Category: Event Review

This week, I received in the mail from Guernica Editions a copy of Nina Newington’s forthcoming book, Cardinal Divide. Nina has asked me if I would write a review. That is my current homework. This encouraged me to do some background research. I read an interview in open-book.ca Nina Newington on Canada, Uncertainty and her newest book.

I also discovered that there is a Forest Garden Walkabout and Workshop this Saturday, August 1st.

Meanwhile, Heather and I had been trying to meet up with Rick Ketcheson and his wife, Kathy. We had been interested in the properties of biochar. On Thursday, we enjoyed a tour of their amazing garden on St.James Street in Annapolis Royal. Later on our walk to the Elm Tree Cafe at the Historic Gardens, we discussed a wide range of topics from food sustainability, community gardens, two-eyed seeing to the writing of Wendell Berry.

Afterwards, in the afternoon, I stopped at the Lawrencetown library. Jaki informed me that once again we can request books through inter-library loan.
It was obvious that I should request The Well-gardened Mind, in the spirit of both Nina and Rick.

In answer to one of Rick’s questions about bringing about change, my somewhat facetitious answer was ‘fungal networks’. To appreciate our local geography, we must recognize the richness that exists or has been attracted to this part of rural Nova Scotia.

Meanwhile, a footnote from Peter Pula in Axiom News ‘What piano and social procurement have in common’.

Acknowledgements

Rick Ketcheson for the walkabout in Annapolis Royal. Nina Newington for the review request. Heather for her interest in garden improvement. Edwards for his graphics contribution.

References.

Nina Newington, 2020. Cardinal Divide, Guernica Editions. (Forthcoming in September)
Forest Garden Walkabout and Workshop. August 1, 2020.
Raven Wood Biochar
Sue Stuart-Smith, 2020. The Well-gardened Mind: the restorative power of Nature.
Axiom News, July 30th. What piano and social procurement have in common.

On Tuesday, I returned to Great Expectations, Books and Antiques, café and hand-made chocolates in Annapolis Royal. I had three goals:

To pick up some Arthur Ransome books.
To pick up some Alexander McCall Smith books.
To obtain a copy of One Art, Elizabeth Bishop letters.

On my previous visit, I had noticed a number of Arthur Ransome books in the Swallows and Amazons series. I remember reading them as a child in England. From Wikipedia, I learned that ‘the twelve books are set in the Interwar period and involve adventures by groups of children, mostly during the school holidays.’
The books are set in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. Indeed, in the Coot Club, there is an accurate map of the Norfolk Broads. The Swallows and Amazons series enhanced the tourism business in these regions. Imagine a similar situation in the Annapolis Valley. Or imagine visiting England with grandchildren, bringing along these books.

Arthur Ransome was a war correspondent in Russia who gave up journalism in 1929. Between 1930-1945 he wrote the Swallows and Amazons series for children. How does one make that transition?

Heather has been reading Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. Fortunately, at Great Expectations, I was able to obtain #4 and #5 in the series. Plus the purchase of a small gift of hand-made chocolates.

I had noticed the Elizabeth Bishop letters on the shelf during the previous visit. Fortunately, it was still there.

‘One Art stands for the art of poetry to which she devoted Her life. William Butler Yeats believed that “The intellect of man is forced to choose / Perfection of the life, or of the work “ And Elizabeth Bishop chose the latter.’ p viii

‘One Art also stands for the art of letter writing, which she practised more casually and with more prolific results than composing poems’. p.viii.

This relates to my next blog on ‘Two Arts’, the EBSNS Fundraiser 2020 and the work of Natalia Pavaliayeva.

Postscript

Watched Haida Modern on the BC Knowledge Network; a forceful reminder of our excellent time living on Haida Gwaii.

Acknowledgements

An appreciation of second-hand bookstores, open again at Great Expectations in Annapolis Royal and the Blue Griffin in Middleton. Edward Wedler, an ex-bookstore owner and graphics contributor. Sandra Barry for her enduring interest in Elizabeth Bishop and her work.

References

Arthur Ransome, 1934. Coot Club. Puffin Books
Arthur Ransome, 1940. The Big Six. Puffin Books.
Arthur Ransome, 1947. Great Northern? Puffin Books.
Alexander McCall Smith, 1998. The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Penguin Random House
Robert Giroux (Ed) 1994. One Art. Elizabeth Bishop Letters. Farrah, Straus and Giroux.

This week, between snow squalls, we have been winter pruning in the orchard.
During the squalls, I had the chance to check out a couple of links suggested by Gregory Heming. Under the auspices of the Oberlin Project. David Orr has been building links between Oberlin College and the community. This might be a potential model for the link between NSCC Annapolis campus and the Municipality of Annapolis County. The second link was Paul Kingsnorth and the Dark Mountain Project.“The writers from whom Dark Mountain has taken inspiration are grounded in a sense of place and time. In the deep time of geology and myth, in the rooted relations to the place of a tree or the navigational feel for place of a migrant bird.”

My second theme is children’s books. Sandra Barry forwarded to me an event notice, featuring Rita Wilson and Emma FitzGerald ‘A Pocket of Time: the poetic childhood of Elizabeth Bishop’. In the latest issue of Grapevine (March 5-19), there is a short review of Sheree Fitch, new children’s book ‘Summer Feet’.

