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Donna invites you to this link to see her Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0069TK60A

I invite guests to search for Donna Munro and Zelda the Bee: The Zany Adventures of Zelda the Bee on Amazon Kindle. I released my first book on Remembrance Day.

This story includes both fiction and non-fiction texts on Zelda the Bee and a bee's story. She collects nectar and pollen on her neighbourhood tour. She meets Peter. Meeting Peter and the bond they have becomes important to Zelda when she gets in a bind. To find out more, visit the Amazon Author page here. (You will need to copy and paste the link into your browser.)

http://www.amazon.com/Zelda-Bee-Zany-Adventures-ebook/dp/B0066HPE9S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321170195&sr=1-1

Elna Brodie Niccolls was a great lover of the Stampede. She went to them when she was young. I did not consolidate theories of her young life, till I had boxes of random things sent to me. I discovered in there a Stampede Dollar inscribed with the name of her date. It turned out that was her first serious boyfriend who had taken her to the Stampede. I wonder if it was her first date. My first date was to go to the Stampede. It is a great first date.

Elna always had a love for drawing Westerns. Her love for these images caused me to go back and evaluate the popular media of her day when she lived on the North Hill. I made conclusions and then verified these with her. I did the same with my aunt. I did find by studying history trends that I can bring back the latest of what was happening then and then ask better questions to my grandma and aunts about their specific life story. Every movie you see, at least the good ones, tie the plot line into history a bit (fantasy and science fiction excluded). I find the value of movies to be ones able to represent the trends of the day and to bring life truths or life realities forward. What I know from my Grandma and aunts was that there was a fair ground in Brandon way back.

At the fair ground, there was a building that had a second floor. On that second floor, there was a place to dance. My grandma's first boyfriend loved to dance. At that time, Grandma did too. (I discovered this asking her about the fair grounds.) When I was young, I loved to dance. I had never talked about dancing really with my Grandma till she was advanced in years. I found out she had the same bug I did. Then, when she did marry, she married a musician - my grandfather. He was gifted in making music, but not so gifted in dancing. His role had always been making music for others to dance. I think she made a very good choice in picking her mate, because their life production led to me.

Going into this further fair ground layout, my great-grandfather like to play cards. The building was used year round as well as during Stampede. Playing cards seemed to be very much a man's game. It was man culture. When men played cards they were serious, like men who play computer games today. If you can base the life truth around what happened in our family, men did not necessarily include the family in their card games. This may be because it could include gambling. It may be as well because men had a glass of spirits during the game.

So, at the fair ground, on the first floor of the building (where there was dancing on the second floor), there was shall I call it a casino. That was where men went to play cards. It was one of their reasons to come into town and socialize with the guys. Now, it is not that my grandmother did not learn to play cards as a past-time. She watched her father all the time and playing cards became a Brodie girl past-time for my grandmother when retirement finally afforded her time to play. This guy thing about how men played cards with their men friends is why it is spectacular that Mr. Brodie taught his youngest daughter to play. He welcomed her into man culture and shared the game with her. That was her special thing with her Dad. He had never included his other daughters before. The youngest became Dad's playing partner when his friend did not make it over. The youngest was also a tomboy. She loved to do the things with the boys. It is like she received a badge of acceptance into the man's world.

At the fair, according to history, there were First Nations presentations. My proof of Elna going to the Stampede is her Stampede Dollar, her drawing of First Nations and cowboys, and her photos at the Stampede. (The movies of the day were also Western themes.) Where she had this photo done was a booth similar to the ones you find in malls today. I asked her. I would really like to see the booth they did their photo in. I would like to know if it was man powered. It would be a classic piece of equipment either way. Her photos look like the precursor of the photo booth strip you get today. When I went to the Stampede, I also had these pictures done. They are like part of the experience. The photo booth technology had advanced then to be much more like ones we know today. The new (really new or next) photo booths should email people their pictures or put them up onto Facebook.

