Category: Book Review

Peter Sanger’s book contains four essays. I have now had the chance to read all four. The book title, Spar, comes from the Anglo-Saxon for gypsum.

In 2002, Sanger was living in South Maitland on the Shubenacadie River, famous for its tidal bore from the Bay of Fundy. The last essay, ’Groundmass’ describes the connections between the Geologists, Charles Lyell, and J.W.Dawson, and Charles Darwin. Darwin had Lyell’s Principles of Geology with him on the Beagle on his Galapagos expedition. Dawson dedicated his Acadian Geology: an account of the geological structure and mineral resources of Nova Scotia to Lyell in 1855.

Sanger also connects Elizabeth Bishop with the tidal bore she witnessed, either in Great Village or Truro. And also connects Darwin’s expedition to the Galapagos Islands over a hundred years earlier.

When you drive through the Rawdon Hills from Windsor to Truro on Highway #236 you cross the Shubenacadie River at South Maitland. This part of Nova Scotia has had links with the scientific community and literary community that go back two hundred years. And yet the region is small and finite, centred on Truro extending down to Windsor, across to Parrsboro, and on the North shore from Pictou to Pugwash. It covers less than ten pages in the Nova Scotia Atlas (1:150,000. 90 pages).

Sanger’s book is difficult to review. The other three essays are Biorachan Road, The Crooked Knife and Keeping: the Cameron Yard. My best recommendation is “read it”; check it out, from the library, especially the last essay, Groundmass, for the relationship between words and place.

Acknowledgements

Edward added the graphics. Heather shared in the reading and the travel.

References

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

Province of Nova Scotia, 2019, The Nova Scotia Atlas, 7th Edition, Formac Publishing.

Postscript

Apologies for two blogs on consecutive days. I had to go back and read Sanger’s book a second time.

BTW. For a good laugh, check out YouTube from Edward in the Comments to the previous blog.

On our way home from Heather’s eye check-up in New Minas, we stopped in Kentville. I was looking for a copy of Peter Sanger’s book Spar: Words in Place. I went to the office of the Gaspereau Press. I was not disappointed. I found a single copy; as well, I picked up Audubon in Nova Scotia by Eric Mills.

From Sanger’s Foreword:

These essays are pauses during which I looked at a map. Their concerns are the ways in which we take words with us when we journey, what they do with our conversation while we travel, and how we may learn to live with their consequence when we have found a destination. p.13.

I remember reading the first essay, Biorachan Road, sometime after we had walked the same route. Perhaps, as part of our ’Road to Georgetown’ trek.

Eric Mills describes Audubon’s trip from Pictou (August 22,1833) to Windsor (August 29, 1833) via Truro and Halifax. it is an excerpt from Audubon’s journal.

”What had brought this British province to Audubon’s attention? It had to be one, or perhaps both, of two connections involving bird collection, both centering on the educator and Presbyterian clergyman, Thomas McCulloch, who at that time lived in Pictou.

McCulloch established the Pictou Academy, providing education beyond grammar school level to local youth. McCulloch’s philosophy of education was broadly based. He believed that Nova Scotian students should receive an education not based solely on the classics, but on knowledge useful to students and their communities. In this, religion, the classics and especially knowledge of the natural world were of prime importance. And the natural world could be taught well with the aid of equipment for experiments in the physical sciences and the use of museum collections, primarily animals, notably birds.’ p.18. Sounds relevant today!

This morning, we stopped at Joanne’s Cafe, Chocolates and Books in Annapolis Royal. I found a copy of Buckler’s Whirligig and an old school book from the Baddeck Rural High School Library. The Land and People of Canada by Frances Ross, published in 1947. More reading.

Acknowledgements

Heather shared the book discovery travel from Kentville to Annapolis Royal. Edward added the graphics.

References

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

Eric L. Mills, 2018, Audubon in Nova Scotia, Gaspereau Press.

