Mrs. M. showed us the magic of stamp collecting. She taught us history, art, culture, and human nature using Philatelic addiction as her medium. I could “travel” the world with stamps. Every country commemorates their Nationality by showing their way of life on their stamps. Carefully looking through Mrs. M.’s albums, year by year, was like going back in time.

Every year you could see how people dressed, what they drove, what progress they’d achieved and the history they focused on. Time capsules on paper.

This is the first mint stamp I put into my collection. This stamp was created to celebrate King George V’s Silver Jubilee in 1935. The Canadian Banknote Company, LTD. produced 60,425,000 of them.

It’s not valuable, worth about 75 cents. This one is M-NH-VG which means Mint-Never Hinged-Very Good condition.

We were taught all the right ways to take care of our stamps, but, like most kids, we were more into the fun part. Pasting those stamps onto our albums with hinges was our favorite thing to do. Watching our collections grow page by page was just so exciting!

We’d all huddle up in a circle, our bags of postmarked stamps at the ready, eager to trade with each other. But before the trading frenzy began, Mrs. M would share stories about the latest stamps and their significance. We’d listen intently, not even realizing we were soaking up so much cool information. It’s funny how we learned so much without even noticing.

Look at the stamps to the left. The camera couldn’t pick up the texture of the lace. When you run your finger gently over the surface you can feel the delicate design.

Umm Al Qiwain in Western Asia made a stamp that fascinated us. Do you remember those rectangular cards with the plastic pictures that moved when you tilted them? They produced those as stamps! My favourite one was an ocean scene with clown fish that moved. It was pretty neat.

One night, sitting at the kitchen table, my Dad produced a softcover stamp album and proceeded to explore it with me. I was in awe! This was his collection and he had mint stamps from various countries during W.W.II! Then he surprised me. He gave it to me with some strings attached of course. I was just a kid.

I think it was around that time that my parents bought me two stamp albums, a World Album and a Canadian Album. I was over the moon! It took me days to carefully transfer my stamps into the albums and I still don’t care for the taste of stamp hinges. LOL! I don’t know if I ever concentrated on anything the way I did that collection. Stamp Club and collecting took on a new lustre after that.

That year @shadowspub bought me a set of First Day Covers of the Canadian Provincial Flags for my birthday. It’s a beautiful set. Each envelope has beautiful pictures and information about the province. And, of course, the stamp of the provincial flag.

The above stamps are part of a set of 12 called, “What Christmas Means to Me”. They were printed in 1970 which was International Education Year in Canada.

Children from across Canada entered their drawings into the competition. The winners not only had the prestige of seeing their art on Canadian postage but they were also given a free trip to Ottawa, our Nation’s Capital.

One of my most cherished memories from stamp club was when we put together our very own stamp show. We spent weeks organizing, trading, and creating our displays on bristol board, complete with little notes about each stamp and splashes of colour from markers. My display was “Stamps on Stamps”, but there were all sorts like “Masterpieces on Stamps”, “Horses on Stamps”, and “Transportation on Stamps”.

The day of the show was special – we all dressed up and learned how to make these adorable tea sandwiches. There were checker-board patterns, watercress with cucumber rounds, and cream cheese mixed with salmon. It felt so fancy and grown-up! We brewed a proper pot of tea, set out the china and silver, and welcomed our guests like little pros. For a 10-year-old, it was like a dream come true!

Mrs. M., our quirky and sometimes stern guide, was truly wonderful. She shared her love of philately with us, a bunch of small-town kids looking for something interesting to do. I often think back and hope I thanked her enough before stamp club ended. She really opened up a world for me that I still treasure today. Maybe one day, I’ll pass this passion on to my grandson?

These days, I don’t buy stamps regularly, but I keep up with the Canadian Philatelic Society publication. I love adding special stamps to my collection, like the 100th Anniversary of the Titanic sinking or Star Trek stamps. And whenever I receive letters from abroad, I add those stamps too. I don’t think I’ll ever stop collecting.

