#Alberta's Descendant

[rosalie-starfall]

Hetty & Trevor

Ghosts - Alberta's Descendant

[gawayne]

if I’m honest I’m kind of baffled that there’s anti-voting content going around. again. you cannot have forgotten so quickly how bad trump was and how hard the republicans tried to prevent you from voting. did you forget the russian bots??

[melanieexox]

GHOSTS (US) | Alberta’s Descendant: It’s Jay’s time to shine, Samantha!

[audrey-carr1]

The Heiress and the Lady of the House (part 1)

Author's note: Due to a lack of Hetty x reader fics I decided to fix that. This will more than likely be a series! For future writings, I will take requests as well! Please don't be too upset with how i write because I'm still learning how to write for Hetty. We all know she's a simple yet complex lady. We learn as we go. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

warnings: fem!reader, hettyxreader

It was an accident when I stumbled upon the "Woodstone B&B "hiring ad". As a child visiting my grandmother, I remember riding my bike past the mansion. My grandmother used to take me trick or treating there, and the older woman who lived at the manor always gave the children king-sized candy bars.

After a near-death experience as a teen, I've been able to see ghosts. It began to happen on occasion before it became an everyday thing. I would pretend it wasn’t real and ignore every ghost I encountered. Unless they looked sorely out of place, I couldn't really tell if they weren't living anyway. Ignoring all of them had worked...at least up until I walked into the Woodstone B&B.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So is there a history convention in town or something?” I ask Sam teaches me the basics of the B&B website.

“Um no, why do you ask?” Sam questions nervously

“Because of the people in costume? Do you not see the Viking and Revolutionary officer in front of us?”

Sam gasps, “ Oh my gosh You can see them!?”

“She can see us?!” The two men ask.

“Am I not supposed to?” I asks

Sam quickly takes my hand and leads me into the living room. She has me sit and takes a seat in the spot next to me.

“What I’m about to say is going to seem absolutely insane,”

“Okay?” I say unsure of where Sam is taking this.

“This place is haunted, and everyone you see besides me and Jay are dead,” Sam explains

I didn’t mean to burst into laughter, but I did. How could something so absurd be true?

“My word what is all of this laughter about? Can you plebians be joyous outside of my napping hours,” a voice says

I turn to see a red-headed Victorian woman descend the main staircase. We both lock eyes and I feel as if time has stood still. My heart starts to beat a little faster and are my palms sweating? I could be mistaken but is that blush on the other woman's cheeks? "Can ghosts blush?" I ask myself

The redhead quirks and eyebrow before breaking the silence, “You can see me?”

Suddenly unable to speak I nod still looking into blue eyes.

“Hetty, this is (y/n). She is our new employee,”

“And she can see us? She’s not dead? How can you see us?”

Finally finding my words I reply, “I can see you, I’m not dead, and I’m not sure as to why I can see you but I can,”

“Did young girl fall and hit head like Sam?” The Viking asks

“I don’t remember falling recently,” I reply

“Have you always been able to see ghosts,” Sam turns and asks me.

“It’s a long complicated story, I’d rather not get into,” I say.

The redhead purses her lips not enthused by my answer. Soon I hear whispering of what I assume are the other ghosts.

“It’s okay guys, you can come out,” I say not sure of what could happen next.

Entering the room is a flapper, the Viking, the war officer, a hippie, an oversized Boy Scout, and a man without pants. My mind is filled with questions, but mainly I'm wondering why that man doesn’t have on pants. Before I can question his attire, Sam begins introducing everyone.

“There is one more of the main 8, his name is Sassapis, but we call him Sass. He’s out on a walk with Crash, our occasional headless ghost.”

“I see, well it’s nice to meet you all,” I say to them.

“Well go on tell us about your little cute self,” Alberta says “We want to know everything,”

“Well okay I’ve graduated college with a (insert major) degree, and my grandmother recently passed and left me with more money than I know what to do with. Which means I'm technically a heiress. I’m not sure I want to go into my field of work yet, that probably has something to do with my imposter syndrome. I’m an only child, my parents passed away when I was 19. Oh, I love jazz! I actually play piano and know almost all of the Jazz standards, my favorite pizza is pepperoni, and after reading a dystopian novel series I got into archery but that didn’t last long. Let’s see what else,” As I try to recall information I notice the redhead Victorian woman, Hetty looking at you. I begin to blush as I start my next sentence, “I was crowned queen at my senior prom, I love playing vintage Super Mario Brothers in my spare time, My favorite fish to cook is cod, I have a stuffed teddy bear named Daisy, and my favorite musical of all time is Hamilton,”

Isaac, the revolutionary war officer, scoffs and throws his hands up in exasperation while Hetty pats his shoulder while holding back a smirk.

