Lisa's Blog

We stopped at a neighbour's yard sale today and found a new set of dishes!

Jeff's dishes are big and ceramic and heavy. I've been looking at new sets for awhile, but didn't find anything I wanted for the money.

Well now we have a set of 8 Pfaltzgraff Ocean Breeze dishes for $10 - including dinner plates, bowls, small plates, cups, and saucers.

This set is $200 on Pfaltzgraff's website - without the saucers!

Unfortunately they have turned out to be almost as heavy as Jeff's - but they are smaller and fit better in the cupboard and dishwasher!

I'm trying out a new micropayment beta service I read about yesterday - Flattr

The goal of Flattr is to easily provide the ability to send a micropayment to a content provider.

Here's how it works.

1. You sign up for an account at http://Flattr.com
2. You deposit money into your account (in Euros, through Paypal, or with your credit card)
3. You set the amount you wish you disperse every month - a minimum of 2 Euros
4. During the month, when you read a blog post or other content that you enjoy, and it has a Flattr icon at the bottom of it, you click it to Flattr it
5. At the end of the month, your monthly amount is divided by the amount of times you Flattr'd something, and the money is dispersed to those content providers.
6. Right now, the owners of the site keep 10% of a user's dividend for their profit. They expect to drop that percentage as usage grows.

Seems like an interesting idea, and as much as money people want everything for free, there are people who will gladly contribute a couple of cents to you, like a tip jar, but before had no way to process such a small micropayment.

I've installed it here on my blog while I learn more about it, and see how it progresses through Beta. I'm not expecting much in return, but I can tell you I've already Flattr'd someone else. I would far rather submit a micropayments to someone as thanks for a post I enjoyed or found useful than clicking a useless Facebook Like button.

I have 3 invites if you wish to get in on the beta period.

I just finished reading Mabel Bell: Alexander's silent partner.

Fascinating.

Mabel Bell was Alexander Graham Bell's wife. I really knew nothing about Alexander Graham Bell, other than he had ties to Brantford, Ontario and Baddeck, Nova Scotia (as well as the U.S) and he had something to do with inviting the telephone.

Well a few weeks back Dad and I visited the Alexander Graham Bell museum in Baddeck. It was stunning how many inventions and scientific developments Alexander Graham Bell had a hand in. As I told Dad, there was one man who certainly had no television or internet in his life to waste away his time. He was ALWAYS busy learning and inventing!

I was particularly interested in his wife after the visit to the museum. I learned she was deaf and had a strong role in Bell's life. I was so interested that I looked her up in our University library (where I work) to see if they had the book about her that I spotted in the museum's giftshop.

Sure enough they did, and after working in a library for 2.5 years, I checked out my first book.

Mabel Bell became deaf from scarlet fever when she was just 5 years old. Alexander (or "Alec" as he is referred to in the book) was Mabel's teacher who helped teacher her how to speak clearly and read lips. Bell, ten years her senior, fell in love with Mabel, and waited until she was old enough to court, and were married when she was 19.

Most of the book content was in Mabel's words from her journal, letters to family, to "Alec", and even some to her from Alec. What a treasure to have her original thoughts and words.

Mabel was a strong, determined woman. She pushed Alec into areas she wanted him to focus on, and away from others (he would have been perfectly content being a teacher of the deaf for his entire life). She fought so hard to claim recognition for Alec's work. He loved the science, and the inventing, but grew weary of patent fights and battles.

Mabel came from the wealthy Hubbard family and had money of her own that she used to fund some of Alec's pursuits (including the aeronautical research that led to the flight of The Silver Dart.

She knew many languages worked tirelessly at creating the social structure her husband's work required, and so their two daughters would be properly raised.

It was astonishing to me how many times they crossed the ocean for speaking events, and to expose their daughters to foreign languages, and cultures.

She seemed to me to be very insistent by nature. She was not afraid to make her opinion known. Her biggest, on-going conflict with her husband was that he would not come to bed with her at a decent hour, and he was never an early riser. He wrote letters, begging her to understand that he wanted to be left alone in his study or laboratory to work for hours, or days, until he was done a project, and then he was all hers.