When Elna was a grandma and we were really small (like 5 or 6), she sent money to her sons to take us all to the fair. She did this several years. Back in the 1970's, she sent $200 to us to go do the fair right. There were times when we were smaller that my grandparents came down and went to the parade and Stampede with us. My grandma pretty much spoiled us with all a Grandma can. She would send us on lots of rides. She bought us the corn dogs. At the Stampede, we learned the value of Western culture. You got to feel what the concept of being a cowboy was. I don't think I ever really placed Grandma back into the Wild and Opening West. Now, I realize she lived in the midst of it. I hope she had fun.

Supporting the values of the West, Grandma gave her grandchildren pieces of the Johnny West Collection. We got the horses, the men, women, boys, and girls all dressed as horsemen. All the garb of the West came with each doll. We got the saloon and the corral. That set of toys was a prize worthy as any train set a boy could have. You could set it up, lay it out across a carpet, and play as a group of children for 4-5 hours, save it for the next day, and do it all again. As children, we all loved our Johnny West. With moves and growing up, some of these known to be classics have been sold on E-Bay. However, some of the pieces are being put back together by my brother and I to entertain the next generation.

Can you create culture with toys? You bet. We may not have been there for the era the classic movies were made, but the toys we played with built an interest for old cowboy movies. In the end, we had a common interest with our grandparent, although our domains of common life experience were overlapped with small measures, the values and perspectives transferred.

Pictures leave us hints of culture that need to be combined with researching the context of the photo. You could look at this picture above and say what a nice picture. Or you go through all the photos and see a trend. This one is different. It is smaller than the others. A couple were in strips. The physical nature of the photo is important. The notes on the back are important. Really important. That is one thing that beats digitizing photos. Losing the words on the back are like losing the original interpretation of the context. Digitizing photos needs to scan 2 sided to really keep the whole history of each photo. Currently, they don't. I am very glad Grandma left behind lots of data. I hope that over time I am able to slog through it and make sense of it all.

At the Calgary Stampede I met Andrew Kiss. He was painting a floral with oil paint. He had a mountainous paint palette which looked like a volcano. Its base was plywood. It was made as his custom base in a size easy to work with. He had earned a ribbon at the Stampede for Best at Show. I have a tendency to become very focused. I did see his whole gallery, but I spent time watching him and my memory only holds onto the piece he was working on. He worked with multiple pictures with idyllic bits of an image on them. He was making a flower image - kind of like gladiolas but not with buds at the top. He had sorted his shapes out in the first layer. He had outlines of each of the flowers. I sat and watched him as he progressed through a few buds and a couple flowers. I've picked up a few tips from him. Andrew is a local Calgary artist.

I would love to do a trip to England retracing James Wharton's travels as she is convinced that most of these images were his mementoes of a family vacation going from the Great Crosby to the Walmer Castle stopping at the Richmond Bridge on the way. I think there was a train at the time of James Wharton's trip across England in 1864. I think he may have travelled by train from the Great Crosby to Kent. If not, he may have travelled by coach, or horse and buggy for their family vacation.

I recently met an English couple staying at the same hotel as I in Tsawassen. They confirmed for me that there was a train in my great great grandfather's times. With further research, I found the train's route. This couple told me given my interest in history and classical construction styles, I might consider going to the following places: North Norfolk, Sandringham, Gloucestershire, Stanford, Suffolk, Bury St. EOS, Edinburgh, Cheshire or Chester, Buxton, the Peak District, the Lake District, the Cotswolds, the Trarchacs, Sterling, Yorkshire or York, and Ilavenham. A ship which is there to visit is the HMS Belfast.

There are three legs of train which would need to be done to do a tour across the middle of the country. In 1864, there was a train crossing the country. The next step is to find all these places on the map and on Google. I am hoping to see some links between James Wharton's art and these historic places in Britain. I was referred to a BBC show on Celts by Neale Oliver to get a history lesson on my ancestral roots. Thank you for your assistance in planning my hoped for trip. I am saving their notes here for my future reference.

Some of the locations James Wharton drew can landmarked with Google Earth. To see these places, you may visit: http://www.pellirojos.citymax.com/google_earth_places.html

The stop in this image is symbolic for the experience of all the Calgarians who went to the Max Bell Arena to get tickets to attend the Royal occasion hoping to visit Prince William and Princess Kate. There is a large triangle parking lot just behind this view. Noone could step out onto the street (security prevented it). Behind the stop sign, you see another section of property. All the people in there were press, city officials, Stampede officials, and security.

