“the rabbit of easter. he bring of the chocolate.”
-david sedaris
photo credit: from my favorite chocolatier with a cause, peace by chocolate
link to my earlier post about their story:
Apr8
Tag Archives: canada
Jan26
naliqqaittuq.
snow day yesterday at last
a really good day to stay home from school
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Inuit in Canada’s North have their own unique names for the months of the year. Aseena Mablick, an announcer for CBC Nunavut’s Inuktitut-language radio program Tausunni, has been collecting information on the names of the months in Inuktitut for years.
Mablick says one of the reasons she’s sharing this now is to “keep the language.”The names in Inuktitut are interconnected with the environment and wildlife surrounding the Inuit in Canada’s North.”It’s a truthful and honest calendar for people who are living over here, everyday, like us,” she says. “We just follow mother nature’s ways for naming the calendar.”
Each region in Nunavut has its own unique names for the calendar, and Mablick shared with us just two of the regions she’s looked into — Baffin region (also known as the Qikiqtaaluk Region) and Nunavik (northern Quebec).
January In Nunavik, January is “Naliqqaittuq”, literally meaning “nobody’s able to compete with it,” says Mablick. “It has to do with the coldest weather in that month.”
January is called “Qaummagiaq” in the Baffin region. It means “bright day coming back.”
meanwhile in ann arbor…
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credits: cbc news (north), aseena mablick, deadline detroit
Feb14
peace by chocolate on valentine’s day and every day.
This is a true and incredible human story, of a refugee family losing everything, leaving their home, and finding a new home and new life in an unexpected place and in unexpected ways. I’ve been following their story since their arrival in Canada and they are a wonderful example of will, grit, tenacity, family, compassion, overcoming odds, and a sheer refusal to give up. They are paying it forward by giving back to the people in their new community and beyond. Supporting those who welcomed them and may need the help that they so generously received when they were in desperate need. Plus, their chocolate in incredible.
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So exciting!
We are so happy to announce that the movie based on our story, Peace by Chocolate – The Film is coming to theatres, exclusively at Cineplex across Canada on May 6th and the official trailer of the movie was finally released. This movie is a platform to share hope with Canadians and the world -something we all need more than anything these days. See you all at the theatres this spring. (no date yet for u.s. or international openings)
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“generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do,
but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.”
-khalil gibran
Jul1
thanks to our neighbors, on canada day.
things you might not know were invented in canada
1. Peanut Butter -1884 (by a pharmacist as an option for people who couldn’t chew food)
2. The Wonder Bra – 1939 (by Canadian Lady Corset Company)
3.Trivial Pursuit – 1979 (by a sports editor and photo editor who couldn’t find all their Scrabble squares)
4. Odometer – 1954 (by a nova scotia inventor)
5. Rotary Snowplow – 1869 (by a dentist – a popular train track clearing device)
6. Egg Carton – 1911 (by a newspaper editor who found a new use for paper)
7. Imax – 1967 (by 3 filmmakers and an engineer)
8. McIntosh Apples – 1835 (by a farmer grafting his wild apple trees)
9. Walkie Talkie – 1937 – (by a western canadian inventor)
10. Insulin – 1922 – ( by 3 toronto scientists- not invented but discovered it and its use )
11. Instant Replay – 1955 (by a cbc tv producer)
12. Foghorn – 1854 (by an inventor/civil engineer/artist – who never patented it)
13. Green currency ink – 1862 (by chemist/mineralogist – ink used to make us dollars green)
14. Baggage tag – 1882 (by a new brunswick railway man)
15. Paint Roller – 1940 (by a canadian inventor – later tweaked and patented by an american)
16. Standard Time- 1883 (by an engineer who brought it to canadian and american railways)
17. Wheelchair – accessible bus – 1945 (by a blind, quadriplegic veteran – took his first ride after his death)
18. Electric Wheelchair – 1952 (by an engineer)
19. Plastic Trash bags – 1950 (by 2 inventors – later sold to union carbide and became glad bags)
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“i don’t even know what street canada is on.”
