Category: Creative writing

Heather and I met Trevor Goward in the late 1970s. It was a time when we were on the West Coast of Newfoundland (Gros Morne National Park) or in Ottawa at the National Herbarium. I was part of the Rare Plants team headed by George Argus. George was a Salix taxonomist. Other taxonomists, at the Museum, included Irwin Brodo (lichens), and Bob Ireland (mosses).

Fast forward to 2022, I am reading Merlin Sheldrake’s book Entangled Life.

’Goward, curator of lichens at UBC, is foremost a lichen obsessive (he has contributed around thirty thousand lichens to the university collection) and is no less a lichen taxonomist (he has named three genera and described thirty-six new lichen species).’ p.79.

He lives on the edge of a large wilderness in British Columbia (Wells Gray Provincial Park) and runs a website, Ways of Enlichenment.

The book ’Ways of Enlichenment’ is about forest lichens of northwest North America

’We believe that books on lichens need to answer two questions. The first question is, how does one learn to identify lichens. The second question is, why should one bother? It is this second question, not so much the first which is comparatively easy, that has preoccupied us for the past dozen years.’

From twelve readings on the lichen thallus.

”Lichens, he argues, have relevance far beyond their interest as objects of scientific inquiry. Lichens exist as a doorway, a portal. Look out this doorway in one direction and what you see is an ecosystem – a collection of unrelated species, fungi and alga and bacteria. But look out the same doorway in the other direction, and what you see now is an organism, in a sense no different from any other macroscopic organism.”

“The double status of lichens as organism and ecosystem make them the ideal model entities through which to contemplate a new scientific philosophic and artistic paradigm, now in the process of emerging.”

”In recent years, Trevor has reconfigured his 4 ha. home property, Edgewood Blue, into a not-for-profit place for learning, for naturalists and others committed to a closer relationship with the living world”.

Acknowledgements

Heather first discovered the Entangled Web. This, in turn, led us to the Ways of Enlichenment website. Edward added the graphics. Trevor responded to my email.

References

Merlin Sheldrake, 2020, Entangled Life: How fungi make our worlds, change our minds and shape our futures, Random House.

Trevor Goward and his team. Ways of Enlichenment web site waysofenlichenment.net

Postscript

If you find yourself in British Columbia, make the trip to Wells Gray Provincial Park. It is well worth the detour.

This post is a follow-up to my previous one (see a reference to Mary Catherine Bateson’s, Composing a Life).

The concept of ’composting’ is ’fertilizing with a mixture of decayed vegetable matter for soil’.

In recent weeks, I have been attempting to provide Jonathan Murphy with a background on my academic career. The end result was to rediscover my curriculum vitae from 2011 on my iMac desktop computer. I called Kyle Hackenschmidt at Bridgetown Computers. With his help, I was able to email the file to Jon at GoGeomatics.

The lesson is that either I keep current with the software on the iMac or I unload the files onto a thumb drive for future access. Clearly, my technology range is now restricted to the iPad which is the preferred environment for my blog.

As we age, we shed different parts of our life. This was reinforced by an excellent documentary, Coral Ghosts, as part of Earth Week on CBC.

It describes the work of Thomas Goreau, an impassioned marine biologist who uses his family’s extensive archive as a catalyst to save the world’s reefs. Pity, that every week is not Earth Week.

This afternoon, I stopped at the COGS Library and talked to Andrew Hannam. He showed me an excellent poster by a Cartography student which documents the lives of JB Hall and Major Church. It includes a map of Lawrencetown, showing where they lived in the village. Worthy of a stop at the Library.

Acknowledgements

Kyle, for his technical computer help. Andrew for his Librarian advice. Heather provided the photograph of Buddha in our back garden on the slope of South Mountain. Edward added his graphics touch.

HEATHER —
“ I am again joining Buddha on my sitting rock. He has been sitting here all winter and has a lovely cover of Copper wire moss.“

References

Coral Ghosts aired on CBC Tuesday, April 19, 2022.

