Scenic Sunday - Whetting my appetite

In a couple of weeks, it's the May Two-Four long weekend in Canadaland. In Victoria, there will be 'The 147th Victoria Highland Games & Celtic Festival.'

Yesterday there was a wee taster, a promo, held for the event; The Victoria Tartan Parade featuring a local pipeband, some highland dancers and a few heavy event athletes. I walked down to the harbour and took a few snaps.

I'm a sucker for an old pickup truck.

I liked the various cultural uses for poles in this scene.

I took a few videos too with my cheapo point n shoot and had to convert the vids using freebie software... but they're not too bad, considering.


A successful caber toss (if that's the wording?):

And the pipeband not trampling on the flowers:

I intend to checkout main event in a couple of weeks... watch this space!

For more Scenic Sunday posts, click here!

:-)

Shit bins, shit for brains and good shit!

A few weeks back, Neil over on Light and Dark posted lovely photos of a dog shit bin and offered a challenge:

...quite possibly one of the most tranquil and beautiful spots for a dog shit bin..... unless of course, you know better!

I don't have a dog and I don't walk in dog walking areas so it's taken me a while to actually spot a dog shit bin in my travels. But yesterday, one found me and ain't it pretty? :-/

Neil wins this challenge, hands down. :-)



I think there is a cultural difference here. In Scotland, and likely the rest of the UK, one supplies one's own shit baggie and tosses 'the deed' into the handy receptacle. In Victoria, the dog deposit removal system seems to be 'here have a shit baggie' and... well... the rest is all very mysterious to me...

Panning back a bit you can see a bit of Victoria's Inner Harbour back there and the lush grassy area in the foreground.




See the totem pole?

That's the partial remains of the Spirit of Lekwammen which was, for a time, the tallest totem pole in the world at 180 feet and 3 inches tall. It was carved by First Nations artists to commemorate the 1994 Commonwealth Games.



In true City of Victoria fashion, the erection (haha) of the pole was approved to meet the city's all important need for glossy, tourism promo fodder. However, after the games, the pole was deemed a safety hazard and chopped into bits. Some bits are the bits 'transplanted' here, other bits are on a First Nations reserve elsewhere.



I find this totem pole symbolic of Victoria's relationship with the First Nations communities: they use First Nations cultural traditions when it's financially beneficial to the tourist industry and then ignore, or worse, denigrate them when it's not.

Yep, I do like to bitch. :-)

For a much more meaningful cultural expression of a totem pole, Carolyn has a wonderful blog entry about a totem pole raising up on Haida Gwaii, where it is believed totem poles originated. Now, that's some good shit!

Skywatch Friday...

Looking skyward from the base of a totem pole...



A different angle of the pole...



The above totem pole was carved by people of the Kwakwaka'wakw Nation, an indigenous nation on northern Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland. It's 128 feet or 39 metres tall and is found in Beacon Hill Park in Victoria, BC. If you're interested in learning a bit about totem poles, this is a fairly good link.

The Burj, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and a totem pole; common theme? Cultural variation in the expression of uterus envy. ;-)


For more skies from around the globe, visit Skywatch Friday!