She would write Alec letters when he was away on speaking engagements, pleading with him to be well groomed and finely dressed. She was desperate that her grandchildren would be educated in a

Mabel organized his history and pleaded with her son-in-law to properly write Bell's biography so history could be set straight so Bell could receive the proper credit for his work after they were gone.

Mabel started the first Montesorri school in Canada, and later another in the U.S., in order for her grandchildren and their friends to receive a proper education.

The story was fascinating to me because it also tied in to a book I listened to part of with Dad - Outliers: The Story of Success. Did fortune, and fame come to Alexander Graham Bell because he was lucky? a genius? Or because he was already surrounded with successful, famous people? Throughout their lives they had contact with royalty, Prime Ministers, Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Lieutenant-Governors, inventors, and other wealthy notables. This angle would make for a fascinating book or thesis.

The presence of the Bells in Baddeck, Nova Scotia must have changed the village's destiny for ever. Mabel invested in the local library, and started a reading and women's club in the village to bring together the women of different religions (who would otherwise never co-mingle) and class. The club still continues today. Their presence must have touched every person in the village. Many of them were employed by the Bells to construct their house, or in Bell's laboratory. Others would have attended lavish meals and events at their "Beinn Bhreagh" estate (Gaelic for beautiful mountain).

Their large mansion and estate still overlooks Baddeck Bay and is used by their great-grandchildren. From the written description of a guest room in the mansion from a guest, their decor is/was very lavish! Mabel and Alec are buried together on the hill.

The life story of Mabel Bell will stick with me for a long time.

Book: Mabel Bell: Alexander's silent partner
Author: Lilias M. Toward
ISBN: 0458980900

My friend Dean sent this to me today and I've watched it three times now and cried all three times.

Have you heard of Christian the Lion??

I think I cry because this is always how I imagined reuniting with Winger and Surf in heaven.

Dad and I went up to visit the Bird Islands on a boat cruise.

The Bird Islands are a couple of hours from here, off the coast of Cape Breton Island.

Here are some of my photos:

The tour boat was similar to a lobster boat, only a cabin had been built to keep us mostly inside, with big windows.

Not the easiest boat to step into - more like step down on, and duck and squeeze your way in - but we all made it!

Here are our hosts, Captain John MacAskill and his wife Donelda. Dad said they were the best boat tour guides he ever had. What hard working folk though - Donelda said she was up at ten to three in the morning because they fish lobster with one of their sons before their scheduled tours to the Bird Islands!

Donelda said the bald eagles in the area know their boat and the sound of her voice on the speakers. Why? Well because she tosses them a fish if they come down to visit the boat!

A fog cloud kept coming in and off shore, but luckily it mostly lifted by the time we got out to the Bird Islands (about 40 minutes from shore). It was quite rough to get out there, so Donelda put sea sickness bands on several of the passengers. The bands velcro around your wrist and have a pressure point that works like acupuncture on a nerve in your wrist. It seemed to work - no one puked!

Here are some grey seals!

At this time of the year, the small rocky islands are home to Atlantic Puffins, Black Guillemots, Great Cormorants, Double Crested Cormorants, Razorbills, Great Black Backed Gulls, Black Legged Kittiwakes, Herring Gulls, Great Blue Herons, and Bald Eagles. Donelda did an excellent job at pointing out each species to us, and making sure we all got to see them.

Puffin!

We went out to the back of the boat with all the other photographers. The ocean was really rocky most of the time, so getting good photos was tricky! For every photo in focus, I have about 10 that are duds.

The cormorants like to flash people! Actually they are just drying their wings, but it is neat to see them stretched out.

There were nests everywhere. Everytime a bald eagle came by, all the gulls went nuts and flew around in swarms.

The seals are really cute. There were lobster traps EVERYWHERE around the islands and the coast. Jeff said the seals can rip open the lobster traps to help themselves to lobster!

Heron!

Immature bald eagle. They don't get their white head for a couple of years.

I snapped a picture of this heron just before it took off, so I kept taking photos as it elegantly flew away.

Two kinds of cormorants:

Bald Eagle!

Puffins are SO cute. They are quite little and have to flap their wings extremely fast to get anywhere.

The boat was full! I highly recommend this tour. For more information, visit their website: http://PuffinBoatTours.ca