Aug 30/10: From the Dome Car

From the Dome Car, originally uploaded by susanvg.

My summer of train travel. This time - a train from Montreal to Halifax (though I got off in Cambellton, New Brunswick) as I have a couple of days work on the Gaspé peninsula. It's a long trip - twelve hours - and I was booked into a sleeping car.

As we were leaving Montreal, I sat in the dome car. And here we were about to cross the St. Lawrence River on the Victoria Bridge. This is the oldest bridge connecting Montreal to the south shore. It was completed in 1859. I'm happier crossing it by train. The car lanes have a metal grill surface. I know it's safe, but it makes me uncomfortable. Oh, our idiosyncrasies!

Aug 28/10: Red Tinged

Aug 28/10: Red Tinged, originally uploaded by susanvg.

Despite very warm temperatures predicted for this week, there are signs of autumn. Tinges of red are appearing on leaves. A number of perennials are past their prime. And evenings (though not this coming week) get cooler requiring a sweater for the post dinner strolls. These are just hints of the coming changes.

I love the changes, the cool mornings, the bright blue skies minus the summer haze, the incredible colours at the market as the vegetables are at their peak.

Aug 27/10: Freight Train

Aug 27/10: Freight Train, originally uploaded by susanvg.

Trains are still important in Canada, bringing goods from one part of the country to another. This is a train summer for me. I was standing on the platform in Stratfod, waiting for the train to take me home when this freight train passed. Another trip next week, this time for work.

The railway is what connected our country. The last spike was hammered in to join our country coast to coast 125 years ago. The car has become king, but we need to look again at the importance of rail for environmental reasons.

"There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run" (from Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy). A new book is available illustrating this wonderful song. I've just ordered it. Let's celebrate the railroad.

Aug 26/10: Sunny

Sunny, originally uploaded by susanvg.

Nothing is quite as happy as a sunflower. The gardens around the Festival Theatre in Stratford are spectacular, with a variety of perennials, annuals and sculpture to create a feast for the eyes. Gardeners are in evidence, carefully tending to the flowers to keep the gardens at their best.

These men are part of the sculpture commemorating the first raising of the tent at Stratford for the first season of the Shakespeare Festival.

Aug 25/10: Shakespeare

Aug 25/10: Shakespeare, originally uploaded by susanvg.

My parents first came to the Stratford Festival about the second year of the festival when it was still held in a tent. They brought me here for the first time in 1962 and I have been here a number of times since. I love the town; I love the theatre here. I first brought my children here in 1993 to see A Midsummer Night's Dream. My daughter was hooked and she and I have come several times together. This year we are here again and the magic of the place casts its spell over us.

We revel in the morning talks where actors share their stories or members of the festival wrestle with some of the themes of the plays of the season. We stroll along the river enjoying the tranquility. But mostly we are entranced by the quality of the shows.

The Stratford Festival is a repertory festival - twelve plays in four theatres share the schedule. Actors play in more than one play, sometimes playing in two productions in a day. Sitting through two is a mental challenge. Playing in two is both a physical and mental marathon. Today we only scheduled one play - As You Like It in the Festival Theatre. The brass will sound the fanfare calling the patrons into the theatre and I know I will have goosebumps. And then the show...

Just Resting

Just Resting, originally uploaded by susanvg.

My daughter and I adore Stratford. We soak in theatre, an intense spurt in a few days. Today was Two Gentlemen of Verona and Peter Pan. Both were excellent. The quality of acting here is outstanding. And Stratford has the money to invest in sets and costumes. In three of the four theatres, the stage is a thrust stage so the audience feels less separated from the actors. Sets are often less complex, but the staging is always creative.

Another thing we love about Stratford is the town itself - many Victorian houses and a river which widens into a lake with considerable park land. We strolled along the lake on our way to supper. Many swans were by the water's edge, either feeding in the water or preening on land. This one had obviously finished with its boudoir and was taking a rest. There are many ducks, more than I had remembered. By 6:00 in the evening, a number had installed themselves on the grass, head tucked in, ready for a good rest.

Aug 23/10: Shadows

Aug 23/10: Shadows, originally uploaded by susanvg.

Where does the bench end and the shadow begin? Which is real? Sometimes the shadow is more visible than the original.

I'm in Stratford, Ontario and will be seeing Peter Pan (along with four other plays). It occurred to me as I started to write this that the play is about shadows too. Though Peter lost his shadow, it is also about the loss of childhood and the unwillingness to give up that life. Do we become shadows of that essential time in our lives?

While it would be nice to go back to the innocence of childhood, it is nice to live life larger - to travel through the greater world and have the independence and life experiences to see and learn and keep growing.