“What about the juicy stuff, like do you have a significant other and have you ever killed someone?” Alberta asks.

“Oh well," I say a little overwhelmed, "I do not have a significant other, I haven’t even had my first kiss yet. To answer your other question, I have not participated in a murder at least not to my knowledge,”

“Sam you have to keep her! She’s perfect for the job,” Flower says

“Except for the Hamilton thing,” Isaac says off the side.

“Plus she’s incredibly hot,” Trevor says. “Not like Tara Reid hot but she’s almost at your level Sam,”

Everyone rolls their eyes at his comment, “I find it best if you ignore his comments. He’s harmless ” The victorian woman who's the name I've learned is, Hetty, whispers in my ear and I try to ignore the sudden butterflies in my stomach. I don’t need to add attracted to a ghost to my resume.

“Well it seems like everyone is on board with you being here even though you were already hired. Why don’t we go back and get some training done,” Sam says heading back to the front desk.

I go to follow her, but I trip over my untied shoelace. Before I can hit the floor, I find myself caught by a pair of soft hands.

Everyone gasps, and I can tell it wasn’t from the fall.

“Did Hetty just catch a living?”

-end-

A/N: Oh I hope y'all don't hate it! This is the first fanfic I've written in about 11 years, so I'm a little rusty. As I said before this is the first part of this many-part series. I may even add this to AO3. Tell me what you think! Until later!

[emmi-kat]

Okay so Hetty said that David was her great great great grandson so Thomas (or potential other son) went on to have children after Alberta's murder. But also Hetty introduced herself as Sophie's great great grandmother? I guess it's possible that David's father was out of the picture and his name was omitted, which would have been very gasp-worthy in the 70s.

However David said his "folks" were out of the country. So was this like the situation between Hetty and Elias?

But David was Sam's uncle and Hetty is Sam's great something aunt on Sam's mom's side.

If Sam was descended from Hetty's sibling or sibling in-law that would make Hetty her aunt and David her cousin.How does this family tree work?

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Decades after a historic Alberta cemetery was reclaimed from the forest, a group of volunteers is preserving both the graves and the stories of the Black pioneers who were buried there. Headstones will soon be placed to mark the burial plots of 13 men, women and children interred at the Bethel Baptist Cemetery, one of the last remaining traces of the once-thriving Black settlement of Campsie, Alta., about 135 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. Descendents of the settler families are supporting the efforts of the Barrhead Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints and the Barrhead and District Family Community Support Services in restoring the cemetery and fundraising for the stone markers.

Continue Reading

Tagging @politicsofcanada @abpoli

[piizunn]

september 30th, 2023

People who are not First Nations, Métis, or Inuit will never know the sickening feeling of finding out the playground you used to go to is the site of a former residential school, a school still in use by the town of Fort Smith, NWT.

fig. 1. Joseph Burr Tyrrell Elementary School in Fort Smith. Sarah Pruys/Cabin Radio.

First, I’d like to make clear that to my knowledge none of my my immediate family members are residential school survivors, I share community and space with many people who are and I personally attended the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and I will only be speaking on my own experiences. I descend from 7 historic Métis Otipemisiwak families by the names of Berthelet, Caron, St. Germain, Larivière, Dazé, Dubois, and Boudreau, who come from the historic Red River Settlement and Batoche. I come from Amiskwaciywâskahikan, Treaty 6 and I now make my home in Mohkinstsis on Treaty 7 land. I introduce myself in this traditional way of the Métis Otipemisiwak to contextualize my knowledge and experiences, honour my family, and situate myself on this land and in this conversation.

Today is Orange Shirt Day, a day that honours Phyllis Webstad, member of Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation (Canoe Creek Indian Band), and survivor of the Residential School system. Her story is what has inspired this national day of honour and action. Beyond wearing orange I would like non-Indigenous settlers to really consider the history around them and the experiences of survivors and those who lost their lives. I would like you to physically step up for us, be there for us when we are being beaten down, sit with Elders and listen to their stories, learn about their joy as well their pain.

