Category: biographical sketch

Heather has a book Waterfalls of Nova Scotia. On Sunday, we decided to walk the trail to Tupperville Falls (both photographs). A short hike. Lalonde’s guide gives directions and descriptions to one hundred waterfalls in the province. We have also hiked into Eel Weir Brook Falls, up behind Lawrencetown on South Mountain.

From Heather’s career as a botanist, we possess a significant collection of non-fiction guides to the flora and fauna of the province. This includes books by Todd Boland and Carl Munden on the wildflowers and orchids.

Another non-fiction book, one copy stays in the car and another at home, is The Nova Scotia Atlas, Seventh Edition. On Saturday, on our drive through the Rawdon Hills, we were able to navigate a new direct route from Cheese Factory Corner (Hwy 14) through Mill Village to Shubenacadie on Highway 102.

In response to my recent blog on Swallows and Amazons, Brent Hall sent me two links to books on the other life of Arthur Ransome. Meanwhile, Andrew Ronay sent a photograph of his collection of the Alexander McCall Smith 44 Scotland Street series.

McCall Smith is Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh.

‘Even when travelling, he never loses a day, turning out between 2000 and 3000 words (a day) – but more like 5000 words when at home in Edinburgh.’

According to WordPress, this is my 200th blog under the label Ernest Blair Experiment. During the COVID pandemic, I have been steady at two posts per week. I hope they prove entertaining and informative.

Postscript

Check out today’s Brain Pickings on the subject of moss.

Acknowledgements

Heather for her photography and giving access to her large collection of botanical books. Brent Hall and Andrew Ronay for their feedback. Edward added the graphics.

References

Benoit Lalonde, 2018. Waterfalls of Nova Scotia. A Guide. Goose Lane.
Todd Boland, 2014. Wildflowers of Nova Scotia. Boulder Publications.
Todd Boland, 2012. Trees and Shrubs of the Maritimes. Boulder Publications
Carl Munden, 2001. Native Orchids of Nova Scotia: A Field Guide. UCCB Press.
GeoNova, 2019. The Nova Scotia Atlas. Seventh Edition. Formac Publishing and Province of Nova Scotia.
Roland Chambers, 2010. The Last Englishman: the double life of Arthur Ransome. Faber and Faber.
Christina Hardyment, 2007. Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint’s Trunk. Frances Lincoln.

The orchard is prepared; will send a photograph later of the apple blossom. This week it has been all about Spring and gardening.

In the meantime, from the Internet, I offer three links to explore.

From Emergence Magazine, listen to Sanctuaries of Silence.

From Brain Pickings, read Walt Whitman on the wisdom of trees.

From England, check out Planted’s first newsletter on the greening of cities.

Acknowledgements

Edward for making the linkages. Heather for the gardening work.

References
Emergence Magazine, May 21, 2020
Brain Pickings mid-week, May 19, 2020
Planted. May 2020 newsletter.

This week, I have had several conversations related to the Ernest Blair Experiment (EBE) blog. From Andrew in England, I received this link from Sam Peters at Planted. In particular, I enjoyed his descriptive language.

From Sandra in Middleton, we talked about the demise of local newspapers. In the 1980’s I recall the Monitor in Bridgetown and the Mirror in Middleton. She used to write a column ‘Challenging Perspectives’. Today, we only have Saltwire service. Does the blog replace the local opinion column?

It has a much more limited distribution.

I have been in touch with Gregory, one of our municipal councillors. If you go to www.gregoryheming.org you will find his thoughts on:

The Centre for Local Prosperity
Wisdom and Wilderness
Beauty and Grace
The Politics of Place

I had to connect with Clint at ESRI in Redlands, California. As a result of COVID-19 their annual GIS conference in July will be a virtual event. Given Esri technical expertise, I imagine it will be both a creative and educational experience.

Last, I have been looking at our collection of music CDs, mostly Heather’s, and wondering how to incorporate music into the EBE blog. I have two CDs from Haida Gwaii featuring the guitar playing of Tassilo (Gotz):

Evocations from the Wilderness, 2000.
Touching the Place of Wonder, 2005.

Gotz lives in Rose Harbour, British Columbia. We last met in 2015. His music is original, instrumental acoustic guitar. From the 2000 cover:

“ I moved to the wilderness about twenty years ago with not much more for a start than a tent, a packsack, an axe and a guitar. Being alone in nature for long periods of time I had to be self-reliant in every aspect of life. After several years of exploring the surrounding landscape and many awe-invoking experiences, I was certain that this is where I wanted to settle, where air, water, land and forest meet.”

