We live in an area of Nova Scotia known as cattle country. The land undulates between fields and forests, with handsome red or weathered-grey barns, and dusky cemeteries with tombstones like worn teeth. There’s even a hamlet called Old Barns. The fields grow feed corn and hay. Tractors roll down the roads. There are also …
Night In This World – A Journey, Part VII Sweet is the lore which Nature brings; Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things: – We murder to dissect. Enough of Science and of Art; Close up those barren leaves; Come forth, and bring with you a heart That watches and receives. — from …
Night in this World – A Journey, Part VII For years I’ve been drawn to the story of Jumbo the Elephant. Though I don’t recall when, at some point I saw the life-sized statue of Jumbo erected in St. Thomas, Ontario, and learned that the most famous of Elephants died violently in this small town …
Night in this World, a Journey – Part VI It’s mid-August, the days of goldenrod. After an unusually dry winter, then a spring of localized wildfires, summer has brought record humidity and rain. Floods have been troubling yet the land feels nourished again, exuberant. Uncut hay fields ripple chest-high in the wind, snaked through with …
Night in this World, a Journey – Part V It’s the early days of spring here in Nova Scotia. The ground lies wet, brown, and bare. Days are often cool and windy. The first wildflower to bloom – little Coltsfoot, which opens a bright yellow face before it grows leaves– has just appeared along the …
