October 17, 2007 - Wednesday

oday is my birthday. It was pretty rainy out and it is only the 4th time ever that it has rained on this day where ever I am. My anticipated trip to the museum was today. Our first stop was at the Bread Garden for breakfast. Fresh squeezed OJ.. Yummy.. oh.. and a bagel and cream cheese for me. 

As we went through Stanley Park, my 'tour guide' pulls over and shows me a tree. It is a huge ancient spruce which is hollowed out. As I stood inside of it, I looked up and remembered I had done this before. I must have done the same thing when I was a small child and been here with my family. It was rather strange actually to look up to the tree's ceiling and remember it as a small kid. 

The University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology is very unique. This too I remember as a small child. The Cowichan Dancing (Potlatch) blankets were something which I remembered and had impressed me over the years. I was on pins and needles to see them. My goal one day is to make a small to full size dancing blanket from start to finish. I said 'one day'. There is one woman, whose name is unknown and she herself long gone, but she 'signed' the blankets she made with a special design and she lives still because of these wonderful 3 blankets she made. Although her name is unknown, she is famous as one of, if not THE most skilled weaver for these types of blankets. 

This museum is also reknown for their preservation of totem poles. Although they have alot of native Canadian/aboriginal art and artifacts, they also collect things from many indigenous peoples from all over the world. I went to the museum for Canadian Native art and was pleasantly surprised by the representation from other cultures as well. My choice of a companion today was my friend who is half Cree. I thought he would be the most likely to enjoy going and not rush through the museum as a few people have done this to me... "Are we there yet? Are we done yet?"... argh!

Drawers! This museum has lots and lots of drawers. And you are allowed to open them and look inside. Even what the museum calls their 'archives and not on exhibit', is really on exhibit. Drawer after drawer we opened to peek inside and check out the treasures inside. I think I spent hours opening and closing drawers. 

The dancing blankets? The ones which I really really wanted to see when I was there? They were not on display and the museum is adding on, so the path to the offices to inquire were more of a challenge than I needed. I will later write the curator and see what the deal with the blankets is, to see if they are on loan somewhere else or put away and to see if they are available to look at by special request, which you can do at many museums if you are doing research on a type of item.  

So I was highly disappointed in not seeing them, but had so many other things to fill my mind from here. If you are ever in Vancouver, I highly recommend seeing this hidden gem. It is well worth the $9.00.

Taking the ferry back to the island, we went to Morris Dancing practice that night. After bashing my instructor not once, but twice with a holly stick on my last trip down, I just sat and took pictures this time. However, my previous instructor accidentally smucked one of the girl dancers knuckles. Tess was black and blue the next morning. I like going to hear the live music, but in a way it is also has an element of danger, such as a cross between Nascar racing and the running of the bulls.. err sheep. These are the infamous Black Sheep Dancers after all. Actually they are quite good and they go on tours here in Canada and the United States, so if you are near, you should catch their act.

The two gentlemen in the picture are Bob and Jim. Bob plays the accordion, guitar and mandolin as well as a handful of other instruments and Jim plays the banjo. Bob is the one who wanted me to bring down my mandolin to tune it for me and teach me how to play it.
As Bob was tuning it, TWANG. It caught everyone's attention with that noise of TWANG... as the strings started to break and the bridge was noted to be cracked. Bob gave up tuning it as the strings are very old. Jim and Ross peeked over to check it out, I inquired if my $2 mandolin was soon to become firewood. Reassuring me that a small quick trip to Rufus Music would soon remedy that, I left my mandolin on the island for when the next person went to Rufus on the mainland. I will end up picking it up next spring.

I do not drink, but traditionally after dance practice, the Sheep usually head to the pub. I went as well. I then had an interesting birthday song sung to me. Apparently they saved me from the really embarrassing parts I was told. Thanks everyone!