Posts with the Parks Canada tag

Barris Beat

Rhythm of responsibility

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Number of abandoned pets found in parks is up threefold. Photo – Animal Rescue

The first time she went missing, the rest of the family nearly went crazy with anxiety. We searched in neighbouring yards, down the block, around most of the village. We were beside ourselves with guilt and worry that we’d never get her back. We even put up signs:

“She’s three. She’s friendly. She’s been missing for several days,” our handmade poster proclaimed. “She answers to Topsy.”

She was my family’s first real household pet, a three-year-old collie, the spitting image of TV’s Lassie. And because we knew everybody around us felt the same way about their family pets, we figured she’d be returned to us really quickly. But that was the early 1960s. (more…)

Barris Beat

In step with the environment

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The prairie dog that suddenly appeared.

It seemed an unspoken rule by the time I got there. Every step was deliberate, unobtrusive and (I hoped) non-destructive in this place of nature. I made my way through sage and other prairie grasses, closer to a mound where a couple of prairie dogs were playing. I didn’t want to scare them down their hole; I just wanted to get close enough to take a clear photograph. Then, I looked down and suddenly there it was.

A prairie dog emerged from a hole in the ground right at my feet. And he, or she, chirped at me, as much surprised to see me lording overtop, as I was to see an animal nearly under foot.

I aimed and fired my camera and got the picture. (more…)

Barris Beat

The true cost of it all

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La Chaudiere Military Cemetery in France.

We arrived in the late afternoon. Shadows from an encircling grove of trees cast eerie slivers of light and dark across the manicured cemetery grounds – the grass cropped short, the flowers freshly tended. I watched one of my fellow travellers, Valerie Flanagan, move from one line of tombstones to the next. Our walk through La Chaudiere Military Cemetery just below the famous Vimy Ridge, a few days ago, was the culmination of a long journey for her. Then, she saw it – her grandfather’s grave.

“I’m so glad I made it here,” she said. “I didn’t know how I’d feel.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Cuts more than skin deep

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Parks Canada guide, Sylvie, greeted our tour group to Beaumont-Hamel, this past spring.

As we arrived, she emerged from the information pavilion. She wore her identifiable green uniform, complete with department identification and Maple Leaf insignia. She offered a warm welcome and explained she would be our guide for the next half-hour. She was a long way from home, but made us feel as if we had never left Canada.

“Welcome to the Beaumont-Hamel National Historic Site,” the young woman said. I learned later her name was Sylvie, a student from Winnipeg, and that she was employed for several months by Parks Canada to guide visitors around the site.

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