the Canadians

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The Renaissance

Hail Bravehearts

This journeys end is a new beginning.  This preparedness that painstakingly ensures success is finally our triumph.  Glory and praises, thankfulness and relief, the weary are welcomed.  Come, join us.  Into this fair land of sunshine and wild, of a place of unusual gold.  Riches and fortune, made for a king.

Praises, praises, we have a colony.  At the time of the founding of Quebec city, France was the most populated country in Europe,  yet they had difficulty finding willing settlers to inhabit this great land and to build this great country.  The awesome enticement of riches from the great wild, couldn’t even entice the impoverished slaves from the lower classes to leave the slums of France.  But what does it take to be a fortune hunter, a settler, a soldier and a daredevil?  What qualifications did they need? Perhaps a poor peasant wasn’t the best choice for the colonies.  Slaves might be too fearful and prisoners might be too dangerous.  Choose wisely, oh mighty ones, your day of reckoning will come.

No longer the grandeur of 17th century France.  The life of the  impressive French Renaissance.  Brilliant change and brilliant invention.  Who would leave this awesome place?  Look around yourselves, your good fortune lies here.  Here in the homeland of brilliant France, where the arts are thriving and life is good.  Who would leave this wonderful place, this wonderful life, and venture into the hardship and conflict of life in a colony?  Who dares to be first?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Renaissance

The appeal of colonial life and of making a new country, was not at the top of the list of dreams for the French.  Only those brave few, would dare the Atlantic crossing and venture into the unknown.  Stalwarts and bravehearts, skilled and courageous, colonial life was too daunting an adventure for the polished, sophisticated, countrymen of France.

A backbreaking adventure, a risk of life and limb, a intolerable climate and connections to a people of unknown character.  Life in a fort, in crowded conditions, with bare necessities and humble accommodation.  The freemen of France looked upon the life in a colony suspiciously.  Stumble and fall, stumble and fall, but rise and shine and pursue the adventure once more.

For those who finally ventured forth, into the new, into the unknown, the challenges of life abroad would change the face of North America.  As small as the tiny fort was, it still made a mark in the land, a change in the landscape, a place of accommodation, an establishment and a secure dwelling for those who dared.  Now over 400 years old, the city of Quebec is a thriving city of old and new, of charm and charisma.  A beautiful old place of French pride.

Connect to the people, connect to the countryside.  Learn and teach, the life in the colony will be hard, but finally the adventure is won.

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

May 15, 2016

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We Are Here

Good Day you brilliant ones

A landing.  A safe harbour.   A good place to live.  A place to survive, to beat the elements, to meet the challenge, to conquer the storm.  A place, a safe harbour, a secure place.  Home?  Could this be home?  Could this remote and daunting place finally be home?

Weary and doubting, but necessity calls.  With prayers and hopes and dreams of survival, could this at last, be home?  A secure place to build a colony, a secure place for a settlement.   Set in the St. Lawrence River on a bluff of land, overlooking the river and tucked behind an island.  The thrilling prospect of yet another settlement attempt.  Success!  Success!  Give us success! Finally, let us be saved!

Oh joyous you, oh sweet Quebec.  Oh happy founding, oh life immortal.  A resting place, a  secure and safe place.  A home and shelter in the storms of the eastern coast.  Oh happy rest for weary souls, the founding of a great country, a great city, a colony, a settlement.  Oh happy success.  A refuge in a storm.  Oh great and brilliant, you sweet Quebec.

Poised and strong, fortified and armed.  For France!  Finally, the nation has accomplished it’s goal.  Finally a settlement!  Relieved and thankful, the city endures.  In 1608, mission accomplished!  Finally, a colony.  Praises and gratitude, thank you, oh thank you.    Finally our salvation, oh sweet Quebec.

A beautiful little place of old country charm.  Peace and prosperity, goodwill and protection.  The small but mighty ones of old world courage, who erected those dwellings, secured their fortress, fought the storms and cleared the land.  Negotiate, barter, trade and exchange.  A thriving place of  prosperity in the challenging land of the new world.

For France!  Oh sweet Quebec.  Our sanctuary, our resting place, our lovely, quaint and dreamy home.  It’s thrilling.  We have a colony.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/champlain-and-the-founding-of-quebec-feature/

The habitation was secure, but the usual winter hardship wreaked havoc among the men again.  Scurvy, as usual.  Many died, but the dream was secure.  A fort, a fur trading post, a destiny wrought from the forest.  Now there is security.  Now there is a place to live.  Shelter, negotiation, prospects of trade.  The adventure of their lives has culminated in this great place.  A strong  and fortified habitation, small but secure, with cannons, guns and ammunition.

