From: David Tinker <dtinker@blunile.guild.org>
  To  : Granville Times <dtinker@blunile.guild.org>
  Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1998 20:31:53 -0300 (ADT)

The Granville Times Newsletter

The Granville Times
Vol. 2, No. 2
July 26, 1998

Today is the first anniversary of our arrival to take up residence in Nova
Scotia, so this seems like a good occasion for a special review issue of "The
Granville Times".  (Actually I arrived a year ago - Sheila and Katie came ten
days later).  This will contain some stuff that is familiar to family
members, but I'm sending this to a few new "subscribers" as well, so bear with 
me.

We are enjoying the usual marvelous summer that I remember from our many
vacations here in years gone by - one perfect day succeeds the next, with just
the right amount of rain to keep the gardens growing.  We have not experienced
the oppressive heat many of you have enjoyed (?), as each day the sea breeze
fills in to cool us off.

In fact, we do not live right by the sea, but on the shores of a tidal
estuary, which is "a fish of a different smell".  In my view, this is a more
scenic setting than the seaside, because the sights, sounds and fragrances
present a constantly changing vista.  The bank of the Annapolis River is a
quarter mile south of us, down a narrow lane banked by wild roses, and apple,
spruce and alder trees.  We walk most days down this lane and on to the lane
that goes along the shore.  Close by the shore is the modern dike, and behind
this a wide and flat meadow, once a huge salt marsh.  The marsh was diked by
the end of the 1600's, and now only a narrow strip remains on the river side
of the dike; still an interesting and important ecosystem, which you can read
all about in "Life and Death of the Salt Marsh" by J.& M. Teal (1968, Toronto,
Random House Inc.).  (Those who are visiting this summer will be able to read
this in our library).

This is a tidal river - there is an average of 24 feet from low to high tide,
a range which must be seen to appreciate how spectacular it is.  The river is
a little more than half a mile wide near us at high tide, and about three
quarters as wide at low tide, so that the water which laps at the foot of the
dike at high tide is away out across the salt marsh and mud flats at low.  We
have watched the river in many guises: a hard edged day with a crisp westerly
raising white caps on steel blue water; a foggy morning at low tide, with the
flats stretching out to the river hidden in the mist; a still morning in fall,
with the autumn hills, and the farms and church spires reflected in the water
like a mirror; a cold winter day, with sea smoke on the water.  In summer,
Song and Savannah Sparrows, Common Yellow-Throat, various swallows,
Ring-Necked Pheasant and perhaps a Marsh Hawk, are common in the meadows, and
Loons, Herring Gulls, Great Black-Backed Gulls, Cormorants, Blue Herons and
Willets are common on the river side, but sometimes we are surprised: last
week we started four owls (either Short-Eared or Long-Eared, I could not be
sure), and Bitterns are not uncommon.  We often see seals swimming up the
river.  In winter, great rafts of Black Ducks and Buffleheads rest on the
river, with smaller flocks of Red-Necked Merganser.

We live also near highland woods.  The long range of high hills on the north
of the Annapolis river is called, locally "North Mountain".  This is not
technically correct (it doesn't often reach a thousand feet), but those who
attempt to reach the top are inclined to call it a mountain!  The mountain is
a constant presence north of us, visible through my office window as I write
this.  The view is as varied and interesting as the river.  Today I see green
wooded slopes with puffy cumulus clouds,.  I love it too on a grey drizzly
afternoon, with great banks of fog rolling over from the Fundy coast, or on a
winter day with cloud shadows drifting along the snowy ground beneath the bare
trees, or as a spectacular scarlet and gold panorama on an autumn day, or a
somber backdrop against an iron-grey March sky, with a skein of several
hundred geese strung along above the ridge.  A walk up the logging road back
of our field takes us into a different world.  I was a great fan of Charles
G.D. Roberts' nature stories when I was young, and though CGDR is currently
relegated to a minor role in Canadian letters, he certainly did capture the
feel of the backwoods in his stories.  There is a sense of silent hostility up
there, a feeling that there are watchers in the woods (which there certainly
are).  The stumps left by the (pre-high-tech) loggers, the dry slopes, even
the upland flowers are all faintly alien.  Up there, the predominant bird
songs are the sad call of the white-throats and the croak of the ravens.  To
look at our house far down in the valley is like looking back into another
world.

Silence is in fact easy to find here, for we do not suffer the constant roar
of traffic that was so much a part of life in the Toronto area.  Rather we
have tree-frogs in the spring woods, bobolinks in the meadow, swallows in the
woodshed (a pair of barn swallows has successfully reared three young, who are
now part of the aerial display over our meadow), insects buzzing in the summer
heat, and the west wind in the spruce trees.  And at night, utter quiet as we
perhaps venture out in the garden to look at the millions of stars.

We live also near Annapolis Royal, probably one of the most architecturally
scenic places in Canada, a place where the sense of almost 400 years of
history is always present (in fact, we are planning for our 400th anniversary
in 2005; be there or be square!).  Right now it is a busy tourist town, with
the main street crowded with cars from all over the US and Canada, tour buses
and bicyclists, filling the shops and restaurants.  Our outdoor market is in
full swing on Saturdays and Wednesdays - it will still be there for those of
you who will be here this August.  I like it in winter though, when the
tourists are long gone, the street is deserted, and it is left to the six
hundred discriminating residents to get on with the rich community life that
we have here.

