The Panther Girls Basketball Camp is over for this year, but a crowd of 119 girls from third to eighth grades bounced from coach to coach learning intricacies of  the game. Two girls, Makaela Frey, 9,  and Madilyn Collins, 9, helped each other through the stations at Central High School.


Makaela  is attending York Catholic's basketball camp this week. And at Central High School this week, 70 boys are learning the same lessons.

Central High School  players are assistant instructors and include Bailey Botterbusch, Alexis Ballanda, Sam Sweeney, Maddy Strine, other high school players and adult coaches.

"We drove out the Americans"

Perspective is a funny thing, which is why Americans and Canadians remember yesterday's 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 much differently. Actually, Americans don't hear much about it (maybe because we lost).

 This was the second time we tried to take over Canada. Earlier, during the American Revolution, George Washington had planned an 1775 attack on Quebec City, hoping to conquer a 14th colony. That failed too.

Today, we can't imagine invading Canada. They're our allies, friends, buddies. What, we'd take down the country that gave us William Shatner, Pamela Anderson and Justin Bieber? OK, bad examples.

Fort McHenry in Baltimore.

Two hundred years ago yesterday, the United State declared war on Canada-- and Britain, of course. During the War of 1812, we torched York, which later changed its name to Toronto, now Canada's largest city. But Britain burned Washington D.C., cruised up to Baltimore and lobbed shots into Fort McHenry for two days.

 The British flotilla couldn't get into Baltimore, ran out of ammunition, and left the Chesapeake Bay. We got our Star Spangled Banner and everyone just went home. England was having plenty of problems of its own with Napoleon in France, and fighting two wars was too much. 


Americans remember Fort McHenry, where Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner. We sing along to Johnny Horton's "The Battle of New Orleans", the battle that was fought two weeks after the treaty was signed. Both are glorious reminders of our bright history, and how we took on the Big Guy and won.  Eh, maybe not.  First, we crossed the line by invading Sandwich, which is now part of Windsor, Ontario. Three years later, when the war was finally over, Canada was still not a U.S. property.

Canadians have a "War of 1812 Celebrations" site, which might tell us something.


Some Canadians remember that war a bit differently, as is shown by these comments from a Canadian Broadcasting Company website.
   

• "Canada's victory in 1812 was a remarkable accomplishment.We were invaded by the United States, and we drove them out. I don't care how the Americans remember it."

• " Is it a good idea for us in Canada to celebrate and commemorate the War of 1812 and rub in the fact that we stopped the Americans, burned Washington and bombarded Baltimore when we want the Americans to be our number 1 trading partner?  I guess the true question should be, does the majority of Canadians actual care about the war 1812, and if so why?"

• " There are many groups involved in the 1812 war, and bringing this history forward is one of the things we as Canadians can do to help remind us of our heritage, and what brought us together as a great nation.We have many issues today driving us apart. Besides this is the only war that the US started where they were handed a resounding defeat. I enjoy reading and and have no issue with the reenactment, but what I did miss was the burning down of the US Whitehouse, why can't we do that again?"

Seneca Falls, NY and Women's Rights National Historical Park Site

Frederick Douglass, center, a freed Maryland slave, attended many women's rights rallies, believing that “Right is of no sex, truth is of no color,” Douglass urged an immediate end to slavery and supported Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and other women’s rights activists in their crusade for woman suffrage.

Visited the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York. Was a fascinating visit, loaded with bits of information that made it more than just an ordinary historic site. Be sure to explain to the kids that before these rallies-- and for many years after-- women didn't own property, couldn't vote and had little legal power. See if they can fathom that.

 If you can't visit the numerous sites throughout  the Red Lion-sized town at the north end of  New York's Cayuga Lake, check out the historic park's website. It's loaded with biographies of men and women involved with the movement, a timeline and interesting stories. For example, only Charlotte Woodward attended the convention in 1848 and lived long enough to vote in 1920.

The Women's Rights Movement was closely tied to the anti-slavery movement at the time, but  in 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment passed, saying: The right of citizens of the United States to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged by any State on the account of race, color, nativity, property, creed or previous condition of servitude.

Women didn't get the vote until 50 years later. The trip to equality is, indeed, a long and slow journey. And we continue to walk it.

 From the website-- In 1848 Elizabeth Cady Stanton and four other women invited the public to the First Women's Rights Convention to discuss expanding the role of women in America. At the end of the two days, 100 people made a public commitment to work together to improve women’s quality of life. Photo above left--During a recent wind and rain storm, the Stanton House, a part of the historic site, was narrowly missed by downed limbs from a massive chestnut tree in the front yard. Stanton owned the house, something not usually done by females in the mid-1800's.
 
Somewhat overshadowed in popular memory by her long time colleague Susan B. Anthony, Stanton was for many years the architect and author of the movement's most important strategies and documents.

Martha C. Wright wrote: …We have been expending our sympathies, as well as congratulations, on seven newly arrived slaves that Harriet Tubman has just pioneered safely from the Southern Part of Maryland.--One woman carried a baby all the way and bro’t [sic] two other chld’n that Harriet and the men helped along.

Tubman's home is in Auburn, New York, about 15 miles from Seneca Falls.

New York bragging about business

 In western New York state last weekend, and found two signs that caught my eye.

At left is Amigone Funeral Home in Clarence, NY. Now, if you're able to ask "am I gone?", then you're probably not a client of this particular business.

You might, however, be interested in the Pembroke, NY, business below for lunch. The name, however, just begs a third grader to ask the obvious question.

Just who did "kut the cheese?"