Finally, they will come.  Come to Canada, you mighty adventurous ones.  Come to great Quebec, to our island in the storm.  Come to share in the wealth of the fur trade, in the prosperity of a new life, in the duty to meet this awesome challenge and to be first, in a great line of pioneers.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

April 9, 2016

The Great White Mountains
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The Great White Mountains

Hail Bravehearts

It is with great pleasure that this winter is warm and snowy, and that it brings us sport.  Fabulous pleasure, a great day for a ski.  Downhill skiing is the easiest sport in the world.

The balmy mountain weather hovers above -10.  A warm, sunny February, brings us out of our snug homes, to smile and greet yet another sunny day.  Stay home this winter, no need to travel south.  As the snow birds fly away each year, to sunny summer climates, in the warm tropics, those hearty winter lovers, stay home, for the delightful winters time.  Peace to us all.  This is a great one.

The drive to find snow, this year, has made this an easy, more carefree year.  The pussy willows are out, a sapling in a warm spot has started to bud,  the snow melts on the sidewalks, energy bills plummet.  Global warming is a nuisance. It brings too much cold in the East and fabulous, warm, sunny skies in the West.

A day on the slopes, warm enough to stay out all day!  Our weekly snowshoe day has taken us on excursions to find that soft fluffy snow. We lather on sunscreen and snowshoe in our shirts.  Too warm for winter coats.  The birds sing to us as we pass and flocks gather in the trees.

It’s beautiful and warm and a day on the ski hill is just so easy.  No frostbite, no frozen cheeks, no frost beards, or icicle eyelashes.  No chalet skiing, from days too cold to stay outside.  No complaints of frozen toes and frozen fingers, too long in food lines and too long drinking hot chocolate.  The warm winter weather gives us a boost of excitement. We can play outside in the snow!

I push off from my spot at the top of the mountain and fly down my usual terrain.  Easy, easy, it’s just so exhilarating. After thirty years of this, skiing is easier than walking.  The mountain is so familiar, I know these runs well. Perfectly groomed, all the holes have been patched and we compliment the groomers on yet another year of snow moving, that makes the mountain more enjoyable and less dangerous.  No slipping over rocks and crashing down the hill.  No entanglements with saplings as they catch your skis.  No snow monsters or snow snakes, tripping you on your way.  No, this is just perfect.  It’s a perfect day for a ski.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilRI4zKoBPo  extreme skiing

Global warming has it’s drawbacks, we gloat to one another, as the snow is starting to fall.  Our winter wonderland of fluffy white stuff is now a drive away.  Smiles and nods as the weather is co-operative.  The roads are open. Tourists flock to us and fill our town.  Trapped.

I know that the joy of today, is the doom of tomorrow, as our glaciers are slipping away.  As yet another natural wonder crashes off the mountain, and our water supply is threatened. That harsh reality will rear it’s head again this summer.  But for now, push off that mountain and glide your way along those dreamy snow covered slopes.  Fill your mind with winter.  Winter fun and winter play and how much we still adore it.

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

March 2, 2016

It Persists
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It Persists

Hail, oh brilliant ones!

The morning shines with light and warmth, the shadows of the darkness pass.  Into this world comes the strong passion of the rising soul.  Now, another day, another quest, another memory.  Each day lived brings us closer to the cause.  To peace, security, life and prosperity.  The greatest achievement in the minds of mankind.  To build a nation and to be one.

To be one with the land, to be one with the people, to join in a massive undertaking of privilege and success.  To be the ones who made it real, to set the stage of your own destiny, to carve footsteps for others to follow, to be the unbeatable champion.  Rise all of you.  Rise to glory.  It is with duty that you come forward, but it is  glory that you aspire to.  Rise, oh champions.  This is your day.

This day, of setting the boundaries, of felling trees, of building dwellings.  This day of toil, of laborious, hard work, of companionship, of perspective and perseverance.  This is a day of duty, of care, of obligations.  This is just another day, way out there.

Way out across the ocean in a land of newness and wild.  The great wild.  So tempting and so secretive, so majestic and so dangerous.  In unison they toil and in unison they strive, to build a fortress of security to protect themselves, shelter, and keep them, in this brave new world.

