Good-bye Baby Bottles!

Yesterday was Daddy's day off, and we had a party! I have always loved to go to sleep at night with my bottle, but Mom & Dad said I was a big girl now and I didn't need to have a bottle anymore. So I took my last drink from my long time friend and said good-bye forever. I put it in the garbage myself too! Then we had a party! We had hats and a big balloon and ice-cream too. Mom painted the front window for Christmas...and that was exciting as well. I only cried for a few minutes when I had to go to bed without my bottle,...but quickly realized it wasn't coming back to me, so I just went to sleep.




(Special THANKS to Gran and Grandpa Kelly for giving us their little digital camera so we can update Jade's Palace!)

Winter Skate

Mom and I went skating at the local arena last week. As soon as I get a better fitting helmet, Mom is going to put skates on me and teach me how to skate. Last time we went to the rink we were the only ones there and had the whole ice to ourselves! It was fun!

Lest We Forget

Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae

Lieutenant-Colonel McCrae was born on 30 November 1872 in Guelph, Ontario. At age 14, he joined the Highfield Cadet Corps and, three years later, enlisted in the Militia field battery. While attending the University of Toronto Medical School, he was a member of the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada.

With Britain declaring war on Germany on 4 August 1914, Canada’s involvement was automatic. John McCrae was among the first wave of Canadians who enlisted to serve and he was appointed as brigade surgeon to the First Brigade of the Canadian Forces Artillery.

In April 1915, John McCrae was stationed near Ypres, Belgium, the area traditionally called Flanders. It was there, during the Second Battle of Ypres, that some of the fiercest fighting of the First World War occurred. Working from a dressing station on the banks of the Yser Canal, dressing hundreds
of wounded soldiers from wave after wave of relentless enemy attack, he observed how “we are weary in body and wearier in mind. The general impression in my mind is of a nightmare.”

In May, 1915, on the day following the death of fellow soldier Lt Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, John McCrae wrote his now famous work, an expression of his anguish over the loss of his friend and a reflection of his surroundings – wild Poppies growing amid simple wooden crosses marking makeshift graves. These 15 lines, written in 20 minutes, captured an exact description of the sights and sounds of the area around him.

Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae left Ypres with these memorable few lines scrawled on a scrap of paper. His words were a poem which started, “In Flanders fields the poppies blow…” Little did he know then that these 15 lines would become enshrined in the innermost thoughts and hearts of all soldiers who hear them. Through his words, the scarlet Poppy quickly became the symbol for soldiers who died in battle.

The poem was first published on 8 December 1915 in England, appearing in “Punch” magazine.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae

His poem speaks of Flanders fields, but the subject is universal – the fear of the dead that they will be forgotten, that their death will have been in vain. Remembrance, as symbolized by the Poppy,
is our eternal answer which belies that fear.

Sadly, Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae died of pneumonia at Wimereux, France on 28 January 1918. He was 45 years old.

Halloween!

I thought Halloween was a really strange day. There were lots of ugly scary people walking around, and even I was a Zombie for a short while, but my make-up rubbed off thank goodness! I'm still too young to enjoy this holiday, but Mom and Dad seemed to have had a lot of fun. I did get to eat a piece of chocolate, and that was the highlight of my day!

Mom painted Reece's face early in the morning on Halloween, and then wrapped up a pregnant Mummy..(Tracy) I can't wait to show my new second cousin the picture of his Mom when he was still in her tummy!

Cemeteries in Mill Bay & Cobble Hill

Mom and I drove around after the gym yesterday and took some spooky pictures. I stayed in the car...it was to creepy for me!

The April Ghost of the Victoria Golf Club

Driving through the Victoria Golf Club's course at night can be an eerie experience. The city, with all its lights and buildings, dies away, and you are in a dark and wind-swept area with only the sounds of the wind and the pounding seas. It is a setting of bleak loneliness, with rarely a living person to be seen. Once it was the sight of a violent murder, and it is now the home for Victoria’s most famous ghost.

The story begins in 1936. Doris and Victor Gravlin were a young couple living in Victoria. She was thirty, he was in his mid-thirties. They had a seven year old son called Walter in newspaper reports of the time, but later known as Robin. Victor Gravlin had worked as a sports reporter for the Colonist newspaper until illness (possibly alcoholism) forced him to quit in 1934. Doris worked as a private nurse for an older lady. Their marriage had been going badly and by September of 1936 they were living apart. However, they were still attached to one another, and on Tuesday, September 22nd, 1936 they arranged a meeting to discuss a reconciliation.

