Advertisement
Published: February 29th 2024
Edit Blog Post
Georgina Pope
First military nurse to serve at the front, initially in the Boer War Saturday, August 26
For the first time, we went to the Canadian War Museum. The museum is organized by eras. We skipped the earliest eras because two tour groups were just getting started there. I thought we could go back later, but we ran out of time. They were about the First Nations and the advent of Europeans; it would have been interesting to see how the history was written.
Truthfully, throughout the main galleries much of the text on the signs was too generalized to be really informative, conveying only the broad strokes of accepted history. Women’s roles were faintly described, too often mentioning clerical positions in uniform and keeping up the home out of uniform. Missing entirely was the crucial role women played in ferrying all makes of aircraft from Canada to Britain. I did learn about
Georgina Pope , a nurse who was inspired by Florence Nightingale and who led all Canadian military nurses into their current roles by being “First” over and over again.
Oddly, the display of tanks and guns on a lower floor was much more detailed and included a good number of stories about the actual pieces, as well as
Field Command vehicle
Office under fire
(composite photo) the category information. Very obvious was that the tanks got bigger with the design and construction of increasingly hardened and sophisticated machinery. Being inside looked to be a fairly miserable experience, except for the sheltering from shrapnel.
The last gallery on the Cold War to the present reminded both of us of incidents and leaders who were part of our own time. I was thrilled to see a piece of the Berlin Wall, something to compare to the still existing walls in Northern Ireland. No mention was made of the Diefenbunker, which was part of Canada’s response to the Cold War. On some of the walls were large paintings depicting scenes related to war, particularly the earlier ones. A huge unfinished Augustus John mural was installed in the tank gallery. In the café was a collection of highly coloured poppy paintings, a gift from the Turkish government, in honour of the museum and John McCrae’s poem.
Quite tired, we drove a bit to the Royal Oak in Kanata, where the Guinness was welcome. And, the steak and mushroom pie was a proper pie with pastry crust all around, and good herbs in the gravy.
Monday
August 28
Today, we headed first for Arnprior, where I had been before some years ago. Since many stores were closed Mondays, our walk along the main street was rather tame, although the decorative flowers at the street corners were very attractive. A little further on, we got out to walk in Robert Simpson Park - very pretty. The Ottawa River rolled by with magnificence on such a fine sunny day.
Surprisingly, our next stop was Pakenham on the Mississippi River – not the famous one, an Ontario one. A mill town originally, Pakenham’s most imposing feature is a five-arch stone bridge, built in 1901 to replace the wooden one that was often damaged by ice and storms.
A short drive away was Almonte, a town that rebuilt its central corridor this spring. Now trying to attract shoppers and tourists, the main street features many cafés, specialty clothing stores, antique/collectables shops, and the original Lee Valley store, recently reopened and named “L.G. Lee and Sons”. In Frangipan, a very good women’s wear shop, I bought gloves decorated with details from Vincent Van Gogh’s painting,
Irises. Near the post office, a statue celebrated Dr James Naismith,
inventor of basketball, complete with a peach basket.
A circuitous route took us through a golf housing estate, satisfying our curiosity, and along streets in other small, old towns. Carleton Place was larger, and at the Waterfront Gastropub we sat on the deck beside the Mississippi River to enjoy both ambiance and food. I had pulled brisket with sweet potato fries and Strongbow cider.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.055s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0181s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Isabel Gibson
non-member comment
The small towns around Ottawa are fascinating, each with its own character. Thanks for a reminder that time marches - it's been a while since I was in Almonte, and it sounds as if I should go again.