The great wild is lurking, we hear the howls in the night.  The barks of canine species as they call.  The hoots and coos, of the unknown, the swirling flight of night creatures, the croaks and chorus of singing sounds, the eyes of creatures in the dark.  The night in the forest, so loud and alive, as hunting and singing and playing rings in our ears and the watchful wild stare in the dark, lurking and forbidding us to trespass.  The night sky, a shining mass of stars and the brightness of the moon casts shadows across the grass.  The insects sing in a deafening crescendo and the sounds of the night in the forest fill their dreams and disturb a restful sleep. The wild, so haunting and forbidding, so silent and so eerie.

But the test for a colony comes from adaptability,  foresight, ingenuity and preparedness.  The strength to carry on. The ability to survive.  Good leadership,  sound judgement, skills and ability.  Determination.

http://www.lookbackward.com/perrault/perr1/newfrance/  A Brief History of New France

Here, in the wild frontier of Canada, where hope and dreams and dares and challenges fill their every day, comes the human of fortitude.  An illustrious European, with desires of grandeur, with minds focused on a colony, with dreams of prosperity.  Persevere, oh great ones.  All is for fame, for fortune and for us.  It is for a place in history and a place for you.  A new world!

Oh awesome human, venture forth.  To a new world!  To a new beginning!

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

November 15, 2015

In The Beginning
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In The Beginning

Good Day Bravehearts!

Welcome to this awesome new day.  The world brings light into your lives, life into your existence and hope to those who sing for  it.  Brave new world, a world of hope and inspiration.  A world of challenges and excitement.  A world for the bold, the daring, the skilled and the champions.  Light our lives, oh daring adventurers, for the great good earth has presented a brave new world for exploration, adventure and settlement.  Light our lives, oh torches of strength and courage, as the great swells of the ocean, cast you about and hurl you through the darkest and most dangerous storms, to a landing of somewhat safety.  Cast your doubts aside and persevere, oh bold and talented chosen ones. The angels fly and their wings surround you as you step to the chosen shore.  Safety.  The security of the land, the chosen place of a new birth, the cultivation of civilization, wrought from the timbers of the land.

An opportunity so profound, it could not be overlooked.  The opportunity of life, of fortune, of fame, of grandeur, all for the sake of a few strong souls who could make it real.  The hope of success, the plea for courage, the compelling need to try.  The fortune hunter, the inspired authority, the wealth of riches, the greed of plunder.  Dreams, inspiration, imagination and flights of fancy.  The mind races with prospects of achievement, the brain spins with possibilities.  Unlimited opportunity for those who dare.  A new world.  A new life.  A new beginning.  To be on the breaking edge of new discovery, new possibility, new everything!  A chance.   A roll of the dice.

Sooth sayers, fortune tellers, tarot readers, crystal balls.  What does the future hold?  Tell us, oh wise and enchanted ones.  What does it say?  Will we be rich?  Will we survive?  Give us your answer!  Tell us our fortunes!  Will we survive.

Our luck is surrounding us, the King pledges his trust.  His command is omnipotent.

Bold and daring, we must adventure, to cultivate a civilization from the forest of a far flung world.  A world of temptation, of persuasion, of allure. The call of this land is the song of the siren, enchanting and haunting it begs us to stay.

” Come!”, whispers the wind, and the swaying branches wave us ashore.  The rustling leaves catch the sunlight and play with our senses.  A pretty sight.  A friendly world.  A breathtaking, heart stopping, thought.

Build it!  Build it and they will come.  The fortune seekers, the treasure hunters, the rich and the poor.  Build it and they will come.

To the might of France, to the power of the authority of the King.   A brave new world, a fabulous civilization, fashioned from the rough hewn timbers of the forest.  An indomitable human spirit.   The sailor, the ministry, the adventurer, the pioneer.  The champions of new life, new liberty, new beginnings.  The torch shines brightly for the souls of those days, as we feast from the harvest of their workmanship, negotiation and peace.

Hail, almighty ones, a country is in the making.  Hail oh bravehearts, your backs are breaking.  The long and difficult journey to a colony is at hand.

To greatness!

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

November 1, 2015

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Ironman, Whistler BC, 2015

Good Day Bravehearts!

Are you brave enough?

