Gordon's Garden Diary

16 Jul '08 5:36 pm

Beautiful wildflowers. I was especially interested to see the tiny dogwood!

17 Jul '08 7:37 am

Hi Gordon. Glad you had a nice trip. Bummer about the computer glitch Sad

The wildflowers are really lovely. Amazingly most of those are offered here as special garden plants Exclamation

I too love that mini dogwood. I wonder where I can track one down from? I guess they probably like really cold winters so maybe they won't grow here but I'll look into it. Keep the pics coming Gordon.

17 Jul '08 9:53 am

Hi, Kerole- Those Cornus canadensis plants do just fine here on Vancouver Island where the winters are mild, with just a bit of snow. I have them in my garden and while they tend to die to the ground in winter due to lack of snow cover (I assume), they return and bloom in the spring. Once you find a location that they really like, they spread by underground shoots and soon form a nice clump.

Here are some pictures of the public garden at the Quesnel Information Centre. Quesnel is the jumping-off point for the road to Barkerville. It used to be where the steamboats docked so passengers could transfer to stagecoaches for the trip to the goldfields back in the mid-1800s. Quesnel is located at the junction of the Fraser River and the Quesnel River, so due to it's relatively low elevation, many plants wil grow there that won't make it in the Wells/Barkerville area, which is much higher.

More to come later.

Cheers,

gordonf

18 Jul '08 6:17 pm

Hi, all;

Well, as I told you some time ago, the main reason that I went to the Interior this last time was to attend the Rathayatra (Chariot) Festival at the Hare Krishna spiritual community there. I've been posting my pictures somewhat out of order, so today, here are the pictures of my trip to the festival. I hope you'll find them interesting.

Cheers,

gordonf

18 Jul '08 6:44 pm

A beautiful setting and interesting festival, Gordon. Tell us more about it - is there a symbolic or a commemorative meaning to the festival? In fact I'm in the dark about a few things: what is the link with Hinduism? Is it a form of, or merely closely related culturally? What percentage of Canadian devotees are of Indian extraction?

Looks like it was a lovely warm if windy day...

22 Jul '08 4:54 pm

Foregive me for being very ignorant, but I always associate Hare Krishna with the orange robes and shaved heads Embarassed

Have I got this all wrong?

22 Jul '08 5:39 pm

Hi, Jack and Kerole;

Here's a description of the Rathayatra Festival from the glossary section of www.krishna.com:

"The yearly festival in Puri during which Lord Jagannatha, His brother Lord Baladeva, and Their sister Subhadra move in procession, each on their own cart, from their temple to the Gundicha temple, which represents Vrindavana. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would observe this Gundicha-yatra with great festivity in the company of His devotees."

This festival and parade is celebrated in July or August around the world nowadays by the Hare Krishnas. I thought they all wore orange robes, etc., like you, Kerole, until I met one at Miami airport a number of years ago. He looked more like a Mormon: black suit, white shirt, etc.

While the REALLY devoted ones (or those who can afford to have a special wardrobe for ceremonial purposes) still wear robes, marks on the forehead, etc., many nowadays dress like ordinary westerners. They hold down jobs just like the rest of us do and wear clothing appropriate to the job on normal days, but the women tend to wear saris and the men tend to wear South Asian (Indian) clothing to the temple and for ceremonial occasions.

They are part of the Vaishnava branch of Hinduism, rather like Baptists are part of the fundamentalist branch of Christianity. Some are more devout than others, of course, but all are accepted as being at different places along the path towards being "pure devotees". In all, there are around 450 million Vaishnavas in the world, mostly in India, but with sizable populations in other countries of Europe, the Americas and Australasia.

There are significant numbers of them in the larger cities of Canada (Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal) and in my limited experience, at the temple in Vancouver there is a slight majority of South Asians. In Saranagati Village, though, most appear to be Caucasians, but from diverse national backgrounds: Canadian and American, of course, but also from Russia (where the religion is growing very quickly) and from other countries.

I hope this answers your questions. For more information, log onto www.krishna.com .

Here are the pictures that I took of the town of Wells, which is the service centre for Barkerville Historic Park, which is about 2 miles away from it. I had a wonderful, albeit short, visit there on this last trip.

Cheers!

gordonf

23 Jul '08 1:53 am

Hello Gordon and thanks for the explanation of Hare Krishna faith. I loved the photos of Wells. It looks like the sort of quaint village I would love to live in (except for the mention of heavy snow). I am a true southerner in my dislike of cold weather, so I guess I will just have to enjoy photos from afar.

23 Jul '08 7:07 am

Hi, Faith;

Yup - you wouldn't like living in Wells; it can snow there even in summer!! But I love the climate, except for the fact that it limits what one can grow somewhat. But then, that's the challenge of gardening, isn't it? But in any case, I bet you'd get a charge from visiting there in August or early September. The bugs have gone then, the air is clearer than it usually is, and the weather is pretty reliable then. September is especially lovely when the trees change colour, and once more, the hills are filled with gold!

The electricians worked all day yesterday on upgrading my trailer's wiring so it meets the current electrical code, and I should get the paperwork for it today, so now I can FINALLY get it listed for sale.

Here are some pictures of Barkerville, the wonderful ghost town from the 1860s. Just as an aside, since the miners couldn't use their sluices to wash out the glod from the gravel in winter here, they dug deep shafts underground and brought up gravel all winter, then spent the summer washing the gold out of it. Clever, eh?

Cheers!

gordonf