Loyalist Landing

11/10/2024

For all our guests and friends who enjoyed using our library including the booktique at the back, would you take a minute to support this initiative by leaving a comment, a story or both. Thank you. Gillian

This project aims to revitalize the Bloomfield Branch Library, transforming it into a welcoming community space for individuals of all ages to gather and spend time together. The revitalization will support various programs, including book clubs, technology training, and children’s storytime, allo...

10/17/2024

Jeanette Arsenault is back and in concert. She will be performing her own songs and providing an opportunity for people to not only listen to her live but also to support a project that Belleville desperately needs.

09/30/2023

Definitely fall on the farm. Cold nights with ward days and warm soil make for misty mornings.

09/22/2023

Dahlias on th table this morning - the colours are stunning.

08/30/2023

For enquiring minds who asked: "Where are the flags?"!
A windstorm bent one of the flagpoles and Rob is still in the process of replacing it. The daily changing of the flag should start again in September.

07/24/2023

A distinctive trio of castles, their twin towers ablaze, is stamped all over the cityscape of Dublin: upon some of the city’s architectural gems - the Lord Mayor’s Mansion House residence and historic City Hall - on municipal street furniture, lamp posts, litter bins and of course, on the all important city flag. On a field of blue, these threes towers sit atop the words Áth Cliath, meaning "town of the hurdled ford ", a place name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near the Father Mathew Bridge.

We fly this flag today in honour of a B & B guest born in Dublin, and in celebration of the Irish Hurling Championships final held this day in Dublin between Limerick and Kilkenny.

07/23/2023

The national flag of Ireland is a vertical tricolour of green (at the hoist), white and orange.

Presented as a gift in 1848 to Thomas Francis Meagher from a small group of French women sympathetic to Irish nationalism, it was intended to symbolize the inclusion and hoped-for union between Roman Catholics (symbolized by the green colour) and Protestants (symbolized by the orange colour). The significance of the colours outlined by Meagher was, "The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between Orange and Green and I trust that beneath its folds the hands of Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics may be clasped in generous and heroic brotherhood".

It was not until the Easter Rising of 1916, when it was raised above Dublin's General Post Office by Gearóid O'Sullivan, that the tricolour came to be regarded as the national flag. The flag was adopted by the Irish Republic during the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921). The flag's use was continued by the Irish Free State (1922–1937) and it was later given constitutional status under the 1937 Constitution of Ireland. The tricolour is used by nationalists on both sides of the border as the national flag of the whole island of Ireland since 1916. Thus it is flown by many nationalists in Northern Ireland as well as by the Gaelic Athletic Association.

We fly this flag today in honour of our B & B guests . . . . Canadians who were born in Ireland . . . one in Cork, and the other in Dublin

07/21/2023

Belgian Independence Day is celebrated annually on July 21st. It is one of Belgium’s 10 public holidays and commemorates the investiture of the country’s first monarch, King Leopold I, who took the constitutional oath in 1831. This day also celebrates the separation of Belgium from the Netherlands and the formal establishment of the Kingdom. It was decided that Belgium would become a constitutional and popular monarchy, reflecting the romantic nationalism that was popular at the time. The celebrations take place at the Place des Palais in Belgium.

The national flag of Belgium is a tricolour consisting of three equal vertical bands displaying the national colours of Belgium: black, yellow, and red. The colours were taken from the coat of arms of the Duchy of Brabant, and the vertical design may be based on the flag of France. When flown, the black band is nearest the pole (at the hoist side).

07/20/2023

Colombian Independence Day is celebrated on July 20th. To rule the region independently from Spain’s colonial era, the ‘Junta de Santa Fe’ began in Santa Fe de Bogota, the viceroyalty’s capital. The event sparked independence movements throughout Latin America, resulting in a decade-long rebellion that culminated in the establishment of the Republic of Gran Colombia, including present-day Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, parts of northern Peru, and northwestern Brazil. Gran Colombia disintegrated in 1831; however, it was among the most powerful countries in the Western Hemisphere. It influenced the political development of new Latin American states.