This week, I received an email from Moose House Publications. ’Big books about small places’. They were looking for short stories for Volume 2 ( 3000 words). In the same time frame, I received an email from Melissa Rostow. In 2015, I had mentored her on a Story Mapping project: four days through Haida Gwaii (also, see previous blog posts 1, 2, 3 and 4).

Here is my short story submission, entitled,

COGS IN A WHEEL

The starting point would be ’the Story of COGS’ (see also this).

This was written in 2014 with Heather Stewart. It was turned into an electronic book by Ted Mackinnon. In the same time frame, Jonathan Murphy formed GoGeomatics Canada. Story Mapping: Haida Gwaii was posted on their website in July 2015.

The next phase was the creation of a blog site under the heading Ernest Blair Experiment. This started in January 2017 with ’At the Edge of Paradise’ — a poem. This blog still continues today. March 19, 2022, is blog #393.

The challenge for me is …
How to turn writing in an electronic blog format into a short story?

Here is my solution: ‘COGS in a wheel’.

Many years ago, when the acronym COGS referred to the College of Geographic Sciences before it became the Centre of Geographic Sciences, and part of the Nova Scotia Community College, David Raymond, Cartographer, produced a number of items that showed cogs in a wheel; each Geomatics discipline engaging with the other, related disciplines. These included Computer Programming, Cartography, Planning, Surveying, and Remote Sensing.

This educational model still has relevance today. Increasingly, we need the education to be holistic and to focus on the inter-connectedness of disciplines, sciences and technologies.

Today, I picked up George Monbiot’s ’This can’t be happening’ in the Penguin Ideas Series, #4.

From his Foreword (p.5)

”Clearly, we need to demand practical changes: new technologies, new economies, new ways of living. But we also, and primarily, need to do something deeper: to overcome the ignorance the billionaire press has manufactured, to wake our friends from the stupor of consumption, to break through the barrier of disbelief and provoke a new moral imagination.”

From my perspective, we are but all cogs in a wheel. It is the connection between Moose House Publications, Melissa Rostow, Ted Mackinnon, Jonathan Murphy, myself — all connected through COGS in rural Nova Scotia, Lawrencetown, Annapolis County — that gives me hope as we face the global challenges of 2022.

Acknowledgements

Brenda Thompson at Moose House Publications for seeking out short stories. Melissa Rostow for remembering our work on Story Mapping: Haida Gwaii. Edward Wedler added his Remote Sensing and technical expertise. Ted MacKinnon and Jonathan Murphy for their contribution to the “Story of COGS”. Heather Stewart shared the journey.

References

George Monbiot, 2021, This Can’t Be Happening: Great Ideas #4, Penguin Books.

Postscript.

This blog does not meet the 3000 words criteria however it does provide access to other online resources that can expand our imagination and the word count.

On another note: Sunday 20 March 2022 is World Storytelling Day. 2022 theme is “Lost and Found”.

As we drive on Highway #1 from Bridgetown East, we keep a lookout for the Alpacas. Will they be outside in the snow or in their house? We speculate on the ownership, perhaps Wools on the Corner, Heather suggests.

On the right-hand side, we stop at D’Aubin Family Meats to buy sausages and bacon.

We notice that there are cars parked in front of the Bridgetown Motor Inn. JFW tells me that it is the meeting place for the morning coffee club. The Inn is operating under new ownership.

A couple of times a year, I have to stop at Bridgetown Watch and Clock repair. David changes the battery, replaces the watch strap. Stop at the Bank of Nova Scotia to pick up some cash. (It was only yesterday, that I witnessed the closure of the branch in Middleton).

At The Endless Shores Books, there is a chance to check out local authors from Moose House Publications and Bailey Chase Books.

On Thursdays, late afternoon, I can stop at the PharmaSave to pick up a copy of the Reader and the Register. The Reader, published by TAR, is a free weekly paper serving the communities and people of Annapolis County.

Stop at Integrity Printing to obtain a hard copy of my 2021 blogs.

My last stop would be the Bridgetown library, especially if I wanted to read Ernest Buckler or David Manners, both local authors who wrote about the town and country.

