Category: New thinking

As part of the sale, we had to clean out the attic of the farm house. There were several totes, containing possessions from Andrew, Julia and Julia’s Dad. They proved to be a literary treasure chest.

A separate box contained thirty volumes of Granta, a quarterly paperback magazine of new writing, published by Penguin, from #21 to #69. For example, #21 The Story-Teller includes contributions from Bruce Chatwin, Oliver Sacks and Primo Levi (1987).

The icing on the cake was the Signet classic, George Orwell, Animal Farm with a new Preface by Russell Baker(1996).

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Thank you, to Brent Hall, who responded to the link on Lonnie Donegan and skiffle (see blog post HERE), with two additional links showing the trajectory from Donegan via James Page to Led Zeppelin.

Via Brent Hall, check out Lonnie Donegan’s “Rock Island Line“, “Mama Don’t Want to Skiffle Anymore” and “Led Zeppelin“.

Wonderful entertainment !

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Postscript

We rescued the Hunter chest from the wood shed and returned it to the rightful owners, the Hunter family.

Acknowledgements.

Through gifting links, we find a sense of community. The above books represent only a subset from the ‘treasure chest’. En route, I appreciated the feedback from Jane, Peter, Andrew Ronay and others overseas. Heather and Edward enjoyed the results with me.

References

Roald Dahl, 1990, Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life, Penguin.

Roald Dahl, 1986, Boy: Tales of Childhood, Puffin.

Roald Dahl, 1983, George’s Marvellous Medicine, Bantam.

Farley Mowat, 2002, High Latitudes. An Arctic Journey, Steerforth Press.

Colin Fletcher, 1989, The Man who walked through time., Vintage Books.

George Orwell, 1956, Animal Farm, Signet Classic.

Granta 21 The Story-Teller. Spring 1987.

’The Story-Teller. What does it suggest? Folk-tales, myths, sea voyages, a cartoon campfire. In short, a way of writing that is distinctly “unmodern”.

Yesterday (Wednesday) Heather and I participated in the Winter Bird Count, coordinated by David Colville.

The traverse from the river to the top of South Mountain brought memories of our local geography.

What would we learn if we made the traverse, once a month? Or four times per year?

This led, naturally to questions of citizen science. Previously, when employed at AGRG, we had climate stations on the property. What would we learn, if we had say, 4-6 stations in a transect from the river bank to the southern edge of our property on the mountain? What is the temperature and humidity profile along the transect? At different times of the year?

If we maintained the network, we would be able to monitor climate change in the region.

As a citizen scientist I would welcome the opportunity to participate in developing our understanding of the local climate, it’s relationship to the landscape, and to the other species which share this landscape.

As a citizen scientist I would welcome the opportunity to participate in developing our understanding of the local climate, it’s relationship to the landscape, and to the other species which share this landscape.

A note sent to me from Orion Magazine on the loss of contributing editor, Barry Lopez.

 the world is losing a lot of light. Let us hope others will take it up and shine it brightly in 2021

— SANDRA BARRY

Acknowledgements

To David Colville for including us in the bird count. Heather for sharing the forest walk. Sandra Barry for forwarding the note on Barry Lopez. Edward for his magic touch.

References

Mary Ellen Hannibal, 2016, Citizen Scientist: Searching for heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction. The Experiment.

Article on Barry Lopez (1945-2020) in Orion Magazine, December 31, 2020.

Some of my previous blog post links to Citizen Science:
A Proposal: Crowdsourcing and Citizen Scientists
We are all Geographers
Citizen Scientist…
Community Information Utility: it’s time has come.

By the time this blog is posted, we shall know the results of the Municipal Election in Annapolis County. We shall know in the words of The Reader editorial whether ‘Small Things Matter’. We will see the impact of online voting. At this critical juncture, I wonder whether we need electoral reform.

Do we need eleven Councillors in Annapolis County?
Do we need separate elections for the towns, e.g. Annapolis Royal, Middleton?
Is the management of the natural resources in this province independent of the municipalities?

In the past, I have expressed concern about the management of our landscape, and its relation to climate change.

