Author: maherrv

Earlier this week, Ed Symons and I met with Jennifer Wesman and Jaime Dennison at CORAH. The meeting was to discuss offering a series of Community Mapping workshops in Middleton during the next academic year.

Ed would be the Project lead, CORAH would provide the context, and I would offer the wider perspective.

Ed, with the help of AI proposed four maps.
Map 1 Recognizing and Celebrating our Assets
Map 2 Opportunities for Growth
Map 3 The Geography of Hope
Map 4 Re-imagining Our Place

From Jennifer, “what are the outcomes and goals?“

In reply, from Ed:
“Ideally, we’d like to have a map series that culminates in the creation of four maps in both print and web-based format, with a host of place-based information provided by local residents. To teach geo-literacy skills engagingly and inclusively. To have fun making/ contributing to maps.”

My view of this project is that it would enhance our collective understanding of ‘place’ on our lives. It builds upon the resources and philosophy embodied in the NSCC campuses at Middleton and Lawrencetown.

In an increasingly virtual learning environment, it is important that we are grounded in our day to day reality. This project complements the values espoused in my blog: ernestblairexperiment.wordpress.com.

It is critical to citizen engagement in the municipal decisions of the Annapolis Valley (see also posts “Community Geography, Joining the Dots, and A College Community aka A Community College)”.

Acknowledgements

Ed Symons for taking the lead on this project. It is consistent with his teaching career at COGS. Jennifer and Jamie were receptive to bringing the CORAH resources to the table. Edward continues to offer technical expertise and encouragement.

Where did the week go? We had to go back to New Glasgow at the end of the week, once we had Summer tyres on the Honda.

As part of the recovery, we went to see David Attenborough’s Ocean at King’s Theatre.

While the film attempted to put a positive spin on the state of the oceans, we (Heather and I) did not ‘buy into the message’. What is a serious environmental concern turned into photographic celebrity entertainment.

On returning home, I preferred to listen to Robert MacFarlane in conversation on Being Rivered, available from Emergence magazine.

The other book that I finished was Alice Wexler’s ‘Mapping Fate’.

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This morning, I just returned from the post office. My daughter, Laurel had expressed interest in our LP collection of children’s records. They had recently purchased a record player. We no longer have one. I packed up two boxes of memories from her childhood, to share with her two boys. It was quite nostalgic to rediscover Raffi, Sharon, Lois and Bram, John Denver and the Muppets etc.

I trust that this week, we shall return to ‘normal’.

Acknowledgements.

Edward for his graphics and links. Heather shared the multiple crossings of the Rawdon Hills and Mount Thom.

References

Alice Wexler, 1995, Mapping Fate, Random House

Robert MacFarlane, 2025, Is a River Alive? Penguin Random House.

This weekend, we persuaded Heather’s father, John to come down to the Valley. This gave us an opportunity to go down ‘memory lane’.

We started at Connaught Avenue in Middleton. First stop was Clarence, the old house site between the Elliot’s and the van Roestel’s at the east end of the Clarence Road on North Mountain.

The second stop was the house in Paradise on Highway #201 opposite Raymond Hunter’s farm and orchard (#6326), in the Valley. From there we headed to Bridgetown and took the Morse Road to West Dalhousie, on South Mountain. The Buckler house was owned by Bill O’Neill, next door to Bep and George his parents.

To complete the circuit, we drove Highway #201 to Annapolis Royal. Stopping briefly for a coffee at the Sissiboo cafe on a quiet Sunday morning. We returned directly to Middleton on Highway #101.

The dates of residence in the Annapolis Valley, are as follows:

1980-81 West Dalhousie
1982 – 88 Clarence
2000-2024 Paradise
2024 – present Middleton

Between 1988-2000 we lived in Jakarta, Indonesia; Redlands, California ; Guelph and Peterborough, Ontario; Victoria, BC. My teaching and research duties at NSCC spanned 1980-1988 and 2000-2011. Since 2011, we have lived on Haida Gwaii and Iqaluit, Baffin Island while Heather was on assignment with Parks Canada. She also lived in Churchill, Manitoba. Prior to 1980, we lived in St John’s Newfoundland and Edmonton, Alberta.

Less we forget, there were a couple of short stints in England.

For Mothers’ Day, Laurel sent Heather a gift certificate for Blomidon Nurseries.

This gave us an excuse to drive up to Wolfville. We exchanged the certificate for strawberry plants.

The richness of the agriculture is always a surprise on the dykelands of Kings County.

To enhance the experience, we returned home on Highway #221, instead of Highway #101. In Kings County, you really get a sense of the width of the Valley, as well as the focus on the orchards. There is a noticeable change in scale and topography, as you cross the Annapolis County line.

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A few days earlier, we attended a talk at the MacDonald Museum by Steve Skafte.

The discussion afterwards with the audience was more about land ownership and rights of way; less about the richness of the landscape, its ecology and geography.

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This week, I enjoyed useful discussions with Ed Symons and Edward Wedler on the tools of AI and Community Mapping. The challenge as one enters my next decade (#8) is to keep current with the tools and the technology. My interest has always been the ‘application’.

