Halifax, Nova Scotia
Connections with Victoria
This is a long weekend in honour of Queen Victoria. In her 40,000 plus pages of diary, she mentions nothing about Canada’s independence from Britain in 1867. Her father, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, was stationed in Halifax in the late 1700s at the Royal Navy’s North American headquarters, right here.
At the one end of Hemlock Ravine Trail, Prince Edward had a garden which is no longer there. He also had a mistress, prior to his marriage and the birth of his daughter, Victoria. The two spent time at this former garden which is now a pond of water shaped like a heart. Our friend, Cory, from Halifax, led us to the trail and then the heart-shaped pond.
Why the heart? I think we can all guess.
An older couple told our walking group,, of today, part of the story of Prince Edward when he was younger and single. “A mistress for over twenty years,” they said.
Cory was kind to take us down this exquisite trail. A mix of hard and softwood trees pervade the forest here. Cory also came with us to the Vedanta Society for an evening dance-chant-hear-and-speak program. Victoria would have been pleased. I understand she liked to dance.
The latest film about her centres on an infatuation she had for a Muslim man, Abdul Karim, whom she met in India, when she was widowed, and her later companion, John Brown, was also deceased.
Canadians are content to celebrate with a holiday on Monday—tomorrow. Fireworks go off to honour the Queen of the British colonies, Canada being one.
I do believe that when your senses are tucked in, you are a king or a queen, in your own right—a hero of sorts.
May the Source be with you!
5 km
No comments:
Post a Comment