Now that was a dress code!
What to wear – check the sumptuary laws! A couple of definitions to start: SUMPTUOUS– costly, lavish SUMPTUARY – seeking to regulate extravagance on religious or moral (and, we might add, profitability and ‘class’) grounds It was a few paragraphs in Sally Armstrong’s book, “The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor” that got me curious about vanity or sumptuary laws. Said the 18th century colonial heroine while story-telling to her offspring, “Women were so painted and hidden behind all manner of costume for every occasion, Parliament (in England) finally passed a...
Read MoreHow Sweet It Is!
The first pleasure of my mornings starts with drooling a spoonful of golden honey into that first cup of coffee. Only then do the lists and chores of the day follow the sweet sipping from a sturdy wide-bottomed mug. Beekeeping naturally precedes the collection of honey, and beekeeping has often been out of favour in urban areas. But with the growing interest in and appreciation of homegrown food, the option of keeping a hive or two of bees in one’s own backyard is again becoming part of a homeowner’s possibilities for providing her own food. Just this spring, Qualicum Beach adopted a...
Read MoreAbreast Of Life
“You take on rough waters with the challenge of winning Dragon Boat competitions – it is a brilliant metaphor for your own individual battles and for your many victories over this disease.” Thus did BC’s then Lieutenant-Governor, Her Honour Iona Campagnola, welcome nearly three hundred breast cancer survivors at Government House in 2006. The gala reception and dinner celebrated the tenth anniversary of Victoria’s survivor team, Island Breaststrokers. Our own Central Vancouver Island team of survivors, Abreast of Life was there to hear Her Honour continue, “This is the...
Read MoreIslands in my Life
Island … “a land mass … surrounded by water … anything like an island in position or isolation”. Such is an official definition of the word; we all know that this is not the only kind of island. Islands have always figured largely in my own life as landforms; as personal islands surrounded by joy and satisfaction, by grief or loneliness, or as blessed islands in the midst of silence far from the madding crowd. I expect reading, and writing for Island Woman will bring more interest, exploration, and understanding to my current personal island. My first island figures in my...
Read More