In Memoriam

Catharinae Mozel Logan
23.09.1909 - 28.12.2005

In the Galician village of Futory they had a big house and quite a bit of land, with cows, pigs and chickens. After the restitution of Poland following the First World War, in 1921, her mother moved the family to Wrzoszy, near Toruń.

There Kathy worked on the farm, but she left home for Canada when she was 14, in 1923. Travelling alone, she went all the way to Camrose, Alberta, to her brother Mikołaj (Joe). He sent her to school, and insisted that she learn good English. She married a Scot from Glasgow, William Logan. In 1940-44 they lived in Ottawa and Hull, then for many years in Calgary before retiring to Victoria. In 2001 they moved to Vancouver.

The Dead

"A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves."



"It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."

I Have News

Anna is spending Christmas in Djenne. She's with a British couple, Cecilia and Andrew, that she met on the 10 hour bus ride from Bamako. They're staying at Chez Baba, probably until Monday, which is market day.



Djenne is about 220 miles southwest of Timbuktu. It was founded about 800 AD, and was an important trading centre for gold and salt.




To get there, Anna says they got off the Bamako - Mopti bus about 20 km. from Djenne and took a bush taxi the rest of the way.

This photo shows two of the main attractions of Djenne, the Grand Mosque, build entirely of mud, and the Monday market.

The Magic of Christmas

Here is the Christmas tree all decorated and ready for the holidays. I really enjoy opening the box of decorations and finding the old ornaments, each with its own history and special memories.


Tonight is the longest night of the year.


We're having our second big snowfall since last Friday. It's cold, maybe - 15 C. In December winter is still delightful, but I don't think we'll feel the same way about it in March.


The magic glow of Christmas.

Bringing Home the Christmas Tree

Saturday morning, after the snowstorm, was glorious. Louise and I drove out to a tree farm on Anderson Road to get our Christmas tree. We settled on a balsam fir, a nice narrow one that wouldn't take up too much space in the apartment.

First Big Snowstorm of the Winter

We can always count on Nature to help us refocus our priorities. Friday morning the city woke up to the first big snowstorm of the winter. Walking to work that morning I found people to be unusually friendly and cheerful, and total strangers were giggling and saying "good morning", which I rarely see around here.

By noon over 25 cm. had accumulated and traffic was paralyzed. Then came one of life's sweet gifts - we closed down the office and sent everyone home at 2 p.m. - on a Friday! What could be better than that, especially just before Christmas? I took this photo soon after getting home, at 4:14 p.m. on Dec. 16, 2005. The view is towards the southwest up MacLaren St., as seen from our dining room.

News from Dia

I was able to get through to Anna on the phone this afternoon. She has moved down the Niger River from Massina to Dia (pronounced JAH) for a few days. It took most of the day to drive the 75 km. because the road is pretty rough. She said she saw many species of birds along the way.

Anna is staying with the family of the president of her NGO, and Dia appears to be his home town. It was night when I spoke to her. She had been sitting on the roof marvelling at the moon and the village around her which is made entirely of mud.

Here are a few pictures of Dia by Huib Blom, a Swiss photographer who specialises in travel images from West Africa.

Weather Forecast for Bamako

Bohemians and Gypsies

Warsaw, May 1972 - JW, Mary, Ted, Andy and I converge on the capital for May Day.


One of the first sites on our "must see" list is the Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science.


There our little band of Canadian bohemians encounters a band of Polish gypsies.


JW is about to witness the magical illusion of his 100 złoty banknote disappearing into thin air.

Storyland Valley Zoo, Edmonton, 1960

(Click on the picture to enlarge it!)

With all the recent excitement of Anna's departure for Africa, there has not been much time for blogging photographs. But as so many of you have been scolding me for slacking off, I thought I'd dig around in the archives to see if there was anything interesting I might send your way.

These two photographs go way back. They're from the Storyland Valley Zoo created in 1959 by the City of Edmonton.

Riding the miniature train you will see me and my brother Edzio, just behind the four little blonde girls in identical robin egg blue dresses.

In the following photograph, Edzio, my cousin Arthur and I, are standing on the bow of Noah's Ark.

Both photos were taken by my father with his pre-WWII Contax III camera with Zeiss Sonnar 50/1.5 lens.