Hey - Christmas is coming! So is Hanukkah, Festivus, Bodhi Day (actually I think we might have already had that one), Krismas, Saturnalia, and the Winter Solstice - and maybe a few other wintertime celebrations, too. Which means it's time for me to take a couple of weeks off.

The Museum and Archives will be closed until Tuesday, January 3. I'll be celebrating the season with some time to myself, some time with my friends and family, and a very large turkey because my husband is dying for leftovers.

So light the menorah, plug in the tree, or watch the sun - however you recognise the season, I hope it's a good one.

We'll see you in January!

Yesterday, while I was in Nelson, I picked up the first batch of local historic film footage that's been converted to DVD. Today, I spent a fair bit of time looking at the film and trying to figure out how to use Adobe Premiere to edit it.

All I've figured out so far is how to cut out parts of the film and save the clip I want in a format I can upload to our website. Trust me, for a technodinosaur like me, that's quite an accomplishment for one afternoon. What I haven't figured out yet is how to put into a page on our website, so you can actually click on it to watch it. All I get is a grey box with a message telling me I need to install a plug-in.

But I was able to upload it to YouTube (another first for me - I think I deserve a reward for that!), so click here to watch a fifteen-second clip of Bob Maxwell's boat on the Kootenay River, in May 1956.

Awesome photos Tammy.  We don't get to see all that just driving down the highway.

Yesterday, I got to ride the CP Holiday Train to Nelson. Now that was an incredble way to spend the day! Of course I took a bunch of photos - check them out in the photo album of the trip!

Like trains? Well, then, there are a couple of events coming up that you won't want to miss.



First up is the CP Holiday Train, which will be pulling into Creston (Millennium Park) at about 9:45 Monday morning (December 12). If you haven't already made your annual donation to the local food bank, this is a great opportunity to do so - all the food and money raised while the train is in Creston will benefit Gleaners. That, and you get to watch a great concert featuring all sorts of well-known performers, including Valdy.

Then, next weekend (December 17-18), the Seventh Siding Trackers will be hosting their annual Christmas Open House of the Model Railway down here at the Museum. They've been adding all sorts of new things, and working hard to get it all ready and running. Knowing the railway guys, they'll get the best and biggest trains out for it, so come on down! The trains will be running from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM both days, and admission is by donation (cash or non-perishable food item).

So there are plenty of opportunities to get your train fix. And watch this site on Tuesday, because I am lucky enough to be able to
ride the Holiday Train to Nelson, and I'll be posting lots of photos of the
trip.

As you may have heard, we're working on a project to convert historic film and audio recordings onto CD and DVD, and that includes a number of interviews with local long-timers on cassette, that we have in the Archives.

Carol came in today to tackle some of these cassettes, and started with a recording of Guy Constable and Jack Hall talking about the local fruit-growing industry. Guy Constable died in 1973, which gives you some idea of just how old some of these cassettes are (and why we want to convert them to DVD!), and Jack Hall was a district horticulturist here for years (his family was one of the original fruit growing families in Erickson), so you can imagine what a wealth of information is contained on these recordings.

Carol wasn't even five minutes into the first cassette when she found a gem. You know how Dr. Marling, who arrived in 1958, was the first fully-qualified veterinarian in the Creston Valley? And before that, we had Charlie Sutcliffe, who was a butcher by trade but had done part of an apprenticeship with a veterinarian in England, before coming to Creston, and because he had a natural understanding of animals and how to care for them, he often treated the livestock in the Valley? Well, according to Mr. Hall, there was a fellow named Doug Harrison among the early fruit ranchers in the Valley, who was a fully-qualified vet and had come here to be a vet, but refused to take the BC exam and so became a fruit rancher instead.

Now I'm curious. When did Doug Harrison arrive? How long was he here? Did he offer veterinarian services informally, despite not having a BC license?

Oh dear. I think I've been sidetracked again.

Does anyone know where the name Yasodhara Ashram comes from, and how long it's been in use?

I've had a researcher contact me, and here's what she's found so far:

"I have learned that the name Yasodhara was in existence as early as 1887 on maps of the area, apparently named from an early surveyor who was doing the Canadian township surveys for the government and who had lived in India.

"We know that the original parcel of 660 acres was acquired by Robert Langford and then a portion shared with Robert Richardson and this was later subdivided into 20 smaller lots."

I found a reference on www.kootenay-lake.ca that says, "Yasodhara predates the ashram of the same name. Apparently named in the early part of the 20th
century by R.F. Langford of Kootenay Bay, proprietor of the Langford
Land Co. Yasodhara (pronounced Yash–sho–dra) was the Hindu god Krishna’s
mother and also the wife of Prince Siddhartha, who became Buddha. The
name was a prime factor in Swami Sivananada Radha’s decision to buy the
property in 1963 and establish Yasodhara Ashram."

The researcher hs found that the property was purchased from the CPR in 1907, which dovetails nicely with the statement that Langford naked it in the early part of the century, but if the name was in use on maps from 1887, then it was probably not Langford who named it.

I'm not aware of any surveyors working in this area who had lived in India, but it's certainly plausible.

But after all that, we're still at the same place: Does anybody know where the name Yasodhara Ashram comes from, and how long it's been in use?

This afternoon, I got to attend a meeting of the Creston Valley Embroidery Guild, to see if any of the ladies there are interested in helping with a project we've been thinking about doing here for quite a few years.

We have dozens of embroidered items in the Museum's collection - maybe even hundreds, if you were to count all the tablecloths, runners, and handkerchiefs. These objects range from pillow cases to piano stools, and include a few absolute gems, like this cross-stitch sampler from the 1790s:



and a fireplace screen done in crewel embroidery:



Well, whenever a stitcher visits the Museum and sees some of these pieces, the response is pretty predictable: a lot of oohs and aaahs and comments like "I love that design; I'd really like to stitch it myself." This is often followed by a flurry of photographs, as the stitcher attempts to capture the item in enough detail that she can re-create it later.

So, with the help of some members of the Embroidery Guild, this winter we'll be working on creating patterns for some of these items, and printing them in little booklets for sale in the Museum's gift shop. Look for the first booklets in the series this spring and summer!

Cool, huh? And big thanks to the ladies of the embroidery guild who will be starting on this after Christmas!

At this time of year, a lot of people ask me what we have happening down here at the Museum. It's pretty quiet, since they're aren't a lot of visitors coming in (though I did have a couple today), but there's still not much chance of getting bored.

Right now, we're researching our next feature exhibit, the 1930s in the Creston Valley.

We'll be opening this exhibit in the spring, and it's going to take some creativity - because we have not a lot of information on the impact of the Great Depression, and even fewer artifacts and photographs to illustrate it!

Read more about the kind of information we're looking for, and if you can help, we'd sure like to hear from you!

This one seems appropriate for today:



No, actually, Aladdin opened at the Theatre last night, Thursday December 1 2011, and it runs again tonight and tomorrow. At 7:30, not 8:00. But it is at the high school and the school formerly known as Creston Elementary is involved.

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again: Things don't really change all that much!