Lunch at Kings Links by the Sea

We eat at quite a few of the local golf courses.  This is one of our favorites because of the eagles and nice ocean breeze.  It's right beside the Boundary Bay airport so you can watch planes land while eating on the patio!  Eagles are more plentiful in the spring but we did spot a few.

BC Salmon on local greens!  It was wonderful.

Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall in Canada

Prince Charles and Camilla started their three day Canadian tour today in Iqaluit.  Tomorrow they visit Prince Edward Island and on Saturday will be in Ottawa on Parliament Hill to mark the 150th anniversary of confederation.

I have been a proud member of the Monarchist League of Canada for the past several years.  I served on a board to see if Canada would accept Prince Charles as our Monarch when Queen Elizabeth either abdicates because of ill health or passes away.  The league was split as to whether we would accept him because of his second marriage.  In October 2016, Prince Andrew requested his two daughters be given full time royal duties funded by the public purse and move from their "small" apartments at St. James Palace to better accommodation at Kensington Palace.  Queen Elizabeth was so stunned by this request she felt unable to reply and handed it over to Charles.   I respect Prince Charles for his decision not to allow Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie to become full time royals.

After the marriage of Prince Charles and Camilla in 2005 they hired a PR person to change her image with the British people.  During my visit earlier this month to the UK the television program Loose Women held a poll to see how many people wanted Camilla to become Queen.  86% against it!  I didn't realize the sentiment was so much against her in the UK.  It will be interesting when the accession happens in the UK and Commonwealth countries. 

History shows King Charles I was executed in 1649 and King Charles II was deposed in 1651!   Will there by a King Charles III?

Honey

If you live in South Surrey you have driven down King George you've probably seen BCB Honey Farm at Highway 99.  The owner is Dr. Iman Tabari who is a physician and researcher interested in preventative medicine using healthy diets and herbal remedies to prevent and fight common illnesses.

I've been following Weight Watchers since last December and the weight is coming off.  I've lost my cravings and have pretty much taken all refined sugar out of my diet.  Sugar was never my problem and I never craved sweets.  My nephew Brad admits he craved sugar all the time. He started using honey he's lost 20 lbs.  Brad said all his cravings are gone and he feels 100% better.  I've read articles sugar is as addictive as street drugs!   I needed honey yesterday and I stopped by.  Brad was getting into his truck and I was driving in.

 Dr. Tabari recommended raw honey so I bought it.

 Dr. Iman Tabari

Dr. Tabari told us 50% of his bees died last year.  There is a huge problem with bees worldwide.  Dr. Oz had an interesting segment on his TV show of the benefits of raw honey.  I'm starting to use the hot water, honey and lemon drink every night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_s6Cqtc7To

Canuck the Crow

If you live in East Vancouver you know all about Canuck the Crow.  Last year he appeared at a stabbing and tried to steal the weapon!  He was caught on camera swooping down and trying to pick it up.  He has been a nuisance at soccer games attacking some of the spectators.  He was injured last year and put in a bird hospital.  He recovered and was set free where he returned to his East Vancouver neighbourhood.  Canada Post has suspended mail service to the block he lives on.  The mail carrier has been attacked several times.  People walk the block with umbrellas.  Last Saturday he found his way in a local McDonalds where he stayed for 10 minutes.  One of the staff put fries on a tray and led him outside.  He's a nuisance and a community hero.  He has a Facebook page with 56,000 likes.  If you want to follow him:  Canuck and I

Aunt Helen

On Saturday we drove to Vernon to visit Cec's Aunt Helen.  She is Cec's dad's only living sister.  She lost her husband last year.  They were married for 66 years!  She is a lovely lady and we always enjoy visiting her.  She sold her family home and moved into a wonderful assisted living complex in downtown Vernon.  She is across the street from the Dollar Store and very close to Safeway.  She gets around easily unassisted and still makes her breakfast and lunch.  Dinner is served nightly in the dining room.  It's complete with a grand piano and a bar!  She is very happy there and I'm glad to see her looking so well.  Cec took all his genealogy findings and shared them with her.  We learned a lot about his paternal grandfather when we started our genealogy searching.  Cec's paternal grandfather was arrested by the KGB during the Bolshevik revolution and was imprisoned in a concentration camp in Voucho Nobarnie, Siberia for four years.  The reason they captured him was because he was a German citizen and lived and farmed in Russia without being naturalized.  When he was released the family returned to Germany where Aunt Helen was born in 1924.  The ships records showed they went from Hamburg to Liverpool and then to Canada arriving on 7 Dec 1926.  They took the CPR railroad to Fernwood Saskatchewan, arriving in the middle of the night in the middle of winter!   I remember Cec's father telling out how frightened and cold they were.  The trip cost $1,695 for the train passage and it took Cec's grandfather until 1950 to pay off the debt plus interest.  The Baptist Church helped them through the early years of coming to Canada.  I also remember Cec's late father telling us when we showed him Cheryl's nursery of when he was a child he slept in barns and the rats jumped over him all night.  He had tears in his eyes and said how lucky Cheryl was to be born in such a wonderful country!

