Nova Scotia Omiyage Gift Items.

Trip to Nova Scotia generally means bringing back gift items characteristic of area. Usually go with Coffee Crisp or Aero bars. Or Smarties. Sometimes even Cherry Blossom, Crispy Crunch, or Crunchie.
But if you do not have a sweet tooth there are alternatives:

Green Tomato Chow Chow.

One that has recently come up - good for almost anyone - Dulse.

Ketchup flavoured potato chips are often a favourite.
There are also local specialties like gouda from That Dutchman.
Items from Jost Vineyards.

All in spirit of omiyage.

Putnam Family Tree - Genealogy.

Never made a study of it, but have various threads for Putnam family tree. The Putnam Family Wikipedia article is a good start. The links at the bottom of the Wikipedia article are helpful.

There are fancier versions of the Putnam crest, but this above seems to capture the original flavour. And following back from John of Salem one gets to Puttenham.

My Nova Scotia clan goes down through Nathaniel->Benjamin or Thomas->Joseph (Just above Isreal)... Never really sure because at least a couple of the female forbearers were married to Putnams twice (after one died) and seems the Timothy Putnam who came to Nova Scotia in his teens in 1750s - came with his mother (Elizabeth) who had remarried a Hutchinson (?).

Lines from Timothy can be found in Canadian Census data. My grandparents had a copy of the Fulton Family of Atlantic Canada, which had connected lines with the Putnams.

Passport Canada, ROCA

Many thanks to Passport Canada, and to other officials, for helping me to get my passport. The new quick application is very smooth.

Words of warning:

Do not write anywhere in your passport (not pencil, not ink, not crayon). Do not staple, fold, spindle or otherwise mutilate your passport. Take these as the first rules and all other rules as subordinate...
You are asked to sign your passport in ink – in the indicated position only. You are asked to fill in a contact address – in the indicated position only. I made the mistake of continuing my contact information onto Page 5. DO NOT DO THIS. Do not erase the contact address to fill in a new one.

Passport Canada imprinted observations are allowed. Border control and immigration/visa agencies of sovereign nations imprints are allowed. [Note these imprints and attachments are not scribbles in the 21^st century. There are international stamp, note and visa formats – Who knew?]

It has been suggested that one should only sign the passport, and leave off any and all other writing/markings/imprints/attachments. Put your contact information on a slip of paper and affix it with a paperclip (or sticky note) over Page 4. There you can include multiple contacts, at home and abroad. You can also place important numbers like consulate and travel related contacts telephones/websites.

Update, augment and replace the contacts slip as needed. When you renew your passport, simply remove the contacts slip and place it in your new passport when you receive it.

For keeping someone abreast of your travel in case of travel emergency (earthquakes, epidemics, military actions, tsunamis, avalanches, reactor fallout…), consider registering with ROCA (Registry of Canadians Abroad).

http://travel.gc.ca/travelling/registration

https://www.voyage2.gc.ca/minroca/std/termsandconditions-en.htm
 

Have been away a really long time

March, April and May were busy as expected. June is not shaping up much better.

To get a little content in.... Have been to a number of network IT conferences and events lately. There seems to be a common theme of intelligent network monitoring, given that central managament of end points is to be a thing of the past (think mobile and embedded devices). Will be interesting to see how that plays out.

"Private Cloud" = virtual machines with management.

Cimetrics does longterm monitoring/commissioning from the "cloud"... would that then be "Cloud Based Comissioning"? "CBC"? The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has acronym "CBC" already alas.

Enterprise IT theme seems to be the rise and continuance of social networking, and unlocking the knowledge that many to many communication can uncover.

Trip to Canada in 2005

We took the route to Nova Scotia via the Gaspe.
Stayed near Mont Albert.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasp%C3%A9_Peninsula

and near Isle Bonaventure, famous for the Fou de Bassan colonies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonaventure_Island

visited Forillon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forillon_National_Park

Spent some time picking blueberries in Nova Scotia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueberries
http://www.nswildblueberries.com/



Visited Halifax
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Public_Gardens