I attended Grandin School, an elementary school in Amiskwaciywâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta) before it was renamed to Holy Child. For anyone outside of the area I will describe it; the school is over one hundred years old in a historic neighbourhood. Near the school is an LRT station underground and on one side of the platform was a large mural depicting Bishop Grandin, a nun holding a native child, an Indigenous family at camp, and a residential school. Based on the fact that Bishop Grandin spent time working in Saint-Boniface of the Red River Settlement, Fort Chipewyan in what is now Alberta, and Île-à-la-Crosse in what is now Saskatchewan, it can be assumed that the family is either First Nations or Métis, however it must not be forgotten that the Inuit of the north also suffered these institutions.

A quote from Bishop Vital Grandin haunts me to this day, more now than ever.

“We instil in them a pronounced distaste for the native life so that they will be humiliated when reminded of their origin. When they graduate from our institutions, the children have lost everything Native except their blood.”

- Bishop Vital Grandin, 1875

Fig. 2. “A mural depicting Bishop Grandin at an Indian Residential School is located at the Grandin LRT Station in Edmonton.” Image courtesy of Jake Cardinal and Alberta Native News.

I remember teachers taking us to the Is platform to sse the murals but it was not a critical conversation they were very much pro church and viewed residential schools from a sinister paternalistic perspective.

The mural was eventually covered up but the narrative in grandin elementary was that they were "helping native families. I remember inside the school by the main stairwell there was a portrait of Old Grandin and it was literally so scary to me hated walking past it so much I would sprint up the stairs whenever I walked past him alone.

I attended the seventh and final Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s national event in March of 2014, at the end of one of the days I was there I took the train to see my old elementary school, to see the mural and to really consider what I had been taught in school versus what my community and family has taught me. Again, none of my direct family are residential school survivors but many Métis are and this history is often hidden. Prayers up and tobacco down for every single survivors, living and in spirit form.

Fig. 3. The mural depicting Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin at an Edmonton LRT Station was covered in orange Tuesday, June 8, 2021. Kirby Bourne, Global News

First Nations, Métis, and Inuit have been talking about their family members who did not come home and the abuse they experienced. This is not new information, and you have to sit and listen no matter how uncomfortable you are because nothing is more uncomfortable than colonial violence. When news came out about the children of Kamloops in 2021 it was devastating how many people I knew personally that were completely ignorant of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the history of residential schools. What happened in these institutions are absolute atrocities many people would rather not face even the knowledge of what happened to these children, both alive and passed on. Like the survivors, the perpetrators of these horrors live on and have never been held accountable.

Continue to honour your community, stand up and show up for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. Learn about the history of settler-colonial occupation of this land and how you yourself are directly benefitting from this ongoing genocide. Residential school survivors and the children who never came home are in your community; they are the kind kokum down the hall as well as the middle aged man living on the street, their children young adults, teenagers, kids, babies, they still carry these experiences and memory down to the atoms that make up each of their cells.

works cited

Bourne, Kirby. ‘Mural at old Grandin LRT Station to be removed this fall,’ September 23rd, 2021, Global News.

Cardinal, Jake. ‘Edmonton Paints Over The Grandin Mural’, Alberta Native News, June 10th, 2021.

Grandin, Vital-Justin. On the goal of residential schools, 1875.

Pruys, Sarah. ‘MLA calls for new Fort Smith schools, citing residential school legacy’. Cabin Radio, March 5th, 2023.

Webstad, Phyllis Jack. Phyllis’ Story In Her Own Words, OrangeShirtDay.Org

[beardedmrbean]

One of the central organisers behind the "Freedom Convoy" protest that caused Canada’s capital to descend into gridlock for weeks in 2022 has been found guilty of mischief.

Pat King, 47, is the first leader of the protests to learn of his verdict. Two others, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, will learn the outcome of their trials within the next six months.

A judge in an Ottawa courtroom on Friday found King guilty on five counts, including one count each of mischief, counselling others to commit mischief and counselling others to obstruct police.

King, who had led a convoy of lorries in Ottawa in protest of Covid-19 measures and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government, had pleaded not guilty.

King was also found guilty of two counts of disobeying a court order, but the judge did not find him guilty of two other charges he faced - intimidation and obstructing police.

Estimates made prior to the trial suggested that King could face up to 10 years in prison.

Lawyers for King argued during his trial that he was part of a peaceful protest against public health restrictions and government mandates, and that police were to blame for rising tensions during the demonstrations.

