On the passing of the Queen

Today began with the Queen’s funeral. One of the advantages of being in the Maritime time zone is that the funeral proper began at 7 rather than 6, and thus waking up was less of an issue. The night before, I had worked out how to get CBC TV on the set in my room. My alarm went off at 6:45 and cuddled under a duvet, I watched the ceremony. The late Queen’s quiet feminism was in evidence as there were a number of women doing the readings or saying prayers. A small bit of history was made when the Catholic Bishop of London said prayers for her. The last time a Catholic clergyman said prayers at the funeral of a British monarch in London would have been for Queen Mary Tudor. A minor exception to this would have been the prayers said at the funeral of James II, but he was not a reigning monarch when he died in France.

One bit of the Queen’s quiet feminism came out recently when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand revealed that she had asked the Queen advice on how to reconcile being a leader and a mother at the same time. This would have been on her trip to London while she was pregnant with her first child. The Queen’s advice? “Just get on with it.” I interpret that the Queen was saying “Don’t overthink it.”

I realized I missed something yesterday. The signs for Grand Falls are usually written “Grand Falls / Grand Sault” in order accommodate New Brunswick two official languages. However, that is indicative of something else. Above Grand Sault, the place names are French Catholic. Below Grand Falls, they are British. (In both cases, some are of First Nations’ origin.)

I spent the bulk of today on the Great Trail in the form of a former Canadian Pacific rail bed converted to trail use. Unfortunately, among the permitted trail users are dirt bikes and ATVs, some of whom don’t take their responsibilities towards the trail very seriously. There were a lot of dodgy surfaces of loose rocks and potholes. The scenery was nice but a times the path didn’t seem worth it. However, I saw a juvenile bald eagle take flight.

At Florenceville-Bristol, there were 3 old heavyweight passenger cars which an inn and restaurant in season. By heavyweight, I mean they had been designed for passenger comfort by adding weight to the design. One sign of this was that they had three axle bogies at each end.

At Hartland, I stopped for a longish while in the Sun next to its famous covered bridge, famed for being the longest covered bridge in the World. While I was enjoying the Sun, I had the thought that depending on definition, there may have been a longer covered bridge. I just did some research and it bears me out. The Victoria Bridge across the St-Lawrence was originally a metal tube complete with a roof (of sorts). Therefore, it could be described as having been a longer covered bridge (at about 3 kilometres) than the Hartland Bridge (391 meters). Neither bridge was covered at the same time.