To the South Shore

This week my older brother, Peter, came for a visit to rural Nova Scotia. He lives in Toronto.

We picked him up at the airport on Monday; he returned on Friday.

The diversity of species in flower, the well-labelled plants, the carefully raked gravel paths. We stopped at the Elm Tree Café for a morning coffee and treat. Afterwards, we drove up to Hillsburn and enjoyed a late lunch of chowder at the Crow’s Nest restaurant.

In the Valley, we visited the Green Elephant in Kingston, Bees Knees in Lawrencetown, Endless Shores bookstore in Bridgetown, stopped at Hampton Beach and Port George. For local food, we picked up vegetables at Gouchers and Spurr Brothers.

Thursday was a beautiful sunny day. We decided to take Highway #10 from Middleton to Bridgewater. The road was empty. The trees were a mass of red and orange colours.

First stop was Lunenburg. Peter has been in the Canadian publishing business, all of his life.

The combination of new and second-hand books, carefully curated, makes for an enjoyable shop (see post Heading to the South Shore).

I found Robert MacFarlane, The Wild Places (also, see post Orwell’s Nose). Heather found Soren Bondrop- Nielsen and Riley Scanlan, The Wabanaki Forest: Connecting with and Appreciating the Forests of the Maritimes.

We ended the week driving to the airport, and then continuing on to New Glasgow to visit family.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Peter. His visit gave us the opportunity to share memories and make new memories in the rural Nova Scotia landscape. Heather shared details of our life in the country. Edward added the graphics and links, in a masterful fashion.

References

Robert MacFarlane, 2007, The Wild Places, Penguin Books.

Soren Bondrop-Nielsen and Riley Scanlan, 2025, The Wabanaki Forest: Connecting with and Appreciating the Forests of the Maritimes, Blomidon Field Naturalists.

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West Dalhousie Note

For weeks, we have been wondering about the fire damage in West Dalhousie.

Yesterday, (Saturday), we noticed that Morse Road, outside of Bridgetown, was open.

In 1980, Heather, I and our two young sons, Patrick and Andrew, rented the Buckler house from Bill O’Neill. It was at the intersection of the West Dalhousie Road and the Morse Road. Bill and I would car-pool down to COGS every day. I think, once per week, the boys would go to Bridgetown to day-care at Mrs Saunders. A year or two later, we bought a house in East Clarence between the Elliot’s and the van Roestel’s. It is no longer standing.

When we arrived in West Dalhousie, we noticed several houses had been destroyed. The good news was that the Buckler house was still intact (see post EBLES Meeting). We went to the Community Centre. It too had survived the fire.

Around the community, there were stretches of road, with standing fire damaged trees. Fortunately, the fire fighters had been extremely resourceful. There were signs, saying Thank You.

Reassured, we returned down the Morse Road to Highway #201, with a heavy heart, and back to Middleton.