In these unusual times, it is the small details that catch one’s attention. Going to the grocery store is a different experience. Once a week, I stop at D’Aubin Meat Market in Bridgetown. This week, we needed a hambone to make our split pea soup. They had run out of bacon but offered instead a ham end, as a substitute. While there, I grabbed a bag of pea shoots, and goat cheese scones with chives and cranberries.
We are seeing changes in the availability of news from the Saltwire network. They publish the Annapolis Spectator and the Chronicle Herald. Instead, I notice an increase in online blogs – The Virus Diary (Anne Crossman), The Groundhog (Roger Mosher) and Ernest Blair Experiment (Bob Maher, Edward Wedler).
Two years ago, I was in England and picked up Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain from the Weybridge Bookshop. After listening to Robert MacFarlane on CBC Radio, a couple of weeks ago, it was time to try to find my copy. The book, written towards the end of the Second World War but not published until 1977, describes her relationship with the Cairngorms in Scotland. It is considered a classic of nature writing. Twelve short chapters ranging from the Plateau through Water, Snow and Ice to Life (Plants, Birds, Animals, Insects and Man). She concludes with Being.
“I believe that I now understand in some small measure why the Buddhist goes on a pilgrimage to a mountain. The journey is itself part of the technique by which God is sought. it is a Journey into Being; for as I penetrate more deeply into the mountain’s life, I penetrate also into my own”. p.108.
In many ways, it is a Geography text.
MacFarlane provides an excellent thirty-page introduction to this slender book.
Acknowledgements
Ralph and Jennifer D’Aubin for their successful meat market and value-added products. Anne Crossman, Roger Mosher and Edward Wedler for their contributions to community blogs. Heather Stewart for her cuisine.
References
Nan Shepherd. 2011. The Living Mountain. Canongate Books
Waddell inspired Prince Charles, then a student at Gordonstoun School, to paint in the 1970s. As a result of that inspiration, Prince Charles has become one of the UK’s most successful living artists, where he paints en plein air (outdoors) and exclusively in watercolours, according to 
The 
connections could be made with performing arts, considering … the rich arts culture in the region, Annapolis Royal’s historical link to “
In the background, you can see the roof of the arena. You can also see that there are not many people around. Social isolation.
My interest was the impact of COVID-19 on teaching GIS in the universities. Brent observed that this pandemic will change the relationship between education and online learning. This caused me to reflect on Wendell Berry’s comment about ‘machine civilization’.
The first was a 
After finishing graduate work in Biogeography, and spending time in Indonesia, I could not resist the 
Talking to Andrew (my son) on the weekend, the current procedure for visitors to Nunavut is two weeks quarantine in a designated hotel in Ottawa (or another transit centre) BEFORE travel. If the quarantine is successful, then one can visit. This provides a clear measure of the vulnerability of these Northern communities from the COVID-19 virus.
Anne and I arrived in Halifax by plane in the wee hours of last Saturday and were instructed by border officials to self-isolate for 14 days. We had returned from our stay in Bradenton, Florida. I read the interesting article Bob’s brother, Peter Maher, sent 
In these turbulent times, I notice how people are, lately, appreciating the little things in life. One of my favourite artists, 
This week, we have tried to maintain our fitness regime through snowshoeing and walking. Unfortunately, the private gym at FE (
Postscript
One of the essays centres on a conversation between Janice Stein and Jane Jacobs at the ‘Grazing in the Commons’ conference in Toronto, November 15,2001. It is titled ‘Efficiency and the Commons’. In particular, I appreciated the following exchange.
Finally, at the end of the week, Charlie Hunter forwarded a photograph of our St. Patrick’s Day meeting, with the caption ‘You and I received more compliments on our social distancing than on our good looks !’
After lunch, as I was preparing for another burning, a white car stopped at our driveway. Charlie Hunter stepped out and explained that he, and his family, were taking a ‘trip down memory lane’. We discussed 
This gives us the opportunity to address soil building on our property.
Edward and Anne both have a passion for Plein Air Art. This takes place in Nova Scotia from Spring to Fall and Florida in the Winter.
He uses Google products as these are more readily accessible to him and to the art community. The map currently has 5,000+ map views. Google also has loose connections between its many Google Drive products (eg Sheets, Forms, Calendars, Maps) that lend themselves to exciting R&D opportunities for an Innovation Hub. He feels that, with greater community college collaboration, students would gain by technical exposure to and training with Google Maps and related tools. The community would gain through local, shared incubator-projects in an Innovation Hub. The Hub would gain by scaling locally-developed solutions and building intellectual property.
Mapping Art can also be seen as the Art of Cartography. There is an excellent local example in the Valley. 
Ernest Blair Experiment 