Criollos (natives born of Spanish heritage) who desired independence grabbed the opportunity after the Napoleonic wars in Europe. There were uprisings and declarations of juntas (Military governments) in the months preceding July 20th of 1810, but the rebellion officially began on that date, and led to the establishment of Columbia as an independent state.

The flag of Columbia is a horizontal tricolor of yellow, blue and red. The yellow stripe takes up a half of the flag and the blue and red take up a quarter of the space each, an unusual stripe ratio for a flag. The flags of Columbia, Ecuador and Venezuela are derived from the flag of Gran Colombia. Venezuela opted for a more conventional tricolor with equal stripes.

07/20/2023

Liberation Day in Nicaragua, also known as FSLN Revolution Day, is on July 19. It is one of the most important holidays in Nicaragua. It signifies the birth of Nicaragua as an independent nation. The riot against the Somoza family’s military, which ruled as a family dictatorship for over three decades, began in the early 1960s. In 1961, opposition groups formed the Sandinista National Liberation Front (F.S.L.N.); they launched a campaign of armed resistance against the Somoza regime in the 1970s. The struggle between the Sandinistas and Somoza lasted for ten years. President Anastasio Somoza finally resigned in 1979. The Contra War ended in 1990.



Independence for Central America was first proclaimed on September 15, 1821, but Mexico then subdued the area for two years. The flag of the newly independent United Provinces of Central America was adopted on August 21, 1823, and consisted of blue-white-blue stripes with the national coat of arms in the centre. Those arms included basically the same design elements Nicaragua uses today. Even after the five member states of the federation became independent countries, Nicaragua continued to hoist the old flag. Finally, in 1854, a new horizontal Nicaraguan tricolour of yellow-white-scarlet was chosen, but it did not fly for long. Civil war and intervention by North American filibusters (military adventurers) subsequently resulted in a number of flags being introduced and quickly replaced.


In 1908 the old federation flag was readopted as the national banner of Nicaragua, with appropriate modifications in the coat of arms. That basic design, with further changes to the coat of arms, was reaffirmed by the law of August 27, 1971, although the red-black horizontal bicolour of the Sandinista movement was de facto a secondary national flag during the years of Sandinista rule (1979–90). The coat of arms on the flag includes a triangle for equality, a liberty cap for freedom, and five volcanoes between two oceans, symbolic of the five original Central American countries between the Atlantic and Pacific ocean basins.

07/19/2023

Uruguay Constitution Day takes place annually on July 18th. Officially known as ‘Jura de la Constitucion de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay,’ the holiday commemorates the adoption of Uruguay’s first constitution on this date in 1830. The constitution, which was in force until 1918, was drafted by the General Constituent and Legislative Assembly of the State. Taking notes from the French and American revolutions, the constitution split governmental powers among the executive, legislature, and judiciary arms

As part of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (formed in 1816), the Banda Oriental—which would eventually become the country known as Uruguay—was originally under the blue-white-blue horizontally striped flag raised by General Manuel Belgrano in 1812. However, like many other Argentine provinces, Uruguay developed a flag of its own. The earliest example, dating from January 13th, 1815, had a red horizontal stripe added in the centre of each blue stripe. On August 25th of that year, the flag was changed to equal horizontal stripes of blue-white-red.

When it finally obtained recognition from both Argentina and Brazil as an independent country, the new republic of Uruguay adopted a definitive national flag on December 16th, 1828. Designed by Joaquín Suárez, it effectively combined a symbol of Argentina with the flag pattern of the United States: on a white background were nine blue horizontal stripes for the nine original departments of the republic. On the white canton appeared the golden “Sun of May,” whose appearance during a major public gathering on May 25th, 1810, in Buenos Aires was taken as a favourable omen for the independence struggle of the Spanish colonies of South America. The number of blue stripes was reduced to four in the flag law of July 11th, 1830, which is still in effect. The symbolism of the nine original departments is now expressed by both blue and white stripes, rather than the blue stripes alone.