Category: Book Review

After breakfast at the Green Elephant in Kingston, we stopped at the Middleton Library. It was very busy, and hard to find a parking spot. We picked up three books, a pedometer and a white spruce sapling.

Heather was pleased to find Ralph Pope’s, Mosses, Liverworts and Hornworts.

I found Lyme Brain by Nicole Ducharme. This interested me because I am scheduled for a blood test for Lyme’s disease next week.

A second book was by Jane Alexander Wild Things, Wild Places.

To date, I am disappointed in my selection. Perhaps this makes the case for libraries, rather than bookstores.

The pedometer is courtesy of Heart and Stroke Walkabout ’walking takes you places’.

I tested it out this afternoon. This is part of my endeavour to increase both walking and bicycling. It fits too, with the ‘search for agency’. With so much news, beyond our control, it is important to focus on the small things.

Today, I had to agree with Heather about the selection and vibrancy at the Middleton Library.

Another bedside book is David Chernikoff’s, Life, Part Two. He offers seven keys to awaking with purpose and joy as you age. The first three chapters cover Embracing the Mystery, Choosing a Vision, and Awakening Intuition.

I am stuck in #4 Committing to Inner Work That leaves Suffering Effectively, Serving from the Heart, and Celebrating the Journey.

Acknowledgements

Heather continues to champion her botanical interests, as we await the completion of the studio. Edward continues to support us with his graphics.

References

Ralph Pope, 2016, Mosses, liverworts and hornworts: a field guide to common bryophytes of the NorthEast, Comstock Publishing.

Nicola Ducharme, 2016, Lyme Brain, Biomed Publishing.

Jane Alexander, 2016, Wild Things, Wild Places, Knopf.

David Chernikoff, 2021, Life, Part Two, Shambala.

Postscript

We will plant the white spruce in one of our hugelkultur beds.

The last time I was in Wolfville we stopped at the Odd Book. It was a Saturday. We had to go to the Farmers Market to pick up the last three bottles of Hunter brandy.

I found a signed copy of Stephen Wadham’s book, “Remembering Orwell”. Wadhams had produced “George Orwell: a radio biography” for the CBC (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3).

This led to the book being published in 1984. It included an introduction by George Woodcock and five chapters.

To Burma and Back
In Search of Poverty
The Spanish Crucible
The Road to Animal Farm
1984

The book describes Orwell and his life through the eyes of individuals who knew him and who were interviewed by Wadhams for the CBC radio biography.

It is remarkable to realize that Orwell (Blair) was born in 1903, and died in 1950.

It is remarkable to realize that Orwell (Blair) was born in 1903, and died in 1950. My interest in Orwell, in part, relates to this blog ’Ernest Blair Experiment’. Eric Blair used the nom de plume of George Orwell. Thus, this became a play on words. Another interest besides his writing was his lifestyle and geography. He spent his last years, living on the island of Jura, off the Scottish coast, where he wrote 1984. Previously, he lived with Eileen in Wallington, Hertfordshire. He is buried at Sutton Courtenay.

From Rev. Gordon Dunstan. A request from David Astor.

”And he asked if I could help him bury a friend. The friend was George Orwell, whose love of England and the English countryside was such that he wanted to lay his body to rest in an English churchyard.” p.219.

Postscript

My last inter-library loan request for Jaki Fraser was Convenient Season, by David Manners. “It is a tale of a farm in the famous Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, where grow the best apples in the world…“

Acknowledgements
Heather shared the trip to Wolfville. Edward added the graphics. Best wishes to Jaki Fraser, our Lawrencetown librarian. She retires this weekend and heads west to live in British Columbia.

Reference

Stephen Wadhams, 1984, Remembering Orwell, Penguin Books.
David J. Manners,1941, Convenient Season, E.P.Dutton.

It has been a hot weekend in the Annapolis Valley. On Saturday, we took a break from gardening and went to Aroma Mocha, in Bridgetown, for a morning coffee.

Had to stop at the Endless Shores bookstore. Heather found Isabella Tree’s ‘Wilding’. It describes a ’rewilding’ project in West Sussex. This challenges farming practices in the UK, and raises the question about agricultural practices in the Valley.

I found Scott Milsom’s “Voices of Nova Scotia Community: A Written Democracy“. After a Foreword by Silver Donald Cameron, it describes Milsom’s work with the Coastal Communities network. I have started on the Evangeline Trail, travelling from Yarmouth up towards Canning. Given the suite of public meetings on County Planning, it offers useful insights.

From the Internet, I received a notice that they have published posthumously Barry Lopez’s last book “Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World“.

On Sunday night, we went to the Tragedy Ann & Basset concert at the Dawn Oman gallery. This was a beautiful surprise, within the restored church, surrounded by Northern artwork, we listen to folk songs by a young duo from Southern Ontario. In the intermission, we picked up their latest CD, Heirlooms.