Subsequently, I decided to step back from the 50th anniversary presentation to AAGP. However, I do believe that the story of the Mountain and the Valley can be defined by artists, writers, musicians and scientists who chose to live a rural lifestyle. That is worth sharing with the larger world.

Postscript

John Wightman sent me a wonderful image of the meanders of the Annapolis River below Bridgetown (taken by photographer Travis Z. Baker).

Acknowledgements

Thank you for conversations with Ed Symons and Edward Wedler on the intricacies of AI tools, and their application to my blog posts.

The Atlantic Association of Geomatics and Planning (AAGP) are holding their 50th. year anniversary conference, at the NSCC Dartmouth campus on June 12th.

The title is ‘GeoAI’. They have invited me to give the keynote. While I can talk about fifty years of GIS, I have invited Edward Wedler to add his contribution on the relationship between GIS and AI.

As part of my blog series, Edward has been in conversation with Gemini and identified four topics relevant to the province.

All topics derived from Premier, Tim Houston’s agenda.

Yesterday (May 8), Edward and I had a Zoom call to discuss our presentation. My interests are twofold.

1. I have been posting my blog since 2013. Could I use AI to identify key themes over that period? Could we link AI to GIS to map the locations?
2. My second interest is to produce a series of ‘community maps’, based on the blog content.
3. That will be the agenda for the next month.

Meanwhile I have scheduled a meeting with Ed Symons on community mapping at CORAH next week. David MacLean has also provided a useful link to relationship between GIS and AI at Esri.

It will be an intense few weeks, learning how to access the new technology. At the same time, gaining insight into the future of GIS and AI.

Afterwards, perhaps I can return to the role of ‘elder statesman’, with an abiding interest in the role of ‘place’ and its impact on our lifestyle in rural Nova Scotia. Now, back to reading, writing, walking and bicycling etc. And maybe canoeing.

Acknowledgements

I would not be able to entertain this presentation without the technological expertise of Edward. I would not have the mental energy without the shared living with Heather.

Postscript

After finishing, Ken McGoogan’s latest book, I passed it on to John Wightman. In New Glasgow, I discovered his earlier book ‘Celtic Lightning: How the Scots and Irish Created a Canadian Nation’.

From the Middleton Library, I am also waiting through inter-library loan for Alice Wexler’s book, Mapping Fate.

Heather has been busy collecting up the acorns from under the mature red oaks in our backyard. Today, we delivered a pail for the Seed Saving Talk by Dr. Niki Clark at the Lower Granville Hall, Saturday May 3, 1-2 pm. This activity coincided with the first lawn mowing of the season.

We stopped by Endless Shores bookstore. We wanted to obtain a copy of the place-mat illustrating the Goldsmith Lake Calicioids. This became a $20 donation to SOOF.

Further to my earlier blog ‘Local Libations Map’, John Wightman found an excellent map of the Wines of Nova Scotia. Produced in 2017 by the Winery Association of Nova Scotia.

The cartography and the graphics design illustrate the superb work of Marcel Morin at Lost Art Cartography. Quite a contrast to the Libations Map in the Grapevine.

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From the cover:
‘McGoogan’s takes a biographical approach to history, creating a montage of individual experiences. It includes George Orwell, Sinclair Lewis, Norman Bethune and Winston Churchill’.

‘He delves into dictatorships of the twentieth century to sound the crucial alarm about the possibility of a democratic collapse in the US – and its implications for Canada.’

At the moment, I am halfway through – including the Spanish Civil War. The second half covers Hitler and the Second World War. It is heavy reading in these difficult times.

References

Ken McGoogan, 2024, Shadows of Tyranny: Defending Democracy in an Age of Dictatorship. Douglas and McIntyre.

Wines of Nova Scotia, 2017, Explore our Nova Scotia Wineries.

Goldsmith Lake Calicioides, Stubble Lichens and Fungi surveyed in mixed forest west of Goldsmith Lake, 2022-2023.

Between our trips, back and forth to New Glasgow, I found the time to read Ronald Blythe’s book, ‘Next to Nature’. Four hundred and seventy-two pages describing a lifetime in the English Countryside.

From the inside cover,
“Ronald Blythe lived at the end of an overgrown farm track deep in the rolling countryside of the Stour valley, on the border between Suffolk and Essex.’

“His home was Bottengoms Farm, a sturdy yeoman’s house once owned by the artist John Nash. From here, Blythe spent almost half a century observing the slow turn of the agricultural year, the church calendar and village life in a series of rich, lyrical rural diaries.”

The book includes an introduction by Richard Mabey, followed by twelve chapters, one per month, January to December. Each chapter includes an introduction by an English writer. Of particular note, is the Introduction by Robert MacFarlane for the month of July.

It starts:

‘The idiom of modern cartography speaks of ‘ground-truthing’. To ‘ground-truth’ is to verify in person, often on foot, information gathered by remote-sensing technologies such as aerial photography or satellite imagery; to test theory against things we might say. I’ve often thought of Ronnie Blythe as a ground-truther, in many senses. For decades, he fathomed place as deep rather than wide, and did so by walking, talking, listening and watching.’ p.233.

