Category: Opinion

We all possess a ‘community of place’. In my case, it is civic address #6326 on Highway #201, just beyond the Lawrencetown village boundary. In essence, it could be called East Paradise. The nearest community is Lawrencetown.

We also belong to ‘communities of interest’. These start with the land. As operators of a certified organic orchard, we have an interest in organic farming. Last week, we attended a meeting of the Organic Council of Nova Scotia. This is a group of producers and processors who have been certified according to organic farming standards. To gain recognition as an interest group, we need to work with the Department of Agriculture to ensure that this perspective is represented in the province.

A second ‘community of interest’ is the small private woodlots owners. Again, we need to work with the Department of Lands and Forestry to ensure that this voice is heard.

With access to communications technology, it is easier for these ‘communities of interest’ to share their views and values with the wider society. Government agencies can support input from these communities through website development, membership lists and maps showing the availability of their products.

The challenge lies in the identification of these ‘communities of interest’, at a time when our ‘communities of place’ are at risk. There are, however encouraging signs. In Lawrencetown, we see significant leadership with the new health centre, as well as the expansion of CRIA business activities in the village. This weekend in Annapolis Royal, CARP hosted an educational event with Solar Nova Scotia. Next weekend, the Municipality is hosting a Climate Change Summit at Cornwallis Park.

To address the challenges ahead, we need to change the mechanisms whereby different levels of government work with communities of interest. We need to be more effective in the application of new technology for better public education, as well as more informed political decision making.

Acknowledgements

Rachel Brighton for her comments on ‘communities of interest’. Organics Nova Scotia for their interesting meeting. Solar Nova Scotia for their excellent educational forum.

References

Solar Nova Scotia website
Climate Action Summit website.

This Thursday, we walked with Rocky and Debby Hebb from our house down to the Annapolis River,

through to the old Lawrencetown Tree Nursery, and up to Lunn’s Mill for lunch. The old roads run through the mixed oak/maple/pine woods along the Annapolis River. On the nursery land, you can still see evidence of different tree-planting experiments.

If Stephen McNeil was serious about forestry practices in Nova Scotia, one strategy would be to reinvent the network of tree nurseries across the province. We will need more trees in the future.

Earlier in the week, we attended a talk, hosted by the Middleton Historical Society at the MacDonald Museum. Steve Skafte talked about the ‘lost roads of Nova Scotia’. He combined his interest in poetry and photography. Steve has self-published a number of books and maintains a tumbler site on the Internet.

Here are a couple of diary entries, to give a flavour of his work.

“October 21, 2019, South Williamson.

“Jerusalem Road.
The definition of a backwoods adventure is always the same to me. A tree-lined lane, narrowly crowded by branches meeting overhead. A natural arbor, bordered in by some geography. Hillsides, stream and hollow are what I’m after, difficulties to keep loggers at bay.”

“October 16, 2019, Arlington West

The time has passed for hippies and draft dodgers, forest farmers, deep daydream ‘North Mountain hippies’ as Spider Robinson called them. In the woods they left well-lived, crumbling remnants, and some unfinished projects like this one.”

Check his tumbler site for more inspiration.

For a darker perspective on lost roads, try Christy Ann Conlin’s short story ‘Full Bleed’ in her recent book collection Watermark.
Acknowledgements

Debby Hebb for her photographs. Steve Skafte for his diary entries.
Edward Wedler added the graphics. Heather, Rocky and Debby were my walking companions.

References

Steve Skafte. Go to steveskafte.tumblr.com1

September is hurricane month in Nova Scotia.

This week, after Hurricane Dorian, the Municipality of Annapolis County passed a Declaration of Climate Emergency (see Annapolis Spectator, September 23rd).

September is also the month when I need to be prepared for harvesting our organic apples. This means ensuring that the tractor is in good working order. Over the Winter, it developed a flat rear tire. This has led to the purchase of a new rim ($500) and its installation by High Country Tire. Fortunately, I had access to Neil Bent, who was able to mentor me in the challenges of bush hogging the upper field, as well as the forklift to move the Apple bins from the barn to the orchard. Each year, it seems harder to remember all the subtleties, adjusting the various levers and their proper settings.

The capacity to move seamlessly from abstract thinking to practical task thinking is something that is needed by all elements of society. To address the climate emergency, we need to learn the details of new technologies, as well as to think differently with existing technologies. The new technologies include solar and wind energy. Existing technologies include different forms of communication. We also need a different approach to the concept of community.

We need a different relationship with our landscape.

The landscape is not a resource for exploitation. Rather, it is an integral, inseparable component of our identity. It should be appreciated, fostered and shared with others, who may stop by, if only for a few weeks or months.

We need, too, a much more inclusive approach to community.

We share our lives with two retired sled dogs. They were born in Nunavut. They spent part of their working life in Northern BC. Today, they enjoy the sights and sounds of the rural Nova Scotia landscape.