Ernest Buckler, 1977, Whirligig: Selected Prose and Verse, McClelland and Stewart (eBook link)

Frances Aileen Ross, 1947, The Land and People of Canada. Longmans, Green and Co.

Heather and I were discussing changes in the landscape. She pulled off the shelf, Geology of Nova Scotia.

The field guide by Hild and Barr describes forty-eight sites across Nova Scotia, divided into three sections: Foundation, Meguma, and Pangaea. Looking forward, we have grandchildren who are interested in geology and the natural landscape. Now is the time to add geological sites to our search for waterfalls. The field guide gives a trip planner, maps, and specific points of interest.

As we approach the Christmas Season, The Reader is full of events and celebrations: Christmas market in Clarence, vermiculture workshops, the Bridgetown Motor Inn under new ownership.

We drove through Clarence, our old house between the Elliots and the vanRoestels has been removed without a trace. The Bent farm now extends west from the Mount Hanley road towards the Fitch Road.

In Paradise, besides the sale of Andrew’s farm opposite, our neighbours to the west, have sold their property. Rural Nova Scotia is changing. It’s a new demography.

Sunday morning, I receive by email Emergence Magazine and the Marginalian. Emergence Magazine includes the essay ’They carry Us with Them’.

The great tree migration explores tree migration in Maine, from the perspective of black ash, sugar maple, paper birch and red spruce.

Acknowledgements

Heather rediscovered the Field Guide, Geology of Nova Scotia, and recognized the growing interest of our grandchildren. Louis Falls continues to produce The Reader each week, including the Word Search puzzle. Edward added the links and graphics.

References

Martha Hickman Hild and Sandra M. Barr, 2015, Geology of Nova Scotia: Touring through time at 48 scenic sites, Boulder Publications.

Emergence Magazine, November 7, 2021, They Carry Us With Them: The Great Migration.

The Reader, November 5, 2021, Vol 13, Issue #42. A Free weekly paper serving the communities and people of Annapolis County.

On Monday, we had to return to the Opthalmologist in New Minas. This presented a fine excuse to visit The Odd Book store in Wolfville.

I was looking for some of Merritt Gibson’s writing. Fortunately, I found “The Old Place: A Natural History of a Country Garden“, illustrated by Twila Robar-DeCoste.

The subtitle is ‘Individual and Community Nature Stewardship’. The Old Place is in Canning. Twila Robar-DeCoste is in Aylesford. The book starts with a map of the geography, and then proceeds with the natural history of the different gardens.

Each chapter starts with a message for the reader. For example, Chapter One:

”Locally, there is much that can be done for Nature stewardship begins with individuals and communities. Individuals and communities can protect and restore natural sites, and help ensure the survival of the plants and animals that live in them. An appreciation of nature is a prerequisite to such a goal.” p.9.

One of the pleasures of a visit to the Odd Book store is its collection of authors published by Gaspereau Press. This includes Harry Thurston, Peter Sanger, Soren Bondrup-Nielsen and many others.

While I am lost in Gaspereau Press, Heather is checking out butterfly books. This Summer, our garden has been a feast of colours and fruits. She found James Scott, The Butterflies of North America.

This complements a previous purchase from The Xerces Society, Gardening for Butterflies: How you can attract and protect beautiful, beneficial insects.

Postscript

Merritt Gibson (1930-2010) was professor emeritus of Biology at Acadia University.

Acknowledgements

Heather continues to share the pleasures of our ’old place’. Edward contributed the graphics and links.

References

Merritt Gibson, 1997, The Old Place: A Natural History of a Country Garden, Lancelot Press.

James A. Scott, 1986, The Butterflies of North America: A Natural History and Field Guide, Stanford University Press.

The Xerces Society, 2016, Gardening for Butterflies, Timber Press, Oregon.

I have just finished reading Joan Baxter’s book ‘The Hermit of Gully Lake’, 2nd edition. It is a remarkable story. Sympathetically written and researched. It raises several questions.

The first is a technical one. What have been the changes, if any, between the first and second edition ? I am now trying to track down a copy of the first edition through the Library.

