Happy Canada Day!

"And So We Have Arrived"
by Louis Dudek
From: Europe. The Porcupine's Quill Press, 1991

And so we have arrived.
It narrows into the thin St. Lawrence.
Yet a river with a city inside it,
with a thousand islands,
as Cartier found it,
as Cabot discovered (I saw his face
in the Ducal Palace in Venice).
We have our physical heroes,
and are also a nation
built in the middle of water.
Somehow a bigger place than we left it:
a country with certain resources,
and a mind of its own, if lacking hunger.
The mountains of Gaspé doze, reclining,
in the air vacant as morning.
At home, there will be faces full of this light,
blank maybe, but beautiful.
Getting started is never easy.
We have work to do.
Europe is behind us.
America before us

Happy Canada Day

Begin with A Nutritious Lunch:

(sangria and wings)

Beware the warning signs:


Hide from downpour (those dudes are totally random):


Oogle some soldiers:


Survey the crowds from lofty safety:


Remember (some of) what it means to be Canadian:

Mary Macgregor's (my grandfather's mother) ship's passage card from Scotland to Canada.


Julia Melhado (my grandmother's mother) with my great-aunt Julia (I was very close to my great-aunt; in fact, she was a great influence on my status as a reader...). Julia Melhado traveled to Canada in her late teens from London, England as part of the British Women's Emigration Association.