Posted in Book Review

Middleton Library

Posted on by maherrv

After breakfast at the Green Elephant in Kingston, we stopped at the Middleton Library. It was very busy, and hard to find a parking spot. We picked up three books, a pedometer and a white spruce sapling.

Heather was pleased to find Ralph Pope’s, Mosses, Liverworts and Hornworts.

I found Lyme Brain by Nicole Ducharme. This interested me because I am scheduled for a blood test for Lyme’s disease next week.

A second book was by Jane Alexander Wild Things, Wild Places.

To date, I am disappointed in my selection. Perhaps this makes the case for libraries, rather than bookstores.

The pedometer is courtesy of Heart and Stroke Walkabout ’walking takes you places’.

LINK HERE

I tested it out this afternoon. This is part of my endeavour to increase both walking and bicycling. It fits too, with the ‘search for agency’. With so much news, beyond our control, it is important to focus on the small things.

Today, I had to agree with Heather about the selection and vibrancy at the Middleton Library.

Another bedside book is David Chernikoff’s, Life, Part Two. He offers seven keys to awaking with purpose and joy as you age. The first three chapters cover Embracing the Mystery, Choosing a Vision, and Awakening Intuition.

I am stuck in #4 Committing to Inner Work That leaves Suffering Effectively, Serving from the Heart, and Celebrating the Journey.

Acknowledgements

Heather continues to champion her botanical interests, as we await the completion of the studio. Edward continues to support us with his graphics.

References

Ralph Pope, 2016, Mosses, liverworts and hornworts: a field guide to common bryophytes of the NorthEast, Comstock Publishing.

Nicola Ducharme, 2016, Lyme Brain, Biomed Publishing.

Jane Alexander, 2016, Wild Things, Wild Places, Knopf.

David Chernikoff, 2021, Life, Part Two, Shambala.

Postscript

We will plant the white spruce in one of our hugelkultur beds.

Posted in biographical sketch

Other Lives

Posted on by maherrv

Mid-week, Heather and I returned from New Glasgow.

I returned in time to celebrate David Colville’s retirement from the NSCC, along with Roger Mosher at Lunn’s Mill.

Both David and Roger were students in the Scientific Computer Programming (SCP) program in the early 1980s.

We remembered times of transition from NSLSI to COGS to NSCC. At one time, we formed a company, MCM Geographics. This allowed us to design and develop GIS software. Later, David and Roger brought their programming and teaching skills to NSCC.

From Bras D’or Lake Biosphere Association, I received their Summer Solstice newsletter.

They have been re-certified for another ten years. They have also received over a half-million dollars from the federal government, through Environment and Climate Change Canada. This will allow them to hire Doug Foster, as full-time staff. Another familiar name was Teresa MacNeil.

I recall 2001 when I was Chair, Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve Association, attending their AGM.

After reading the newsletter, I checked the SNBRA website. It describes one of their current projects, an Interactive Science Atlas, working with COGS-NSCC and Ian Manning.

It will be interesting to see how the new federal funding will be used by SNBRA. Especially with the retirement of David Colville.

Recent reading has seen a return to David Manners’, Convenient Season and Awakening from the Dream of Me.

From Atlantic Books Today, #35. Heather noticed Sing in the Spring, verse by Sheree Fitch, and artwork by Deb Plestid. We were able to pick up a copy for our granddaughter at The Inside Story.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to David Colville and Roger Mosher for sharing the journey. The good work of Teresa MacNeil, Cliff Drysdale and others with the Biosphere Reserve Association in both Cape Breton and Southwest Nova. Heather shared her enthusiasm for Sheree Fitch and Mabel Murple’s Book Shoppe in River John. Edward added the links and graphics.

References

David Manners, 1941, Convenient Season, Dutton

David Manners, 1987, Awakening from the Dream of Me, Non-stop Books.

Sheree Fitch and Deb Plestid, 2022, Sing in the Spring! Nimbus

Atlantic Books Today, No 95, Spring 2022

Bras d’Or Lakes Biosphere Reserve Association, https://blbra.ca/

Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve Association, http://swnovabiosphere.ca

Posted in biographical sketch

In Search of Agency

Posted on by maherrv

This has been a busy week, full of appointments health and home-related. It brings with it a deep sense of agency. Wednesday, Heather attended a talk, organized by CORAH, at the Middleton campus of the NSCC on Heart Health.

After a morning at Kings County Honda in Kentville, I just had time to browse the library at the College. Under new books, I found From Exclusion to Inclusion in Old Age: A Global Challenge.

With help from Andrew Hannam, I was able to sign it out. The edited papers included such inviting titles as:
Social Exclusion in later life.
Globalization, economic recession and social exclusion.
Revisiting social exclusion of older adults.
Demanding reading for the next few days.