I wonder when they will reopen The Station. I stand corrected, The Station is open Wednesday through Sunday. (Thanks, Jane for the correction)

Leaving town, I must decide whether to visit friends in Centrelea or head back home, along Highway #201, past the Eden Golf and Country Club in West Paradise, Burnbrae Farm and Paradise Inn.

Finally, home …

Postscript

At COGS in Lawrencetown, we teach Esri GIS software. Specifically, the use of ’story maps’. In this case, in collaboration with Edward Wedler, I wanted to produce a ‘map story’. The story is about Bridgetown. The map is one way of sharing that story about a special place.

Acknowledgements

Edward continues to add depth and colour to the blog. Heather adds insight too.

Last week, Heather and I went to check out the new encampment by Extinction Rebellion. It was September 2020 when we camped with them to protest against clearcutting and spraying parcels of forest off the Rifle Range road in West Inglisville (see Anatomy of a Protest).

The protest was deemed a success. Here we are, fifteen months later, facing the same issue in the Beal’s Meadow area, closer to Trout Lake. Obviously, nothing has changed in terms of Clearcutting on Crown Land in Annapolis County.

On both occasions, we discovered old derelict school buses, like this one shown, lost in the woods. It is our assumption that these buses were used as administrative vehicles for harvest crews or tree planters.

The buses are a poignant reminder that this landscape has been used (abused) for several decades. Imagine the stories that could be told about the relationship between the communities, the people, the wildlife and the land.

We have a literature that recognizes this relationship. It could be the writing of Ernest Buckler, or Dave Whitman writing about Roxbury, or the work of Mike Parker, or go back further to the Tent Dwellers. The lakes and wetlands have been given names: Eel Weir Lake, Beal’s Meadows, Crispe Bog. Where do they come from?

This week, we see two events.

1. Strategic Tourism for Areas and Regions (STAR). STAR is an industry led regional tourism development planning process to help grow the tourism economy in the Annapolis Valley. Imagine the stories which could be told about this landscape.
2. Community of Bridgetown meeting. December 8,2021. In September 2020 the then warden Timothy Habinsky and Larry Powell came out to the camp and expressed support for Sustainable Forestry and against Glyphosate spraying and its potential impact on our water supply. What is the position of the new Council?

Finally, from Emergence Magazine, Amitav Ghosh, in “Beings Seen and Unseen” (listen to the interview), ’discusses how the widespread silencing of nonhuman voices deeply entangled in capitalism and the geopolitical structure that sustains it, and calls on storytellers to lead us in the necessary work of collective reimagining: decentering human narrative and re-centering stories of the land. (photo by Sumit Dayal via Emergence Magazine)

Acknowledgements

Heather shared in our discovery of the landscape and wildlife on South Mountain, whether by bicycle, ski or on foot. Nina Newington has provided an inspiration. Edward contributed the graphics.

References

STAR meeting. Tuesday December 7th MacDonald Museum, Middleton. 2 pm

County of Annapolis meeting. Wednesday December 8th. The Legion, Bridgetown. 7 pm.

Postscript

Today (Sunday) we went to find the ’blue bus’. There was fresh snow on the ground. Unfortunately, we ran out of light. I will find it, and share in a future blog.

Working in the orchard, you learn that trees produce many products, if you look after them. Fresh apples, cider, vinegar, brandy. The products also feed others : deer, bear, squirrel, chipmunk plus numerous bird species.

Can we apply the same analogy to my use of WordPress? Another realization. In writing my blog over the last few years, I have become dependent on WordPress.

What would happen if you applied those same cyclic and sustainable lessons to the way we manage the trees in the forest ?

When I read Alistair MacLeod, I appreciate his descriptions of life, and the lives along the Cape Breton coastline. I appreciate his use of language, including Gaelic. Is the story telling process really word processing or, as in the case of cider pressing, extracting the essence from the fruit which comes from the trees which we manage for a variety of products?

We have a deep relationship with our landscape and we interact in many ways with the landscape and all the other species which co-exist with us. Why allow a single-minded fixation on wood supply to destroy this complex relationship with the forested landscape and its co-habitants? Why do we see changes in the climate ? Why do we see the changes in the population of these other species ?

