Mourning...

The loss of a legacy.

The library in the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Building,
Glasgow School of Art, destroyed by fireFriday, May 23, 2014.

It's reported that the School's archives are safe, and the majority of the building is intact.  Students who were graduating have lost much -- if not all -- of their work -- even as a new fire prevention system was due to be installed.  Kudos are being given to the firefighters:

"Due to one of the most astonishingly intelligent and professional pieces of strategy by the fire services, they succeeded in protecting the vast majority of the building, apparently by forming a human wall of firefighters up the west end of the main staircase and containing the fire." -  Muriel Gray, broadcaster, former student, and current Chair of the Art School.

I visited Glasgow in May 2007, and saw this building for myself... Long an admirer of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who bears a strong resemblance to my grandfather, Frederick M. Rennie, and whose mother bore my name (her name, Margaret Rennie, is my maiden name), I recently finished this tribute to his Glasgow Rose motif:

Mackintosh's Garden: Hardy to Zone 3 (C) 2014

With God's blessing, this Phoenix will also rise from the ashes...

Slave Lake donations and relief efforts

Yesterday I met a woman at aquacize whose son and daughter-in-law have lost their home and their livelihood in these terrible wild fires.  The wind was blowing so hard on Sunday that water bombers couldn't even get up in the air, let alone drop their cargo.  This couple managed to evacuate their home with a trailerful of material goods, their 2 dogs -- and their neighbour's dogs (the neighbours were out of town).  They were headed for Edson, about 300 kms to the southwest (as the crow flies)...

For those wanting to help the survivors of the fires that have taken out 40% (+/-) of the town of Slave Lake, Alberta, you can do so through the Edmonton Emergency Relief Centre or the Canadian Red Cross.