The proceedings were unviewable to the Calgary commoner audience. The grandstand they set up blocks their complete view. You could not help but feel that you time there as an adoring public was to be human wallpaper for the presses who had access to the event. The people on this side of the street got 5 seconds or so of time, no handshake greetings (times have changed) and were royally dismayed.

All the people who followed the rules were shafted. In the images I have of the Royal Couple, in behind them you will see a casino and a restaurant in behind. That side of the street was not security cleared. The crowd there stood on multi-level steps which was better for shooting media. That was the side of the street the Royal Couple went to because of the layout of the event. Some of the crowd went home then and some stayed. The few moments were so dissatisfying, some wanted another opportunity and waited till almost 9 pm for another chance, when the motorcade with the Royal Couple in it whizzed by.

As far as being an audience for the Royal Event, we could not hear what was going on. The most people behind here got was updates via cell phone and twitter from people at home. I got an update today about Prince William's speech. A couple from the UK standing beside me there told me that if this were in England, there would be widescreen televisions up along the street to enhance the view for people along the street so they could participate in what was going on.

Really, I was probably lucky to get the few photos I did. There was so much crowd that did not even see them arrive. They sat in discomfort without amenities which were taken away by people at the gate, while others who did not follow the rules, slipped under gates further away with water, chairs, snacks, umbrellas, etc. These items were not controlled after their entry. One in ten of the traffic that came here brought flowers and left with wilted bouquets. This is because this is what was publicized that they could do for the visitors.

The Calgary public who are royalists left disappointed. A suggestion for next time: Hold the event in the Grandstand and provide the public access to be in the audience. Arrange some means of people sending their greetings to Prince William and Princess Kate. It was truly sad to see all the disappointed people walking away with their flowers. Given this is an electronic age and the use of media to reconcile recent events in Vancouver regarding the riots, set up a Calgary page where people can load their photo hellos and greetings to the Royal couple and at least show pictures of them and their flowers and put in a text greeting.

Send online greeting to the Royal Couple at: http://www.royaltour.gc.ca/msgbrd/lst/index-eng.cfm

The issue is of course not everyone may have these skills. If you know someone who was not able to present their flowers, assist them in making their submission. This site does not allow pictures of royal greetings. It should. There should be options to add an image of flowers or of people standing with their banners and waving.

I have decided to reflect on how I capture the photo subjects. When I am setting up a shot, I look for complexities in light, for 3-D layers, for a rich range of colors, for a story, for a photographer-subject connection, for a complex decorative and unique vantage point, and for sensory appeal. If one is relying on vision only, then touch can be implied with detail. For people, it is important to me to get natural expressions. For animals and birds, it is important if possible to capture their surroundings which tell about their story. For pastoral scenes, you capture a moment. These are some of what I am thinking about as I am setting up a shot.

For those interested, Elna and Donna's story, "The Road to Happiness: The North Hill" will soon be available for purchase with a target date of June 1, 2011. This is a family history re-fashioned for the public, specifically children--to tell the story of Elna's life from the time she was 11 to 16. Capsules of embedded stories of public interest are being drawn out and will be presented in what is hoped to be a 9 part series.

Typically, family history is fashioned into historical fiction. This is Elna's biography with as much true to her story as could be kept and retold. Donna added in details based on historical study of technologies and popular culture and epiphanies from studying her works and her art, notes, and photos, and pulling these further insites into Elna's story. With a target audience of youth, some sections were re-written to tell the story and eliminate the aspects of "inventory taking" and lower interest writing to be more alive and fresh. There is a small passage of fiction. There was evidence of ghost stories being told and stories about those times, but no ghost story. Visiting Elna's sister, Donna was told an outline of a ghost story that her aunt had heard at the North Hill. Donna took that home and developed the outine into a ghost story for insertion into Elna's story. Somehow, this addition made the historical narrative more complete.

Elna handwrote the family history which is the base of this writing. She distributed at least 3600 pages letter perfect. Given her great love for family, her home, and her strong sentimentality, she has inspired Donna to carry on her task in leaving heritage behind for her grandchildren. Although Donna is releasing family treasure to the public, in a way she is saving it, because all paper gradually disintegrates.

