cultural history

Parks Day July 19, 2025
by

Parks Day July 19, 2025

Hail Brave hearts

Come out and celebrate!  Renewal, rebirth, sustainability, recreation, sports, culture, history, wildlife, and of course, those fabulous parks that we all love and crave.  The great outdoors, with it’s most awesome, inspiring gifts.  Life, health, nutrition, wellness, the joy of living.  For those with cravings to climb mountains, hike in the wilderness, paddle rivers and lakes, and generally enjoy the wonderful nature that surrounds us, Parks Canada is your place.  You can visit a historical site and meet a historical person, take a guided hike, view wildlife in it’s natural setting and explore the untamed wilderness of Canada’s finest treasures. Parks is for people, wildlife and rare species.  It’s a showcase of our finest environmental and historical assets.  It’s an achievement that keeps growing as Canadians rush to explore and unwind in the great Canadian outdoors.

The wilderness is awe inspiring.  The grandeur of great mountains,  the shimmering pristine lakes, the bountiful beauty of endless skies and auroras in the air.  magnificent forests and wildlands, with all of their wild inhabitants.  The Parks are a place of wonder, of joy, of captivating beauty and fun for all of us.  This idea has been one of Canada’s finest achievements, from coast to coast.

Celebrate Canada’s Parks Day / National Parks Day – Nature Canada

The hearty homesteader of yore, who brought his family to these fine lands. Lands laden with hunting, fishing, berries to pick, native fauna and flora to digest and to heal wounds with.  Old traditional remedies to cure what ails you. The human history of the area is a fascinating study of the minds and will of these people.  Ancient old settlers willing to carve a niche in the fabric of the land.  Homesteaders scattering themselves throughout large areas of land.  Forts and lighthouses to protect and save us.  These are the historical ones, the unusual ones, who, through dauntless courage, forge a path for the rest of us to follow.

Old Indian trails to mark the way, historical rivers to paddle. These are connections from place to place, explorations for us to find.  The hikes we take, the trails we follow, the paths around the lakes, all take us to endless beauty and the healing of spending time in a natural environment.  The great good earth supports us in so many ways.

The environmental sustainability and ecological integrity of National Parks and provincial parks, help us to understand and appreciate the land of Mother Earth.  Here she imparts a knowledge of her own special ways.  A beautiful scene carved from a wild natural area, preserved forever for the joy of those who travel to it.  A visit to a special, superior place, of raw, rugged beauty for the adventurer in us all.  These are Canadian parklands, a wonder and wealth of natural and cultural beauty.  Rugged forefathers who braved the perils of the land, unbridled pristine wilderness for us to enjoy.  The National Parks are a wonder of natures finest and the brilliance of those who preserve these fine places.

Come and visit.  Celebrate with us.  Parks Day is a joy of celebration for us all.

Parks Day | Alberta Parks

Written by  Dr Louise Hayes

July 18, 2025

Pioneers
by

Pioneers

Hail Bravehearts

 

Welcome to this glorious new day.  A step for you, in the right direction, can take you anywhere.

Your skills ,your education, your accumulated knowledge, your comrades, your team.  All locked together in this fight for success. Your ship awaits, climb aboard.  Take this first, irreversible step, and venture forth, to the great unknown.

It is not implausible, it’s been done before. Success was marginal, but imperative to try.  You must try, say the great masters, you must will yourselves to obey.  The command is difficult, but some must follow. Off to the colonies, oh brave pioneers.

The wind whispers in their hair.   Warm, gentle breezes, lift their spirits, the waves roll and rock the boat, the ocean smells of salt and sea water and ocean animals rise to the surface for a look at them.  Trespassers in the ocean of the great wild, passers by in this fragile ecosystem of sea.

Stand tall, almighty ones, your names are counted and your lives are engraved in the history of our frontier.  Stand tall on the deck, facing your future, do not look back, the past is gone and you will not return to it. Do not look back.  France, the most populated nation in Europe at the time, could only muster a few hundred brave souls to settle and populate a great land.  Build and settle, populate the land, negotiate and trade, farm and pioneer.  Not an easy task in a land so uncompromising.  Snow and cold, the bitter winter winds howl and scarce food sources decline.  But brave stalwarts are these who settle the land.  The peaceful and helpful natives give the support that they can, and forts and settlements emerge from the dark and forboding forest.

Light.  Light in the darkness of their days as the shadows recede and the sun can shine in. Light and hope.

As the summer fades and the long shadows of winter cling to the ground, hope will come to your rescue.

http://www.genealogy.umontreal.ca/en/LesPionniers

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

February 11, 2016