Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.06.2010, Síða 4

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4 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • 1 June 2010
To the editor,
We have been enjoying the
stories about Miss S. Stefanson
as written by Audhrea Lande,
but I do need to make a correc-
tion to the first excerpt in the
March 15, 2010 issue of Lög-
berg-Heimskringla. The last
paragraph speaks of Jon Jons-
son of Munkathvera who is said
to be the father of Baldur Jons-
son – Sigurbjorg’s first school
teacher. There is a tenuous
connection between Jon Jons-
son of Munkathvera and Baldur
Jonsson but first – Baldur was
the son of Jon Jonsson of Myri.
Jon from Myri and six of his
11 children emigrated in 1903.
Baldur was the first teacher at
Nordra school. He graduated
in 1911 with a University Gold
Medal in English and was the
author of Leaves and Letters
– his personal thoughts and re-
flections on life. Baldur died of
Tuberculosis in 1917.
The connection between
Jon Jonsson of Munkathvera
and Baldur Jonsson is that Bal-
dur’s sister Asrun (Runa) mar-
ried John Johnson son of Jon
Jonsson of Munkathvera in
1910. There are numerous Jon
(John) Jonsson (Johnson) in-
volved with this family even to
this day but it makes the puzzle
more interesting to solve.
Enjoy the paper (the cheque
is in the mail for renewal) but do
wish “The Icelandic Roundup”
column could be brought back,
it was always good for a laugh.

Sincerely,
Karen Olafson
(Married to Eric Olafson,
great-grandson of Jon from
Myri)
* * *
Greetings from Iceland to
you all,
We arrived in Iceland on the
22nd of May, 2010 and have
enjoyed a great holiday here.
Despite all the negative news
reports, life goes on as usual for
most of the Icelandic popula-
tion, except of course, for the
families who live in the close
proximity of the volcano at
Eyjafjallajökull who have been
directly affected by the ash
fall. This is a very small area
and the rest of the country has
continued to operate normally,
except for occasional flight dis-
ruptions.
We have enjoyed very love-
ly weather, the majestic scenery
and the company of wonderful
family and friends and are very
happy we were able to visit Ice-
land again. We have enjoyed
several trips to Iceland over the
past years and this trip has been
every bit as enjoyable as all the
others.
If you have plans to visit
Iceland this summer, we wish
you a wonderful holiday. It’s
worth the trip!!!

Sincerely,
Einar and
Rosalind Vigfusson
LögbErg-
HEImSkrINgLa
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regioNaL rePreSeNtatiVeS
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• EDMONTON: Bob Rennie
When I sold my house last year with its double lot, I was
afraid I’d be bereft of wildlife.
I didn’t move far but I bought
a free-hold strata, a house on a
tiny lot and a commonly owned
road. Like a lot of property in
Victoria, the ground is all up
and down with a steep rise
that leads to the various dwell-
ings. My bedroom overlooks
the front yard, it’s not really a
yard, a patch of ground, then a
tumble of rocks until the next
house below.
At my previous home, I was
used to having deer sleep in the
yard. One evening, it was three
stags, two asleep, one stand-
ing on his hind legs sampling
the holly tree. I watched him,
he watched me, then he lay
down and joined his compan-
ions. In the morning, they were
gone and so were one hundred
and ninety-eight of the two
hundred tulips that lined the
sidewalk. I regretted the tu-
lips. My father had spent one
spring planting them. I knew
that they’d come back the next
year, the tulips that is, and as
much as I enjoyed three hand-
some stags lying in the yard, I
vowed to cover the tulips with
wire mesh. I’d leave a few un-
covered so the deer could have
a treat.
In spite of their taste for
tulips, I love the Island deer.
They’re smaller than Mani-
toba deer. They’re very hand-
some. They’re a bit like Great
Danes with antlers. I grieved
not having them around any-
more. Then one morning, I
looked out the bedroom win-
dow. There was a young doe
fast asleep. We had breakfast
and lunch and dinner at about
the same time. I munched on
a sandwich and she munched
on some grass and weeds. We
looked at each other out the
window. I waggled my fingers
at her. She waggled her ears at
me. She visited for a day, then
she disappeared.
Two weeks later, she reap-
peared. She was nibbling on
the new leaves of one of my
bushes, snacking on some tufts
of grass. Then behind her an-
other doe came up the broken
slope and, finally, a third. They
all looked like they were about
two years old. After a time,
they drifted across the road to a
neighbour’s property. I thought
when girls get together, there
have got to be boys around
and, sure enough, two days
later, one of the does was nuz-
zling up to a buck with a hand-
some set of antlers.
This isn’t in the country.
On Salt Spring you take this
deer cavorting in the yard as
normal. I’m talking about the
city. Urban life. Traffic. Buses.
People walking. Cars. Yards.
Houses. Apartment blocks.
And it’s not just the deer. A
friend of mine had a raccoon
who slept in the tree outside
her apartment window. Anoth-
er friend has two eagles who
alight in a tree at the back of
her yard every day just when
she’s preparing breakfast. A
friend lives in the very heart of
the city, tourists, buses, horse
drawn carriages, lots of traffic
and she looked out one day to
see an otter waddling across
the parking lot.
I applaud this, lost tulips or
not. I think there is something
magical in the fact that when
my son and his family go for
a walk at their place outside
of Bellingham, deer join in
and follow behind them. He
said it unnerved him at first. I
think he’s adjusted. I think we
all need to adjust. We’ve done
tremendous harm to the envi-
ronment. Deer haven’t, bears
haven’t, cougars haven’t, otters
haven’t. It’s their environment
along with our own that we’ve
harmed. I think other species
have been trying to show us for
some time that it is possible for
all of us to live together if we
just respect the environment, if
we don’t take every last inch
for ourselves and don’t destroy
what we don’t possess.
We often think that the
death penalty is appropriate
for the loss of some flowers,
for a bag of garbage being torn
apart, for the noise a flock of
crows makes. We take what we
need and even what we don’t
need. At one time the passenger
pigeon filled the skies. Buffalo
roamed the prairies. No more.
With each loss of a species, we
make our world narrower, less
interesting, less diverse.
There’s a jack rabbit in
Gimli that’s been trying to
teach people that we can live
together, share space. I always
look for him. He sprints down
the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue.
If he or one of his kin nibbles
on one of your fruit trees, put
burlap and wire around the
trunk. When he visits, admire
his grace and beauty for he is a
miracle of movement.
EDITORIAL
W.D. Valgardson
Editor
Urban Life
ERRATUM
In “Knitting explained”,
published in Issue 10,
May 15, the picture is of
Hanna Liba Grosman
and Vern Austman.
L-H regrets the error.
J. Timothy Samson, Q.C.
Kristin L. Gibson
J. Douglas Sigurdson
Thor J. Hansell
Helga D. Van Iderstine
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