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Warrior Emperor and Air Conditioning at the ROM


To beat the heat, I joined the family on a visit to the Royal Ontario Museum. The air conditioning was cool and so were the terracotta warriors.

I saw ten life size figures and horses from the tomb of China’s warrior emperor, Ying Zheng. In 1974 the Warrior Emperor’s tomb was discovered in China along with 8000 terracotta figures, all different. They’d been buried for over 2,200 years. Boy did they have some catching up to do.

The Warrior Emperor had a busy life. At 13, he became the King of Qin, then went on to build an empire to rival Rome but his empire lasted much longer. During his lifetime, he started many building projects including a section of the Great Wall of China.

To find out more about him, check out the ROM’s Warrior Emperor and Terracotta Warrior exhibit.

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Saving my Rubber


Whether you’re on a trip or at home, it’s important to wear sun screen, especially in the summer. I always lather some on my rubber skin every morning and touch it up during the day.

Sun screen is a fairly new product. The first sunscreen that worked was created in 1938 and called Glacier Cream. It only had a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of 2. The one Mom buys has an SPF of 70.

In 1944 another product came out called Red Vet Pet. It was a yukky, red, sticky goo, kind of like petroleum jelly, (you know the stuff that moms rub on baby’s bums to protect them from rashes).

This stuff became popular during WWII because soldiers in the Pacific needed something to protect them from sunburns. The product really took off when the patent was sold to Coppertone in the 1950s.

Todays sunscreens are much improved. They even stay on when you go in the water or sweat…and its not yukky and red anymore.

So whether you’re on a tropical island or just hanging around the back yard, take a minute, rub it on and protect your skin from the sun.

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Chicken on the Beach


You don’t always need to go a far way to get the tropical beach experience. Here I am catching some rays at a beach in Long Point, Ontario.

Long Point isn’t only a beautiful beach. Its sand dunes and marshes are also home to many types of birds, fish, frogs and turtles. On one visit, we even watched a mother turtle dig a hole and lay her eggs!

This is the perfect summer place. Often my family camps at the provincial park. I love to watch the fireflies at night. Other times, we just come out for a day of swimming and relaxing.

If you’re in Ontario for the summer, come check out Long Point Provincial Park.

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Tea Time for the Peckish


As I scratch around in the back yard, I find myself still thinking about high tea. High tea is served all over the world. Some of Mom’s favourite tea houses are in New York City, Boston and Victoria, B.C.

These days high tea is considered very fancy. Goodies like tiny sandwiches with the crusts cut off, fancy appetizers, scones with clotted cream, pastries and of course tea, are served on fancy dishes called china. You would be in big trouble if you broke any of these cups or saucers.

Formal high tea has come a long way from what it used to be during the industrial revolution. Back then, only poor or working class people would have high tea.

Most of the poor people could only afford one main meal a day and that was lunch time, (they called it dinner). By the time they got home from work around 6pm they were starving so they would set the table with leftovers from lunch and whatever else they could scrape up, usually meats, bread, butter, pickles, cheese and of course tea. No fancy sandwiches or pastries for the working class.

Because the meal was eaten at a high table (not a low tea table), it was called high tea or meat tea.

All this talk about tea has left me feeling a little peckish. I think pour myself a cup and drink it with some chicken feed.

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Tea Time with Bob


Tea time is an English tradition. In preparation for any future visits to Britain, I decided to have high tea at The White House in Waterdown, Ontario. I probably should have worn something a little more fancy but I still felt like a very sophisticated rubber chicken.

Most people think that the custom of tea time came from Britain but it really began in France. People were drinking tea in Paris in 1636…that’s 22 years before it arrived in England! Tea quickly became a big hit with the rich French people. As a matter of fact, it was the French who started adding milk to their tea.

Before tea came to Britain, the English only had two main meals a day; breakfast and dinner. Dinner was eaten in the middle of the day, often with a glass of ale.

Over time, the upper and middle class moved dinner to the evening when they would eat lots and lots of food over an hour or two. They felt it was more fashionable to eat at the end of the day.

Like many people of that time, one of Queen Victoria’s ladies-in-waiting, named Anna, The Duchess of Bedford (1788-1861) found that she was really hungry by 4pm. She would have her servants sneak her a pot of tea and some nibbles to tide her over until dinner.

Soon she started inviting her hungry friends over to her rooms at 5pm for small cakes, bread and butter sandwiches, sweets and tea. She would send them cards inviting them to come for “tea and a walking in the fields.” Other social hostesses caught on to this trend and that’s how the custom of afternoon tea began.

Personally, I find the whole tea time, dinner time, breakfast time, lunch time thing rather confusing. Things would be so much easier if people were like chickens and pecked pieces of grain off the ground whenever they felt like it.

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Coffee with Richard Scrimger


Some may think I’m just another pretty face but I also have a cultured, literary side. I’ve read many of the worlds greatest classics including Walter the Farting Dog, Captain Underpants, Horrible Histories and The Nose from Jupiter.

This week I’ve been mixing with some of Canada’s great authors at The Humber School for Writers in Toronto, Ontario. Here’s a picture of me giving author Richard Scrimger some valuable suggestions for his next book over a cup of coffee.

Richard also gave me some helpful advice. “Bob, the coffee shop’s around the corner.”

Richard writes for both kids and adults. He’s hatched fifteen books in his career including The Nose from Jupiter series of four books, The Way to Schenectady, Of Mice & Nutcrackers, From Charlie’s Point of View and Into the Ravine. I just picked up his latest teen book called Me and Death.