Looking for solace, in these difficult times, I picked up again, Daniel Botkin’s No Man’s Garden: Thoreau and a new vision for civilization and nature. In the book, Botkin identifies three types of expert (p.111):

1. Contemporary professional experts
2. The great thinkers of the past.
3. Experiential experts – local people with local knowledge based on their experience of living in an area and observing carefully.

My thesis would be that we need a combination of all three. Likewise on municipal council we need all three.

It would be a mistake, in my mind, if we focussed only on the small things, and did not understand the larger context. Or what was happening in our larger geography.

There are many good resources available. This morning, I visited Dawn Oman’s gallery in Bridgetown to ask about tickets to the Dave Gunning concert on October 24th.

While there, I had the chance to pick up the latest issue of Up Here magazine, devoted to Northern Canada.

From Celes Davar, we received the recommendation to watch Kiss the Ground , starring Woody Harrelson on Netflix. It defines the importance of the soil to our global ecosystem.
From Anne Crossman, I was sent the link to Striking Balance, a series on Canada’s biosphere reserves.

They are filming the episode on the Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve, to be aired at the end of November on the CBC. Finally, we received an update from Larry Powell on the Gordonstoun project. This offers employment opportunities for local business. It emphasizes ‘place-based’ education. Our geography, the Annapolis Valley, fits within the Atlantic Canada bubble, as well as the Canada nation.

Acknowledgements

To all those friends who continue to share ideas and experiences: Dawn Oman, Celes Davar, Anne Crossman. Heather, who has helped shoulder the burden of a bumper apple crop in the orchard. Edward for ongoing support.

References

Daniel Botkin, 2001. No Man’s Garden: Thoreau and a new vision for civilization and nature. Island Press.

My daughter, Allison, spent much of the summer camping in Southern Ontario, close to her home. On those trips my two grandchildren created maps as one of their pastime activities. My grandson is six years old and his sister is four years old.

To place his campsite location in context within a larger geography, my grandson mapped the Great Lakes from memory — something I would have difficulty doing.

Closer to home, he mapped features that were important to him at each campground.

The features intrigued me. He names the trails and records their lengths, marks roadways and walkways, streams and green spaces, and important features to a six-year old that I cannot recognize. Tents are numerous and line well-travelled paths. Important to him (and the family) is the location of the public washrooms. This is one of about eight maps he drew at different campsites.

Of importance to his younger four-year-old sibling was the location of two blue water bodies, connecting river, and the land in between. An understandably simpler map.

I recall my many mapping conversations with former COGS instructor Konrad Dramowicz, years ago. He studied how children perceive their space and geography from maps he had them create, based on their travels to and from school.

Looking further into this topic, I was referred to Dr David Sobel in New Hampshire, and his book Mapmaking With Children, in which he discusses the crisis in geography education. The story doesn’t end here. I emailed Dr Sobel and he writes,

“Yes, some children have the mapmaking gene expressed more strongly — a great thing to encourage.  Unusual, from a developmental perspective, for a 6 year old to have internalized a map image of the scope of the Great Lakes system.“

My two older grandchildren from Nova Scotia also create maps. These maps are dynamic and strategic based on their invented game call “The Wall”. It is a game designed to see who can outwit the other, to infiltrate their opponent over, under, around or through The Wall. This game has provided hours of entertainment for them, and their adult challengers as well.

While instructing at COGS, eons ago, I did visit some elementary schools in Annapolis County to talk about Canada’s space, remote sensing and mapping programs. When bringing in some local airphotos and topographic maps to middle school aged youth their exuberance was surprisingly upbeat. Youth want to understand their geography. I hope that COGS continues to fightback the geography crisis noted by Dr Sobel.

Reference

Dr David Sobel, 1998, Mapmaking with Children: sense of place education for elementary years, Heinemann.

Postscript

For those interested in making a “collage map” watch this video from the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. LINK: https://youtu.be/H1FXyFH7HrE This project is inspired by the 1975 work, “A Map of Meagher’s Grant”, by artist Evelyn Dickie.

“This is a great activity to do to celebrate the neighbourhood we live in or a home from the past that holds dear to our heart.”