Hope you enjoy the music, as much as I do.

Thanks to Edward for his thoughts on blog enhancement through music and art.
Plus technology knowledge.

Acknowledgements

Andrew Ronay in England.
Sandra Barry and Gregory Heming in Annapolis County.
Brian Arnott in Lunenburg.
Heather Stewart in Paradise.
Clint Brown in Redlands, California.
Edward Wedler in Bedford, Nova Scotia.
All offered encouragement.

References

Sam Peters www.planted-cities.co.uk/gardening;why-its-good-to-care
Gregory Heming www.gregoryheming.org
Clint Brown www.esri.com/en-us/about/events/uc/
Tassilo. www.tassilomusic.com

Good Friday, Heather made two pies: blueberry and meat. This reminded me of a T-shirt that I picked up several years ago in Port Moody, BC.

Saturday, we started to reorganize the bookcases. There were many discoveries. Not the least, my collection of books by Wendell Berry and Theodore Roszak. I have included a list of references, in case there are any interested readers.

Once the snow squalls finished, we could return to the orchard. First, to add fertilizer (worm castings) around each tree, and then Sunday, to cut the young saplings from the hedgerows which were encroaching on our Apple trees.

This morning (Sunday) I received my weekly Brain Pickings. It contained two interesting links.

“ Anne Lamott’s wondrous letter to children about books as antidotes to isolation, portals to perspective and crucibles of self-discovery.”

“James Gleick’s splendid reading of and reflection on Elizabeth Bishop’s poem about the nature of knowledge.”

Bishop was born in Great Village, Nova Scotia.

I sent the first link for my grandson in Petawawa. And the second to Sandra Barry, a leading figure in the Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia. Earlier in the week, Sandra had sent me a link to an interesting paper on the Spanish flu epidemic (Dr Alan Marble — Spanish Flu Lecture 2019).

If the weather holds, we can look forward to further work in the orchard.

Perhaps we can take the boundary back to the old stone wall. If the weather keeps us indoors, then there are many more books to rediscover. Some will head off to second-hand bookstores; others are ‘keepers’ and will be worth revisiting.

Postscript

We did finish watching CBC Gem’s Mother, Father, Son (eight, 45-minute episodes).
It is about the impact of fathers on their sons, in a somewhat fictitious British context.

Acknowledgements

Heather for her culinary skills. Sandra Barry for her comments on the blog.
Edward for his additions and feedback.

References

Wendell Berry. 1977. The Unsettling of America: culture and agriculture. Sierra Club Books.
Wendell Berry. 1983. A Place on Earth. North Point Press.
Wendell Berry.2000. Life is a Miracle. Counterpoint.
Wendell Berry. 2002. The Art of the Commonplace. Counterpoint.
Theodore Roszak.1969. The Making of a Counter Culture. Doubleday.
Theodore Roszak. 1972. Where the Wasteland Ends. Doubleday.
Theodore Roszak.1978. Person/Planet. Doubleday.
Theodore Roszak. 1986. The Cult of Information. Lutterworth Press.
Theodore Roszak.1993. The Voice of the Earth. Bantam Press.
Theodore Roszak. 2009. The Making of an Elder Culture. New Society.

The main task over the last ten days has been pruning and burning. Pruning means cutting off the tall leaders that extend beyond our longest apple ladder, any dead or damaged branches and making sure we can mow between the rows. Almost, one hundred trees generate quite a pile of applewood. Given the fire ban notice, the season started March 15th. we were able to mix the apple with juniper and spruce prunings to create a manageable conflagration, before that date.

The other component was multiflora rose. In the hedgerows, along the field boundaries, multiflora rose can overtop the willow and alder. This invasive species has colonized a number of abandoned fields in this part of the Valley.

In the middle of all this activity, Heather had the opportunity to attend a Winter Pruning workshop offered by the Nova Scotia Nature Trust in Dartmouth. This resulted in super-sharp pruning equipment.

After much deliberation, we have decided to stay home and enjoy the Nova Scotia Spring. The risk of flying from Halifax-Ottawa-Iqaluit was not worth it. These remote communities have limited finite medical resources.

Meanwhile, a new book arrived at the Inside Story. Bokashi Composting by Adam Footer. This gives us the opportunity to address soil building on our property.
Online, I noticed today that Emergence Magazine’s latest issue is Vulnerability, Community and Connection. 