Crown prosecutors, however, argued that King was a key figure of a protest that had disrupted and harmed the residents and workers of downtown Ottawa for weeks.

They detailed one instance where King allegedly helped move 80 lorries to block a major street in the city, and another where he allegedly instructed protestors to honk their horns every 30 minutes.

Organisers of the Freedom Convoy, including Ms Lich and Mr Barber, are also facing a C$300m ($222m; £175m) civil lawsuit brought against them by Ottawa residents over the disruptions they caused in the city.

Crown prosecutors relied mainly on King's own videos to make their case, which he posted on social media throughout the demonstration to communicate with fellow protesters.

The February 2022 protests were initially sparked by a federal vaccine mandate for lorry drivers crossing the US-Canada border.

Convoys of some 400 heavy trucks and other vehicles descended on Ottawa and blockaded city streets around parliament for three weeks.

City officials deemed it an "occupation".

Separate protests also blocked a key US-Canada border crossing near Detroit, angering the White House and disrupting the flow of goods. Other border points were blocked in Alberta and Manitoba.

The protests received international attention and inspired similar copycat demonstrations abroad.

They were stopped after Prime Minister Trudeau enacted a never-before-used Emergencies Act, which allowed police to clear the streets and freeze the bank accounts of protesters.

King was arrested shortly after on 18 February and was released on bail five months later.

He was ordered back behind bars briefly this year after he breached court-imposed rules on his social media use.

King has been charged in a separate case with perjury and obstruction of justice related to testimony he gave at a bail hearing. The trial dates for that case have not yet been set.

[damn-it-sungyeol]

Ghosts S02E18 | Alberta’s Descendant

[mostlysignssomeportents]

All the books I reviewed in 2023 (Graphic Novels)

Next Tuesday (December 5), I'm at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC, with my new solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which 350.org's Bill McKibben called "The first great YIMBY novel: perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful."

It's that time of year again, when I round up all the books I reviewed for my newsletter in the previous year. I posted 21 reviews last year, covering 31 books (there are two series in there!). I also published three books of my own last year (two novels and one nonfiction). A busy year in books!

Every year, these roundups remind me that I did actually manager to get a lot of reading done, even if the list of extremely good books that I didn't read is much longer than the list of books I did read. I read many of these books while doing physiotherapy for my chronic pain, specifically as audiobooks I listened to on my underwater MP3 player while doing my daily laps at the public pool across the street from my house.

After many years of using generic Chinese waterproof MP3s players – whose quality steadily declined over a decade – I gave up and bought a brand-name player, a Shokz Openswim. So far, I have no complaints. Thanks to reader Abbas Halai for recommending this!

https://shokz.com/products/openswim

I load up this gadget with audiobook MP3s bought from Libro.fm, a fantastic, DRM-free alternative to Audible, which is both a monopolist and a prolific wage-thief with a documented history of stealing from writers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-ripoff

All right, enough with the process notes, on to the reviews!

GRAPHIC NOVELS

I. Shubiek Lubiek by Deena Mohamed

An intricate alternate history in which wishes are real, and must be refined from a kind of raw wish-stuff that has to be dug out of the earth. Naturally, this has been an important element of geopolitics and colonization, especially since the wish-stuff is concentrated in the global south, particularly Egypt, the setting for our tale. The framing device for the trilogy is the tale of three "first class" wishes: these are the most powerful wishes that civilians are allowed to use, the kind of thing you might use to cure cancer or reverse a crop-failure.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/11/your-wish/#is-my-command

II. Ducks by Kate Beaton

In 2005, Beaton was a newly minted art-school grad facing a crushing load of student debt, a debt she would never be able to manage in the crumbling, post-boom economy of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Like so many Maritimers, she left the home that meant everything for her to travel to Alberta, where the tar sands oil boom promised unmatched riches for anyone willing to take them. Beaton's memoir describes the following four years, as she works her way into a series of oil industry jobs in isolated company towns where men outnumber women 50:1 and where whole communities marinate in a literally toxic brew of carcinogens, misogyny, economic desperation and environmental degradation. The story that follows is – naturally – wrenching, but it is also subtle and ambivalent. Beaton finds camaraderie with – and empathy for – the people she works alongside, even amidst unimaginable, grinding workplace harassment that manifests in both obvious and glancing ways.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/14/hark-an-oilpatch/#kate-beaton