I am willing to put my faith in the cider press, but also in the word press.

INPUT: Crown lands, Sustainability, Clear-cutting

OUTPUT: Haiku

Postscript.

Please read Alistair MacLeod’s As Birds Bring Forth the Sun.

Acknowledgements

Each week, Edward helps me master the idiosyncrasies of the WordPress software. Heather continues to see the trees and not the wood.

References

Edward found this link to over forty classic British movies for free, hidden as a scavenger hunt on Google Maps. In his view, mixing maps, GIS and geography with entertainment is a powerful, educational and business notion. Looks like fun.

Bob Bent, local author, recently published a novel Spy on Ice. It is the story of a Canadian hockey player who is recruited by the Ottawa Senators to spy on a Russian player whose father is Head of Russian Intelligence.

This week, we picked the last Nova Spy tree in the orchard. Afterwards, we sent a selection of apples to Andrew and family in Iqaluit.

Thinking about the Nova Spy, it seemed like a good idea to seek out heritage varieties in the Annapolis Valley. I found one example on the West Inglisville Road. Interestingly, these four large trunk trees stand on a property, once owned by Bob Bent.

I recall writing a blog in November 2017 Apple Pressing and the Ghost Orchard. It contains references to the writing of Tom Burford, Julian Gwyn and Helen Humphreys. It concludes with a Robert Frost poem, ‘AfterApple-picking’.

Perhaps there is a novel in The Nova Spy, based on the search for heritage apple varieties in rural Nova Scotia.

Postscripts

Through inter-library loan, I received Antony Berger (Ed.) No Place for a Woman: The Life and Newfoundland Stories of Ella Manuel. Heather and I both recall visiting her home above Woody Point in 1975. Heather was working at Gros Morne National Park. I was teaching at Memorial University and supervising Biogeography graduate students on the West coast.

Blessings, A visual journey through the Irish landscape, Emergence Magazine.

Acknowledgements

Edward for encouraging the link between Ice Spy and Nova Spy. Jaki at the Lawrencetown library for the inter-library loan service. Heather continues to pick MacFree in the orchard. Perhaps, we can conduct an organic cider taste test, using all three varieties.

References

Bob Bent, 2020. Spy on Ice, Nevermore Press.

Antony Berger, 2020. No Place for a Woman, Breakwater Press.
(LINK to Book Launch)

In the Spring, Heather and I noticed a yellow-spotted salamander on the edge of our garden pond. Today, the pond is almost dry, full of weeds and bulrushes. The pond depends on the runoff from South Mountain.

The salamander is at risk, as the provincial government supports the use of sprays to manage the clear-cuts. Who will speak for the salamander?

Meanwhile, as we approach a municipal election, candidates focus on fiscal accountability. If we destroy our landscape and the species that call it home, then arguing about the costs of different projects is relatively insignificant.

This Thursday, there is a protest against spraying on North Mountain,
https://www.facebook.com/ExtinctionRebellionNovaScotia/posts/1114729368923750

My brother, Peter sent me a BBC4 interview with Robert MacFarlane. MacFarlane is well known for his books on the ‘language of place’. In the podcast, he makes a couple of interesting points.

MacFarlane quotes the poet, W.H.Auden:

“Culture is no better than its woods”

He also speaks to the need to collaborate with artists and musicians, especially when campaigning to save the trees and the landscape.

Acknowledgements

Peter Maher for his support from France. Edward and Heather for their support in Nova Scotia. Nina Newington for her campaigning.

References

BBC4 Front Row. Interview with Robert MacFarlane by Kristy Lang.
George Orwell. Some Thoughts on the Common Toad. Penguin Great Ideas. #99.

The title of this blog is a homage to George Orwell (1903-1950). His thoughts on the Common Toad was first published in 1946. He concludes the essay.

“The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it”. p.6.

Post-postscript

From one of my boxes of books, I noticed, peaking out, David Knight and Alun Joseph (Ed) 1999. Restructuring Societies: Insights from the Social Sciences. It contains an essay by Bob Rae. ‘Two men against Revolution. Edmund Burke and George Orwell’. That is now over twenty years ago!