The spread of the Omicron virus continues. Hospitals are having problems because a lot of staff are off either ill or self-isolating.
One new measure in our semi-lockdown state is that self-isolation length of time has been cut from 10 days to 7 days. Schools went back this week but a sudden snowfall meant that in some schools, teachers didn't make it in.
There a have been a couple of very fine days however. Very cold but clear so it was wonderful to get out and about for walks.
While stuck in the house these winter days I have been reading this book:
I Married the Klondike by Laura Berton. As a child in school in Canada in the 1950s and 60s I Knew the name of Pierre Berton who was a well-known Canadian writer at that time. This is a memoir written by his mother, first published in 1954. It gives a women’s perspective on living in Dawson (Yukon Territories) for 25 years in the early part of the 20th century.
The blurb states:
In 1907 [Eleven years after the Klondike Gold Rush] Laura Beatrice Berton, a 29-year-old kindergarten teacher, left her comfortable life in Toronto Ontario to teach in the Yukon Territories. She fell in love with the North--and with a northerner--and made Dawson City her home.
I absolutely loved it and could related to many, many aspects in her book, e.g. living in a small town in Canada (Salmon Arm, B.C.) and the experience of the Canadian winters!
But most of all it gave me an overview of what life would have been like for my mother's family (5 children) where her father was a minister in the north of British Columbia (Port Simpson, off the coast of Prince Rupert).
I also learned some factual information about Robert Service. To that end I am going to do a separate post on this plus some long quotations of her funny stories ..... just like my mother used to tell!
That will keep me from wearying as we continue to keep our heads down during these semi-lockdown conditions... which is coming up now for two years!
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