After dark, we returned home to a chorus of tree frogs from the vernal pools in the forest. Earlier, in the afternoon, we had been serenaded by a sapsucker, beating out a tune on the wooden pergola. Above, in the birch trees, hummingbirds take a rest; the azaleas are in flower and attract both the hummingbirds and the bumblebees.

One last book review.

In the Inside Story, Heather found “Alone on the Trail“; a new book by a young Newfoundland author. We are savouring this one. It is a novel, describing a trip by a small group along the Long Range Mountain trail in Gros Morne National Park. Heather and I used to run back-packing trips through that geography in the early 1970s. What a coincidence!

Postscript

We stopped at Button Brook farm on Hwy #201, outside of Bridgetown, at their farmer’s stand. One can buy fresh vegetables, as well as seedlings for the garden. They opened this weekend.

Acknowledgements

To Dawn Oman and Scott for bringing Tragedy Ann to their exquisite venue. Sadly, in times of COVID, it was a small audience. Heather shared the experience and time away from the garden. Edward added the graphics.

References

Isabella Tree, 2018, Wilding: The return of nature to a British farm, Picador.

Scott Milsom, 2003, Voices of Nova Scotia Community: A Written Democracy, Fernwood Publishing.

Barry Lopez, 2022, Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World, PenguinRandomHouse

Emily Hepditch, 2021, Alone on the Trail, Flanker Press.

Tragedy Ann, 2022, CD Heirlooms, tradegyannmusic.com

In New Glasgow for Easter, there was the opportunity to catch up on Saltscapes.

Two short articles caught my attention because I am familiar with the landscape. The first was tied to Grand Pré and the poem of Evangeline. The second concerned the geology of Western Newfoundland, particularly the Tableland in Gros Morne National Park.

The Saltscape magazine reminded me of the importance of the landscape perspective. This supports my criticism of Joan Dawson’s latest book on the history of Nova Scotia’s inland communities. It includes Paradise, Bridgetown and Middleton; not, however, within the larger context of the physical landscape of the Annapolis Valley.

A recent discovery, to me, was Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book, Gathering Moss. This natural and cultural history of mosses sits well with a number of other recent acquisitions, adding to Heather’s library.

Annie Martin, The Magical World of Moss Gardening.

Karl B. McKnight, et al., Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians.

In the Preface, “Seeing the world through Moss-coloured glasses”, Kimmerer notes:

”In indigenous ways of knowing, we say that a thing cannot be understood until it is known by all four aspects of our being: mind, body, emotion and spirit.” p.vi.

One last book, jumped down from my bookcase, Mary Catherine Bateson’s, Composing a Life.

”A masterwork of rare breadth and particularity, encompassing all the rhythms of five lives and friendships, and interweaving their stories in ways that reveal grand social truths and peculiar personal graces.” The Boston Globe.

Time to read it again, methinks.

Acknowledgements

Heather provided access to her botanical library. Edward returned from Florida and added the graphics.

References

Saltscapes, April/May 2022, Darcy Rhyno, Walking around in a poem. p.32-35.

Jen Thornhill Verna, ”Really old rocks” in Gros Morne. p.23-25.

Joan Dawson, 2022, Nova Scotia’s Historic Inland Communities: The Gathering Places and Settlements that shaped the Province, Nimbus Publishing.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, 2003, Gathering Moss, Oregon State University Press.

Annie Martin, 2015, The Magical World of Moss Gardening, Timber Press.

Karl B. McKnight, et al. 2013, Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians, Princeton University Press.

Mary Catherine Bateson,1989, Composing a Life, Grove Press.

At the end of October 2021, Heather and I were driving to New Glasgow. We listened to an interview with Rebecca Solnit on her new book, Orwell’s Roses ( see blog post November 2, 2021). On our return I went to the Lawrencetown library and put in a request. It arrived here last week. I had time to read it in New Glasgow this weekend.

For the first time, I gained an appreciation for the life of Eric Blair (George Orwell). Born in 1903, in North India, he died from TB in 1950. At 13 years of age, he went to Eton for four years, then joined the Burmese police for five years; left in 1927. Subsequently, he wrote a number of books, including Down and Out in Paris and London (1929), The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), Homage to Catalonia (1938), Animal Farm (1945), Nineteen Eighty Four (1949). For more details, you can Google ‘George Orwell’ his pen name that he assumed in 1935.

The theme of Solnit’s book starts with Orwell’s relationship to the English garden, and her discovery of roses at a cottage in Wallington, Hertfordshire, he planted in 1936.

It ends with his life at Barnhill on the Eastern shore of the Jura peninsula, in the Hebrides in 1949. In between, Solnit explores his writing within the context of England between 1930-1950, including the Spanish Civil war and the Second World War.

Of course, her text is particularly relevant, as we see the happenings in Ukraine. Here is her concluding paragraph.

