Marilyn's Photos - May 29th 2025 - Chase the Cheese
Quaint - what do you think of? I think of things from long ago. Old-fashioned would be a synonym. Do we have quaint traditions here in Canada? Now that we are considering our identify more, it might be time to roll out the cute things about us. Maple syrup at the sugar shack is not quaint, but might be cute.
Now here's quaint: chasing a 7 to 9 pound Double Gloucester cheese wheel down a hill in Gloucester, England. What makes it quaint? It has been going on since at least 1826. It happens at Coopoer's Hill each year. The first person over the finish line at the bottom of the hill wins the cheese.
Notable in the Wikipedia entry is the paragraph on injuries - with the steepness of the hill and its unevenness, there are injuries of participants and spectators every year. It makes the international news, so likely is one of the top quaint things to do this time of year.
Back to Canada, land of newcomers and international students who might want to know what to expect of us, there are lots of headlines on what newcomers should know about Canada that appears "quirky." Quaint doesn't come up that much.
Consensus has it our May 24th weekend is our quaint and quirky tradition. This is where 2-4 also means a case of beer, so there is a double meaning in the tradition. We are the only country to celebrate this as a national holiday. Even England doesn't celebrate this like we do. We started the tradition way back in 1845, so this is definitely on the quaint side of things.
This cute little koi at the Royal Botanical Gardens pond in the greenhouse looks like it is sleepy time swimming.
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