-al capone, american gangster
—
source credits: amanda green, mental floss, canadian pixel
Dec13
frozen journey, warm heart.
RCMP Cpl. Robert Drapeau stands next to Ranger Gary Bath,
Lynn Marchessault, Payton Marchessault, Rebecca Marchessault
and Tim Marchessault near the U.S.-Canadian border crossing. (CNN)
CNN reports a story that’s sure to warm your heart:
There’s nice, and then there’s Canadian-nice, which sometimes involves driving a total stranger, her two kids, a pair of elderly dogs and a cat named “Midnight” more than a thousand miles through a snowstorm to another country.
It all started because Lynn Marchessault and her family needed to get from Georgia to Alaska, where her husband is stationed at the U.S. Army base – Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks.
So Marchessault packed up all their belongings, bought a truck that could handle Alaska winters, rented a U-Haul, and made plans for a cross-country family adventure during the balmy days of early fall. But, 2020 happened.
Marchessault waited months for the travel documents that would allow her to drive from Georgia, through Canada and up to Alaska. Due to the coronavirus, Canada had instituted strict guidelines for Americans traveling through the country, en route to Alaska. By the time she got things in order, her September road trip was pushed to November. Besides the restrictions placed on her by the Canadian government, she knew she’d have to keep up a good driving pace to avoid the worst of winter weather.
The first 3,000 miles of the trip went well. They entered Canada through Saskatchewan. Border authorities checked Marchessault’s paperwork and warned her to keep to the main roads and stop only when necessary for food or gas.The family would have to order any food to-go, even at motels they stayed in along the way. She was allotted five days to drive through Canada and get to the U.S. border in Alaska.
The farther north they traveled, the worse the weather got. Marchessault, who was raised in the South, encountered her first winter white-out conditions. Then she ran out of windshield wiping fluid, slush covered her windows, she couldn’t see to drive, and her tires seemed to be losing traction.
Gary Bath, a Canadian ranger from British Columbia, whose job includes training members of the Canadian military to survive the Arctic, was at home when he saw his friend’s Facebook post about the stranded American family. “A lot of people were wanting to donate money or saying they wish they could help but no one was able to get off work or be close enough to go do it,” Bath told CTV News Channel on Friday. “So, I talked to my wife and we decided that I would drive all the way from Pink Mountain to the border.” Bath says he stepped in to offer the family a helping hand because “it was the right thing to do.”
“It took us two and half days, but for me it wasn’t a big deal,” he said. “I love driving so what a great way to see parts of the country that I haven’t seen in a few minutes.” Marchessault says that she and her family are very grateful for Bath’s help and says that they intended to be lifelong friends. “We’re hoping that when we do leave Alaska some of the COVID restrictions will be lifted by then because we would stop to see Gary and his wife on the way through and just thank them again for what they did to help us,” Marchessault added.
credits: CNN, Martha Shade – CDV News, Den Lourenco
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“unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.”
-bob kerry
Oct12
“the world needs more canada.” president obama addressing parliment.
happy canadian thanksgiving
thanks for being a superhero of a neighbor
“i think maybe, if i could be a canadian super hero,
i’d have some kind of freezing power
and some sort of maple syrup weapon.
could be a little sticky.
-nathan fillion
—
Credits: Wikipedia, Marvel Comics
Captain Canuck is a Canadian comic book superhero named for former Vancouver Canucks Captain, Trevor Linden, nicknamed Captain Canuck. Created by cartoonist Ron Leishman and artist/writer Rchard Comely, the original Captain Canuck first appeared in Captain Canuck #1 (July 1975). The series was the first successful Canadian comic book since the collapse of the nation’s comic book industry following WWII.
Three characters have worn the maple leaf costume of Captain Canuck. The first Captain Canuck patrolled Canada in the then-future year of 1993, where “Canada had become the most powerful country in the world”. He was the costumed agent of the “Canadian International Security Organization” (CISO). In 1995, Captain Canuck was honored with a Canadian postage stamp.
