In March 2020 we all had to adjust our activities to the restrictions of the Covid pandemic. There were no audiences for readings or archives to investigate, but with the new-to-me technology of Zoom I was able to continue to teach Vancouver Island Coal Mining History for ElderCollege. There were a few glitches the most memorable of which was finding myself in a separate “classroom” from my students, but I was generally able to handle the technology. The advantage of teaching on Zoom was that I could include people from the Gulf Islands and places on the Island that were a long drive away from where the lectures used to take in Nanaimo.
Just when I thought I would not be writing another book a wonderful project came my way. The Cumberland Museum is publishing a collection of twelve essays by twelve different authors. A Place Called Cumberlandwill be available in the fall of 2024. My essay, “Birds of Passage”, is about the earliest years of mining in Cumberland when Robert Dunsmuir was hiring as many Chinese and Italian men as possible because they were less likely to cause labour trouble.
Memories of tortellini eating and making in Italy are still vivid
Women between the ages of 30 and 50, who were hired because they are most likely to have an expert but gentle touch, prepare their share of the 600,000 tortellini which will be served later the same day at the 2014 Festa del Nodo d”Amore (Festival of the Lovers’ Knot) in Valeggio sul Mincio, Veneto
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Various forms and sizes of tortellini, tortelloni and capilotti in the style of Modena
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One section of the long banquet table on the bridge that spans the Mincio River for the Festa del Nodo d’Amore
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Lynne's husband, Dick, dining at the Festa del Nodo d’Amore
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Lynne dining at the Festa del Nodo d’Amore |
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Tortellini in the style of Veneto
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Roberto Rossi, chef and co-owner with his brother Andrea of Locanda del Feudo in Castelvetro di Modena, gives the Bowens a tortellini making lesson
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