III. Justice Warriors by Matt Bors

Justice Warriors is what you'd get if you put Judge Dredd in a blender with Transmetropolitan and set it to chunky. The setup: the elites of a wasted, tormented world have retreated into Bubble City, beneath a hermetically sealed zone. Within Bubble City, everything is run according to the priorities of the descendants of the most internet-poisoned freaks of the modern internet, click- and clout-chasing mushminds full of corporate-washed platitudes about self-care, diversity and equity, wrapped around come-ons for sugary drinks and dubious dropshipper crapola. It's a cop buddy-story dreamed up by Very Online, very angry creators who live in a present-day world where reality is consistently stupider than satire.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/22/libras-assemble/#the-uz

IV. Roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki

The story of three young Canadian women meeting up for a getaway to New York City. Zoe and Dani are high-school best friends who haven't seen each other since they graduated and decamped for universities in different cities. Fiona is Dani's art-school classmate, a glamorous and cantankerous artist with an affected air of sophistication. It's a dizzying, beautifully wrought three-body problem as the three protagonists struggle with resentments and love, sex and insecurity. The relationships between Zoe, Dani and Fiona careen wildly from scene to scene and even panel to panel, propelled by sly graphic cues and fantastically understated dialog.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/11/as-canadian-as/#possible-under-the-circumstances

Like I said, this has been a good year in books for me, and it included three books of my own:

I. Red Team Blues (novel, Tor Books US, Head of Zeus UK)

Martin Hench is 67 years old, single, and successful in a career stretching back to the beginnings of Silicon Valley. He lives and roams California in a very comfortable fully-furnished touring bus, The Unsalted Hash, that he bought years ago from a fading rock star. He knows his way around good food and fine drink. He likes intelligent women, and they like him back often enough. Martin is a—contain your excitement—self-employed forensic accountant, a veteran of the long guerilla war between people who want to hide money, and people who want to find it. He knows computer hardware and software alike, including the ins and outs of high-end databases and the kinds of spreadsheets that are designed to conceal rather than reveal. He’s as comfortable with social media as people a quarter his age, and he’s a world-level expert on the kind of international money-laundering and shell-company chicanery used by Fortune 500 companies, mid-divorce billionaires, and international drug gangs alike. He also knows the Valley like the back of his hand, all the secret histories of charismatic company founders and Sand Hill Road VCs. Because he was there at all the beginnings. Now he’s been roped into a job that’s more dangerous than anything he’s ever agreed to before—and it will take every ounce of his skill to get out alive.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865847/red-team-blues

II. The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation (nonfiction, Verso)

We can – we must – dismantle the tech platforms. We must to seize the means of computation by forcing Silicon Valley to do the thing it fears most: interoperate. Interoperability will tear down the walls between technologies, allowing users to leave platforms, remix their media, and reconfigure their devices without corporate permission. Interoperability is the only route to the rapid and enduring annihilation of the platforms. The Internet Con is the disassembly manual we need to take back our internet.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/3035-the-internet-con

III. The Lost Cause (novel, Tor Books US, Head of Zeus UK)

For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isn't controversial. It's just an overwhelming fact of life. And so are the great efforts to contain and mitigate it. Entire cities are being moved inland from the rising seas. Vast clean-energy projects are springing up everywhere. Disaster relief, the mitigation of floods and superstorms, has become a skill for which tens of millions of people are trained every year. The effort is global. It employs everyone who wants to work. Even when national politics oscillates back to right-wing leaders, the momentum is too great; these vast programs cannot be stopped in their tracks.

But there are still those Americans, mostly elderly, who cling to their red baseball caps, their grievances, their huge vehicles, their anger. To their "alternative" news sources that reassure them that their resentment is right and pure and that "climate change" is just a giant scam. And they're your grandfather, your uncle, your great-aunt. And they're not going anywhere. And they’re armed to the teeth. The Lost Cause asks: What do we do about people who cling to the belief that their own children are the enemy? When, in fact, they're often the elders that we love?