So, what about you? Do you have any collections? I’d love to hear about them!

Until next time friends…

I’ve recently been asked to write some instructional posts about how to become a Ham Radio or Amateur Radio Operator so let’s start off with what a Ham Operator is:

According to Wikipedia:

An amateur radio operator is someone who uses equipment at an amateur radio station to engage in two-way personal communications with other amateur operators on radio frequencies assigned to the amateur radio service. Amateur radio operators have been granted an amateur radio license by a governmental regulatory authority after passing an examination on applicable regulations, electronics, radio theory, and radio operation. As a component of their license, amateur radio operators are assigned a call sign that they use to identify themselves during communication. There are about three million amateur radio operators worldwide.[1]

Well, that sounds quite boring. Snore. Becoming a Ham was an exciting time in my life. My husband and I had opened an electronics repair shop which catered to Truckers. We fixed pretty much any electronic devices they had in their cabs but we focused mainly on two-way radio repair. I knew only basic electronics when we opened the shop, such as reading schematics, using a multi-meter and being able to fix simple electronics problems in my home.

My husband and I worked in close quarters, an 11’ by 24’ job site trailer, and I’m telling you that man is patient. He is also an excellent teacher! He taught me more than I thought myself capable of and it was amazing. Before long I was a very capable radio technician and the drivers began to trust my work. My focus was mainly on C.B. or Citizen’s Band radios… or “children’s band” or “Sesame Street band”. C.B. radios require no licensing and it shows. Some operators’ behaviour could be pretty outlandish but it could also be a lot of fun

C.B. radios run on the 11-meter band or 26.965 M to 27.405 M. (M = megahertz) What the heck does that mean? Radio is all about the length of the distance from the peak of one wave to the peak of the next wave, or wave tip to wave tip. The waves being electromagnetic waves, that range from radio waves all the way up through microwaves, x-rays and all the way up to light waves, infra-red and ultraviolet.

So C.B. radio is 11 meters from peak to peak hence it’s the 11 meter band. If you take the speed of light and divide that by 11 meters you get 27 M roughly, the speed of light being 299792458mps (meters per second).

We had quite a radio set-up. I was running an RCI 2970 at my bench which was connected to an Antron 99 antenna on a 40-foot T.V. tower. You could hear me for miles. It was a nice clean signal. (At this point I could get lost down a rabbit hole explaining why a clean signal is important but I’ll cover that in another post.) It was part of our marketing ploy to have me “man” the radio when drivers called in. I loved it!

When we bought this old girl she wasn’t working very well so I fixed her! Yup!! It was just some cold solder joints, which means the solder had broken and just needed to be redone. The hardest trick was finding it. After re-aligning the whole radio she worked beautifully.

One of our regular customers traded my husband’s tech work for the radio. It was a done deal and I was quite excited. I called our supplier, asked him to add an ARRL Handbook to our order and began studying for my exam.

I refer to my copy of the A.R.R.L. Handbook as my “Ham Bible” because it is the definitive guide to almost every topic regarding Ham Radio that a newbie would need. I’ll never forget building my first antenna using this book for reference. It was my first major accomplishment.

Here in Canada, we have a national association called R.A.C., Radio Amateurs of Canada which is an excellent source of information. You can enroll in an online class or purchase your study guides. If you prefer a classroom setting find out if there is a Ham Radio Club in your area and join it. They almost always offer classes.

Once you’ve earned your Amateur Radio call sign it’s yours for LIFE!! I will always be VE3LYY.

Even though I’m Canadian I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of the A.R.R.L Handbook. It really doesn’t matter if it’s the most recent one. You can find them on E-bay or Amazon or maybe through a local Ham Club. A.R.R.L. or American Radio Relay League is the American equivalent of R.A.C and their website is another valuable source of information.