Meanwhile, from the Marginalian, I noted The Living Mountain: pioneering Scottish mountaineer and poet, Nan Shepherd’s forgotten masterpiece about our relationship with Nature.

From the BC Knowledge Network, was listed the Lucerne Festival 2018 with Sol Gabetta’s performance of Martinu’s first cello concerto.

Acknowledgements

Andrew Hannam helped sign out the book from the Middleton campus. Heather McCormick at CORAH arranged the Heart health talk by Dr Buchholz. Edward edited with links and graphics.

Reference

Thomas Scharf and Norah C. Keating, 2012, From Exclusion to Inclusion in Old Age: A Global Challenge, Policy Press.

Posted in Art

First Steps

Posted on by Edward Wedler

About two weeks ago, Anne and I began our two-year FootSteps East journey in Herring Cove, Nova Scotia — the area in which artist A.Y. Jackson painted back in 1919. We logged this paint-out to our newly-created FootstepsEast Facebook Page, to our ESRI Footsteps East StoryMap and to our Google FootSteps East Map.

Here is an excerpt from the first map I have created in preparation for Footsteps East. The map pins look a bit strange, but let me explain.

The pins sit over some of the paint-out locations of members of Canada’s Group of Seven Artists. Each coloured square represents a different member. I experimented with several different pins and ended up with this design in order that multiple artists could be shown at the same location, without overlapping/obscuring map pins.

This map will help plan a travel route through Eastern Canada.

Zeroing in on Herring Cove (our first step), you can see that I have included our journey’s log and sketch on the map.

Also shown at Herring Cove is the A.Y. Jackson map pin.

Once we have painted at three locations, I will make the map and social media links public.

This coming week (21-26th June 2022) we get to meet plein air artists from across Canada and the USA, in a competition to paint the landscapes around Parrsboro, Nova Scotia (Parrsboro International Plein Air Festival). We are up against some seriously talented pros.

For August, Anne and I have collaborated with King’s County Museum to design “Brush with Nature“. This is where regional artists come to paint features of natural/historical interest in a LONG BRUSH event (01-18th August 2022) within Kings County and a SHORT BRUSH event (Saturday, 20th August 2022) at Miner’s Marsh in Kentville. The first Call to Artists has already attracted some great local talent.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Anne is my painting buddy and we share this Footsteps East journey. Bob is my Geographic Mentor sharing his wit and wisdom.

REFERENCE

McMichael Gallery, Group of Seven website
https://mcmichael.com/collection/group-of-seven/

Posted in Book Review

Remembering Orwell

Posted on by maherrv

The last time I was in Wolfville we stopped at the Odd Book. It was a Saturday. We had to go to the Farmers Market to pick up the last three bottles of Hunter brandy.

I found a signed copy of Stephen Wadham’s book, “Remembering Orwell”. Wadhams had produced “George Orwell: a radio biography” for the CBC (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3).

This led to the book being published in 1984. It included an introduction by George Woodcock and five chapters.

To Burma and Back
In Search of Poverty
The Spanish Crucible
The Road to Animal Farm
1984

The book describes Orwell and his life through the eyes of individuals who knew him and who were interviewed by Wadhams for the CBC radio biography.

It is remarkable to realize that Orwell (Blair) was born in 1903, and died in 1950.

It is remarkable to realize that Orwell (Blair) was born in 1903, and died in 1950. My interest in Orwell, in part, relates to this blog ’Ernest Blair Experiment’. Eric Blair used the nom de plume of George Orwell. Thus, this became a play on words. Another interest besides his writing was his lifestyle and geography. He spent his last years, living on the island of Jura, off the Scottish coast, where he wrote 1984. Previously, he lived with Eileen in Wallington, Hertfordshire. He is buried at Sutton Courtenay.

From Rev. Gordon Dunstan. A request from David Astor.

”And he asked if I could help him bury a friend. The friend was George Orwell, whose love of England and the English countryside was such that he wanted to lay his body to rest in an English churchyard.” p.219.

Postscript

My last inter-library loan request for Jaki Fraser was Convenient Season, by David Manners. “It is a tale of a farm in the famous Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia, where grow the best apples in the world…“

Acknowledgements
Heather shared the trip to Wolfville. Edward added the graphics. Best wishes to Jaki Fraser, our Lawrencetown librarian. She retires this weekend and heads west to live in British Columbia.

Reference

Stephen Wadhams, 1984, Remembering Orwell, Penguin Books.
David J. Manners,1941, Convenient Season, E.P.Dutton.

Posted in New thinking

Biogeography

Posted on by maherrv

Heather was reading Sonia Shah’s book, The Next Great Migration. She thought that I would be interested in two quotations on Biogeography.

