From France to India

September 17th Entry:

After many emails and a few pictures from my little sister, I've decided to post some of her musings. The picture here was taken in a really old Jain Temple....her friend, on the left is Kristi from New Zealand, who happened to be staying at the same hotel.



But first, let me bring you all up-to-date.....earlier this year, she took a sabbatical from teaching and sublet her apartment in Vancouver. Then in August she traveled here, to Toronto for a visit with family and friends.
In September, she flew out of Pearson Airport on her way to Paris...the City of Lights.

So herewith are her thoughts and comments (with some editing) as she travels.


France - Vimy and Ypres were a bit of a disappointment.
Could not get to Vimy, in order to find my uncle's name on the Memorial.
Ypres was a pretty little town, if a little touristy and pricey.
Ah, well 5 trains, 12 hours, and 3 countries later, I was in Switzerland, right kerplunken in the middle of the beautiful Alps.
Caught a cold, so a week's downtime at the Swiss Kloster was wonderful. Once I felt better, I was off for a few hikes.Who knew I would be hiking in the Swiss Alps...Yodelayheehoo.
The hills are alive with the sound of......Cowbells?
Yes the ubiquitous Swiss cow is everywhere, even at 2,000 metres. there were choruses of cowbells, in seemingly different octaves in every field.


Late September:

I am in sunny Italy, right now (Venezia) with lots of sunflowers and asters; and staying at a lovely organic farm just north of the old section of the city.
I spent a whole day just tromping around the city of Venice, and rode a bike around the nearby country side to-day.
I leave for Florence tomorrow, after I spend another day in the old town, seeing it from the water, this time. I love Italy!

October 1:

I took a day bike tour of Florence and into the Blue Hills of Tuscany, and had lunch at a 17th century villa, complete with resident Prince and family. I also toured the Uffizi while in Florence, seeing much of the classical Roman treasures and statues, as well as art a la Caravaggio, Botticelli, DaVinci and more.
The Duomo was huge, with Byzantine arches and statuary.
For the next week, I will be in an Italian Farm stay near a little town called Sora.


Enjoying the peaceful countryside at this small organic farm (pictured above).
I met a couple from North Vancouver, staying here....what a small world!
I even got to strum on the farm's resident guitar, last night.
The days are very hot, but the nights tend to cool off a bit.
Dinner at the farm is very good, but lots of starches and vegetables -mostly from the farm.

I knocked myself out the other day climbing a local hill, where there are ruins of a fortress from 500+years ago. I think I got true heatstroke for the first time.

We are in the Apennines, near Abruzzo National Park, which is a a day-long and difficult hike from here; so I think I will pass on it.... since there are no buses up there.

On to Roma tomorrow to see some sights before hunkering down for a week at Santacittarama Monastery until October 13.
From there, it's on to Milan, and fly out with UAE Airlines to New Delhi, where I'll be at a hostel called Mystic Moments.

October 17:

Everything is starting to blur, slightly. Rome seems an eternity ago.
I took an early evening walk through a huge park called Villa Borghese (an infamous family and currently a TV Series).
Anyways, the Europeans certainly don't fool around when it comes to creating a park.
The usual Italian complement of classical statuary, fountains, castles, and Roman ruins, as well as many huge, majestic, Adriatic (umbrella) pines.
The days are still quite hot (86F), but very cool at night, especially in the Sabine Hills, where I stayed on another organic farm.
This is the first time that I've used my Gortex jacket on my trip...but I was glad to have it.

I managed to find the Trevi Fountain, after trying three different times.
There were hordes of tourists, of course, and not a few Italian citizens, who clearly have come from other parts of the country.
On the train to Milan to catch my flight to India, we saw the first real clouds since arriving.

An art installation at the airport was quite appropriate, I thought. Milan is seen as the gateway to the East. You walk through a large, dark room, and your way is lit by small LED's in the floor.
Then you walk through a thin wall of light with mist emanating from the ceiling...it's as if you are walking through a portal from West to East.
We had a four hour layover in Riyadh, at the airport...YAWN! Boy, am I tired; but the Saudi Airlines feed you really well.

All the readings, movies, and advice by friends kind of prepared me for India, but still overwhelmed by the filth and the number of very poor and homeless beings(and that's just the people). I shudder for the dogs and one poor, emaciated cat I saw. THIS MUST BE HELL! Having to do lots of Loving Kindness recitations to kind of be OK with all this.

That said, my first impressions on arrival weren't too bad.....the smells I'd been bracing myself for didn't manifest right away. What I noticed was a smoky smell, of many fires, but that wasn't so different from Italy, where a lot of burning goes on in the countryside, of garbage, and farm detritus. Anyway, driving in from the airport, with Indian pop music playing not too loudly, was like watching a movie. Traffic moves fairly well on the large highways, but OY, get into the city and it's chaos. You take your life in your hands, whether as a passenger, or braving the streets as a pedestrian. The one saving grace is the Metro system, which I've been using to get from the guest house to various sites.
While in the National Museum, a group of Vietnamese/American Theravadan Buddhist pilgrims came through and circled the Buddha relics three times while chanting. Needless to say, I was enchanted by all of this.

