Posts Tagged ‘virtual travel’
A little genealogy: where my ancestors once lived …
I am interested in the history of my family and I have decided to link that with my exercise program. I am again using my stationary bike to improve my fitness and using Street View (Google Earth) to travel virtually as I cycle. It is a great way to pass time and avoid getting bored with the cycle.
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I have chosen to ‘travel’ in Scotland since that is where one branch of my family comes from. In the mid-1800s, John Clark and Jane Cooper traveled with their children to Nova Scotia, Canada. They lived in the Insch (Aberdeenshire) area of Scotland and records say that Keig, south of Insch, is a possible birthplace of my three greats-grandfather in about 1799.
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Have a look at my wellness blog to find out more about my exploration of Keig, Scotland …
Enjoy your mini-tour of the roads where my ancestors may once have walked.
All my best,
Jane
gates and gateposts
Looking through my watercolours, I came across the painting below of a gatepost. I painted this during my virtual excursion through Cornwall, using Street View and Google Earth. The painting reminds me of how much fun I had, painting the scenes I discovered on my virtual journey.
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I am still using Street View to motivate my exercise program – since last year, I have been following the Saint John River from its origins in Quebec and Maine. My goal is to ‘cycle’ the length of the Saint John River, all the way to where it empties into the Bay of Fundy.
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Gateways mark change. They represent movement from one space to another. They can be entryways. They can also be barriers. The challenge is always to step through that gate and keep on going.
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Oct. 4, 2013 ‘gate near Feock’ Jane Tims
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through the gate
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grey granite cold
black body to
absorb the sun
emit no warm
even lichens
rooted to stone
are barely alive
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the stone invites
admiration
but curves disguise
the jagged edge
biotite and
muscovite honed
razor thin
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step forward, through
the gate, ignore
the risk
the path behind
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
art auction !
This week begins another Art Auction at Isaac’s Way Restaurant in Fredericton, New Brunswick. For the next 4 months (late January through to late May), Isaac’s Way displays art by local artists and runs a silent auction and sale. This 23rd auction will sponsor MUSIC lessons for Fredericton kids-in-need.
Thank you for your interest in this community fundraiser at Isaac’s Way Restaurant! We organize three auctions per year, each raising funds for one of four artistic areas: dance, art, music, and theatre. This is a win-win-win opportunity for sure: the children gain confidence and creativity, their families feel blessed to have the help, you [the artists] get a chance to display in a public space along with free advertising, the instructors earn more income and word-of-mouth recognition, the community feels good to be helping the kids, customers get local, original art at amazing prices, our wait staff has an excellent conversation starter with visitors, and our restaurant gets a colourful face lift three times per year. Everyone wins!
In this 23rd Art Auction, Isaac’s Way will be displaying the work of more than 50 artists.
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I have a painting in the auction, an acrylic entitled ‘blue stone’ (24″ x 20″, unframed, gallery edges). It is a version of a watercolour done during my virtual cycling trip along the Cornwall coast.
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Here is the watercolour, ‘blue stone’ …
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October 25, 2013 ‘blue stone’ Jane Tims
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And the acrylic, now for sale or auction at Isaac’s Way …
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blue stone (Jane Tims)
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This will be the forth painting I have contributed to the auction: ‘blue stone’ (acrylic), ‘iron gate in Cornwall’ (acrylic), ‘gate in Ponsanooth’ (watercolour), and ‘rainbow gate’ (watercolour).
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If you are in the Fredericton area, I hope you stop in at Isaac’s Way. The food is delicious, the atmosphere is inspiring and you have a chance to acquire a piece of art by a local artist! The restaurant is located in the historic York County Court House (est. 1855), so you can even dine inside the former vault!
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Copyright 2015 Jane Tims
glimpses of country life – drying day
For the last two weeks, I have continued on my stationary bike, touring (virtually) through the Cornwall countryside. Since I last reported, I have gone from Rinsey Croft to the coastal town of Prussia Cove. Since the road does not run along the coast, I have spent most of my biking miles travelling on short roads from the highway to various coastal towns. In this stretch, I biked for 150 minutes, and saw about 9 km of the Cornwall countryside.
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As I bike, I love seeing the vignettes of country life captured by Street View. Gates, of course, and stone walls. Cows and horses grazing in the meadows. People hiking along the roads and working in their gardens. And a line of washing, hung out on the line to dry.
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September 7, 2014 ‘drying day’ acrylic 20 X 24 Jane Tims
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Reminds me of home.
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
fortification against the sea
On the second day of my virtual biking last week, I toured Porthleven, a large town along the Cornwall coast. Street View had done its image-taking on a clear day, but the steep cliffs along the ocean made me ponder what it might be like to stand on this exposed coast in a storm.
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I wondered why so many foundations along the cliff side of the street were abandoned. One of the foundations enclosed what might be a giant chess board!
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abandoned foundations along the coast at Porthleven (image from Street View)
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Then I had a first glimpse of the seawall and signs warning sightseers to beware …
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seawall and clock tower at Porthleven (image from Street View)
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The harbour itself is a maze of thick, high walls and the piers of a now absent bridge …
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the fortified harbour of Porthleven (image from Street View)
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A little searching on the internet found a dramatic photo (credit: Annabel May Oakley-Watson/REX) of the clock tower in the first image above, during a coastal storm … (‘Should Coastal Britain Surrender to the Tides?’, Patrick Barkham, The Guardian, February 7, 2014). http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/07/should-coastal-britain-surrender-to-tide
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(photo credit: Annabel May Oakley-Watson/REX)
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
along the pond
On my stationary bike last week, I travelled (virtually) along the Cornwall coast from the mouth of Loe Pond to Rinsey. During the week, I biked for 90 minutes, and saw 11 km of the Cornwall countryside.