A word of caution: if you do have Ham equipment please ignore the impulse to key-up without a license. Airlines, emergency services and the military use these radios and the last thing you want to do is accidentally interfere with their operations. You will be heavily fined and possibly imprisoned.

Everyone has their own motivation for becoming a licensed Ham but when it comes down to it when the SHTF Ham Radio Operators are our first line of defence.

Over the years through our local radio club, L.A.R.C. (London and Area Radio Club) I’ve been involved in a search for a missing child (this turned out positive and the child was found safe and sound.), I’ve been part of the CANWARN team which monitors crazy weather and reports in and various other activities like patrolling London on Devil’s Night. Being a member of a Ham Community is never dull and I’m always learning new things.

Until next time friends…

When I found out that a “Call to Arms” had been sent throughout @thealliance family I wasn’t really sure how to contribute, at first. I mean I knew I could write any post and donate the proceeds to @youareHOPE but I really wanted to focus on something to do with community. The funny thing is I was sitting in Carling Heights Optimist Community centre while I was pondering this. LOL!! Finally, while walking down the hall towards the pool I started really looking around. “How could I have missed all this?”

A whiteboard for everyone to enjoy colouring!!

The Community built Fairy Gardens!

My husband and I are here once or twice a week yet I’ve not really noticed the small things that make it a family-focused community centre.

A community member built pretty boxes to plant fairy gardens then engaged the Day Camp children to use their imaginations and plant the gardens. Adorable! There are several Rock stickers on the hall floor with fun things to do relating to the fairy gardens.

Even the stairs leading up to the pool viewing area have activities to occupy young minds!

The Carling Heights Community Centre was originally built as the community centre for the Canadian Forces Base locally known as “Wolseley Barracks”. The land was sold to the city at some point, possibly during the 80’s, but I learned that via word of mouth so I’m not sure. According to my “Army Bratt” friend, who grew up in a military family, the centre hasn’t changed much over the years.

The Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre has most of the amenities you would ever need but my husband and I only use the pool. I am thinking about taking a Tai Chi class this winter, something I’ve always wanted to do.

If you are interested in the Community Centre here’s their website. If you’d like to look a little further here’s a good site about the Carling Community and if you are interested in the history of the Canadian Forces Base this site is a good start.

So get out into your Community and start looking around! I bet you’ll be surprised what you find!

Until next time friends…

Hey everyone! I want to share a little story about how my daughter and I unexpectedly found ourselves at Pride this year. We had planned just to hang out downtown, completely unaware that it was the day of the Pride parade. I only realized it when my bus had to take a detour.

Stepping off the bus, I noticed the stormy sky and hoped to dodge the rain. My daughter had the same thought and suggested we wait it out at a new coffee shop. Though I can’t recall its name and forgot to snap photos (oops!), the place was lovely, and the iced tea was fantastic! I was just so excited to catch up with my daughter after weeks apart that the name of the coffee shop slipped my mind.

We sat there, chatting away and sipping our drinks, watching others get caught in the rain and sharing a laugh about our good fortune. When the rain let up, we decided to brave the parade, confident we wouldn’t melt in the drizzle.

Approaching the parade route, we were greeted by a sea of colourful, cheerful people, undeterred by the rain. The atmosphere was vibrant with music and laughter, but there were a few protesters too, with police nearby ensuring everything stayed peaceful. Interestingly, off-duty officers were also part of the parade, donning pink shirts and looking quite cute!

The parade was a celebration of peace and love, and it was heartwarming to see everyone so happy and friendly. It’s a shame that some people can’t move past their prejudices, but hey, all that negativity can’t be good for anyone. Once the parade started, the music and cheers drowned out any dissenting voices.

I admit, I didn’t take many photos – I was just so caught up in the fun and excitement! People were dancing, handing out beads and candies, and no one minded getting a bit wet from the Super-Soakers and mist sprayers on the floats. The atmosphere was incredibly positive and inclusive.