Donna's Masters degree focused on Narrative Inquiry. This is about how to invoke storytelling, how to be an interpreter of stories, and then write them. This position of being an interpreter and one responsible for telling the story for another means she places her lens of interpretation upon the story. Her goal is to, as much as possible, present the story for her grandmother. Her additions come from ordering the events, smoothing the transitions, filling in holes, cross-checking inconsistencies, extending areas that seemed undone (for example, she had not gotten to the Niccolls - Donna developed based on data in Elna's boxes into a couple chapters in the family history), and doing gopher hole research.

What gopher hole researching means is there would be one term and by researching the term, there would be a whole story. This is how the story about James Wharton developed. It began by researching 1. what a steam engineer is and 2. what would a railway engineer do in a place where there was not railroad cars or tracks. As well, we knew a detail about how James Wharton went to work at the Gregory Mill and left his wife alone for whole weeks at a time while they were new to the praires. This led us to research why he would do that. We also knew the conditions around a night he thought he almost died. We investgated that story. What we learned can fill a book. And it did, except it has been fashioned creatively. However, the book writing will have to be split into two stories and the first release for Jame's will stick to the story about his encounter with wolves.

The same care Donna applies to stories, she has applied to being an interpretor of James Wharton's art. Some will be more her lens when she adds color. She feels a connection to the artists by her pixel by pixel review of their work. She hopes to transmit the true reflection of the art for the public. For example, there is a color Walk through Town and a Classic Walk through Town. The color one was based on a photo of the art about 12 years ago and photocopies 22 years ago Donna did. Donna studied the art collection on all her visits to her grandmother. Looking at the art was a "family event" of sharing where Elna and Donna looked at them together and talked about Elna's grandfather.

So, features in the art come from Donna's memory and how it looked originally. As time went on, details on the pages were being lost, but the memory of what it was remained. Using pixel study and memory based art edits, Donna tried to capture the original, albeit she added a color interpretation. Then, she was presented the original afterward. This original was the basis of the classic. You can see hopefully how the two compare, although it is more interesting seeing what the source material was. Donna's memory captured many of the details of the original despite working with source information with data losses.

For a brief time, I am directing my efforts to releasing a book, so my work on the graphic design and art will cease for two weeks. I will come back to both photography and classics restorations afterward.

If you would like to follow my progress, you may visit me at http://www.pellirojos.com

Once the website redesign is complete and the products are available, I will return to maintaining my profile on Fine Art America. May I recommend to my visitors to view my art via the Gallery Displays? Thank you.

I am taking a few art and photography lessons to add to my skills. Given what seems like interest in the watercolor, I am doing a flower garden watercolor piece, but as I like to try out both hard material and digital methods, it may be a while before anything appears. If I reach a point I can share a draft in development, I will begin uploading. As well, I see in the Indian Princess a few refinements, so that one is also being improved. Part of my redirection to the book is to honor my ancestors by remembering them. I am beginning to use the blog in the near future. A few of these messages will be moved there.

It is with great sadness that Donna announces the death of her grandmother Elna Brodie Niccolls. She lived September 23, 1918 to March 17, 2011. She was a light in Donna's life that has been taken away. In a recent trip, Elna was shown her art portfolio online. She was very interested in the computer and how easy it was to pull up family and cultural information. I showed her the Walmer Castle using Google Earth online.

Elna leaves behind her twin and two sisters. She shall be sorely missed by her family. In the coming months, family members who have ties to either Elna's or Jame's art may contact Donna for a coupon code to get art at a discount. There is no image on this collection that requires a safe filter: all images are safe to see. I do not know why the images are blocked.

The hope of this collection is to share the art with both the public and with family. If family would like to be in touch about the progress of art which is being restored, some 20 new pieces are anticipated, register at www.pellirojos.com to receive a newsletter about the releases and how to get them.

Fine Art America is a great venue for distribution. Once all the James Wharton originals are up, there will be discount for everyone in England--hopefully paired to an English cultural celebration which I am currently exploring.

Family is invited to contact me for a discount in a few months time. I shall post an update in about 2 months.