”Today such questions about the origin and distribution of species and people would be sequestered into a field known as ’biogeography’, a fascinating but mostly obscure branch of science generally considered of marginal public interest,” p.64.

”Back then, biogeographical theory carried far-reaching consequences. The authority of the church, its hold on science, newly emerging from its shadows; the legitimacy of the colonial enterprise – and how generations of descendants would view and police migrants – all hung in the balance.”

This resonated with me. My PhD thesis at the University of Western Ontario was entitled ’An Inquiry into the Nature of Biogeography’ 1976. I pulled it down from the bookshelf. Almost fifty years ago, What did I say at that time?

”Biogeography is concerned with the nature of living matter and the nature of space. The discipline has a significant role in the future of Geography; it must reconcile and integrate contemporary issues of the biological sciences and the paradox of Geography.” p. v.

Before the PhD thesis, there was an M.Sc. thesis completed in 1971. Complexity Analysis of Vegetation Patterns in an Alpine Meadow. In this case, it is over fifty years ago. The location is Castleguard Meadows in the Canadian Rockies, adjacent to the Saskatchewan Glacier and Columbia Icefield.

My interest in Biogeography continued at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland and subsequently with the Rare Plants of Canada project at the National Museum under George Argus. This was all prior to working at NSLSI (COGS) in Lawrencetown, starting in 1980.

Wiki link

On the same bookshelf, I found Heather’s M.Sc. thesis from the University of Guelph, dated 1993, Reproductive Biology and Developmental Morphology of Agalinis Neoscotica (Scrophulariaceae ); supervisor, Judy Canne-Hilliker. This is another ’biogeography story’ about a uniquely Nova Scotian species, and its distribution; for another day — it’s really Heather’s story to tell.

Dogwood in our yard

Acknowledgements

Bill Crossman passed on his copy of Sonia Shah’s book. Heather discovered the quotations. Edward added the graphics.

References

Sonia Shah, 2020, The Next Great Migration, Bloomsbury

Robert Maher, 1971, Complexity Analysis of Vegetation Patterns in an Alpine Meadow, M.Sc. thesis Department of Geography, UWO.

Robert Maher, 1976, An Inquiry into the Nature of Biogeography, PhD thesis. Department of Geography, UWO.

Heather Stewart, 1993, Reproductive Biology and Developmental Morphology of Agalinis Neoscotica (Scrophulariaceae)

Posted in Event Review

Beyond van Gogh

Posted on by maherrv

Thursday, Heather and I joined Sandy, Heather’s sister, at the Halifax Exhibition Centre for “Beyond van Gogh.”

Sandy had been previously with her students from Kings Edgehill School. My first impression of the building, in an industrial park, was not great.

However, once inside, we experienced three levels of immersion. The first was a focus on Vincent van Gogh, his life and exchanges with his brother, Theo. Various quotations could be viewed through empty picture frames. The second level was a small room depicting a waterfall. The final main hall was a full three-dimensional immersion experience of the themes which were vital to van Gogh’s art. This included scenes from rural life, characters, landscapes, flowers and the starry night. Seamlessly, projected on the walls, floor and ceiling, with accompanying music.

The message seemed clear. Beauty is all around us, especially in the natural environment. A painting is a “still life” within a picture frame.

Waking up the next morning, it was hard to ignore the dawn light, shining on the oak leaves, moving in the wind. or to look up through the skylight to again see the trees, with a backdrop of clouds, moving across the blue sky.

I noticed two other aspects of the exhibition. There was very little intellectualisation of the art. To place it within its historical or geographical context. The emphasis was on colour and movement. There was also little explanation of the underlying projection technology.

At the exit, the gift shop contained many common items, e.g. puzzles, key chains, prints, T-shirts adorned with familiar van Gogh images of sunflowers, corn fields, self-portraits and starry nights.

Afterwards, it was hard to drive back out through the grey, suburban concrete of Halifax — very different geography than the countryside we find in rural Nova Scotia.

Postscript

Saturday, we went to Alan Syliboy and the Thundermakers concert at the Macdonald Museum in Middleton.

It was great to go and listen to live music. We saw friends for the first time in several years. Syliboy’s art and music proved an excellent complement to the van Gogh exhibition.

Acknowledgements

Sandy Stewart for making the trip to Halifax. Heather shared the experience. Edward added the graphics. Congratulations to Jane Nicholson on receiving the Queens Platinum Jubilee Medal for her contribution to the Community.

Posted in Art

Footsteps East

Posted on by maherrv

This week I received a notice from Edward Wedler. He and his wife Anne are embarking on a two-year painting project. It is an en Plein Air trek inspired by the Canadian Group of Seven. This will take them through Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario.

This ambitious project takes me back to earlier projects. For example, Ride the Lobster — an 800 km uni-cycle relay race through Nova Scotia. Or later, the Road to Georgetown, walking trails between Yarmouth and Georgetown, PEI to attend a conference on Redefining Rural. Along the way, there were many stories and places.