It was amazing to see groups like the Teacher’s Union and Scouts, who might not have participated a decade ago, now fully embracing the event with bright colours and high spirits. It’s a sign of growing acceptance, and it gives me hope for the future in other areas like race and ethnicity.

The parade ended with a much-anticipated appearance by the firemen – let’s just say, they did not disappoint! As the crowd dispersed, my daughter and I strolled through Victoria Park, taking in all the sights and booths. It was a day where the extraordinary became ordinary, and it made me wish every day could be that open and accepting.

Eventually, real life called, and we parted ways, feeling happy and content to have shared such a wonderful experience. I’m definitely planning to be back next year, and who knows, maybe I’ll join in and deck myself out too!

Until next time friends…

This photo was snapped about eight and a half years ago and is one of my favourite shots of Apollo. He was three and always happy to play outside with his Nana. Actually, he is still happy to come play with his Nana, with a camera in his hand. LOL

I almost used this shot a couple of times with text along the top for a fall themed photo but it just didn’t feel right. I mean, I think this would be safe to use. It doesn’t show his face but at the time it didn’t seem safe. What are your thoughts about sharing photos of your kids and safety? Everyone seems to do it with no worries. Am I too overprotective?

Here’s another shot from that day. It’s a little blurry and the reflections on the glasses are rather distracting but look at that face! I could be a little biased.

Take a good look at his coat! I loved this coat because it had schematics all over it. Well it had traces anyway. LOL! My husband started showing Apollo basic schematic symbols just around this time because of his coat. Man kids are like sponges… they just slurp up the knowledge.

It was around this time that Apollo started learning how to beat box. He was born with Stickler’s Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder, so his Mom, @dezziq has always encouraged any interests which don’t include strenuous activity such as contact sports.

Apollo is now 11 and I think he’s an awesome beat boxer. A while back he very confidently performed when he opened for a group called Dead Celebrity Status at a local venue. (I can’t find my pics from that night but I’ll keep looking through my drives until I find them then I’ll share!)

I’m going to church with the boys tomorrow….. yes…..I said it…church. If you know me then you know this is not a common Sunday morning routine for me but tomorrow is special. Who knows what shenanigans we will get up to.

How did I get way over here from there? Is this what a “free write” is? LOL!! Thanks for reading.

Until next time friends…

Hey everyone! Let me tell you about the time I ventured to the Mystic Bookshop here in London, Ontario, in search of my very own Tarot deck. I already had the Ryder Waite deck, a gift from a dear friend during my teenage years, but I was on the lookout for something new, something that really resonated with me.

After doing a bit of homework, I had my heart set on the Barbra Walker set. But something unexpected happened at the shop. The lovely lady there invited me behind the counter to get up close and personal with all the decks. As I crossed through her little gate, a deck tumbled off the shelf and landed on the floor. I brushed it off as possibly just a vibration from the nearby construction and put it back on the shelf.

I spent quite some time perusing the decks, and yes, the Barbra Walker deck was there. But, as I reached out to grab it, that same deck that had fallen earlier did so again. This time, I held onto it as I continued to browse.

You’ve probably guessed by now which deck I chose. The Elemental Tarot deck seemed to be calling out to me, almost as if we were meant to be together. When I got home and opened the deck, I was pleasantly surprised to find two Lovers cards. Over the next few days, as I got to know my new cards, I decided they deserved a special bag.

A few years earlier, I’d bought this gorgeous yard of fabric with images of women washing clothes in a river and holding infants. It was so vibrant and natural, and it seemed like the perfect choice for my tarot bag.

 I made a simple drawstring bag out of it, using colourful braided embroidery floss. I also crafted a little gem bag from a piece of velvet from my grandmother’s old skirt – it was too sentimental to part with. And with the leftover fabric, I created a tarot cloth, just a simple square with a crocheted edging. Everything turned out perfectly!

Until next time friends…