Life in Nova Scotia
It’s finished. Spearheaded by students from Chester Middle School, looking for ways to create more cool activities to keep kids out of trouble and promote an active lifestyle, and several years in the making, the concrete Skate Park is now a very impressive reality.
I bet that the successful organizing effort has yielded as many benefits to the community as the park itself. Congratulations to all involved!
More about the Chester Skate Park.
I’ve just added 5 new Nova Scotia panoramas to the Photo Album, as well as a few pictures in the Mahone Bay, South Shore, Fundy Shore and Blomidon sections. More pictures are on their way. I think I’ll break out a new section on the LaHave River and Islands, and create another just for islands, mostly from a boater’s perspective. Could be useful to someone trying to figure out where they are!
This project, the Nova Scotia Photo Album, is still very much alive and growing. It predates Flickr, Picasa and the rest. Photo sharing has become an easy and common thing for anyone to do, so I hope I’m offer something of value. Is it just because this site has been around for a long time and gets found in the search engines? What do you think? Click on COMMENTS below and leave a comment.
The things you notice with sunglasses on. This time it was the surprising red colour of a newborn tamarack cone. Even without sunglasses, they’re a beautiful red.
Ever since attending a concert by the Nova Scotian children’s entertainers The Wilderbeats, described in Rural Delivery magazine as “Madcap oracles of nature’s voice for a new generation,” looking at a tamarack tree makes me think of their Tamarack Song:
Tamarack, Hackmatack, Juniper, and Larch
Absolutely naked from November until March
It’s got CONES! and it’s got NEEDLES!
But it isn’t what it seems…
It’s decidedly deciduous and never evergreen
Of course, it’s not really a juniper, but that’s one of the many names people use for this conifer that sheds its needles every fall.
I consider myself a novice gardener with a strong inclination – even compulsion – to dig and plant. It’s got to be genetic.
Both my grandfathers grew things for a living. They were European immigrants to Canada in the 1920s, and, well, that’s what you did in those days. One died too soon from the effects of farm chemicals. The other carried his passion long into retirement, and tore up a Dartmouth backyard into a huge vegetable garden which my father inherited and dutifully maintained.
I now have my grandfather’s rototiller and hand tools, and his elderly son still takes a keen interest, although he’s too feeble now to dig.
My mother and her (second) husband grow a showpiece garden in Mahone Bay. It’s her passion. Her other passion is flower arranging and decorating, an obvious match for gardening. Oh – and photography. I can’t wait until she gets her blog going!
I’ve lived in many places and worked in other people’s gardens, and am glad to finally have my own.
Rising fuel prices suggest that learning to grow your own food and building up the fertility of your own soil are good things to do. I feel I have a lot of learning to do as I build the soil. I cannot claim the competence that my grandparents have, and as long as I build websites for a living, my learning is limited by my time.
However, gardening is the perfect antidote to sitting in front of a computer. So I will surely continue to grow as a gardener. My parents are still around to give advice, if I will take it, and my grandparents are smiling down on me. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, June 9, Nova Scotians go to the polls again.
I have intentionally avoided discussing politics in this blog. But today I overheard a comment that revealed why so many people do not vote. Referring to political candidates of all parties, this man said, “They’re all the same. They’re in it to get what they can and then get out.”
His friend cleverly managed to avoid an argument while expressing disagreement. “Not the one I’m voting for!” he replied.
The first speaker’s roots in the province run deep. His comment no doubt reflected Nova Scotia’s outdated tradition of political cronyism and patronage – a system that has limited the provincial government’s effectiveness for more than a century.
The second, less cynical, speaker is a relative newcomer to the province and has probably met more politicians of various stripes. He has been deeply impressed by some of these, though not by others.
There are many very sincere candidates on all sides. Some of them could make more money elsewhere but choose to serve as legislators. It is not an easy choice; the rough-and-tumble of our adversarial system, the stress on families, the uncertainties of continued employment, etc. all take their toll.
Politicians must try to sound sincere. Voters must decide for themselves which ones really are. Who is truly interested in providing good government that respects and benefits the people of the province, and who has the experience, the mindset, the values and the commitment to do a good job?
On Tuesday, we Nova Scotians make our choice – again. I urge you to vote, and vote thoughtfully.