After the rally in Burlington, the next step was to try to persuade the Annapolis Municipal Council to ban spraying in the County. The Warden and some Councillors appear to be receptive to the motion.

The need to spray is contingent on previous forest clear-cutting. Therefore, the larger issue is to stop clear-cutting.

What can citizens do (for example)?

In the case of spraying in Annapolis County, we can lobby our Councillors. We also need to be fully informed. We need to know:

1. Which parcels are designated for spraying?
2. Where are they located? A map.
3. Who owns the land?
4. Who will conduct the spraying? When?

If necessary, Annapolis County citizens will have to stand up in the same way as the citizens of Burlington.

If we wish to stop clear-cutting, we need to know:

1. Which parcels have been clear-cut, by whom, when?
2. Which parcels are designated for future clear-cut by whom, when?
3. Which parcels that have been clear-cut, and have already been sprayed?

As in all these situations, a key is the understanding the geography of our landscape. Again, we can lobby, the Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS), to help us map the landscape, the forest cover and areas at risk.

With the forthcoming municipal election, we should promote the concept of an Island of Hope. This could be just Annapolis County or it could extend through the physiographic region, the Annapolis Valley.

An Island of Hope is a region where life has a higher value than money. This will require a different definition of economy and well-being.

In nature’s economy the currency is not money, it is life

— Vandana Shiva

If our municipal units agree with this approach, we can all learn through citizen engagement, collaboration with our educational institutions, and sharing our findings with other regions of the province and beyond.

Our experiment is only as effective as the initial design.

Acknowledgements

First, the inspirational efforts of the citizens in the Burlington area. Those citizens of Annapolis County who have responded to the call for action. Edward for mastering the new WordPress editor. Heather for passing along her Facebook feedback and the Dave Gunning song.

References

Rick Ketcheson link, “How Economic Growth has become Anti-Life“
Celes Davar link.
Circular Economy. Explainer video.

Footnote

Listen to Dave Gunning “Wish I Was Wrong“

Google has announced a new program Google Career Certification. These certificates are considered equivalent to a four-year degree for related roles. Given the move by universities and colleges to online education, this raises the prospect of re-thinking tertiary education (perhaps, secondary too).

Let us assume that software vendors will continue to offer a wider range of online, hands-on tutorials on their products. The role of colleges and universities will be to develop “critical thinking”.

Back in the 1980s, when I was teaching at COGS, in the third semester, each student would undertake a cooperative project with government and industry contacts. Fast forward to 2020, I can envisage projects driven by the needs of the community, that focus on the local geography.

For example, in Annapolis County, we are seeing a movement towards protecting community forests. Students from this region could focus on tools that would allow citizen groups to build ‘pods’ of like-minded citizens who wished to maintain and protect similar forest values.

If a student is attending COGS online from another part of the country, eg BC or Nunavut, then their cooperative project would engage citizens from their local geography. The topic would be defined by the community.

Besides technical support for the online tutorials, students would need access to a mentor for the critical thinking component of their education. In the case of the Annapolis Valley, it could be a retired academic or informed citizen.

Since the cooperative project is determined by geography, it would be important to define a set of new relationships:

a) citizens with an understanding of geographic issues;
b) vendors bring their understanding of the online learning materials;
c) critical thinking on the relationship between education/technology/community.

What is needed to make this work at COGS?

A willingness for open discussion:

a) with the primary software vendors,
b) citizen advisory groups
c) and critical thinking mentorship.

In this disruptive education scenario, there is an opportunity to redefine collaboration or ‘community’ college to be much more inclusive with a wide range of members from different geographic communities. The scenario could include multiple technologies. It offers a new vision for civilization and nature.

Postscript

In the latest Guardian Weekly (August 21) there is a review of Nick Hayes’s book, The Book of Trespass: crossing the lines that divide us. p.60.

References

Google Link
Email from Nina Newington.
Nick Hayes, 2020. The Book of Trespass: Crossing the Lines that Divide Us. Bloomsbury Circus.
Acknowledgements

Edward for forwarding the Google link. Nina for her thoughts on citizen collaboration and forest values. Heather for seeing the individual species from the trees.