I began scanning more of the pictures from my Grandfather’s photo album from the time he was in Silverton, New Denver, and Sandon, 1909.
Here are four mining pictures, three of which are from the album.
Here is his view of the Standard Mine, located between Sandon and Silverton, but closer to Sandon.
There were two pictures of visitors to the mines at Silverton. Of great interest to me is what they were holding in their hands (revealed only upon the image being scanned): a prospector’s hammer and a miner’s candleholder.
The miner’s candleholder had four features: a holder for a candle, a handle, a sharp point for driving it into a mining timber, a hook for hanging on a miner’s hat or on a jagged piece of the rockface.
Here is a miner’s candleholder that was passed down in my family. Such candleholders were used extensively in western hardrock mines from the 1860s to the early 1900s.
Summer begins
Summer began today.
After an unconscionably wet spring, the Sun rose to a clear sky and estival forecasts.
Of course, when I say summer began, I am offering an observation, not a proclamation. Alas that was not the case, when two weeks ago, the news media (CBC and others) offered pap about the “official” start of summer.
Official? What official ever proclaimed such a thing? None!
It is an interesting question as to why so many people in the news media insert the gratuitous word, official, when discussing seasonal changes? In most cases where something actually is official—Canada is a country; the speed limit is 80 km/hr—no one bothers to use the word, official. It seems that official is only used when it is needed to bolster a silly claim.
Let us imagine that a minor official in some foreign land did proclaim that an astronomical marker produces a globally fixed date for a shift in the weather. Wouldn’t the rest of us merely treat it the same way King Cnut treated the silliness of his courtiers? Those sycophants claimed he was powerful enough to command the tides. Cnut’s response was that this was demonstrably untrue. Yet, the demonstrable silliness of summer officially beginning on the solstice persists in the news media—a millenium later, Cnut’s courtiers live on. I am sure with the next astronomical marker we will be told about the official start of fall. Sigh….
Summer begins when it begins. It has no beginning fixed by any official; besides, weather doesn’t listen to officials. Today, without the help of any official, summer began.
This was dawn on the Lake yesterday: rain, wind, and waves.
This was dawn on the Lake today: merganser chicks rushed to greet the arriving summer.
