I am Canadian. Much of the world believes that we live in one of the snowiest placed on earth. I live on the west coast of British Columbia. I fondly call it the WEsT COAST. The first winter we lived here there was 42 days in a row of measurable rain. Not one bit of snow. It never got very cold, but I spent that winter thinking I would never get warm. The dampness is hard to shake. For something different - it's raining again today, and there is no snow in our 14 day forecast.
Every year I wish for a White Christmas, and most years I am disappointed.
This Christmas will be no different. There is no snow in the forecast. With the Covid essential travel only orders I don't think we will even get to go to the ski hill. Here are a few photos of family ski trips of the past.
I wonder if my kids remember when we used to have snow when we lived in the interior of British Columbia. I would shovel it into piles up against our cedar hedge yard perimeter so the town deer could have some winter snacks. Our neighbours burlap wrapped their cedars to protect them from the deer all winter. Oddly enough our cedars were always healthy and full all year round even with the deer partaking. One year we shaped the piled snow into a ginormous whale extending the full length across the front of our yard. We made it a rainbow whale by 'painting' it with spray bottles of water & koolaid powder. That was the most beautiful whale I had ever seen. I return to the original question - do they even remember that beautiful rainbow whale?
I remember playing in the snow as a youngster. My dad built me a skating rink in the back yard. It came from a kit that had a giant bag you filled up with water, and then cut the plastic off once frozen. In Edmonton it was cold enough to freeze through the giant thickness. When we lived in the BC Interior it wasn't cold enough for that. I laid a giant tarp over the garden. I added an inch or so of water to the tarp, once frozen added another inch, and continued until we had a skating rink in our backyard. We had two older gents who lived on our street who would stop to chat from the fence when they saw me working on the skating rink. Each time they would tell me that it wasn't going to work because it no longer got cold enough to freeze solid enough to skate on.
Later, when they stopped to watch our boys skating they would comment that it only worked because I was too stubborn to know better. I have such fond memories of watching our boys skating in our backyard by the light of the moon. I wonder if they remember?
When I was small we lived in Quebec & then in Alberta before moving to the mountains of British Columbia. The photo below is of my mom and I building a snow fort when we still lived in Quebec.
I have always loved playing in snow.
I think that is why I wasn't surprised to find a branch of STARKS in my tree.
I did a Which Game of Thrones family do you descend from, and not surprising House Stark was the answer.
WINTER IS COMING
 |
| I sit the Iron Throne at the PNE in 2014 |
My 6th great grandmother
Anne Stark
BIRTH ABT. 1757 • Lanarkshire, Scotland
DEATH Scotland
her husband, my 6th great grandfather
John Weir
BIRTH ABT. 1755 • Lanarkshire, Scotland
DEATH Scotland
As usually happened in these 'royal' family lines intermarrying resulted in intertwining lines. I descend via one Stark family line, and another (or maybe the same one) married into the same family line.
Anne's granddaughter, and my 4th great grandmother
Susanah (Susan) Hamilton
BIRTH 03 NOV 1814 • Carnwath, Lanarkshire
DEATH 11 APR 1894 • Forth, Lanarkshire, Scotland
married my 4th great grandfather
Robert Graham
Robert Graham
BIRTH 16 JAN 1814 • Thornhill, Closeburn, Dumfries-shire, Scotland
DEATH 24 MAR 1892 • Forth, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Robert's sister, and my 4th great aunt
Elizabeth Graham
BIRTH 10 FEB 1821 • Muirkirk, Ayrshire, Scotland:
DEATH 22 NOV 1903 • 16 Anderson Street, Cambusnethan, Lanarkshire
married
William Stark
whose family of origin I have not yet researched.
married
William Stark
whose family of origin I have not yet researched.
House Stark's family motto WINTER IS COMING holds very different meaning for me now that I live on the WEsT COAST. The 2020 Coronavirus has made our usual 'lets go play in the snow' daytrips illegal under the current Provincial Health Orders. The longterm forecast does look like some snow between Christmas and New Years.
WINTER IS COMING!!!
WINTER IS COMING!!!
When you find your family in Pop Culture!
This is why I search -
Cause ...
You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!
***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***
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