Still with the Family History theme, I also came across this postcard sent to my 2nd Great-Grandfather by his sister. It speaks to a different era, when people had more connections to the home country and so would go for months to visit the country and family. The note on the back (“This is a real photograph”) speaks to the state of the art of photography — still complicated and expensive. The other thing that amazes me is how simple the address is. All in all, it’s an interesting peak into the past. 0 comments more ...

During my travels through Normandy, I began to wonder how it was that Normandy and Britain ended up both with Lions for symbols. In Eu, on the Normandy coast where William the Conquerer was married, I found the link. I was told that the animals are no lions, but leopards, and England uses three, Normandy was given the right to use two by the English crown, and that Eu (a town on the Normandy coast that was the site of William’s marriage) was offered the right to use one by Normandy. 1 comment more ...

When I was home to my parents’ last time, I was going through some old boxes and found this. The album must be nearly as old as I am. The writing is in my grandma’s own hand, which is fitting because it was her that carried Sinnamon as a maiden name. The passage reads:

The Sinnamons are descendants from the family of St. Amond who were Huguenots (French Protestants) in Europe. In the 16^th and 17^th century [sic] when the Huguenots were persecuted, some of them fled to the northern part of Ireland for refuge. At that time, the St. Amonds were illiterate. Later, when they learned to read and write, the name was written down as SINNAMON

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If photography is “light writing,” few lighting situations are most wonderful than sunset! 0 comments more ...

An easy hike starting across from the road to the Prince of Wales hotel is Bear”s Hump. The view, as noted above, is magnificent!

This image is actually the result of several overlapping images that have been stitched together. By holding the settings constant (focal distance, f-stop, exposure, etc.), the combined image looks like it’s one shot.

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Heading west from Vancouver, just north of the American border, we drove through the beautiful Canadian Rockies. We made it to Osoyoos just as it was getting dark and stopped to watch the lights come on on the opposite shore… 0 comments more ...

Still in Vancouver, I travelled a little further inland and found a beautiful flower garden! I love the richness of colour the violet offers. 0 comments more ...

Float planes are cool and so I went down to the harbour again and found this one coming in :) 0 comments more ...

Next stop from Seattle was Vancouver, BC. Here, while down on the waterfront, we watched the floatplanes come in! 0 comments more ...

As we headed north into Washington, we pulled off the coast to visit friends in Seattle. This is the Seattle skyline from I-5. I’ve always thought of cityscapes are an interesting portrait of a city. 0 comments more ...