Just what happened that evening will never be known. Both were last seen about 8:00 p.m., Victor leaving his home and Doris her place of work. The Victoria Golf Club course was an obvious place to meet, as they had often in the past enjoyed walking from here to the Oak Bay Beach Hotel. No one saw them after that, and the couple were reported missing by their respective parents a few days later. On Sunday, a caddy discovered the beaten and strangled body of Doris on the beach. Victor Gravlin had disappeared.

The search was now on for Victor. Several municipal forces, the provincial force, and even a boy scout troop were involved. A month later, he was found. A fisherman discovered his body floating offshore, tangled in a bed of kelp. Doris’s shoes, missing from her body, were found stuffed in his pocket. The case was reported as an obvious murder-suicide and everyone felt it was resolved.

Everyone, that is, except Doris herself. Within months people began reporting of her appearance on the golf course. Here is a description of one of the first reports of her, taken from Charles Lillard and Robin Skelton’s pamphlet The April Ghost Of The Victoria Golf Links:



A fisherman fishing off the rocky shore of Gonzalez Point, the section of the Victoria Golf Links containing both the seventh green and the ninth tee, was one of the first Victorians to see Doris Gravlin after her death. . . . The fisherman was unable to say what made him turn around and look up the bank and the green. But he did, and there, standing above him, was a woman staring out towards the kelp beds. She paid him no attention whatsoever, even though she was only a few feet away. He could not immediately understand why she was there. Theirs was not an easy place to reach, nor was this a spot where women walked by themselves. The light was fading fast and all the fisherman noted, besides the gloomy look on her face, was what he later described “as an old-fashioned brown suit”. The suit stuck in his mind because Oak Bay was, then as now, one of Victoria’s richest suburbs, and hardly the place where young women ignored fashion. He continued casting. She said nothing. He said nothing, and “then she suddenly hurried down as if she was going to meet someone, and on the way she vanished. I saw her kind of melt away”.

Over the years there have been many sightings of Doris. Why she became known as the “April” Ghost is a mystery. She may appear in any month, with late March being the commonest. She prefers two areas, and two times of day. Between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. she strides through the golf course looking like a normal human, except for her old-fashioned clothes. Between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m., the most common time to see her, she appears at the green closest to the water looking decidedly more ghostly.

She will appear with arms outstretched, wearing a long white gown. She will rush towards people, then disappear. She also exhibits a variety of other behaviour. One night, for example, a man saw her as he was out walking on the course. He turned around, and then turned around again, and she was facing him every time. After completely boxing him in, she disappeared. On another night a woman was out walking the course with a group. A wild wind suddenly sprang up, blowing at them from all directions, despite it being a perfectly calm day. Some of the group became very frightened. As the woman hung back from the rest of her group, she felt someone with a cold, clammy hand take her hand. She assumed one of her friends needed comforting. Then she noticed that all her group had moved on, and she was alone. The hand then disappeared.

There have been many such stories over the years. With over seventy years of haunting she has become easily our most famous ghost. She has entered our imaginative landscape, with writers such as Charles Lillard and Robin Skelton being attracted to her story. But what of her future? Will she continue to haunt our shores, or will she move on?

Her son has had something to say about that. Overlooked in most accounts is the seven-year old boy she left behind. He was adopted by his grandparents, became known as Robin Thomson, and went to school in England. He later joined the British Army and had a military career. He seldom came back to Victoria. When contacted by a reporter in 1994 for a comment about his mother’s ghost, Thomson was completely surprised. He knew next to nothing of the tragic events, and asked for more information on them. When contacted next, though, he was philosophical about it. He said, “If it’s history, then it’s there, and it’s not going to go away”.

Bye-Bye Grandpa....

We had a lovely ceremony today, at Esquimalt Lagoon to spread Grandpa's ashes in the ocean. All the family was there, and very much love and respect was there too.
I loved my Grandpa a whole lot...and it was time to say Good-bye. I know I'm only two, but I will still remember how much he loved me.

Things around the yard

Mom took a few pictures of interesting things in our yard while I had a nap. It was a sunny day for taking great photos!

Pumpkin Guts!

Last night I had my first experience with the insides of a pumpkin. It was cold and slimy,...but a lot of fun. Today we will draw a face on my pumpkin and Mom will carve it. I can't wait to see it lit!

Cool Autumn Day

Mom and I went for a drive today and saw the huge pile of pumpkins at the Farmer's Market. I've never seen so many pumpkins in one place! We also saw an old barn on a back-road before Duncan that looked kind of haunted, so Mom took pictures of that too. The picture of me and my big sister was taken on Thanksgiving,...just thought I'd mention it!

Happy 16th Birthday Amber!

Collecting Leaves

Mom and Reece and I went for a walk this afternoon and collected some nice fall leaves. It was a little cold today and quite windy.