ENDERBY, BRITISH COLUMBIA
This panorama was taken half way up the Enderby Cliffs hike. The town itself can be seen in the top left corner with the Shuswap river flowing through the central valley below. Anthony Hopkins was scheduled to be in a movie shoot located in Enderby last October. Unfortunately didn’t see him on the trail!!!
HIKING COMPANIONS ENJOYING THE VIEW
SPACE IS VIRGIN TERRITORY
In the heart of London’s “Clubland” on Pall Mall is the booking office for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, just a hundred yards down from the Reform Club (where Phineas Fogg made his famous bet to go round the world in 80 days! Now we’re on the verge of space tourists being able to go around the world in 80 minutes!!) and directly across from the Oxford and Cambridge Club. Virgin Galactic is a pioneer in the commercialization of space.
Good thing that during my recent sojourn in London I didn’t partake in Vintage Port Happy Hour too seriously and stagger across the street to book a flight (Hey, how else am I going to get a chance to meet Lady Gaga?). Today, the Virgin Galactic Spaceship Two crashed in California’s Mojave desert killing the pilot.
All in all a bad week for commercial space. Orbital Science’s Antares rocket exploded on take-off taking with it a $25,000 space experiment by the students of a Kamloops, British Columbia high school whose beautiful town I was visiting a little over a week ago. Better luck next time!
DORSET HOUSE
I lived in Dorset House for a couple of months back in the late 80’s. Dark and gloomy, I couldn’t get out of the place fast enough. Today flats go in excess of a million pounds. Go figure!!
MEMORIAL TO THE RESISTANCE
During my brief stay in Dorset House, I got to know the local area quite well. Next door at No. 1 Dorset Square, was the Special Operations Executive (SOE), Churchill’s brainchild for clandestine warfare, which trained brave men and women for highly dangerous undercover roles in occupied France. Today, No. 1 Dorset Square is appropriately the home of the Alliance Francaise, an organization with which I have been associated over the years.
LYSANDER AIRCRAFT
Secret SOE agents were ferried back and forth between France and England in the unarmed Lysander aircraft. Flying low and slow they could evade enemy radar and their heavy landing gear allowed for short take-offs and landings on improvised airstrips throughout France.
SPIRIT OF RESISTANCE
Non descript memorial hung on an obscure wall of the Museum of Natural History that I spotted during a recent visit. During the war, with real estate at a premium, the SOE sealed off several of the exhibition halls at the Museum for training and preparation of agents.
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
CAMP X MEMORIAL, WHITBY, ONTARIO
Camp X, the college of knowledge for Ian Fleming, was the base for SOE operations in Canada. What a treat to have visited both Camp X and Dorset Square in the same month!!
A terrorist atrocity was committed in Ottawa today on Parliament Hill.
CANADIAN WAR MEMORIAL, OTTAWA
Canadian War Memorial at night with Parliament Buildings in the background.
REMEMBRANCE DAY, CANADIAN WAR MEMORIAL
A soldier stands on guard at the Canadian War Memorial during a recent Remembrance Day ceremony. Today, Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a soldier from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Hamilton performing a similar duty was shot in the back at point blank range and subsequently died of his wounds. Ave Atque Vale!
A fund to assist with the raising of his 6 year old son has been setup at PROUDCANADA.CA. Please be generous.
Lovely Chester is the historic county town of Cheshire.
CHESTER CATHEDRAL
CHESTER HIGH STREET
Throngs of shoppers on a busy Saturday afternoon.
WALLED CITY
Chester’s medieval wall with Roman ruins in front right.
MAGNA CARTA MONUMENT
During my recent trip to London, I made a pilgrimage hike out to Runnymede despite ISIS threats to the London transport system. Next year will be the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta Libertatum.
MEMORIAL
I stumbled across this memorial several decades ago during a hike around Windsor Great Park on the outskirts of London near Windsor Castle. The memorial was erected in the 50’s by the American Bar Association in recognition of the fact that America shares in the legal inheritance of Britannic jurisprudence. An original copy of Magna Carta was sent to New York in 1939 and over 14 million Americans queued up to view it. Upon the outbreak of World War II, this copy was sent to Fort Knox for safe-keeping. For more information on Magna Carta, read Daniel Hannan’s excellent recent book, “How the English Speaking Peoples Invented Freedom”.
THE AIR FORCES MEMORIAL, RUNNYMEDE
The Air Forces Memorial at Cooper’s Hill, Surrey is appropriately located overlooking Runnymede. This memorial honours the more than 15,000 British and 3,000 Canadian aircrew who perished in the skies over Europe in World War II in the cause of freedom and for whom there are no known graves.
One note left beneath one name on the wall poignantly says it all:
“Dear Dad: Never known. Always remembered.”
AIRCREW, BOMBER COMMAND MEMORIAL, HYDE PARK CORNER, LONDON
Bomber Command aircrew suffered a near 50% casualty rate.
A CIVILIZED PASSTIME
CHESHIRE SCENERY
ALPACA
Not your grandfather’s livestock!!
THE CAT & FIDDLE
The Cat and Fiddle is the second highest pub in Britain. It is situated on the western fringes of Cheshire in the Peak District National Park. The A537 in front, is a favourite of British motorcyclists because of the technical challenge of its many winding turns. An Automobile Association survey has listed it as the most dangerous stretch of road in Britain.
LAKE VYRNWY DAM
Lake Vyrnwy in mid Wales is the water supply reservoir for the English city of Liverpool. The impressive Victorian dam which makes this possible was completed in 1888.
LAKE VYRNWY
Lake Vyrnwy is a designated nature reserve which is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and is a well known centre of ornithological interest.
RING-NECKED PHEASANT
CHIRK CASTLE GARDENS
On a recent hiking trip in Wales, I was fortunate to drop by this magnificent medieval fortress of the Welsh Marches.
CHIRK CASTLE LAWN
Croquet anyone??
Despite the heavily overcast weather and the lack of a tripod, I was able to use the rock solid shoulder of my hiking companion to shoot these rather technical shots.
GARDEN GAZEBO
A walk through this scent garden was like a stroll through a perfume factory. Keats must have had this place in mind when he penned, “Oh season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!”
Despite the limitations of equipment, I think the shots turned out quite nicely. What do you think?
“BLOOD SWEPT LANDS AND SEAS OF RED”
During a visit to London last week, I managed to take in the moving “Last Post” ceremony at the Tower of London. An artistic floral tribute of ceramic poppies is being laid in the surrounding moat, each poppy representing the life of a British and Commonwealth soldier lost in the Great War. Poppies are placed daily as the tribute painfully grows in awe inspiring size. The final flower will be put in place on November 11, representing Canadian private George Lawrence Price, traditionally recognized as the last soldier of the British Empire to have died in the great conflict. Somewhere in the that vast sea of red poppies is one for Lieutenant Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, whose death inspired Canadian Lt. Colonel John McCrae’s famous poem, “In Flanders Fields,” which elevated the lowly poppy to the iconic symbol of the sacrifice of World War I throughout the British Commonwealth.
Check it out if you’re in town!
