Dartmouth, Racing and museums

Miles 2000 by sea and 2000 by land. Weather… well it reminds me of home.. Ireland home

We had a wonderful race with Brian and Crew. Actually came in second place obviously not Sailing M’Aingeal. Just before the race Amanda told us that she was waiting to hear the results of a job interview that she had and she would know at 6 o’clock. Sure enough at 6 o’clock they called her to offer her the post. It was so lovely because she was so happy with the choice of jobs and said that now she feels she ‘can make a difference.’ She is doing law.

We went into Halifax the following day and I went up to the Citadel to watch the Changing of the Guards. It was said they have a ceremony where they shoot a cannon and it can be heard all over Halifax. There was a family below us and the father was holding two Scottish terriers in his arms. The couple beside me were discussing about how high the dogs will jump and how much they may scratch the head of the father. I was wondering whether or not I should have my camera on this rather than the cannon and we were so busy talking about that that the cannon went off before we noticed. There was no performance, and it was quite an anti-climax particularly considering the height of the hill I had to climb to see it. I didn’t see how the dogs reacted.

I must say something about all the museums we’ve seen. The Maritime Museum in Halifax was of course, very good, very professionally done but the real charming museums are in the small villages on the way up to Cape Breton. They let you touch and try everything. In the Deny’s museum she showed us how the folding bed could be opened and closed she made the little high chair up and down and then encouraged me to play the organ to try it and also to push and pull the air of the diving equipment but the ‘piece de resistance’ was the oldest vacuum cleaner. Not electric. As you push it along the bellows expand and suck the dust up. Some of you may be surprised that I recognized it.

The only thing that was in glass was a book that was covered with human skin. They didn’t want you to touch that and I certainly didn’t want to touch it either. The girl told us that it was somebody’s grandmother’s skin and she said it was probably a nice way of having a type of memorial. I couldn’t find much on it in Google afterwards however I did find references to books that are covered with criminals skin. Pretty gruesome. It’s called Anthropodermic bibliopegy

The next museum we drove by we nearly passed but I was interested in a little stop and stroll around the cemetery. I think this was truly the most charming museum as the girl really enjoyed telling us each story about each piece.

This piano was a very small piano that was brought onto a ship and the captains wife would play it. The ship was Delivering Coal and went on fire and everyone was being taken off the ship when the wife requested that the piano would be rescued. A sailor rescued it and you can see the burn marks on the side of the piano. She played the piano every day on the lifeboat for 41 days which I’m sure made all the difference to the sailor’s morale they all survived. There is also a story that the Mexican ship that rescued them was not going to initially because they thought they were pirates until they heard the music being played.

This next piece is it embalming table. It was specially imported to embalm the body of the richest man on the Titanic. (His name escapes me). The girl explain to us the victims who died on the Titanic were brought into Halifax and buried. (209). Some were unidentifiable and buried at sea and others brought into Halifax and As it was mostly second and third class passengers some of who were unidentifiable and were buried at sea and some in unidentified graves in Fairview Cemetery. the wealthy were embalmed and returned to their origins. It probably helped his family for identification purposes and to sort out the estate to have him buried in New York

They loved British Royalty and had a magnificent picture of Queen Victoria (Plump and pompous) and also this case of Delph celebrating weddings and coronations. The milk jug on the top left hand corner is Edward V11’s coronation which we know didn’t happen but obviously the jug was made before the abdication.

There were so many other interesting things like the female doctor In the early 1800s and her certificate had to add an s before the he to make it she.

The girl’s Grandfather was one of the Scottish guards. There is also a soldier’s belongings including his uniform and lesson plans as he was an instructor He died in an exercise and the family donated all the belongings that were sent over. It was only when we looked at the dates a little bit closely that we realized that he was in the same area of Germany that Pat taught and at the same time. So possibly Pat could be in a museum !

Even one of the restaurants where we ate had museum pieces scattered everywhere. I walked into the restroom and saw this little pram.

The Immigrants Museum was very moving but there was one lovely piece that I could certainly identify with.

“Our greatest disappointment was with the Mustard. which looked exactly like a European mustard but was probably the worst brand of mustard that we had ever encountered. In fact we were totally baffled by its taste and consistency and the beastly stuff certainly didn’t go very well with wieners either. as we later discovered that was our first introduction to peanut butter“

The wildlife has been amazing. I saw this groundhog as I was going to the shower and the fox were almost too tame. We would watch the humming birds at breakfast time Now they are incredible. They are able to fly up, down backwards, sideways and stationary.

I’m leaving the views of Cape Breton and the Bay of Fundy until next blog.