Footnote

This week, I have been in touch with the Hunter family about the apple brandy. One Raymond Hunter quotation which surfaced. “Bloom where you are planted.”

Acknowledgements

Neil Bent for his patience and knowledge of farm equipment. Timothy Habinski and Gregory Heming for their good work on Annapolis County Municipal Council, leading to the Declaration. Rocky and Debby Hebb for their memories of Raymond Hunter, and the Born Again Barn in Paradise. Heather Stewart for her enthusiasm for alternative technologies, and interest in the Extinction Rebellion movement. Edward Wedler for his graphics.

Reference

Annapolis Spectator. Article by Larry Powell.September 23, 2019.

Hurricane Dorian hit Nova Scotia on Saturday night. Sunday, driving home from New Glasgow, we listened to Writers and Company on the CBC. It was an interview with Dorian Lynskey, author of The Ministry of Truth: the Biography of George Orwell’s 1984. This connected, for me, with Margaret Atwood’s new release The Testaments plus I received a notice from Lawrencetown Library that George Woodcock’s book on George Orwell had arrived through the services of inter-library loan; The Crystal Spirit: a study of George Orwell.

En route, we noticed a few more municipal slogans. For Pictou County Forward Together and also the town of New Glasgow Flourish.

Towards the end of this week, there are a number of realizations with Hurricane Dorian.

a) the sense of vulnerability when infrastructure fails.
b) the irony of demand for gas, whether for cars or generators and the climate change message.
c) the density of overhead lines in a province that still has a significant number of trees. Some of which, poplar, have a tendency to snap easily.
d)as a province, where do we stand on solar energy?
e) what about putting lines underground?
f) given the inter-dependency of the telephone system, the Internet system and the electricity system is there a better infrastructure/technology solution?
g) do we have the appropriate ‘community information’ easily accessible?

As we head into a federal election, and subsequently provincial and municipal, elections, are there connections to the writing of both Orwell and Atwood?

Acknowledgements

From Hurricane Dorian, it is apparent that to Flourish we need to Move Forward Together. Interestingly  Forward Together is also the slogan of the Federal Green Party. Thanks to Heather for her observations and our conversations. Edward added the graphics.

References

Margaret Atwood. 2019. The Testaments. McClelland & Stewart.
Dorian Lynskey. 2019. The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell’s 1984. Doubleday.
George Woodcock.1966. The Crystal Spirit: A Study of George Orwell. Little, Brown and Company.

Yesterday, I had to go to Kentville for a doctor’s appointment. On my way, I noticed the Kings’ County sign is ‘Orchards, vineyards and tides’ then, as one approaches Kentville on the Highway #101, the sign is ‘A breath of fresh air’.

At the doctor’s office, we chatted about the fact that the town of Kentville is hosting a party for nine new doctors (including mine), with an invitation list of five hundred. Coming from Annapolis County, this was definitely, a breath of fresh air.

With time in hand, I visited the Shelf Life Used Books, I picked up a copy of The Nova Scotia Book of Fathers; a collection of short essays by twenty Nova Scotia writers about their father, including Lesley Choyce, Harry Thurston, Alexander Macleod, Joan Baxter and others.

The one that struck a chord was Alexander Macleod’s description of his father’s little house in Broad Cove, looking out over Margaree Island.

‘When he was a younger man, he built himself a little house, a separate connected place, where he could practise his craft without ever really leaving his other home behind’ p22.

As we prepare for the release of Hunter’s brandy, made from apples in our orchard, I am receiving a number of emails of photographs and memories of Raymond Hunter from his sons and family.

Meanwhile, Edward researched the ‘Naturally Connected‘ slogan from Richmond County. It seems that that may have been a community or private sign. The sign exists on Highway #105 between Sydney and the Causeway. However, it is not attributable to Richmond County.

If someone is driving that highway, please let us know which community owns the slogan.

This evening at the MacDonald Museum, the Valley Regional Enterprise Network (VREN) is hosting a public forum in Middleton. They are looking for citizen input ‘to create a brand for the entire Annapolis Valley region’.
Unfortunately, in The Reader, they had the wrong time. It was this morning at 9 am. Oh dear !

It’s an interesting scenario. Middleton is ‘the Heart of the Valley’ and yet neither the County of Annapolis nor the town of Annapolis Royal are members of the VREN. Meanwhile, Valley Waste municipal partners are reportedly suing Annapolis County.

Certainly, it is time for ‘a breath of fresh air’!

A further example can be found in The Grapevine (August 22 -September 5),
Both the Mayors of Kentville and Wolfville welcome students back to their communities. p3 and p15.

Acknowledgements

Edward for his research commitment. Anne Crossman for fact-checking.

References

Lesley Choyce and Julia Swan(Ed).2017. The Nova Scotia Book of Fathers. Pottersfield Press.

The Grapevine. Arts, Culture, Community. August 22 – September 5 2019.