The cultural scene in the area is really remarkable, with professional and
amateur live theatre, music of all kinds, and the visual arts as well.  We
were at yet another classical music concert last night, by the violinist
Galina Heifetz and our mayor/concert pianist, Phil Roberts.  We have enjoyed
Puisht a Baroque (the Cape Breton group led by David Greenberg of Tafelmusik),
the Nova Scotia Gilbert and Sullivan company (Iolanthe), the Incantata Choir
from Halifax and various other classical groups.  Coming up next weekend is a
special variety show ranging from Bach to Rock, followed by a jazz festival,
traveling theatrical shows, and some of our abundant local talent.  In fact,
your editor was recently acting in a cabaret play that ran for the last three
weeks.  Katie is working for the regional arts council this summer, and
enjoying it immensely.  She has helped to organize two art exhibitions, and is
now working on our "Paint the Town" event - a week when a number of both
established and aspiring artists are brought in for workshops and just to
paint, followed by an exhibition and sale of their productions.  In September
is Annapolis Arts week, which is *really* packed with cultural events,
culminating in the Arts Ball.  In fact, there is not enough time to just veg
out :-).  However, on days without events there are still the Historic Gardens
to enjoy - too bad those who are coming in August couldn't have been here for
the Rhododendrons, or the Roses, which were stunning.  But it will still be
very beautiful.

We have mostly been stay-at-homes this summer (due to the requirements of the
theatre), but Sheila and I did get in a trip to the South Shore, which was
very beautiful and enjoyable, and we'll be going on day trips in early August.
On our trip we stayed at Barrington Passage, near Cape Sable Island (not to be
confused with Sable Island out in the Atlantic), a lovely and interesting
area.  Cape Sable Island is *the* place for shore birds.  One of only a few
Nova Scotia nesting beaches of the Piping Plover, (an exceedingly rare and
endangered species) is there, in an area of wild beach that is roped off from
humans.  This provides an easy mark to look for the birds, and sure enough I
spotted one - a lifer for me.  The beach itself is memorable - five miles of
sand dunes and solitude, with Atlantic rollers crashing in and the boom of the
fog signal at "The Hawk".  The latter is a fishing village at the tip of the
island, with a dramatic lighthouse on an islet offshore.  There we visited a
stretch of shore which is apparently famous among birders, for we met a party
from New England, who had come specially to this place, with their telescopes
scanning the tide flats.

Among three or four hundred Dowitchers and Willets were a few goodies: three
Hudsonian Godwits and a Marbled Godwit, two Oyster-catchers and three Red
Knots - all of these are uncommon to rare in Nova Scotia, and thanks to a
helpful expert from Boston, I was able to get a good view of them all.  Next
day we visited Shelburne, which has a remarkable complex of museums and the
second largest harbour in the world (after Sidney, Australia).  On the way we
went out to Baccaro Point (famous from the song about Jack the Sailor), a
magnificent place, where we saw a flock of two hundred Common Eiders.  Not a
bad birding trip!  I am planning to go up to Wolfville this week to see the
Semipalmated Sandpiper display - according to the paper, hundreds of thousands
pass through in late July/early August, and may be seen feeding on the Minas
Basin tide-flats.  You may have read in the Globe and Mail about the Mexican
Black Tree Duck that turned up in Digby County - well, I didn't see it.

There are of course, a few things missing here.  We have to drive twenty miles
to find a McDonald's Restaurant.  There is no Shopping Mall anywhere nearby.
Except for the occasional marijuana grower, there is little crime.  There is
only one stop-light in Annapolis County.  Strangely we do not miss any of
these things.  You can eat as well in Annapolis as you can anywhere (it is
said that even if Annapolis were not a beautiful place, it would still be
worth going there to eat at Newman's Restaurant or Leo's Cafe).  It is not
necessary to lock your house while you are out, nor your car while you are in
the restaurant; and traffic is just a bad memory.  Recently we saw "The Truman
Show" (yes, we do have movies!), which I enjoyed very much.  It occurred to me
that the phony world they had created for Truman was based on an ideal of a
world in which people would like to live, a wish for a beautiful, peaceful
small town by the sea, populated by people who care about each other.  Take
away the phony parts, and that's our part of the country!  Ask anyone here
- we all agree, this is the best place in the world to live!  Moving here was
definitely one of those good ideas.

Thanks for taking time to read this long issue of "The Times".  It is brought
to you without commercial interruptions!

Best regards from beautiful downtown Granville Ferry ;-).
--

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 David O. Tinker                    |   E-Mail address:
 4311 Granville Road, Box 2030A,    |         dtinker@tartannet.ns.ca
 RR 2, Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia |   Alternate E-Mail address:
 B0S 1K0                            |         dtinker@blunile.guild.org
                                    |   Voice: (902) 532-2916
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 ***  Plan now to visit the "Port Royal 400" Celebrations in 2005 ! ***
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