Here in the pristine wilderness of Whistler BC, the home to our awesome and outstanding Whistler ski area, is the championship Ironman race.  Swim. bike, run.

http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/events/americas/ironman/canada.aspx#axzz3gri9kK6r

Come to Canada.  This is where our hearts are.  In the rugged and pristine, the scenic and superb.  A wilderness resort to stretch your athletic limbs in.  The Whistler resort in British Columbia is one of Canada’s finest winter ski areas.  Full of fabulous terrain and fabulous snow!  The village is alive with shops, hotels, restaurants and fun.  A fabulous place for ski, apres ski and winter fun.

Now, for the summer.  Take the plunge into a pristine lake and swim to your hearts content.  Ride your bike along the roadways and run and run, you stellar athletes.  Run and run for miles.  Stretch you legs in this grand event and stretch your minds to the tune of roughly 150 miles of rugged, hard working endurance competition.

You’re at your best! You’ve trained for months.  At last the day has come and you, almighty ones will be the champions of this day.  A day for you.  An unrivaled day of strength, endurance, attitude and training.  You have done enough, you have done it all, you have stretched your minds to the limits of this event.  Now, you must stretch your bodies and will your strength to obey your determined and focused mind.

Superb, superior ones, this day is a day set aside just for you.  Prove that your concentration was intent enough, prove that your coaching and training was consistent with this goal, prove that your diet was perfect and that your perfectly tuned body will not starve, will not cave, will not stumble, overheat, faint, or die from this exertion.  Prove to us and to yourselves, all you awesome, inspiring heroes, that this fantastic day, is a day that everyday champions are made of.

A stellar day, a day of strength and might, a day of exertion, stamina and speed.  Fly you almighty ones.  Show us your courage, your focus and your training.  Your fine aptitude for this race will place you among the best of the best.  A difficult test of mixed training, mixed muscle building, mind set and mind control.  A steady diet of perfected nutritional content.  A steady mix of muscle building for strength, flexibility and endurance.  A steady focus of determination, willful purpose, command and obey.

Today, you will show us, all of us, your awesome mind, your perfect body, your superb control.

Hail to you, almighty ones.  Today is the day for your victory and for ours.  Stellar athlete in superior competition, you win, with  your entry and your finish, you win!  You, the awesome inspiration of that attitude that makes you grand.  A grand performance, a grand champion and a grand victory.

We watch you in delight.  This is your great adventure. You are the heroes of today.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

July 24, 2015

Proper Awesome
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Proper Awesome

Good Day all you almighty ones!

The glorious days of summer are upon us.  Global warming is changing our world.

In an area where 30 degrees is a sometime thing, we have reached record highs in May.  The result?  A new kind of splendor.  It might be dire, but for the holidaying visitor, the new kind of splendor is an awesome grand new experience for us.

http://www.parkscanada.ca

The snow is still clinging to the mountains in places, the high glaciers, still holding their place on the peaks of those far off places, the rivers, still streaming from those sources and the avalanches still crashing down.  The quiet of the day in a remote location, broken by the sound of avalanches crashing and rumbling down a mountain side.

Spring has come early  here, with the wildflowers showing their elegant blooms, the birthing mothers showing off their delightful offspring, the warm, lush landscape brimming with vegetation and the northern lights playing and dancing in the sky.

Here is the remote wild.  A far off place where nature sings and calls to us. Venture oh wise ones, hear our call, come to visit and to know us , come to see how we live and come to understand the awesome need of the great wild.  Come, oh wise ones and bring your children, come to play in the great outdoors.

The warm, soothing waters of soft glacial fed lakes, the pristine clarity of the water and the warm, bathtub temperatures to sooth the aching stress of highways, traffic, pollution and busyness.  A warm dip in a warm lake of glacial fed water, blue and shimmering and still.

The wild orchids show a fine display in the shaded forest.  The birds sing and call to the glory of the day.  The animals watch with curiosity, then hide in the forest.  The awesome summer, with it’s warm and brilliant days is upon us.

These splendid, special places, where the Earth shows its finery, its majesty and it’s awe, have special meaning for us.  Ecological integrity, bio-diversity, unique areas of cultural and environmental significance.  Places where time stands still, where you can still see the view that the fur traders saw.  You can still navigate the rivers and portage the land.  You can camp near historic camping spots and fill your cup from water, today’s first water, melted glacial water,  the water that will enter our rivers and flow to the oceans.

