From: David Tinker <dtinker@blunile.guild.org>
  To  : Granville Times<dtinker@blunile.guild.org>
  Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 22:51:38 -0300 (ADT)

Granville Times, Vol. 3, No. 2

The Granville Times
Volume 3, No. 2
May 21, 1999

Spring advances delicately in Nova Scotia.  This year the first
signs appeared one mild evening in late March, when we heard the
first spring peepers (tree frogs) in the woods across the road.
The songs of the night are one of the most evocative aspects of
spring in the Valley, and have continued right through May.  I
remember listening to them on May nights when we were here three
years ago for the family reunion, then again two years ago when we
were house-hunting, and realising we would live in this place where
such a mysterious and beautiful event comes each year.  In April
the song sparrows return, and in the woods we look for Mayflowers,
Partridge Berry flowers, and for a curious little purple-flowered
shrub called Daphne.  This is the boreal forest, so the familiar
spring flowers of the Ontario woodland are absent.  We miss these a
lot, especially Trilliums, and I wonder when or if I shall ever see
again a forest floor covered with Trilliums.

Regular visits to the Historic Gardens are obligatory to watch the
progression of flowerings.  In the early season there are displays
of flowering Heather, Snowdrops, and Crocus.  May is when the
progression of flowers begins to accelerate, first when the Shad
tree (Indian Pear) blooms in the woods and hedges, at the same time
that Plum blossoms and garden Forsythia appear.  People around here
have gone a bit overboard on Forsythia bushes, and the displays in
some of country gardens are spectacular to the point of being
garish.  Magnolias also do well here, and there is a grove of
Magnolias and Forsythia in the Historic Gardens that is a
heart-stopper, especially on a warm May day with Daffodils beneath
the trees and blue water as a backdrop.  The Gardens are a
masterpiece of calculated artifice, yet every part manages to seem
as uncontrived and natural as the sky.

Now we have progressed to the time of Lilacs, Azaleas, Tulips,
Rhododendrons, and most of all, Apple blossoms.  A drive down a
country road in the Annapolis Valley in May, particularly in a
little British car with the top down, is just plain sensory
overload!  It doesn't get any better.  And as an added bonus, the
spring songbirds arrive at the same time.  Two notable sightings
for me this year were a Northern Mockingbird, which stayed in our
garden for two days, obliging us and local birders by hopping
around in plain view, and a Western Tanager that showed up at
Hillsburn on the Fundy shore.  If there are any oddball spring
migrants that arrive in Nova Scotia, they are likely to be seen on
the coast from the Annapolis Basin down Digby Neck to Brier Island.
(Last year a Rufous Hummingbird was seen and photographed in
Victoria Beach).  With all this, we are reminded occasionally that
we are in the North Atlantic, and there have been frequent relapses
in the weather - last week two cold, windy days with snow flurries
and a hard frost, and the last two days have been grey with chilly
north winds and periods of cold rain.  We have not set the tomato
plants out yet!

For those who haven't heard, the big news this spring is that we
have acquired a sailboat.  I am now too old to daydream of world
cruises, and the thought of sanding the hull of a big boat does not
thrill me, so I looked hard for a salty little boat to just mess
about in, and after almost giving up the search, found just the one
last March.  It is a 20 foot "tabloid sloop", in fibreglass, with a
very shoal draft keel (19 in.) and s simple rig - basically a big
dinghy with a tiny cabin to have a snooze in or brew up a cup of
tea.  We've been out in her once in the typical brisk sou'west
breeze in the Basin, and she stands up on her lines and scoots
along in a 20 knot wind, with just the occasional dollop of salt
water coming aboard.  We look forward to our own whale-watching
trips off Point Prim, or mooching along the tide flats on a summer
afternoon, maybe doing a little mackerel fishing.  The boat came
with a trailer, and eventually, when we can afford a more rugged
car than the old Toyota, we hope to tow her (the boat, not the
Toyota) up to the Bras D'Or lakes or over to Mahone Bay for a
little shore-based cruising.  Ah yes, the Canada Pension lies just
ahead :-).  The boat is berthed at Digby, where they have a yacht
basin with floating docks (thirty feet down an almost vertical
stair at low tide!).  I'm still mulling over a proper name for our
ship.  The family has strongly suggested "True Stories", and I'm
leaning toward "Heart of Gold".  Those whose taste in films and
books is as weird as mine will no doubt recognise the allusions.
If the second name prevails, we'll have to get a ship-board
computer called Eddy.

Our life continues to be busy and rewarding.  Sheila spends 75% of
the time gardening, 75% with her music students, 75% practising
piano and 75% practising the organ.  The remaining 75% of her time
will be filled when the harpsichord arrives, sometime this summer.
As for me besides working for the Port Royal 400th Anniversary
society, parish church work, editing the Biochemical Society
Bulletin, choral singing, and running my cemetery business, I've
allowed myself to become involved in the Anglican Diocese of Nova
Scotia and PEI.  Oh yes, the cemetery business - well, that's a
long story.  I can tell you that none of our clients have ever
complained, and I am not subjected to annual performance
evaluations!  Good thing I am unemployed - there would be no room
in my schedule for a day job.

It's good to have Katie home again; she starts work at the Arts
Council on Tuesday.  Meanwhile we have the annual visit of the Nova
Scotia Gilbert and Sullivan company tomorrow (they are performing
'Yeomen of the Guard' this year), and the second concert in the
"Musique St. Bernard" series on Sunday.  I mentioned this annual
musical series in an earlier newsletter.  St. Bernard's church on
the 'French Shore' near Weymouth is a very large stone church in
the Gothic style.  It is the spiritual home for the Acadian people.
It is blessed with phenomenal acoustics and an awesome Casavant
organ, and the rather austere wood and stone interior adds to the
atmosphere.  The series this year was opened by the Elmer Iseler
choir; superlatives would fail to describe their performance, so I
will not try - you had to be there :-).

And in the end, my rambling descriptions of the scenery and
activities here are poor attempts indeed compared to the real
thing.  You just have to be here, I think.

Till next issue,

David
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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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