So, India is certainly a land of contrasts, but the people, by and large, when not trying to scam you, are very nice, friendly, and helpful.
On to Dharammsala tonight on an overnight bus. We'll see what awaits there.

November 1 - Dharamsala and beyond:

My large CLEAN room, with my own shower, HOT WATER, a western toilet and TV seemed like a slice of heaven after Delhi! The Green Hotel, where I stayed, is quite popular. Someone on my last bus recommended it. They have a nice organic restaurant, and FAST internet access. Some Tibetan monks were also quartered in the back part of the hotel, which is run by a Tibetan family. The monks could be seen eating in the restaurant, chatting on their cells, and checking their email, just like real people. Of course, they are everywhere in McLeod Ganji, which seems to be a relatively happy mixture of Indians and Tibetan refugees. But what a scene in the main square on Diwali evening! Indians were busy letting off all kinds of fireworks and very loud fire crackers to celebrate; while the Tibetans were busy holding a rally and candlelight vigil for the latest spate of monks, and one nun, who have self-immolated in Tibet to protest the Chinese crackdown on them. Much sadness and prayers for them all.

Lillian H. Smith Library

The other day, I attended a "Memoir Writing" session at the Lillian H Smith Library.
This unique structure was designed by Architect Phillip H. Carter, and has been described as one of Toronto's most "happily eccentric buildings".
The huge arched entrance way is guarded by a winged lion and griffin.
It almost gives you a feeling of a medieval castle.



As you can see from the picture below, the building is square on the outside.....




..............but it is circular on the inside.


There is a curved staircase with torches lighting your way down to the meeting rooms in the basement.



Aside from the architecture, this library is home to The Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy, as well The Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books.

The library was named after Lillian Helena Smith, a children's librarian, who, among other things, introduced a new classification designed to organize books in a way more suited to children's collections.

Francis Loring and Florence Wyle

An article in Spacing Magazine this month, prompted me to explore the history of two prominent female sculptors who once lived right here in Toronto, at 110 Glenrose Avenue.

The plaque in front of the house partially reads:

“This board and batten building, originally the schoolhouse for Christ Church, Deer Park, was acquired in 1920 by Frances Loring and Florence Wyle. Sculpting in the classical tradition, they achieved national prominence, and executed many impressive public works, among which are Loring’s Sir Robert Borden on Parliament Hill and Wyle’s Edith Cavell in Toronto….”

This is a bust of Frances Loring, sculpted by Florence Wyle.

Both were born in the US, and met at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1905.

They later shared a studio in New York's Greenwich Village, until they moved to a place on Lombard Street, in downtown Toronto.
They were viewed as radicals, by their neighbours and certainly were feminists, as they walked their dogs around town.

They could often be seen wearing trousers, and baggy coats with colourful scarves dangling in the wind.
Their work was their primary focus, and they lived and worked together for over half a century.

This is a bust of Florence Wyle, sculpted by Frances Loring. She made huge sculptures for the Canadian War Memorial, and her lion graces the foot of the Queen Elizabeth Monument.

Wyle on the other hand was captivated by the human body, as you can see from her statue of the Harvester, located in the Loring-Wyle Parkette.

This little plot of land (once was a turnaround loop for a TTC street car) is dedicated to the art and memory of two remarkable women.

Toronto Islands

When my sister arrived from BC, one of the things we decided to do was to go over to the Toronto Islands.

Since I have two bicycles, we decided to ride downtown on the bike trails and take the Ongiara over to Hanlan's Point.


As we travelled along the pavement, we noticed that some trees had small signs attached to them.

Upon further investigation, we found that whenever we saw a little green painted evergreen on the path, we would find another sign on a tree.

These signs, or plaques gave us a lot of information about the tree and for the next few hundred yards, we were constantly stopping to read them.

Once home and in front of my computer, found a web site called "The Canadian Tree Tours".

If you go to the page, you will find an interactive map with pop-up windows to give you all the information about the trees.

There is also a link to a photo gallery, and you can view a slide show
here:

http://www.flickr.com//photos/canadiantreetours/show/

It seems that there are 58 trees stretching from Hanlan's to Ward's with little plaques depicting their origins, their Latin name, family and a picture of the leaf.

I guess if you are reading the sign in the winter, it 's nice to see the shape of the leaf, as well.

Jack Layton

Yesterday, my sister, my friend Michael and I went over to the new City Hall to pay our last respects to Jack Layton.

He has been in repose there since Thursday, and Saturday his remains will move to Roy Thompson Hall for a State Funeral.

The line-up to view the closed casket was over an hour, and wound all the way around the building and over to Hagerman Street.

My sister and I opted to sign the Book of Condolences, instead.
The line up there was smaller.

Outside, in Nathan Phillips Square, there were mounted police, camera operators from the various TV companies, and people writing thier thoughts on the sidewalk.


It seemed that wherever there was space enough to articulate, someone was there with chalk....even in a lowly stairwell.


There was, of course, a shrine, with flowers, flags and more messages.

This was being referred to as Jack's Wall of Chalk.

So long Mr. Layton... you will be missed by your family, your friends, the politicians, the NDP, and its members, and of course, us left leaning, bike riding "Pinkos".