In preparation for our annual trip North, I had signed up for a personal fitness program with Cathy at Healthy Bodies. It won’t go to waste. I can see a lifetime of outdoor tasks around the combined one hundred acres, between Andrew’s property and our own. Yesterday, we walked the property line down from Inglisville Road. There are a number of downed trees from the Winter storms that need to be cleared with the chainsaw.

Acknowledgements

Heather for sharing the Spring cleaning tasks around the property. Edward for his remote input from the South (returning sooner than originally planned).

References

Adam Footer. 2014. Bokashi Composting. Scraps to Soil in Weeks. New Society Publishers.
Emergence Magazine. March 15,2020. Vulnerability, Community and Connection.

Last weekend, there was a report by the CBC about a group of Nova Scotians in Digby County who drove a car off a wharf. The video was posted on the Internet. Afterwards, there was an interview with a psychiatrist about narcissistic behaviour fostered by Facebook and other social media tools.

This caused me some grief, as I thought about writing ‘yet another blog’.
Is ‘blogging’ just another form of self-indulgence ? How do we control, what arrives in the email stream ? Some arrives unsolicited from the technology providers. However, I had the following ‘ah-ha’ moment. We have the pre-Internet and post-Internet generations.

Since leaving Canada over forty years ago, Heather and I have lived in about twenty different towns/communities. Mainly in Canada, but also the United States and Indonesia. This month, out of the blue, I received emails from Newfoundland and England. We left St Johns in 1976. I left England for Canada in 1969.

The St Johns connection reminded me of my time teaching in the Department of Geography at Memorial University. The last project was a census atlas of St. Johns and Newfoundland.

The England connection reminded me of my time at IBM(UK): commuting into the City. Playing cricket on weekends in the Summer; playing rugby on weekends in the Winter.

Imagine, if I received emails from each of those twenty different towns/communities. How would access to that information network influence my day to day life here? Normally, when one leaves a community the linkages disappear with time. Today, with the Internet, it is possible to be in ‘many places at the same time’.

Of course, this contemplation begs another question, posed by a business associate:

“Why do you keep changing jobs (locations)?”

From England, an old school friend, excellent cricketer and sitar player, Viram Jasani, mentioned that he is writing an autobiographical novel. This week, I finished reading Jane Smiley’s biography of Charles Dickens. I will recommend it to Viram. Maria Popova and Anne Lamont have some tips too.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Mark Shrimpton in St Johns and Viram Jasani in England. Their emails generated good memories. Edward Wedler applied his graphics skills from Florida. Heather for her ongoing support.

References
Jane Smiley. 2002. Charles Dickens: a life. Penguin Books.
Maria Popova. Brain Pickings Mid-week pick-me-up. Wednesday, March 4,2020.
Anne Lamott. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Penguin Random House.

We live in changing times. This week, Nova Scotia Power inspected the solar panels on our roof. As part of the installation by Stanton Solar Power, they installed a monitoring application on my Samsung mobile phone. This allows us to monitor the solar power, by panel, by time of day. It also gives us control of the system. So I have moved from a mobile phone for emergency purposes to another application and device in the cottage.

Our method of communication is also changing. For example, Ed Symons has converted my blog into a podcast. Every week, I receive an email from Emergence magazine. This week, it included a podcast interview with Richard Powers, author of The Overstory (see blog, January 20th).

Tuesday, Heather and I planned an experiment. We would attend AquaFit at the Fundy YMCA in Cornwallis. We would drive to Bridgetown and catch the 8 am 4W bus to Cornwallis. Our interest was the accessibility and convenience of the Kings Transit bus service. Before heading to Bridgetown, I called the YMCA to register for the class. Only to learn that the pool was closed, and will be out of commission for another week. Oh well, try again later.

From the bookshelf, I selected David Orr’s Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment and the Human Prospect. It ends with this quotation from Scott Momaday:

“Once in his life a man….ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listen to the sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. He ought to recollect the glory of noon and all the colours of the dawn and dusk. (p.83)

Acknowledgements

Neil Stanton for his good work on solar power. Ed Symons and Edward Wedler for technical support.

References

Emergence Magazine. Podcast. Kinship, Community and Consciousness: Interview with Richard Powers. February 4th. 2020.

David W. Orr. 1994. Earth in Mind. On Education, Environment and the Human Prospect. Island Press.

Scott Momaday. 1993. The Way to Rainy Mountain. University of New Mexico Press.
Original work published 1969.