”Orwell’s signal achievement was to name and describe as no one else had the way that totalitarianism was a threat not just to liberty and human rights but to language and consciousness, and he did it in so compelling a way that his last book casts a shadow or a beacon’s light – into the present. But that achievement is enriched and deepened by the commitment and idealism that fueled it, the things he valued and desired, and his valuation of desire itself, and pleasure and joy, and his recognition that these can be forces of opposition to the authoritarian state and its soul-destroying intrusions.The work he did is everyone’s job now. It always was.” p.268.

This week, I received two items of feedback to my blogs. From Sandra Barry, a link to Bored Panda that shows a variety of interesting maps. From Klaus and Shirley Langpohl, a link to a video of Stephen Talbott’s presentation to the Nature Institute ’Gestures of a Life’. A thought provoking commentary on present day scientific method.

Postscript

My blog title Ernest Blair Experiment is a tip of the cap to Ernest Buckler and Eric Blair.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Jaki Fraser for bring in the Rebecca Solnit book. To Sandra Barry, and Klaus and Shirley Langpohl, for sharing their readings. Edward contributed the graphics. Heather shared the New Glasgow travels.

References

Rebecca Solnit, 2021, Orwell’s Roses, Penguin Books.

Bored Panda.

Gestures of a Life, Stephen L. Talbott, The Nature Institute.

On Monday, we went to Wolfville. The town was crowded. There were protestors, faculty and students, responding to the strike at Acadia University. At the same time, there was a drive-in pick up of COVID test kits at the sports arena parking lot.

We went to EOS, to pick up some yoghurt starter and coffee filters. Next door is the Odd Book store.

We treated ourselves. I found two books of interest. In the section for Gaspereau Press, there was a copy of Donna Smyth’s play, Running TO Paradise, about the life of Elizabeth Bishop. I was attracted by the title. In this case, I think Paradise likely refers to her time with Lota Soares in Brazil. It ends with her award of an honorary degree from Dalhousie University in 1979.

” I know what I’ll tell them – Dear Class of 1979, go forth and be not afraid. Think of Darwin on his lonely voyages. Writing down all the details …….. writing what he saw, (Pause). Some of the giant tortoises on the Galapagos are hundreds of years old. Buried deep in turtle memory is the beginning of this land.” p.65.

In the Geography section, I found Jonathan Sauer’s Plants and Man on the Seychelles Coast: A Study in Historical Biogeography. Jonathan Sauer was the son of Cultural Geographer, Carl Sauer.

This book returned me to my graduate studies in Biogeography. It also links back to the work of Alfred Wallace, Island Life (1880).

Back to ’Running to Paradise’, the concept set up a chain of thinking ’Walking from Paradise’. The obvious choices are the 110 km Harvest Moon Trailway to Annapolis Royal or back to Wolfville.

Another option is the trail from Valley View Park above Bridgetown along North Mountain to Middleton …

… or on South Mountain, from West Inglisville to Roxbury, or south to Paradise Lake and Trout Lake. These trails are open for skiing, hiking or bicycling. Although on South Mountain, we see the continuous loss of habitat, through the current forestry practices.

Acknowledgements

Sandra Barry provided additional details on the play. Edward added the graphics. Heather shared the Wolfville experience.

References

Donna E. Smyth, 1999, Running to Paradise: A play about Elizabeth Bishop, Gaspereau Press.

Jonathan D. Sauer, 1967, Plants and Man on the Seychelles Coast: A Study in Historical Biogeography, University of Wisconsin Press.

In New Glasgow this week, I phoned the library and discovered that they had a copy of The Stone Canoe. It is a collaboration between Elizabeth Paul, Peter Sanger and Alan Syliboy published by Gaspereau Press.

’This is a story about two stories and the authors’ travels through the written record. Peter Sanger uncovered two manuscripts among the Rand holdings at Acadia.’

‘Both are among the earliest examples of indigenous Canadian literature recorded in their original language.’

Sanger contributes two essays.
I. Looking for Someone who sees.
II. Riding the Stone Canoe.

Alan Syliboy provided the artwork.

Elizabeth Paul provided the translation. Of course, the book produced by Andrew Steeves is also a work of art. It is an example of the role of the printer in society.

I would heartily recommend two other books by Peter Sanger: White Salt Mountain: Words in Time (2005) and Spar: Words in Place (2002). both published by Gaspereau Press.

Postscript

The sticker on the cover says ’one of the 150 books of influence’ Libraries150. (150booksns.ca)

Acknowledgements

Andrew Steeves for their excellent work at Gaspereau Press. Edward Wedler for his collaborative research. Heather shares the outdoor travel: canoeing and snowshoeing.

References

Elizabeth Paul, Peter Sanger, Alan Syliboy, 2007, The Stone Canoe: Two lost Mi’kmaq texts, Gaspereau Press.

Peter Sanger, 2005, White Salt Mountain: Words in Time, Gaspereau Press.

Peter Sanger, 2002, Spar: Words in Place, Gaspereau Press.