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865939/the-lost-cause

I wrote nine books during lockdown, and there's plenty more to come. The next one is The Bezzle, a followup to Red Team Blues, which comes out in February:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

While you're waiting for that one, I hope the reviews above will help you connect with some excellent books. If you want more of my reviews, here's my annual roundup from 2022:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/01/bookishness/#2022-in-review

Here's my book reviews from 2021:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/08/required-ish-reading/#bibliography

And here's my book reviews from 2020:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/08/required-reading/#recommended-reading

It's EFF's Power Up Your Donation Week: this week, donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation are matched 1:1, meaning your money goes twice as far. I've worked with EFF for 22 years now and I have always been - and remain - a major donor, because I've seen firsthand how effective, responsible and brilliant this organization is. Please join me in helping EFF continue its work!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/01/bookmaker/#2023-in-review

[isabellaofparma]

Ghosts (CBS) | 2.18 - “Alberta's Descendant”

[rjzimmerman]

Good story from Yale Environment 360, without a paywall (I think), about beavers, public land, wildfires, endangered species, the largest beaver dam in the world, the degradation of that land and the large pond behind the dam due to the tar sands mining activity in the vicinity. In other words, a microcosm of all the bad stuff and good stuff intersecting in one place in Canada. Excerpt from this story:

Wood Buffalo National Park, the largest national park in Canada, covers an area the size of Switzerland and stretches from Northern Alberta into the Northwest Territories. Only one road enters it from Alberta, and one from the NWT. If not for people observing it from airplanes and helicopters, and satellites photographing it, little would be known about big parts of it. The park is a variety of landscapes — boreal swamps, fens, bogs, black spruce forests, salt flats, gypsum karst, permafrost islands, and prairies that extend the continent’s central plains to their northern limit. The wood buffalo in the park’s name are bison related to the Great Plains bison. In this remoteness, the buffalo descend from the original population, and the wolves that prey on them are also the wild originals. Millions of birds summer and breed here. The park holds one of the last remaining breeding grounds of the whooping crane.

Other superlatives and near-superlatives: the delta in the park’s southeast where the Peace River and the Athabasca River come together is one of the largest freshwater deltas in the world; last summer, some of Canada’s largest forest fires burned in the park and around it; and — just inside the park’s southern border — is the largest beaver dam in the world.

The dam is about a half-mile long and in the shape of an arc made of connected arcs, like a recurve bow. The media has known about it for 16 years, and in that time no bigger beaver dam has come to light, so it’s still known as the biggest, and scientists believe it almost certainly is. Animal technology created it, but human technology revealed it.

Many of the beavers that have reestablished themselves globally are descended from beavers that were planted by wildlife biologists. The thriving beaver population of Tierra del Fuego (another place Thie has studied) is descended from beavers brought to Argentina from Canada’s Saskatchewan River, who are themselves scions of beavers transplanted from upstate New York. No reintroduction of beavers was done in Wood Buffalo Park. Thie believes that the beavers who built the dam are of original stock. Like the wood buffalo and the wolves, they were too remote to be wiped out.

The park is suffering the worst drought in its history. Flows are down by half in many places, owing to climate change, water diversion, poor seasonal snowpack, and dams on the Peace River, upstream in British Columbia. A danger that seems inescapable comes from the oil sands that are being mined for crude-oil-containing bitumen, and from tailing ponds that hold trillions of liters of mine-contaminated water. The ponds are near the banks of the Athabasca River, just upstream from the park boundary. They are fatal to birds that land on them. Given the direction that water flows, conservationists and native people fear the tailings will pollute the park eventually. Toxic chemicals have already been found in McClelland Lake, just southeast of the park. Locals stopped taking their drinking water from the lake years ago.

Gillian Chow-Fraser, the boreal program manager for the Northern Alberta chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, in Edmonton, travels in the park often by helicopter, canoe, and foot. She has described the park’s environment as “super degraded.” When I spoke with her by phone not long ago, she talked about a recent tailing basin leak that was not reported to the First Nations downstream of it for nine months. In places that used to flood regularly but now don’t, the land is drying out and vegetation disappearing. Though she crisscrosses the park, she has never seen the world’s largest beaver dam, but she’s grateful that it’s there and bringing the park attention.

[melanieexox]

GHOSTS (US) | Alberta’s Descendant: “Did my own sister murder me?”

[flutterbyoz]

More Hetty/Trevor musings

This post is a little long and I probably shouldn't be looking so deep into this but it's something that's been on my mind for a while and though I'm not great at explaining or deciphering scenes, I needed to write it down. Other people may interpret the scene differently but this is my take on it.

One of my favourite H-Money scenes is in 'Alberta's Descendent' when Hetty finds out that Trevor has given up his room to Nigel. Whether the writers meant this scene to be anything significant or to mean something or not, I think it is quite an important moment for both Trevor and Hetty.