The second is more philosophical. As a Geographer, we talk a lot about ‘a sense of place’. What does a sense of place mean to a hermit? What was special about Gully Lake? Can any place be a ‘special place’ or hermitage?

Willard Kitchener MacDonald ‘jumped from a troop train to avoid going off to battle in World War II and lived for more than half a century in the woods around Earltown in northern Nova Scotia’ p.7.

At about 2 pm on June 27,2004 they found the remains of a ‘deceased elderly man in a wooded area on the east side of Gully Lake’. p.133.

In her epilogue, Baxter quotes the refrain from a song ‘Let him be’ by Dave Gunning and John Meir. I was able to find it online on their CD Two-bit World.

Checking my bookcase, I rediscovered The True Solitude. selections from the Writings of Thomas Merton. Here is an unspeakable secret writes Father Merton.

“Paradise is all around us and we do not understand. It is wide open. The sword is taken away, but we do not know it: we are off ‘one to his farm’ and ‘another to his merchandise’…..’Wisdom’ cries the dawn deacon, but we do not attend’. From the inside of the back cover.

See ”Day of a Stranger” a meditation describes his way of life as a hermit “.

Acknowledgements

Edward added the links and graphics. Heather shares the journey.

References

Joan Baxter, 2021, The Hermit of Gully Lake: The Life and Times of Willard Kitchener MacDonald, 2nd. Edition, Pottersfield Press.

Dean Walley selections 1969. From the writings of Thomas Merton. The True Solitude. Hallmark Editions.

Dave Gunning and John Meir, Let Him Be, On their CD Two-bit World.

Postscript

I also unearthed Thomas Raddall The Dreamers published by Pottersfield Press in 1986. More light reading.

Tomorrow is Register-Reader day !

Thursday has become “Register-Reader Day”. It is the day of the week to catch up with our community.

From the Annapolis Valley Register (page 8) in these times of Health Services challenge, we see opinions on Diabetes and Dementia. Meanwhile, the Reader gives us a celebration of the life of Kent Thompson. In particular, I recall his book ‘Getting out of town by book and bike’ published by Gaspereau Press, from the back cover,

”Thompson also investigates the role of bicycle in books by writers ranging from DH Lawrence and HG Wells, to Elizabeth Bishop and Ernest Buckler.”

To survive these challenging times, I found a couple of books. At the Inside Story, I spotted Don Pentz ‘Images of Keji Country’.

”Kejimkujik National Park resonates with the distant forces of the Mi’kmaq ancestors. Those voices are given a visual presence through hundreds of petroglyphs rock engravings, the moss-covered fire rings that dot the Keji shorelines and the stirrings of buried artifacts. These things tie the Mi’kmaq to the bold nature of ‘place’.”

At Chisholm’s Stationers in Kentville, I found the Second Edition of ‘The Hermit of Gully Lake’ by Joan Baxter. I had enjoyed her writing ‘The Mill: fifty years of pulp and protest’.

From Henry David Thoreau, Walden.

“Men frequently say to me, “I think you would feel lonesome down there, and want to be nearer folks, rainy and snowy days and nights especially.”

The book is published by Pottersfield Press. I think that I have a copy of the First Edition but have been unable to find it.

Acknowledgements

Edward added the links and graphics. Heather shared a very busy, tumultuous week.

References

The Annapolis Valley Register, Thursday August 19, 2021, p.8, Diabetes: let’s change the conversation, Brooks Roche, Dementia: Twists and turns on the road to awareness, J. Archibald.

Kent Elgin Thompson. 3 February 1936 – 13 August 2021. The Reader August 20, 2021 submitted by David Thompson.

Kent Thompson, 2001, Getting out of town by books and bike, Gaspereau Press.

Donald R. Pentz, 2021, Images of Keji Country, SSP Publishers.

Joan Baxter, 2021, The Hermit of Gully Lake, The Life and Times of Willard Kitchener MacDonald, Second Edition, Pottersfield Press.

