Posted on by Laura

Do Archives Have an Echo?

Knowing there might be only one person (other than myself) reading this makes it interesting to keep publishing. You might think I would stop. But, there is the idea of having a writing discipline. Keeping to the schedule of posting it all once a week. 

I also have no one complaining, debating, or whatever else. I can write anything, any topic (Canadian content), and any opinion. I know people would not like all my opinions and ideas. Of course, but I’m not an AI, created to be agreeable while ‘borrowing’ everything they find. I’m just me.

Also, some day someone else may find it, even years (centuries?) into the future. With that much time to work with, it seems likely it will be found. If the Internet Archives can last in one form or another, there’s hope. 

I do enjoy the researching and writing and planning and sharing what I find for this ezine too. So, that’s what keeps me working on it.

I’ve been trying to get this working with all Canadian made software too. But, that could be just a bit more than I can manage, in a practical sense. Still, no WordPress. I’ve been helping a non-profit who believe they MUST use WordPress and it’s a real headache, literally at this time. I spent an hour updating a page there. Trying to get it to look the way they wanted it. It would be simpler if they did not use an MS Word file which does not work well with HTML, or the WordPress version of it. 

I’m thinking to change everything to pdf files. It would also mean less bloated HTML and excessive image files on my web host. WordPress can’t do that any more. I’ve ranted about WordPress before and likely will again. Hope you are doing well, who ever reads this far.  

Please help me support my fondness for groceries and the occasional new print book.

Thank you.

Canadian Inspiration

DPC (see below) is saving Canadian content as it becomes public domain. You can offer to volunteer with them. 

Distributed Proofreaders Canada (DPC) was founded in 2007 by Michael Shepard and David Jones to support the digitization of Public Domain books. DPC now provides many of the books for FadedPage (FP) that started on March 22, 2012. All our proofreaders, managers, developers and so on are volunteers. The main principles of our mission are to: (1) preserve Canadiana, one page at a time, (2) take advantage of the favourable copyright laws in Canada to make books written by authors who died before 1972 more available to the public.

Take a look at their newsletter. Some of these online volunteer projects disappear – this one is still active as of June, 2026!

Canadian People

Katherine Hale (1878-1956) is the pen name for Amelia Beers Warnock Garvin.  Born in Galt, Ontario. Canadian poet, critic, short story writer, and opera singer.

She toured as a soprano recitalist and gave lectures including Canadian literature. She had a position as Editor of Contemporary Literature with the, The Mail and Empire (Toronto newspaper). She adopted the pen name Katherine Hale, for her mother. Active as a journalist, musician, lecturer, and critic. Her first book of poetry, Grey Knitting and Other Poems, ran into four editions of a thousand each, before it had been on the market for six weeks. Several of her poems were set to music, including ‘In the Trenches’ by the  composer, Gena Branscombe. The title of the song is ‘Dear Lad o’ Mine.’

She was a member of various associations and served as President of the Heliconian Club, the Women’s Press Club, and the Women’s Canadian Club.

She married publisher and teacher, John William Garvin, of Toronto, in 1912.

I’m posting links to her some of her books/ writing. Several are old enough to become public domain and I was able to find links for them.

 

In one of her books about Canada (1926) she wrote “Old Canada stands here… dominant and unchanging”. I think Canadians have to be stubborn (dominant and unchanging) to still be Canadian.

Canadian Places

Carcross, Yukon is known for the Carcross Desert, the tiniest desert in the world. But, it gets a bit too much rainfall to be a true desert. It is a series of sand dunes created 11,700 years ago during the last glacial period, from lakes which dried up and left silt. Sand still comes from the wind at Bennett Lake. The surrounding mountains keep the dunes dry, not getting rainfall. The dunes are habitat for some rare/ unusual plants: Baikal sedge and Yukon lupine.

Photograph by Dave Brosha – Flickr

Carcross, Yukon – vintage postcards.

Canadian Things

What do you think of first, when you think about Canadian music? For me, its almost always fiddlers from the East Coast. That happy, jumpy, music that makes you feel like dancing. I can remember an ice skating competition, possibly the Olympics but I’m not sure, there were two young people skating to the music of the fiddle with all the folk dancing steps you could hope for. I loved it. I don’t remember who they are/were but I remember watching it. 

For today I found a harpist playing ‘Early One Morning’. I had remembered the  name of the music as ‘Greensleeves’ for years but I was wrong. I will post fiddlers another time. 

Kristan Toczko – Canadian harpist playing the theme from The Friendly Giant.

Canadian Links

The following links are people and projects I have donated to/ supported on BuyMeACoffee.com. Note, if you think to become a creator on the BuyMeACoffee site, make sure you post the URL/link to your site somewhere on the page for your donations.

Winter is done (for now). Do people in other countries unshovel the driveway to help the snow melt faster?