For Trevor, it's a selfless act, he knows he won't gain much, if anything, from it, especially as at that point he's already called things off with Hetty. He's also made it pretty clear that sleeping in the library isn't something he want's to do but he does it, for her.

While it could be argued that maybe he does it to try and get back with her, I don't see it that way as he was the one who broke it off in the first place and he asks her to leave rather than trying to get her to stay. For me, what the scene is showing is that Trevor is a good guy, he cares about Hetty and puts her wishes above his own. Even though he doesn't really care who finds out about them he wants to prevent her from having to experience the embarassment of their secret getting out.

The other reason this scene gets to me is Hetty's reaction, it's almost as if she's realising that some of the assumptions she had of him previously were wrong. I don't think she expected him to do what he did after calling off their affair as I highly doubt Elias ever did anything like that for her in life so to have a man do something so selfless for her, especially with their liaisons, at that point, being over, is likely not what she's used to. Her expression when she turns to leave is, to me, not only showing some realisation that maybe he isn't the kind of man she thought he was but there might be some regret there too. She doesn't want this thing with him to end but I don't think she a, knows how to tell him, or b, is really sure she knows what it is she does want.

Everytime I watch it, which is quite often, I just can't help but think that IF, and that's a very big IF, they did turn this into something more than friends with benefits then this scene could potentially be a small part of explaining why. I think what happened in that episode made them both think about things a little differently than maybe they had before and Hetty opting to out them on her own was a big thing for her to do. And though as we see a little later, their attempts at a public relationship don't exactly go well, it doesn't stop them wanting to be together despite it being an ideal time for the writers to break them up properly if they wanted to. It makes me think they have something planned for Hetty and Trevor, what that is I've no idea and I could be completely off with all of this but it's fun to speculate.

Afterall, they are so interesting and so ridiculous that they keep me glued to everything they do, they are taking up the majority of my brain space at the moment. I just need season 3 to hurry up and get here so that I can not only see what else they get up to but also have more scenes to forensically analyse and obsess over!

[cbsghostsmetasandtrevor]

CBS Ghosts Master Post

Hi All! I'm Jen, I'm also Jmagnabo92 on Tumblr. This blog is dedicated to CBS Ghosts & Trevor. I can ship him with pretty much everyone, so I'm game to talk about any possible ship with him.

I welcome anyone to come and chat with me about this silly show.

Please Note that I am trying to avoid spoilers - so anything passed current episodes & the promo that appears at the end of each Thursday episode should not be mentioned.

I still have to go through and link all of the master posts, but I wanted to at least label out my fanfics. Each Title has the AO3 link. Although you can find them on Tumblr, too. Many of them are currently HMoney, but I don't think that will hold for long.

Decisions, Decisions - M, T/H, 33K - After the events of the holidays, Hetty's teasing of Trevor leads them down an interesting path together.

Trevor's Body - G, T/H, 2.9K - Trevor's memorial weekend prompts a conversation that leads to a different ending to Trevor's Body.

The Bet - M, T/H, 2.5K - After Nigel's cryptic comment, Trevor learns that there's been a bet about him and Hetty getting together. This leads him to encourage Hetty to take Nigel's power away by telling everyone and learning of who won the bet.

Heartbreaker - T, T/H, 4.1K - The events of Alberta’s descendent through Trevor’s eyes & and the resulting aftermath of Hmoney’s coming out. Hetty and Trevor deal with Hetty's feelings of embarrassment and how they came to be together.

Jay's Board of Ghosts - T, T/H, 6.5K - Freddie has more proof when he confronts Sam and Jay about the ghosts, and the ghosts trap situation goes a little differently.

Touch Me Tender - T, T/H, 9K - Now that HMoney is out, Trevor enjoys the fact that Hetty loves to touch him, openly, and that they spend so much time together - even sharing Hetty's bed and having sleepovers. Which leads to a slumber party and certain secrets coming out about Trevor.

World War Teatime - T, T/H, 6.5K - After their plot to put their relationship back on their terms, Hetty and Trevor decide to date one-on-one in secret with Jay's help.

The Gentlemen's Club - T, T/H, 11.3K - When Sam decides to go see if David is a ghost, Trevor asks to use the ghost trap to see if he can attend the meeting. Hetty, not wanting to potentially lose him, decides to risk it, too, and the two of them get to have their first adventure together outside of the mansion.