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The first day took me from the mouth of ‘The Loe’, along the pond to just west of Porthleven, in Shadywalk Wood.
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from the beach at the mouth of Loe Pond to Shadywalk Wood (map from Google Earth)
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The beach is a wide crescent of endless sand …
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August 16, 2014 ‘beach at Loe’ Jane Tims
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The path along ‘The Loe’ is narrow, tree-lined and shady. I saw lots of hikers and fellow bikers, but not a single car.
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a typical part of the path along ‘The Loe’ (image from Street View)
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August 16, 2014 ‘along Loe Pond’ Jane Tims
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Biking along a shady lane, with no worries about traffic, thick ferny woods to one side and the sparkle of a pond on the other … a lovely way to ponder the days of summer …
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
a return to Cornwall and its gates
I am back on my virtual bike trip along the coast of Cornwall. This week I have travelled 9 km from Predannack Wollas to Loe Pool for a total stationary cycling time of 75 minutes.
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I have missed the Cornwall scenes of hedgerows and meadows, stone houses and seaside quays. Mostly I have missed seeing the gates, so it is no surprise my first watercolour for this phase of my journey is the stone pillar to a private gate.
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August 12, 2014 ‘stone post’ Jane Tims
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
back to Cornwall
Although I have done some stationary biking since I ended my virtual trip across northern New Brunswick, I want to get back to the regular schedule I followed when I biked virtually in France and Cornwall. So I have decided to hop back on the Street View road and see some more of Cornwall.
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In Phase 7 of my virtual cycling, I finished the southern coast of Cornwall at Landewednack and Lizard. I’ll begin Phase 9 at Predannack Wollas and cycle around the west coast of Cornwall. I’ll look forward to seeing Arthur’s Titagel and Doc Martin’s Port Isaac. Mostly, my knees will benefit from more regular exercise.
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Predannack Wollas to Porthleven
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I have my first four days plotted and I start tomorrow. Just for old time’s sake, here is one of my earlier paintings from southern Cornwall …
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
remembering place: high school
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In Grade 10, 11 and 12, I went to Sidney Stephen High in Bedford Nova Scotia .
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Sidney Stephen High (now a Middle School)
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I had good friends. I loved all my teachers. I took swimming and golf lessons. I went to school dances and played piano at our various talent nights. I was on our school’s Reach for the Top team and answered only one question during the television program … name Santa’s eight reindeer! We lost to Halifax West, the school where my Dad was Vice-Principal.
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I walked the sidewalk above so many times. Once I carried Myles Goodwyn’s guitar down that hill. The guitar was borrowed for a weekend, something to do with a talent night. Myles Goodwyn is producer, singer, guitarist and composer in one of Canada’s greatest rock groups, April Wine.
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Just outside the end door in the wing of the school visible in the image above, sitting on the grass, I helped my friends prepare for a test on William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Among my friends, I alone actually read the book, and I made the lowest test score of the four people I coached that day!!!
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English and History were my favorite subjects. My English teachers were Mr. Burke and Mrs. Bussey. I learned about Shakespeare, the Romantic poets and travel writing. I remember Mr. Burke’s class so clearly: ‘Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ (Ozymandias, Shelley). In Mrs. Bussey’s English class we went to live theatre and I fell in love with set design. I remember the two-storey backdrop of the set for Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at Neptune Theatre. The house I live in today, which my husband and I built with the help of my Dad, has a loft inspired by that set.
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Our History teacher, Mr. Harvey, was a great inspiration, taking us to all the historical nooks and crannies in the area. Our History Club researched the first length of the old stagecoach route between Lower Sackville and Truro (surveyed in 1817-1818 by Woolford; for an old map of this road, see http://www.novascotia.ca/nsarm/virtual/woolford/archives.asp?ID=11). For the project we actually walked the old road, even then almost obscured by the growth of the forest. We could still see the path of the road by looking for the younger trees in the landscape, and we could find the old culverts. Later, we made a 3-D model of the road and its path between lakes and hills. Today, the old road begins at the Fultz Museum in Sackville (once Fultz’s Twelve-mile House, an inn along the way) and follows various local roads, including part of the Old Cobequid Road. I once lived (my first apartment) just across the lake from the old road (the long lake in the upper part of the map below).
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If we ever had one, I did not go to my class reunion for Sidney Stephen. I gradually lost touch with my friends, although I know where they live (not a threat!) and a little about their lives since High School. And I still talk to Mr. Burke, my English teacher, occasionally. Some friends I will never see again and that makes me very sad.
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
still painting Cornwall gates!
After completing ‘iron gate in Cornwall’ for Isaac’s Way Restaurant’s art auction, I decided to paint a gate just for myself. I liked the small watercolour I did for my first Isaac’s Way auction, so I have painted a version of the scene in acrylics.
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First, the watercolour, 8″ X 10″, unframed …
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January 10, 2014 ‘rainbow gate in Falmouth’ Jane Tims
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And here is the new painting in acrylics, 20″ X 24″ unframed …
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May 22, 2014 ‘rainbow gate in Falmouth #2’ Jane Tims
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Copyright 2014 Jane Tims
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