Author Archives: Gillian

June 6, 1944

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Today marks the 65th anniversary of the campaign known as D-Day. Ceremonies are going on in many places today to commemorate these events.

I’ve posted some reflections on D-Day and the Normandy beaches before (here and here) but I would like to take some time to pause and remember once again on this important anniversary.


Arromanches Beach was first taken by the British and then used as a supply base. Some of the floats used to create a breakwater around the beach can still be seen.
Juno Beach, where the Canadian Army landed. On the 50th anniversary of D-Day, some good friends from Ontario (my “adopted” grandparents) came back with a group of veterans to visit this beach. They brought me home a rock. Cheesy as it sounds, when I visited Juno beach in 2006, the 62nd anniversary and 12 years after my friends did, I picked up another. Its hard to imagine scores of boats and tanks once lined the beach here. Perhaps some are still visible, but the tide was up. All that remains are a few battered bunkers that presumably the German army returned fire from.
The Canadian cemetery in Courselliers-Sur-Mer, Normandy. It is in the middle of farmer’s fields and can see the ocean. Its not too big, but big enough considering what it contains. It is always moving to visit war cemeteries overseas and see the love and care that locals give to maintaining them.

Friday Photo

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This post was originally published on June 5, 2008. Fond memories.

The Day the Sea was Lighter than the Sky


Having passed Cape Guadarfui, we have entered a zone of absolute calm. For the last 48 hours the sea has been smooth and oily, except where a slight breeze ruffles its surface or covers it with a network of minute wrinkles as regular as the weave of a tapestry. Upon this mirror flying-fish rise up, glide, and take off again, like swallows skimming the water. In the middle of this great shoreless lake the evenings take on an exquisite beauty. Yesterday I could never tire of looking to the east where the sea was uniformly milky and green, with opalescence that was still not transparent, lighter than the background of the sky. Suddenly on the horizon a thin diffuse cloud became tinged with pink; and then with little oily ripples of the ocean still opal on one side and turning to lilac on the other, the whole sea looked for a few seconds like watered silk. Then the light was gone and the stars began to be reflected around us as peacefully as in the water of a quiet pool.

– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Letters from a Traveller, written somewhere between Egypt and India, 1923.
We have returned to the Pacific Northwest after being gone a few days over a year. The foreign yet familiar smells of the coast: the salt and seaweed, the rocks and the trees were one of the first things to assail our senses, quickly followed by green. Despite being in many different and stunningly beautiful far-away places for the last twelve months, this is home and there is a strange beauty to this countryside. Strolling through the quaint streets of Port Townsend, Washington, I realize how good it is to be home, even though I’m not quite there. Sailing down the Strait of Juan de Fuca a few days ago was a surreal feeling. The lights of Victoria offered a glow on the horizon off to port, escorting us along. Are we really back? Yes, but no. There are still ten days left before we sail into Victoria’s Inner Harbour in all our glory. Ten days to keep living this isolated, simple life that exists on board. Ten days to continue to enjoy life with this wonderful group of trainees and crew that I’ve spent the last three weeks crossing our final stretch of Pacific Ocean with. Its been an epic adventure; one full of amazing experiences and valuable lessons and lots of good times.

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I have a lot of things festering around in my head that I want to do and no time right now to do them. How does one create more hours in the day?

I Went to Montreal and London and Now I’m Home

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and Stratford, but apparently I didn’t take any photos with the family there.

Over the week, I…

Met week-and-a-half old baby Piper (she’s a cutie!) in Vancouver


Saw my sister graduate from her Masters at McGill in Montreal


Went to the exhibit commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Bed-In

Drove by the house I grew up in…


…and saw that the birch tree planted when I was born is still there


Drove by “The Weedpatch” – my Grandparent’s old house


Lost 10 years off of my life in rush hour on the 401 in Toronto. (There are 13 lanes in this photo. Thirteen. Count them. Egads!)


Witnessed the wedding of one of our oldest friends (not old as in he is old but old as in our families have been friends since before any of us kids were born)

Drove back on the 401 once more before flying home to beautiful BC over the Gulf Islands (points if anyone can identify any of these islands!)