Here, in the great wild, is the birthplace of many.  The birth of the rivers, the lakes, the watershed.  The birth of the wild animals, the great forests, the mountains themselves.  Here is the new beginning for you.  A step into the land of the wild.  A cultural place, a privileged place, a place of sanctuary and life.  A place where the history of the people presents itself in preservation, in endless land, in an unusual meadow.  A place to learn about our protected places, the events that built them to their glory and distinguished them from other, lesser known areas.  Here we sing and laugh and play in the heart of this beauty.  Our special land, our special life, our immensely special love.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

July 3, 2015

The Uncommon Common Man
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The Uncommon Common Man

Hail Bravehearts!

Look to the great planet and the adventure that it offers you, for this great new day.  Look to the wild and the remote places, the vast unknown land, the pristine  sparkling lakes, the forest and the glade.  Look to the tumbling rivers, the majestic water falls, the open prairie and the grand mountain.  This great land, is the land of plenty.  Test your skills and entice your courage, quell your fears and boldly stride onto that path.  The land provides an adventure for you and you, oh brave and daring one, can walk a route that made this country great.  A route of homesteaders, of pioneers, of fur traders, merchants, courier de bois, negotiators, ministry and leaders.  A group of brave hearts.  The uncommon, common man.  For in this time of colonization, the fabulous almighty man, decreed the settling of a land of ice and snow and the common man was chosen to attempt this feat of danger and peril.

The commoner, the common man, who takes his direction from his great lord and master.  The common man, a mere mortal, a human cast in clay and dust, who obeys the decree of the king.  Who is this common man, so roughly hewn that he is merely a servant to the demands of greater minds and greater powers?  So common, so plain, so uneducated, so lowly.  The common mind, from the birth of poor genetics, cast to fulfill great tasks of high achievement and immense dignity and power for the mighty.

Hail to you, for who you are, soldiers and skilled craftsmen, your duty is your worth and your lords will must be done.

Champlain and the Settlement of Acadia 1604-1607

The land was offered and the spring sunshine helped to ease the anxiety of the unknown.  Trust the leadership and their knowledge, their superiority, their greater strength and education.  Trust that the Lord will shine his light upon you and will save your mortal souls.

So it was, in the spring of 1604, that a site was chosen for a colony in the brave new world.  Brave souls, worthy of such an immense attempt.  Skilled craftsmen and intellectuals, seeking peace and prosperity in a land of harsh winters and short growing season.

Basking in the sunshine of the clear, blue Atlantic was small St. Croix Island.  The fishing was good, the dwellings were erected, the security of the settlement was established and hope for the future of a successful colony stirred in their hearts and their minds.  Praises!  Praises to their lord and to the Lord most high.  Praises to the negotiation and to the success of this challenge.  Praises to their accomplishments, to the peace of their living.  Praises!  Praises!

Praises to the foresight of their leaders, to choosing this safe place, to knowledge and security, to peace among us.  Hail great minds and great leadership.  We are successful in the spring, the summer is warm and fills our lives with hope, we are successful in the autumn, while supplies still last, but then?  The long, harsh winter bears down upon us, longer this year and in the spring of 1605 the snow is still piled high and spirits fall as the doomed colonialists count the numbers of those who perished.  Thirty five strong, robust people, die of scurvy this past winter and leave the rest with too much work and too much sorrow.

Brave adventurers, this was not the best place, we move now, to a new plot of land, a new attempt at survival, a new beginning for us.  Fear not!  We are your leaders, you will survive.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

June 2, 2015

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We Have Landed

Hail, oh brilliant ones!

The rising sun warms the great good Earth and the song of the wild rings in our ears. Birds nesting and singing their love songs.  Trees blossoming and the early shoots of flowers poking their heads up high. Warm us , great good Earth. Fill our bodies with sunshine and goodness and we will praise you with our gladness, our beauty, our vibrant colours, our fragrance and our being. The world fills with the busyness of life.  With splendor and grandeur the planet awakens to the heat of the sun and the tiny insects stir in their nests and start the daily task of survival.

Nourish us, oh great planet, for we are the necessary, the tiny, often dismissed ones. The work of our labour is a workforce of love.

Sweet nectar!  The pollinators thrive in a land of such plenty, and flowers, fruit, vegetables and other plants, rise and shine to capture the attention of these healthful species.  Hardworking bees and dainty butterflies fill the air in pursuit of their own life’s work.  Thy will be done!

