Author: maherrv

We have been travelling for a week. Hence no blog. The purpose is to pick up our canoe from Patrick’s house in Peterborough. We left Paradise on Tuesday afternoon, after our latest doctor’s appointment and car service. We drove hard to reach Woodstock, New Brunswick, by late evening.

On the second day, we survived the traffic in Montreal and managed to travel Highway #401 to Belleville. This allowed us to cut North to Madoc and then Highway #7 into Peterborough — essentially, 2000 kilometres in twenty hours of driving.

Peterborough has changed significantly since the days we lived there in the 1990s. At that time, we worked for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

In contrast to the Annapolis Valley, Peterborough seemed to have maintained a dynamic economy in the face of COVID. Besides visiting family, we were able to enjoy the MindGame cafe, various second-hand bookstores, and Wild Rock Outfitters.

Our second adventure was to visit my brother and family in Toronto. This required us to head down to Highway #401 and negotiate the suburb of Scarborough. We arrived safely after several hours in Toronto traffic.

A few salient observations …

It was a shock to drive through Montreal on the TransCanada, especially as we did not have a Quebec map. Once we reached the Ontario border (and Highway #401), the biggest surprise was the volume of truck traffic. The goods that are being moved by truck through the industrial heartland of Canada and the expenditure of gasoline to fuel these trucks must be massive.

Of course, we endured changes in the weather: cold rain, ice pellets, and snow. And yet in Toronto, we saw flowering cherry trees, forsythia. In the gardens of Peterborough, were harbingers of Spring: cardinals and robins.

Visiting Patrick, Emily, and Peter, I have accumulated a long reading list. That, I will save for another day.

We plan to return to the Valley by May 1st.

Heather attended Jane White’s presentation at CORAH, NSCC Middleton campus, ‘Return of the Birds’.

This motivated us to drive down to Annapolis Royal to birdwatch along the French Basin trail. There was an amazing variety of ducks (see French Basin Trail video in my post Walking Paths).

Afterwards, we stopped at the Sissiboo coffee shop.

While there, I noticed a book on the shelf. ‘Puzzles for Spies. GCHQ’. This took me way back to my time working for IBM in Cheltenham , England.

In 1967, I was a trainee Systems Analyst. My first assignment was with the Government Communication Head Quarters (GCHQ). IBM computer technology was used to monitor foreign communication.

Our second stop in Annapolis Royal was MareGold bookstore, an excellent addition to the town. It complements the Mad Hatter Books..

I wanted to see a copy of Steve Skafte’s new book ‘The Dead die twice – abandoned cemeteries of Nova Scotia’. I decided not to purchase. Instead, I picked up Robert MacFarlane ‘The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot’.

From GoGeomatics, I received the Canadian Spatial Times for April 12, 2023.

In the magazine section,Tim Webster contributed a profile on the Applied Geomatics Research Group (AGRG). AGRG was founded in 2000 by COGS faculty members.

Earlier in the day, I stopped at COGS to catch up on the programs in Lawrencetown. I happened to meet Wayne Regier, Darren MacKinnon and Andrew Hannam. From the bookshelf, I picked up a copy of the Graduate Profiles 2021-2022. There have been many changes since I left in 2011. However, the parking lot remains full.

Acknowledgements

The CORAH talk set the tone for the day, giving us an excuse to walk the French Basin trail. It was also good to see old colleagues at COGS. Thank you Heather for the company. Edward, thanks for the graphics and links.

References

Puzzles for Spies, GCHQ, 2022, Puffin Books.

Steve Skafte, 2023, The Dead Die Twice: Abandoned Cemeteries of Nova Scotia, Nimbus Publishing.

GoGeomatics April 12, 2023, Canadian Spatial Times, AGRG profile.

Robert MacFarlane, 2012, The Old Ways: a journey on foot, Penguin Randon House.

Centre of Geographic Sciences, Graduate Profiles, 2021-2022.

In New Glasgow, Heather picked up the book, Woman, Watching, at Coles in the Highland Mall. I had the chance to start reading this biography of Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay by Merilyn Simonds.

It starts in Scandinavia and Russia; moves to Canada. She is involved with the Dionne quintuplets in North Bay, Ontario. The next section covers her enthusiasm for ornithology — hence the book title. Heather has reclaimed her book. I will finish it later.

In an e-mail, I received the Spring 2023 Bras D’Or Lake Biosphere Reserve newsletter.

I recall time spent in Cape Breton in 2011, transferring our knowledge of SNBRA (Southwest Nova Biosphere Region) to BLBRA. Checking with David Colville, I discovered that Nick Hill has been providing a newsletter for our biosphere reserve (see SNBRA newsletter) .

Sunday was a good excuse to visit to Hampton Beach at low tide. Afterwards, we followed the coastal road to Parker’s Cove, then back over the North Mountain to Annapolis Royal and home.

From Woman, Watching, the description of rural life in Northern Ontario rings true of the rural economy in Nova Scotia; the need for multiple short-term jobs that will allow sufficient income for a living.

Listening to the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) I realized the importance of local knowledge (geography) — the culture, the nature and the human infrastructure (road system). This cannot be acquired via an urban environment. There is also a need and value to travelling the backroads, walking, canoeing and other means of transport (bicycle, ATV, snowmobile).

Finally, a shout out to Junction Sixteen (formerly, End of the Line Pub) on our list for lunch this week. Thanks to John Montgomery for the link , and the reference to Ernest Buckler.

Acknowledgements

Heather researched the book, Woman, Watching. David Colville and John Montgomery provided email links. Edward added the graphics.

References

Merilyn Simonds, 2022, Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay, ECW Press.

BLBRA newsletter.

SNBRA newsletter.

Junction Sixteen web site

This is the third blog in a sequence: authors, programmers and now geographers. As Edward noted, you can divide the community into a wide range of professions or businesses. An analogous example would be the inventory of assets in creating the successful creative rural economy of Prince Edward County, Ontario (see also previous blog posts “Landscape and Food“, “Rural Curriculum“, and “Joining the Dots“.

To test out the concept, Heather and I visited Kings County. At Grand Pre, we checked out Marcel Morin at Lost Art Cartography (see blog post “Spring Forward“).

We then went across to Canning, where we stopped for lunch at ArtCan Kitchen and Studios owned by Ron Hayes.

We had previously visited to see an exhibition of photography by Dick Groot. We went for the Art, but stayed for the excellent cuisine.

It occurs to me that we are fortunate to receive the Reader each week from Bridgetown. Imagine if we had maps each week showing us the location of different events, the Geographer (an excellent co-op project for a student at COGS to address a specific community member).

Returning to the concept of the creative rural economy, we can envisage maps ranging from historical geography (see, for example, “Historical GIS“, physical geography (climate, geomorphology, biogeography), economic geography, cultural geography. It could include canoe routes, hiking trails, bicycle rides. It would show land use: agriculture, forestry, mining.

COGS could help maintain a database of changes in the geography, as a set of layers. Indeed a geographic information system. This would enhance collaboration between this educational institution and the surrounding communities.

Acknowledgements

Edward was able to join the dots. Heather shared the road trip.