Ottawa, Canada
Chief Theresa Spence of Attawapiskat First Nation is in the 9th day of her hunger strike on Victoria Island, about 1.3 km from Canada’s Parliament Buildings on Capital Hill. She has called for a face-to-face meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and representatives of the Queen regarding First Nations treaty issues.
There is a groundswell of support for the bold stance she is taking, not just among Canada’s 1.2 million Aboriginal descendents, but also across non-Aboriginal “mainstream” Canada and beyond.
(sounds cheesy… but true)
God bless America… indeed.
There‘s a truism, a maxim, and at least a couple of proverbs in there…
(belated thanks to Pieter Bruegel the Elder for the illustration)
The Interlake, Manitoba
While driving in to work from my girlfriend’s place in Winnipeg Beach this morning, I was regaled with a spectacular display of sun dogs. Manitoba is known for its “big skies” and the constantly changing day-and-night kaleidoscopic spectacle that this “canvas in the sky” offers to those who take the time to notice.
I find the 22° halo forming a circle around the sun to be particularly interesting — the sun dogs (aka parhelion) dwell on this luminous halo, as if straining outward on the end of a leash. The shorter wavelength in refraction causes the inner edge of the circle to be reddish while the outer edge is bluish. Also, as no light is refracted at angles less than 22° (through air-borne ice crystals, in this case), the sky is actually darker inside the halo than outside of it.
Meegwetch!
Berlin, Germany
Sigrid Albert, MGDC, is a Canadian designer colleague who is spending 3 months in Berlin. She does beautiful “urban sketches” and has set up an interesting blog to share her experiences, impressions, and visual expressions with her family and friends…
“I was born and grew up in Germany as a child and teenager, so obviously I speak the language, which helps. I have rented a bachelor apartment in a rapidly gentrifying former East Berlin neighbourhood and brought my laptop and client work along so I can afford this… I am mainly interested in the art and culture here, plus I will be pursuing my new passion of “urban sketching” from here as much as possible… Berlin is an amazing city and very inspiring for creatives.”
View Sigrid’s blog here (to view larger images than shown above as well as to read about them) and see an online gallery of her “urban sketches” here.