For more information, check out Richard Scrimger on line.

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Searching for the Sacred Chicken at Bon Echo


I went camping at Bon Echo Provincial Park. There were many fun things to do including swimming, hiking and eating but my favourite was renting a canoe to check out the pictographs on Mazinaw Rock…Ok, it actually tied with eating.

I bet you’re wondering what a pictograph is.

Pictographs are rock paintings that can be found all over the world. It’s thought that in Ontario and at Bon Echo the pictographs were created by The Algonquin Tribe, one of Canada’s native people. The pictures found on the rock were made between 400 and 900 years ago.

These 260 drawings were created to mark territories, important events or made for spiritual reasons. They are usually located three feet above the water.

On Mazinaw Rock you can see drawings such as the Thunderbird and the Underwater Lynx. I’m sure if you look hard enough you might be able to find a sacred chicken.

The Bon Echo drawings were painted with the mineral hematite or red ochre. Natives painted these images with their fingers, sticks or paint brushes made from plant material.

We don’t ever want to lose these historical drawings so remember DO NOT TOUCH OR PECK THE PICTOGRAPHS.

You can find out more about these pictures at the Visitor’s Centre.

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Camping with the Chicken


Schools finally out and I’m off to our annual Canada Day camping trip. It’s supposed to be nice so I won’t forget to wear my suntan lotion when I catch some rays. Check out my blog next week for my latest camping adventures and tips.

HAPPY CANADA DAY

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Ghostly Woman in Quebec City


I love a good ghost story. I found one in Quebec City at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, the oldest Anglican cathedral in Quebec City.

Many people have seen a lady floating around the balcony in the church. This lady especially seems to affect organists who hear a female cry and feel cold chills while they practice. Sometimes the organ plays by itself or footsteps are heard when no one is around. Now that’s enough to give anyone goose bumps…oops, I already had those.

Animals also feel the ghostly presence and are at times nervous and jumpy when in the church.

Queen Elizabeth II actually saw the ghost on the balcony when she visited in 1964. She was spooked and let me tell you, she’s no chicken.

Who is this lady ghost?

One theory is that it’s the ghost of a former nun who had a baby. The baby died and is said to be buried in an unmarked grave in the church crypt. Organists have found that if they put toys on the grave, they are allowed to practice in peace. It’s as though she is watching over her child!

Another theory is that it’s a lady who was mistakenly buried alive near the church during an outbreak of cholera.

A third theory is that it’s a woman that was buried in the church’s foundation during construction in 1799-1804.

Whoever she is, this tortured soul still continues to visit the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

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Gonna Wash those Lice Right Outa My Hair


This morning I bathed myself in lavender, so I’m smelling sweet and am ready to talk about this plant from the dark ages all the way to modern times. You can read about lavender during ancient times in my last post.

Dark and Medieval Ages (AKA the time of Knights)

People in the dark ages had forgotten about lavender and its uses.

Only the monks and nuns in the monasteries grew lavender and used it for medicinal reasons. This is probably because only the very rich, monks and nuns knew how to read and write. There were no printing presses so only books that were hand copied, usually by monks, were available. In copying ancient manuscripts about the medical effects of different plants, the monks learned about the uses for lavender.

Hildegard of Bingen,a German nun, wrote that lavender oil was a good treatment for head lice (yuck) and fleas (double yuck).

Tudor Times and the Renaissance

Henry VIII, (you know, the English king that chopped off his wives heads), unwittingly increased lavender’s popularity. To get more cash, he closed down the monasteries and sent the monks packing. He gave monastery buildings to people he wanted to reward…usually ones that had done him favours.

Many of these monasteries came with fields of lavender so the ladies of the manor used the flowers in their linens and to freshen the air. They even mixed it with beeswax to make furniture polish and scented water with it. They often hung their laundry to dry over the lavender shrubs. People at this time associated lavender with cleanliness. It didn’t take them long to realize that lavender was also great for getting rid of insects as well.

Queen Elizabeth I of England adored the smell of lavender. She drank it in tea, used it as a perfume, and to treat her migraine headaches. Because the Queen loved it so much, it became really popular and many farmers grew lavender to meet the demand.

In France people used lavender to protect them from infections. It was noticed that glove makers who perfumed their wares with lavender, usually didn’t catch cholera.

By the 1600’s people saw lavender as a cure all and used it for headaches, nerves, bug bites, even snake bites.

People would tie bunches of lavender around their wrists because they thought it would protect them against the Great Plague. This may not have been a crazy as it sounds. After all, the plague was carried by the lice (which are insects) on the rats.

Grave robbers made a mixture called Four Thieves Vinegar which contained lavender. Another story says that four robbers rubbed their bodies with a mixture of lavender, absinthe, rue, sage, mint, rosemary and vinegar to protect them selves from infection before they broke into the homes of plague victims. Gross!

Victorian Times

Queen Victoria was a big fan of lavender and so it became very fashionable among the ladies and soon lavender was found in almost every Victorian home and garden.

WWI

Lavender was used to treat war wounds and was often used as an antiseptic. It was even used to get rid of fleas on dogs!

Modern Times

Today, people still grow lavender and use it to scent homes, flavour foods and for natural health remedies. Scientists are even researching uses in cancer treatments.

Provence, France is the largest producer of lavender but other suppliers include Canada, USA, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, Japan, Bulgaria, Russia, and Germany.