Happy CANADA day, to all my fellow Canadians!
Category Archives: Canada
Shopping in the USA
We love going to Hawaii; have been so many times that it feels like our home away from home.
One of the minor reasons that I love going is for the shopping(!)
Oahu(the island upon which Honolulu, the capital city of Hawaii is located) has lots of good places to shop; Ala Moana being the biggest and finest.
But it is because Hawaii is part of the US which makes the shopping so great. There are so many stores and items in Hawaii (and the US for that matter) that respectively either don’t exist or else one simply cannot get in Canada.
I have NEVER understood marketing, and have a sneaking suspicion that it is is based on ill advised , stuffy “old men in suits” opinions.
As a consumer, I can say that IF the stuff is provided, people will buy it, simple as that.
It works the other way too; many things here in Canada are unavailable in the USA. I KNOW how frustrating THAT is for many of my US pals.
I remember being in a discussion group for Brtish Comedies and the topic of conversation turned to British food items and how they WERE available here in Canada but not in the US. People were BEGGING the few Canadians (as it was a predominately US audience) to mail them certain covetted items.
I don’t know how well this worked for each party but it was rather sad to think that a person couldn’t just trot to their corner market and find what they wanted there.
Sure these days, many things in the world are available online BUT MANY sites will NOT ship to Canada. (and probably not to other countries either.)
Unfair?
You bet!
Olympics almost over(sob)
So I have been away enjoying the Olympics(no I didn’t have the time nor money to attend events) but I did cheer our fellow Canadians daily from the comfort of our living room…
It is almost over..hard to believe!
We got an amazing amount of gold medals(13!!!!) which beats even the USA !
However the big hockey game is on today which is a clincher..
back!
Sorry for the absence; no excuses, just feeling lazy.
I was also so caught up with the Haiti tragedy(as was/is the world) that I simply hadn’t the time/inclination to blog.
However I had tons of things I COULD have written about; isn’t it always the way.
Thanks to my loyal readers who continued to FLOCK to my blog even though I wasn’t keeping it current.
It feels like we will be having an early spring so I have changed my header to reflect this. We already have tons of snowdrops and forsythia blooming and will be boring the rest of Canada very soon with our annual, “flower count”..
What is the Victoria Flower Count?
The Flower Count is an annual light-hearted promotion sponsored and organized by regional chambers of commerce, Butchart Gardens and Tourism Victoria. The goal is to bolster community pride and increase awareness of Greater Victoria as an attractive shoulder-season tourism destination. It brings national and international attention to the fact that Victoria (City of Gardens) has the mildest climate in Canada. While the rest of Canada and much of the US is still in the cold clutches of winter weather, Victoria often enjoys spring temperatures of 10-15° Celsius (up to 60° Fahrenheit).
Community Challenge
Each municipality across Greater Victoria is encouraged to take up the challenge to be the “Bloomingest Community” of the Greater Victoria area! People reporting flower counts will have their number attributed to their community. Whether they live on the Saanich Peninsula or in Sooke, every flower counts, for their own community and for the overall total.
How Did It Start?
In the late 1960’s, members of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce started a promotion called “Victorian Days”. In late February, dressed in Victorian era costumes, they would visit cities such as Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg, handing out daffodils to the general public, radio stations and news rooms. In 1976, the event expanded to involve Victoria residents and create a fun promotional story through the counting of February’s flowers. The Victoria Flower Count had begun.
No snow for us!!
Even though we live “up there” (or up here, depending on your perspective)we have been enjoying NO snow.
I have wittered on before about the lack of snow in this part of Canada;ie upon Vancouver Island) Usually we get lots of rain(which we did lately) but today it is slowly clearing and cooling a bit, but NO snow is falling.
Last year at this time, we HAD had snow which really caught our little city by surprise, as it hadn’t been predicted. Chaos ensued but it was lovely to look out upon the snowy expanses beyond our door on Christmas eve and to hear that beautiful QUIET!
(How can you hear quiet? Just go out when it is snowing, and you will learn!)
But it is alarming to see the troubles in the places that HAVE been plagued with huge snow falls and I hope that if YOU are in one of these areas(around the WORLD) that you are able to get to where you want to be safely….
take care…
