Obama To Be President of Canada

Barack Obama wants to be President of Canada?

Barack Obama wants to be President of Canada or Canada wants Barack Obama for its own President and forget the Prime Minister? Or Canada wants Barack Obama for President of the USA (very presumptious of us)? Or Barack Obama wants Vancouver Island to be part of America? I have no idea why we have this billboard in Victoria - maybe someone is just all very excited about the election - I know I am.

Obama & Madonna & Shauna

I know our island dips its toe south of the 49th parallel and I am bully for Obama (I bought the T-Shirt) but what is with the Obama for President Billboard on our town's Canadian highway?

The Annexation Movement of November (but it was in 1864)

We have strict anti billboard signs and there is only one small area where billboards are permitted. And for over 8 months there has been the Obama for President billboard, in fact there were actually 2 Obama billboards up in that limited piece of billboard real estate.

Not since 1864 has Victoria considered a US President for its leader. That was when US Consul Allen Francis, hmmm spied is perhaps too strong a word for it, but he secretively took notes in Victoria and reported back to President Ulyses S. Grant we (Victorians) were ripe for annexation to America. In November 1869 he gathered a petition signed by ...

"...40 prominent businessmen"...The petition is very strongly worded, setting forth with much force and cognency of reason, the isolated and helpless condition of the colony." It seemed a folly to remain united to distant England, when British Columbia is sandwiched between Washington Territory and Alaska (purchased from Russia 2 years earlier).

Annexation of Victoria British Columbia to the USA?

Needless to say Allen Frances miss-read the mood of the Vancouver Island folks and no action was taken by Grant who said that he had "considered the petition with great interest." I think President Grant was just being polite about giving dullsville pretty little Victoria any thought , because after the dizzy Gold Rush days, Victoria had settled back into being the fuddy duddy dull place that it pretty much has always been - hence its nickname "the town of newly wed and the nearly dead".

My Beautiful Neice -The Future President Maizy with President Clinton

We do get a lot of American visitors and a lot of Canadians love Obama (not like the "Bush Is A Moron" blurted out by Canadian politicians years ago) so maybe the billboards are to remind US visitors to elect Obama? I do know it is all very exciting and I look forward to watching the election November 4th. America always seems so much more exciting like Marsha Brady to the Jan Brady of Canada. I mean please let me know, America, if you have any Stephen Dion for Prime Minister billboards in your home town.

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PS. Laurel thanks for your kind comment and interest in seeing the peektures of pumpkin.

nefaeria of http://nefaeriaofetsy.blogspot.com/said...That crow pumpkin turned out NICE! It would be awesome if you posted some peektures of it ;)
Laurel - October 30, 2008 4:59 AM

Here they are...

Pumpkin Portrait Carving

The Under Sea Worldness of Chihuly-like Pumpkinery

Cucurbita Female Pumpkin Flower

The strange, fluid, other-worldliness of the pumpkin patch looks far more like it belongs under the sea than under my kitchen window

Sea Anemone or Landlubber Flower?

The flowing openess of the flowers. The languid look of the large petals. The coiling tendrils. It is all very, very fluid.

Ready to Swirl and Sway In the Ocean?

These are more like plants I would see on a scuba dive - ready to swirl and sway in an ocean current - than plants exposed on a dry, rocky outcrop.

No Elvis Here, Just Ringo

Some people see Elvis; others see fractals; I see sea anemones. The garden sets off free association imagery like dominoes knocking one image down against another image of experiences and pop culture, (and now add to it blogs,) in my head. In the days of hodden grey, the church and nature provided imagery stimulus so folks saw the Madonna in the tree bark. Nowadays of mass media culture people see Elvis in a gherkin or an Octopus's garden in a pumpkin patch.

...Or , how about Chihuly...

Picture of Chihuly's Persians - Photo credit unknown

Dale Chihuly is an artist whose glass sculptures - the Persians series - drift through the other-world of my pumpkin crevasse. No, I haven't eaten Datura, but I have blown glass .

Pumpkin Visions Come From My Blowing Glass...Not From My Eating Datura

Every time I look at the pumpkins I am stunned with images of Chihuly's Persians I have seen in Victoria, Seattle, Las Vegas, galleries and museums. See fer yerself - thar ain't no denyin' it...

Picture Credit: PERSIAN POND"CHIHULY IN THE PARK: A GARDEN OF GLASS" NOVEMBER 23, 2001 - NOVEMBER 4, 2002GARFIELD PARK CONSERVATORY, CHICAGO
www.chihuly.com

Godly Gourd - The Good Pumpkin - Served At The First Thanksgiving
Canada we have Thanksgiving in October Whilst Our American Neighbours in November

The Garden Brae pumpkin patch is actually more of a pumpkin crevasse. Pumpkins need a sunny, well-drained site. I planted mine in a crevasse on a hot, rocky outcrop and left them to fend for themselves. Nope, I didn't get involved in their sex life either. I left the male and female flowers to co-mingle with whatever bee - go- betweens that happened upon them.


And yet, with this neglect, they still graciously rewarded me with the beauty of their special world! Because of their location up on the rock and the sun shining through them I had a wonderful vantage of being below them looking up into their pumpkin realm, almost like I was floating through them. I feel kinda guilty though ....

Terry and Lisa (my sisters) Portraits in Pumpkin

The pumpkin abuse isn't over yet...in a couple of weeks they will go under the knife for pies and for my pumpkin art!

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Genius Loci thought: Pumpkins are kin to the spirit of the place. They thrived against the odds and settled in to the natural beauty of the landscape. Next year they get care, attention, and a wee bit of coaxing in their sex life.