This is the day that saves us.  A day to plant your harvest and to rejoice in the new season of springtime.    A day where the birds are singing and nesting, when the world is warming to spring fever and the plants proclaim that the soil is rich and that they will grow and thrive.  This was the kind of day, in the kind of world, that greeted the colonialists from France.  A day when the Earth tossed off it’s winter coat and revealed the lush green foliage beneath.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening.aspx  Mother Earth News, Organic Gardening

This is the  kind of world where dreams can flow.  A promise of  hopes fulfilled.  Energized and refreshed, the land calls to the new comers.  Fulfill your dreams on this great land, prepare the soil for planting and share this world with it’s inhabitants.  The dream of a colony can be a  reality.  It can exist!

The reality for all of us, is that food is one of  the most important tasks of the day.  We must eat.  The soil must be prepared and tended, the seeds must be sown and the garden must be cared for.  Toil and work, dig in the dirt, a colony is an immense task of building shelter and community.

Hail, almighty one!  was the call to the king.  We have landed.  Your loyal subjects will do our duty to our king and your schemes of riches, wealth, abundance, opulence, whatever we can achieve, will all go to the glory of France.  You are the great mastermind of cunning and we will strive to fulfill your desire.

So now, the colonialists have set foot on the land and a place to construct their dwellings has been chosen.  Build your shelter, bring in your supplies.  Food and equipment to start the new life.  From grand notions and great inspiration, come deeds of immense proportions.  A small group of people, with skills and endurance, have been called by their leader to be champions of courage and self sufficiency.

So, all of you bravehearts, look to the colony of France.  There, out in the new world is a small group of people, whose destiny has called  them, to live to the adventure of this brave new day.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

May 20, 2015

For France!
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For France!

Good Morning!

Rise! Rise! Shine and be joyous! A brave new world awaits you and you will be victorious! Rise! Rise! Straight from your beds! Look to the glory of the new found land. Brave new world! Brave people! Come all of you! Rise!

The will of the king will be done! Everyone, rise to the glory of this brave new day! The brave new venture! This brave new undertaking. Hail to the great and almighty king! Hail to our lord most high!
So, in the beginning, when the world was new, came the song of praises from France. Come you brave and daring adventurers, come to the brave new world and colonize the brave new lands, for France!

http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/du_gua_de_monts_pierre_1E.html Pierre de Monts

A lucky, privileged and trusted aristocrat with decorations, medals and honors galore, came forward for the quest, of a place of a colony, on the grand lands of the new world. Lucky was he to be the entrusted one, the daring, the brave the courageous one. Wealth and abundance, pride and sacrifice, learning and wisdom, all hail to the strength, the fortitude, the might, of the honor of this man. Hail to Pierre de Mont, a new found land, a colony for him to choose and to manage.
His quest was to establish a colony and to settle 60 colonialists a year. His other duty was to convert the natives to Christianity.
And so it will be, in 1604, that his ships set sail and he, the dauntless, spirited champion would win the day. The day to colonize the new world for France and to settle the great white north for the privilege and honor of France. A place was chosen, a fort, of sorts, was built, with housing and kitchens and room for everyone.
So much excitement, so much work, so much devotion and time and effort. This will must be done, for the sake of our lives, this will must be done! Labour and gratitude, the work was immense, for not only shelter, but food and warmth as well. A colony is an immense undertaking, survival is key. The perils of the dark side must not enter in. Rejoice all of you robust and hearty stalwarts. Your spirits are high and your abilities soar. Companionship and congeniality, trust and devotion. A small and close knit group of single minded champions, whose dream is to fulfill the scope of the grand destiny of France.
For France!
Typically, the winter was harsh and the snowfall, as usual, was heavy. The area chosen for the first settlement was in the path of typical eastern weather. Blizzards and storms, gales and cold, frigid, freezing, cold weather. So much so, that there was still nearly 4 feet of snow at the end of April, 1605. The outlook was suddenly bleak, with half of the colonialists dying in the first winter, the hardship and death toll was to much to bear.
But a great notion, a plan, a dream and a reality are not so easily dismissed. The misfortune of one yesteryear will not be the destiny of this awesome plan. Fragile creatures, these will not be. For these are the tough, the strong minded, the determined. These are the skilled adventurer and this plan, from the mind and will of the almighty man, must not fail.
written by Dr. Louise Hayes
May 18, 2015