Genealogy has been my hobby since I retired.  The journey through our ancestors lives has given me an appreciation of what they sacrificed for us.  I plan on documenting this in a book for our grandchildren so these stories never get lost.  Aunt Helen's older sister Mary (1920-2014) wrote a book in 1995.  She only published it for family and friends but she details her memories of Russia, Germany and coming to Canada.  Aunt Helen was too young to remember Germany but she did tell us of her school days in Kelowna.  At home they spoke German and she really didn't know English until she went to school.  She was marked as a "German" during the Nazi years.  She was bullied and tormented by the children at school.  They had nothing to do with what went on in the 1930's in Germany and I wonder if the children of the Islamic countries that came here before the problems of today are having the same problem.  Your parents are law abiding wonderful contributors to the community and because of where you were born are hated by some.  Sad!

 The view from the Sandman Hotel in Kelowna at dusk!

And the people in Vancouver were warm!  39C/102.2F when we finished lunch on Sunday

Royal Garden Tea Party

June 1, 2017

It's actually June 24th but I have wanted to start a blog for the longest time.  I will start by posting my
last trip to the UK.  For six years I've applied to the Canadian High Commission in London for an
invitation to a Royal Garden Party.  This year I was chosen!  Cec wasn't the least bit interested so I
asked my second cousin Jean Burton if she would be my guest!  She was just as thrilled as I was.

I flew to London on the new British Airways A380-800.  It has four classes and seats 469 people!  It's
two floors of seats.  If you haven't seen it go on the British Airways site and check it out.  It's very
quiet and the BA flight crew is awesome! 

Jean and I went to Canada House the first full day I was there to pick up our tickets.  I was shocked to see so many police everywhere and it made us both feel safe.  Canada House moved to new digs and I hadn't been to the new building.  They have tours twice a month but we were there wasn't a tour whilst I was in the UK.  We showed our passports to the doorman who let us in through a very thick clear door.  Then through airport type security and then buzzed in to a reception area.  The receptionist gave me the invitation with all the instructions as to what you can and can't do.  I was pleasantly surprised that I could take in my cell phone which is my camera.  They asked we respect the Royal Family if we took pictures. 

June 1st was a wonderful sunny day.  It was quite warm and there was a nice breeze.  Our instructions told us it would be better not to enter via the Mall but use one of the two back entrances.  We took the tube to Hyde Park station and when we got off the underground saw a nice couple in front of us.  He had a Top Hat and tails on.  She looked great with of course a fascinator.  We asked them if they knew where they were going and they said "no".  We had a good laugh and found our way together to the Hyde Park rear entrance.  There was little security and we entered right away.  One of the nice Palace Staff asked if she could take our picture.  We said "yes" and the we are inside the Palace Grounds with the huge brick wall behind us.

We've done the Buckingham Palace tour a couple of years ago while the Royal Family was in Scotland so we were familiar with the grounds although we certainly didn't walk all around them.  We followed all the nicely dressed people and got to the rose garden.  Not a weed or dandelion anywhere.  The grass was spectacular.  The roses were incredible.

 You can see Buckingham Palace in the background.  I loved the police officer that let everyone take a picture of him.  Some people were getting selfies!

We finally got to the area where the Garden Party was going to take place.  8,000 people were invited from all the Commonwealth Countries.  I wore my red and white and had a Canadian flag on my lapel.  There were ladies in Sari's, men in military uniforms and people with medals around their necks.  We didn't see anyone we recognized but there were a lot of people there.  We found nice chairs in the shaded tree area and sat there to cool off.  Lots of nice people to talk to.

They played God Save the Queen and we were too far away to see them on the steps.  There was a professional photographer there so some of the pictures you will see below are not mine.  We didn't get that close.  My pictures were not good.  The Queen looked very tired and is quite hunched over.  Prince Philip looked great!  The Duke of Kent also looked good and stood very tall.  Even being far away was amazing!  I will never forget that afternoon,

Everyone asked what we had for tea.  Here is the menu along with some nice pictures.  The sandwiches were finger sandwiches.  I had cucumber with mint and egg mayonnaise (that's what the Brits call egg salad).  Both were very tasty.  They had iced coffee but I decided tea was the drink of the day so I had tea and a piece of absolutely delicious fruit cake.  It wasn't sweet.  Cheryl makes my mom's Christmas Cake recipe every year.  Cheryl's is the best but this was a close second.  They also walked around with ice cream Dixie cups.  We passed on the ice cream but lots of people enjoyed it.

There were four bands playing throughout the afternoon.  Here is one of the bands.

This is a great picture of the entire lawn where the Garden Party took place.  It was taken by a professional and probably from either a balcony or the roof of the palace. 

At 5:30 the Queen, Prince Philip, the Duke of Kent and the Duchess of Glouchester went back into the palace.  We followed long behind the Royals and went through the Palace to the Mall.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside the Palace.  Here are some of the pictures we were allowed to take.

Thanks to Janice Charette, the  High Commissioner of Canada in the United Kingdom for the invitation.  It was an honour to be invited and I will never forget that wonderful afternoon. If anyone wants to know how you apply I will let you know.  The applications come out in early January for about two weeks so you have to be ready.  You also have to make sure you can be there because you only get one chance in your lifetime to attend.  You can also apply to Trooping of the Colour and Royal Ascot.