From: David Tinker <dtinker@blunile.guild.org>
  To  : Granville Times <dtinker@blunile.guild.org>
  Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 15:02:26 -0400 (AST)

Granville Times Vol. 2 No. 3

The Granville Times
Vol. 2, No. 3
November 6, 1998

I am astonished and a bit shame-faced to realize that this is only the third
newsletter this year.  Oh well, it was a busy summer, and most of you either
experienced or have heard about our great Wedding Feast, which was the
social highlight of the summer on Granville Road!  Since that time, we old
folks have resumed our usual quiet life.  We enjoyed a truly lovely autumn
in the valley - what a shame that most visitors to Nova Scotia have to leave
before the fall colours appear.  Fall has been my favourite season since I
was young, and I seem to enjoy it more each year.  Our oldest friends, Ross
and Lois Baker, were here for three weeks in September, and I think the
peace and beauty of the autumn had a major influence on their decision to
live here.  They will be moving here next June, to the lovely white
Victorian house next to the Moorings - with a spectacular view across the
river of Fort Anne and the Annapolis waterfront.

Katie remarked (or quoted the remark) that living here is like living in a
picture postcard.  There is considerable truth to this - postcards often
portray an area in the most picturesque and ideal way, cropping out the
undesirable elements - but here, every way you turn is a postcard scene, or
a calendar photograph.  Of all the days and scenes of this fall, however,
one stands out.  Non-family readers of the Times should know that our
in-laws, Graham and Dinah Dalton (Sheila's sister) live on 200 acres of
woodland near Clementsvale; their magnificent house is on a hill overlooking
the valley of the Moose River, which flows through their woods, and a trail
leads down through the woods to a small bridge over the river (then on up to
more adventures in the wooded hills).  We stood on this bridge on an Indian
summer day, looking down the river over-hung with gold and scarlet foliage,
leaves floating down from above.  More leaves sailed down the river like
little magic boats, but many more leaves had settled to the bottom and could
be seen like an out-of-focus mosaic through the clear running water.  The
colours, the pleasant sound of the rushing stream, Jays calling in the
woods, the fragrance of leaves and mushrooms - all combined to produce one
of those moments when life is being lived at its fullest.

I had an enjoyable solitary trek to the top of the North Mountain behind our
house.  I'm getting used to the route now - the old road through the
clearings, Fitness-Test Creek, Infarction Gully, Despair Scree, the South
Col, and finally the summit, with Hitler's Hideaway (or is it the North
Mountain Inn?) at the top.  Just where Infarction Gully meets the South Col,
another old logging road takes a less grueling slope up the face of the
hill - this turned out to be quite a good trail, going up to the plateau
then gradually sloping down again.  I followed it for about a mile and a
half, and believe it would eventually join the major logging trail visible
to the west of us.  Now however, exploration is out of the question, as it
is Deer Hunting season, and it's too risky to enter the woods without a
rifle, to shoot back at the Yoyos who blast away at anything moving.

Last week we enjoyed (?) a major Atlantic storm, with heavy rain and high
winds for four days.  Now we are just enjoying November - a vastly
underrated month, in my view: not too much to do, the harvest in, no major
deadlines ahead, no flies or mosquitoes, no snow yet, pleasantly cool, the
predominant colour a soothing dove grey :-), and the architecture of bare
tree limbs still an interesting novelty.  The winter's wood is all in and
today I laid up the MG.  So we are fairly well prepared for the supposedly
hard winter to come.  We shall see.

Yesterday I saw the first winter ducks of the season on the river, a group
of Buffleheads.  Also, just before the storm, I saw an interesting lifer - a
Dickcissel.  These are definitely not native to this area; "Birds of Nova
Scotia" has this to say about Dickcissels:
  "Over 350 autumn migrants have been reported (this written in 1971)...
   It is noteworthy that most of these records are recent.  Why so many
   of these birds appear in Nova Scotia from their breeding range in
   the mid-western and southern United States is particularly puzzling,
   because the species normally winters from southern Mexico to northern
   South America"
So there you are.  Also on the birding front, I have been drafted to
organize the local Christmas bird census this year,so I'll no doubt have
interesting stories to relate in the New Year's edition of the Times.

Sheila has begun removing the wall-to-wall broadloom from the music room -
an awful job, but underneath the broadloom and old linoleum is a really good
pine floor.  It will be a much more beautiful room when it is restored to
the way it's builders meant it to be.  The music scene continues to thrive
in our house and in the region generally.  I have started with the Choral
Society again, and am finding the parts challenging, to say the least.  I
think I should be taking singing lessons, but I don't know of a local
teacher at the moment.  Sheila has five piano students now, and is
practicing on St. Luke's organ.  She may become organist at Christ Church,
Granville (one of the four active churches in our parish).  We are hopeful
that the long-awaited harpsichord will be delivered not too long after
Christmas, Then, what a musical feast will occur in Granville Beach!

So that's life outside the fast lane for now.  Enjoy November.  Tune out the
annoying Canadian Tire commercials.  The Christmas rush will come around
soon enough.

>From the parish of Granville,

Regards.

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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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