Planning Ghostly Adventures - M, T/H, 11.8K - After Trevor's reveal that the ghost trap can be used for ghostly adventures, the ghosts go crazy wanting to travel for the first time since they died. Planning these adventures lead to fun discussions for Trevor, who's responsible for helping organize it all since he was given a special present.

A Dream Come True - G, T & his family, 22.8K - The day after Trevor breaks things off with Hetty, he wakes up alive and finally gets the second chance on life that he's always wanted and - bonus - it lets him escape his problems.

Butterfly Time With Flower - G, T & F, 1.7K - A month after Trevor becomes a ghost, he’s wallowing on the first day of Hannukah until Flower comes up with a distraction.

The Apology - G, T & Sam, 1.8K - After Sam has acknowledged them, Trevor struggles to apologize for his part in her accident and the event that would change her life forever.

Late Night Conversations - M, T/H H&I, 2.1K - When Trevor can't sleep the night of the fight with Hetty, he seeks her out and spies a late night conversation that puts their fight in perspective.

Trevor's New Pad - E, T/Sass, 5.8k - Trevor spends one night in the library after Nigel's blackmail before deciding he can't do this. He moves out to the Carriage House, and when Sass follows him, they're both in for a surprise at what that does for their relationship.

A French Anniversary - E, T/H & T/Sass, 8.5K - After Trevor's slip-up when Hetty's almost year-long banishment, the house knew that he and Hetty stayed together. Now, their anniversary approaches and both Trevor and Hetty find gifts that are perfect for one another.

To Be Affectionate - T, T/H, 1K - Trevor thought that being public with Hetty again meant that they could be affectionate in front of the house the way they had been in the last twenty years, but due to the deal that Hetty initiate those touches, he struggles with not knowing if he's allowed to be his normally affectionate self. Luckily, Hetty's there to reassure him.

It's A Twin Thing - M, T/H & T & Jeremy, 21.6K - A few weeks after Hetty's almost banishment, Trevor's in for a surprise when his twin brother stops by.

Trevor's Jacket - E, T/H, 3.2K - After watching an 80s movie marathon, Hetty decides to steal Trevor's jacket to come out to the house.

Cuddle Him - E, T/Sass & Sam/Jay, 3.1K - After the big moment with Ari and the watch, Trevor sort of deflates in sadness, Sass wants to help and Jay suggests cuddling him. None of them expected where cuddling would lead to.

Ghostly Love - M, T/B, 31K - WIP - After meeting Bela, Trevor can't help wishing that they could continue dating, but Sam and Jay order him not to message her again. And yet, when Bela messages him first, Trevor gets his wish.

Girl Talk - G, F & H (Trevor & T/H only mentioned), 2.6K - Hetty's favorite part about rooming with Flower is that it's easier to sneak back into her room after her late-night visits with Trevor, that is until Flower finally catches her and they engage is some roommate girl talk about Trevor.

Ghostly BFFs - T, T/F, 4.9K - Sometimes, dying leads to a best friend - and sometimes, that best friend becomes so much more. Flower's been in love with her best ghostly friend for years, keeping it a secret, until one day... the secrets out.

That's all for now - but I've got a billion ideas and stories that have been started & not yet finished. So, there will be more :)

[https-hunter]

Top five Alberta monuments?

I cannot believe I left this in my drafts for so long 😭

When she forgives Hetty. I loved everything with Alberta's murder in season 2, but the character growth for the two of them! While Alberta's murder getting wrapped up led to the theory of her getting sucked off, I'm so happy they were able to repair that friendship.

That one scene where she sings with Alicia, her sister's descendant. It was so sweet! I love whenever Alberta sings, because Danielle Pinnock has a lovely voice, but this moment was so beautiful!!

The flashback to her audition in the 1920s. I love when we get flashbacks to the ghosts’ lives, especially this one! It was really one of the only times we get to see Alberta’s life, other than moments about her death in the whodunnit episode. As a bigger girl myself, the part about body standards rang so true, even if it took place nearly 100 years ago!

When she helps Flower realize that the cult was bad and that her brother is alive. I know Alberta is our beloved jazz diva, but I adore how much she cares about the other ghosts. We should’ve had more content of Alberta and Flower as roommates tbh

When she realizes that the Alexa can hear her. “I am a god!” Alberta genuinely makes me laugh so hard sometimes