This week, I finished Graham Steele’s book, Nova Scotia Politics, 1945-2020: from MacDonald to McNeil.

I thought it might offer insights as we approach next week’s Provincial Election. In particular, I was looking to understand the relationship between economic development and ecological landscape management.

I did come across Appendix 2: Top 10 Nova Scotia politicians 1945-2020. (p.236-7). This included: ”Peter Nicolson MLA 1956-1978. Finance Minister 1970-78. Set the gold standard for ministers. Smart, respected.”

This in turn, reminded me of all those days that I walked through the front doors of NSLSI (COGS) and view this plaque.

Through the Annapolis Valley library, I received Linda Lear’s “Beatrix Potter: a Life in Nature”.

I have just started this lengthy tome (584 pages). I am encouraged by the map of Beatrix Potter’s Lakeland 1892-1943. And from the first sentence in the Acknowledgements (p.ix).

”Beatrix Potter was first of all an artist and writer of place who found her personal and intellectual freedom in nature. She later became a conservationist in an effort to preserve the landscape that had inspired her art.”

This week, too, I am preparing for the AF Church Historical Maps Specialist workshop (see previous blog post). I am charged with the following topics

1. outline the development of Historical GIS in Canada;
   
2. discuss the prospects for development of this technology in Nova Scotia.

To speak to the first topic, we must explore the history of GIS in Canada and elsewhere. For the second, we must visit technological development in Nova Scotia and beyond.

Since the invitation to speak at the workshop in Truro, I have used my blog: ernestblairexperiment.wordpress.com
to reflect on both topics.

After the workshop, I hope to be in a better position to comment on current directions, within the context of the AF Church maps.

Acknowledgements

David Raymond initiated the workshop process and provided the link to “GIS Applications in Human Geography“. Edward Wedler added both his technical expertise and insight into Remote Sensing.

References

Graham Steele, 2021, Nova Scotia Politics, 1945-2020: from MacDonald to McNeil, Pottersfield Press.

Linda Lear, 2007, Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, St Martin’s Press.

AF Church Historical Maps: Specialist Workshop, August 14, 2021, Truro, NS.

This weekend, we were away from the Valley at Pictou Lodge. It gave me the opportunity to read John Higgs’ book, Watling Street. Higgs uses the geography of Watling Street from Dover to Anglesey, stopping in Canterbury, St Albans and Rugby to tell the story of the British landscape

”Watling Street is simultaneously mundane and extraordinary. It facilitates movement, which generates stories, which creates history.”

At Western Park (Chapter 12), hé raises the Lloyd George question:

”Who made 10,000 owners of the land and the rest of us trespassers in the land of our birth?” P.308.

“Many who campaigned to leave the European Union did so because they want to ‘take their country back’“. There is one perspective from which the slogan becomes meaningful and one way it could be achieved.

”When a new system to replace European farming subsidies is debated, the subject of land reform and a Land Value Tax may be finally be exposed to light.”

This presents a parallel to discussion in Nova Scotia about the definition and use of Crown Land.

David Raymond sent me a paper by Charles Fergusson, published in the Dalhousie Review, on Ambrose F. Church, Map-Maker. Church published a series of topographical township maps between 1865-1888.

He forwarded an electronic copy of the Church map for Cumberland County, which I was able to display on my iMac. I had planned to visit Heather’s family farm (South Victoria and Streets Ridge).

My next step is to obtain a smaller subset of the Church map. Second, from David Raymond, his document for genealogists to add census data from that time period. This will form the basis of my next blog, entitled, Map Stories.

Acknowledgements

David Raymond for creating a digital copy of the Church maps, and for instructions on adding early census data. Heather and John Stewart have expressed an interest in the project. Edward added the graphics.

References

John Higgs, 2017, Watling Street: Travels through Britain and it’s ever-present past, Weidenfeld and Nicholson.

Charles Fergusson, Dalhousie Review, P.505-516, Ambrose F. Church: Map-Maker.