Of particular interest in Footsteps East will be the depiction of landscape and the changes over time. Edward will paint in watercolours. Anne will be painting in oils. The results will be on display at an art gallery in Halifax. All artwork that is to be shown at the gallery will be “under wraps” until after their trek is completed.

Another memory is from the 1980s. At COGS, Edward was teaching Remote Sensing. I was teaching Scientific Computer Programming. Later, my interest centred on the application of GIS software. My relationships with the industry included ESRI and ESRI Canada. Edward developed similar relationships with DIPIX and PCI. We both shared a common interest in sharing software/ computing skills to enhance understanding and application.

Subsequently, Edward and Anne purchased the bookstore, ’The Inside Story’ in Greenwood. Again, a shared interest.

With Footsteps East, the art of their paintings will share the landscape and the story of the landscape. This complements my interest in stories and living within the landscape.

Shown here is a sketch-out at the first stop on their journey — Herring Cove, Nova Scotia — the location where Group of Seven artist, A.Y. Jackson painted back in 1919.

I look forward to our collaboration, as we attempt to bring together landscape, community, art and story, within a shared accessible digital environment. I anticipate Edward will contribute a number of blogs to EBE, as they make their journey — camping and all.

Acknowledgements

Edward and Anne Wedler as they show the way — active living in the landscape, through art. Check out their website at wedlerfineart.com

Posted in Article Review

Two Newspapers

Posted on by maherrv

At the Green Elephant Cafe in Kingston, I picked up the June issue of the Grapevine.

I was surprised to read that this will be the last issue by this team. In the Summer supplement, two articles caught my attention.

The story of Louis Coutinho and their family buying the Avondale Sky winery. On their website (avondalesky.com) there is a link to four podcast episodes on their experience. Each runs for half an hour. This takes me back to my meeting Louis when he was CAO for the town of Windsor. It was a time when we were part of the Valley REN.

The second article (on the same page 10) is by Gary Leeson, The Dome Chronicles: a Father’s gift.

’They were back-to-the-landers. Over the next forty years, through flood and fire, triumph and catastrophe, they persevered, unwittingly sowing the seeds for the modern small-farm movement.’

I picked up the Explorer 2022 Official Visitors Guide to Annapolis Royal and Area, at Lunn’s Mill I believe. Besides the details for tourists visiting the area, I was struck by the quality of the mapping.

One example would be Jim Todd’s rendition, Bird’s Eye View of Annapolis Royal and Lequille, 2005. Another would be Walk Annapolis, recreation and walking trails. The thirty-two-page free guide includes a wealth of historical information for both the visitor and Valley residents.

We capped off the week with a short walk to Peter Point, Kejimkujik National Park. It must have been at least three years, since the last time we were in the Park.

Acknowledgements

Heather shared a memorable lunch at the Green Elephant cafe. Edward made his artistic contribution.

References

The Grapevine, June 2022 and Summer supplement.

Explorer, 2022, Official Visitor Guide: Annapolis Royal and Area.

Posted in biographical sketch

Annapolis Royal visit

Posted on by maherrv

Heather and I went down to Annapolis Royal. The drive on Highway #101 is very efficient, from exit 21 to exit 22. We wanted a short walk. Our choice was the French Basin Marsh trail, a 1.2-mile loop.

There was great bird watching on the water, as well as the occasional muskrat. The hawthorn and cherries were in full bloom. The next stop was the Mad Hatter wine bar, sipping Annapolis cider, with a view along the Basin shore.

A brief stop at the Library, but neither Lola’s cafe nor the Brown Dog kitchen were open (Tuesday).

Annapolis Royal is the home of Jeremy Akerman. Checking online, I have noted that Moose House Publishers have just released his book Outsider. This takes me back to England and reading Colin Wilson’s The Outsider.

Today, we wanted a longer walk. We followed the road, past the Fairview Cemetry to the Lawrencetown Water Supply. The road passes through Hemlock groves and Acadian mixed forest. We reached Inglisville road. The return trip was around two hours. A good leg stretch up South Mountain.

From Sandra Barry, I learned that the Winemakers Tavern in Lawrencetown has been sold. Its future may include a bakery, cafe and grocery store. This would be a welcome addition to the local economy. Brian Reid confirmed the story.

Acknowledgements

Sandra and Brian for the information on the Winemakers Tavern. Heather shared both the short and long walks (twice). Edward added the graphics.

Postscript

Thursday will be the start of the celebration of Queen Elizabeth, 70th year on the throne.

References

Jeremy Akerman, 2022, Outsider, Moose House Publishers.

Colin Wilson, 1956, The Outsider, Gollanz.