CAPTAIN CANADA – Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Jul8
the circus arrives.
to avoid crowds, montreal’s circus festival will pop up in random places
Over the course of this week, some lucky residents in Montreal will be entertained with surprise circus acts that will pop up around the city at undisclosed locations.
The outdoor performances are organized as part of Montreal’s annual circus festival and are taking place from July 6 to 12 at random locations around the city in order to avoid huge crowds from gathering and maintain physical distancing.
As artistic director of Montréal Complètement Cirque, Nadine Marchand explains, a truck called the “Bonheur Mobile” will roll up to alleys, parks, streets, and squares in Saint-Michel, Anjou, St. Henri and the Quartier des Spectacles (to name a few) over the next week.
Ten Quebec circus performers will come rolling out and put on an hour-and-a-half-long show for any unsuspecting Montrealers who happen to be passing by or looking out the window.
Apart from breathing life and joy into the city, the festival has also been organized with the goal of providing work for the artists, as many have been out of work and unable to perform or tour due to the pandemic and it’s not clear when their industry will be back up and running.
Those lucky enough to happen upon one of these surprise performances are asked to stay on their front steps and balconies to avoid getting too close to others.
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“the circus arrives without warning.”
-erin morgenstern, the night circus
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story credits: marilla steuter- martin, cbc news, daily optimist magazine
Jul1
beaver tails.
Beaver Tails
(no rodents were harmed in the making of this treat)
Some people might be horrified at the idea of eating the tail of a semi-aquatic rodent. But the sweet beaver tails that Canadians feast upon aren’t taken from beavers. Instead, they are big paddles of whole-wheat dough, fried to golden crispness. The final product is often doused in toppings such as cinnamon-sugar, chocolate, whipped cream, and maple butter.
While their name has become shorthand for a big, wheat doughnut, most come from one place: the BeaverTails chain of pastry shops. For the last 40 years, the Ontario-founded company has been slinging beaver tails, or queues de castor, at outlets across Canada. Flavors range from savory (garlic cheese, anyone?) to sweet (apple cinnamon). Fan favorites are the Killalou Sunrise, topped with cinnamon-sugar and lemon, or the Triple Trip, which boasts chocolate hazelnut spread, peanut butter, and Reese’s Pieces. In eastern Canada, they’re often a winter treat, perfect for after skating.
As the tails have slowly spread around the world, from Dubai to Dollywood, their indulgent taste and evocative name has made them an iconic part of Canada’s cuisine.
happy canada day to our sweet neighbors to the north!
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credits: atlas obscura/gastro obscura/taste montreal
Mar28
museum.
curbside museum
a small and quirky museum hidden is inside a fence
in canmore, alberta, canada
curbside museum is an unassuming curiosity in the mountain town of canmore, canada. the tiny museum is always packed with intricate little exhibits that rotate every so often. each exhibit is incredibly detailed, their contents all stuffing the glass showcase to the brim with a delightfully unexpected assortment of items.
this tiny museum is hidden within a hole in a fence that lines a busy street. the gilded frame is the only hint that this particular stretch of fence holds more than first meets the eye. you could easily walk right past it if you weren’t paying attention.
you’ll find subjects ranging from common scenes to those that transcend into the realm of fantasy. some of the showcases take on a more serious, factual tone, though many exhibits do indeed have an element of whimsy and charm.
the museum is a fun addition to the town and adds a moment of joy for any pedestrians who stop and take a peek. it’s a reward for eagled-eyed passersby who take the time to notice their surroundings. the museum is free and is open day and night.
“a museum should not just be a place for fancy paintings
but should be a place where we can
communicate our lives through our everyday objects.”
-orhan pamuk
—
credits: curbside museum, atlas obscura.com, city of canmore, alberta
Dec3
#spa life
beautiful place
to spend a few days
no agenda
no timeline
no worries
immersed in peaceful and historical beauty
“if you can attain repose and calm, believe that you have seized happiness.”
-julie jeanne eleonore de laepinasse
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london, ontario, canada
I didn't have my glasses on.... 