This takes us to Sunday afternoon. I had the opportunity to attend the Geoff Butler celebration at the Kings Theatre. It was a full house. The first half included a short film by Tim Wilson ‘Return to Fogo Island‘; Butler’s birthplace. The photography was breath-taking. This was followed by a longer documentary by Devin Fraser ‘Off the beaten track’ a biography of Geoff Butler, with a backdrop of Fogo Island and Granville Ferry, with readings from his works.

For me, the highlight was the opportunity to pick up Butler’s new book, ‘Lullabies for Seniors’. The book includes forty-six lullabies, from ‘At the Tiller’ to Wherever the wind blows’. Each lullaby has a painting and a musical score.
From Butler’s Introduction,

“For the paintings in this project, ‘Lullabies for Seniors’, I have depicted character types at various stages of napping. The images, and the accompanying lyrics, refer to the seniors’ walk in life, be it their former employment, activity or interest. Thus, while the rendering of seniors provides the surface imagery of the paintings, the underlying meaning relates to commentary on various things going on in the world at large’. P.6.

Finally, Edward forwarded to me a link to a TED talk, ’When local news dies so does democracy?’ by Chuck Plunkett.

This may be a good reason for a blog on ’Artistic Riches’ in the region.
And its emphasis on a ‘sense of place and time’.

Acknowledgements

Gregory Heming for the new links. Sandra Barry for information on all things Elizabeth Bishop. Edward Wedler for the TED link and his graphics.
Geoff Butler for his wonderful combination of art, writing and music. Plus a great title for a book.

References

Rita Wilson and Emma Fitzgerald. 2020. A Pocket of Time: the poetic childhood of Elizabeth Bishop. Nimbus Publishing.
Sheree Fitch. 2020. Summer Feet. Nimbus Publishing.
Tim Wilson. 2010 Film Return to Fogo Island.
Geoff Butler. 2020. Lullabies for Seniors. Self-published.
The Dark Mountain Project. dark-mountain.net
The Oberlin Project.
TED talk. When local news dies so does democracy. By Chuck Plunkett.

The Municipality of Annapolis hosted a Climate Action Summit at Cornwallis Park on Saturday. There were over one hundred and fifty citizens in attendance. Overnight snow greeted us, as we drove down Highway #101 to Deep Brook.The day was structured into three parts:

a) keynote presentations from the Municipality and COGS;
b) community presentations;
c) specific breakout groups after lunch.

The keynotes were Timothy Habinski, Gregory Heming and Ed Symonds. Timothy emphasizes the need for action rather than talk ‘Be brave and be kind’.
Gregory reviewed a number of past actions by the county, including the municipal climate change action plan, the forestry review and economic development 2050. Themes included local agriculture, local energy, housing, education and training, clean air, water and soil. The move towards the third Industrial revolution: the restorative economy and right livelihood. Ed described his work at COGS and in particular the role of community mapping.

Community presentations were made by Medway Community Forest Cooperative, Acadian Seaplants, Bruce Family Farm, Nikian Farm, CARP, SNBRA, Centrelea Community Centre, the Red Cross and citizens concerned about plastics.

After an excellent buffet lunch, the afternoon was the opportunity to go into more depth. The discussion groups included energy resilience, displaced persons, crisis response, natural climate solutions, food independence. Given the inaction of the McNeil government on forestry, my interest was to understand and receive an update from Extinction Rebellion  (XR) (Nina Newington) and the Healthy Forest Coalition (Donna Crossland).

By 4 pm, the enormity of the agenda and the cool temperatures in the Conference Centre forced an early retreat to the warmth of the woodstove back in Paradise.

There were a number of takeaways from the day.

1) there is an impressive number of engaged citizens in Annapolis County.
2) from the discussion on climate forestry, there is a need for private woodlots owners to think more about the economic dimensions of land trusts.
3) from a creative ‘humour ‘ perspective, I loved the concept from XR,
‘where is Stephen ?’ campaign. Right now, he is in China!
4) there is potential for a network of solar-powered community centres to mitigate climate risk

Thinking about the complexity of the climate change agenda, and our inability to comprehend the interaction between the discussion topics in the afternoon; on returning home, looking for solace, I pulled down off the bookshelf Rooted in the Land edited by William Vitek and Wes Jackson. Essays on community and place. Published in 1996. Almost twenty-five years ago.

I would recommend the essay by David Orr, ‘Re-Ruralizing Education’. He starts with this quotation from Will Rogers:

“It ain’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble.
It’s what we know that ain’t right.”

Another essay, in the same book, which struck a chord, by Eric Zencey, ‘The Rootless Professors’.

At the follow-up Summit in 2020, I look forward to seeing positive action and further celebration of rural Nova Scotia.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Roger Mosher, Bill Crossman and Heather Stewart for their company.
To the Municipality for organizing the Summit. And all the engaged citizens.
Edward for his graphics contribution. Larry Powell for his encouragement with the blog.

Reference

William Vitek and Wes Jackson(Ed). 1996. Rooted in the Land. Essays on Community and Place. Yale University Press.