“Off we go to walk again” he wrote in one of these vividly sun-soaked, rain-soaked, thought-soaked entries from July; companionable, habitual, the phrase could be a motto for his work as a whole.”

What would it be like to fathom place in the Annapolis Valley?

Perhaps Ernest Buckler understood?

And we could add maps too!

I highly recommend the book ‘Next to Nature’. Imagine an equivalent book for rural Nova Scotia.

Reference

Ronald Blythe, 2022, Next to Nature: A Lifetime in the English Countryside, John Murray, 472 pp.

Acknowledgement

Heather continues to share our life in Middleton, rural Nova Scotia, overlooking the floodplain of the Annapolis River. In our earlier house in Paradise, we were able to enjoy the unique view of North Mountain.

Postscript

We walked the Lawrencetown nursery to Hunter Orchard loop. Just over an hour. The white May flowers were out. Spring is here.

Today, Heather and I joined Donna Crossland on a hike into Corbett Lake. We met the group at the junction of the Morse and Neaves Road. The event was part of Earth Day, sponsored by Save Our Old-Growth Forest (SOOF). Near Corbett Lake we found the SOOF camp. Nina Newington was resident at the camp.

My interest, of course, was geographic. As a member of SOOF, I was aware of the unique characteristics of Goldsmith Lake and its ecology. I was also well aware of the need to ‘save our old-growth forest’.

The walk was an opportunity to enjoy time in the forest with a diverse group (17) of grand-parents, parents and children. To remind ourselves of the species, landscape elements that are at risk if the province continues to undervalue this part of rural Nova Scotia.

After the walk, we returned to Centrelea Community Hall, and enjoyed the lunch provided by SOOF. My take-home is to pick up the Nova Scotia Atlas (seventh edition) to find Goldsmith Lake on page 55, W5. This gives us another walk, ‘forest bathing’ on South Mountain, within a short drive from Bridgetown.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Donna Crossland for leading the nature hike. Thanks to SOOF for a delicious soup lunch after two hours walking in the forest. Nina Newington for her good work, the blog ‘Nova Scotia Forest Matters’ and maintaining a presence at the camp on the Corbett Lake road.

This week, I had a meeting in Kentville. On my return, I was surprised to find Ed Symons on my doorstep. He had randomly dropped in, to discuss some of his ideas about community mapping in Annapolis County.

From my recent blogs, the reader will discern that I have made several attempts to engage both faculty and students in the application of GIS and AI in community mapping. In particular, I have believed that CORAH in Middleton could be a suitable venue for this type of collaboration.

This initiative, led by Ed, myself and others fits well with the mandate of the GIS technician program. These graduates often work within a municipal planning environment. Stay tuned !

Today, Good Friday, being a holiday, Heather and I decided to go to Kejimkujik National Park. We wanted to hike the Peter Point trail. Surprise, the park backcountry is not open until May. However, we were able to walk the Grafton Woods Trail, two 1.6 km loops.

It proved to be a nostalgic event. On the trail, we encountered a couple with three young children, two boys and a girl. They had a dog. The Dad had a children carrier for when the youngest became tired.

This freed up memories of similar family experiences, whether in Kejimkujik, Haida Gwaii, Algonquin or even, Palm Springs.

On the return trip, we detoured from Annapolis Royal to the Fundy Shore, savouring the sea breezes at Hampton Beach.

Postscript

A shout out to Kings Theatre, this week we enjoyed Beethoven’s Fidelio – Stage to Screen, and National Canadian Film Day, Margaret Atwood: A Word after a Word after a Word is Power. (Documentary).

Reference

William Moreira, Norm Green and Tom Sheppard. 2005. Keji. A Guide to Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site. Nimbus Press.

Acknowledgements.

Ed Symons for making the detour to Connaught Ave. On his commute between Port Williams and COGS, Lawrencetown. Heather for the family memories in Kejimkujik and other National parks. Jeannie for the drive, and company at Fidelio.

Today, I received by email the latest issue of the Ecology Action Centre (EAC) newsletter. It was a wonderful surprise to read about the Gros Morne Community-led Marine Atlas

‘The atlas tells the story of the people of Gros Morne, their connection to the sea and highlights more than fifty years of local ocean science, offering a towards the future development of a community-led marine plan for the region’.

Heather and I first met in Gros Morne National Park over fifty years ago. Heather was a seasonal Park Naturalist. I was teaching Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) in St. Johns. We married in 1976.

At the time, I was running ten-day backpacking trips in Gros Morne for Wally Schaber, Black Feather Outfitters.

The marine atlas has over 180 pages. Of critical significance, it is a ‘community-led’ marine atlas.

Imagine, the production of a similar ‘community-led’ atlas for the Annapolis Valley, or the Bay of Fundy . What a marvellous model !

It would be a tremendous opportunity for faculty and students at the Centre of Geographic Sciences in Lawrencetown, Annapolis County.

I remember well, Bob Hooper ‘who dedicated his life to marine biological research at the Bonne Bay Aquarium and Research Station ( BBARS)’.