Back to Series Our winter began arriving in February this year. Everyone in Nova Scotia hopes it will be cold enough to kill off some ticks. For Christmas, before the cold really set in, my husband got me a trailcam, which I hung on a hawthorn tree out in the […]

Back to Series It’s nearing the end of the year, and we’ve had no snow yet. Maybe a light spit of flakes that didn’t accumulate. This is highly unusual for us, but the latest climate-risk report notes that less snow is likely in the future in our area. We have […]

Back to Series I might be repeating a post I made before, but speaking of fog, I have the brain fog that comes with Covid-19, my first bout with it. I’m slowly recovering, and part of the ritual at night is getting up to fluff the pillows so I won’t […]

Back to Series I got nervous around the end of July when I had not yet heard any crickets yet. I read an article in The Conversation about how insects are declining—some reasons being loss of habitat, increased wildfires, and farming. I asked my team at work one day about […]

Back to Series Deep summer embraces us. The foliage around the house and meadow are wild, with tendrils creeping along the grasses or climbing the old shed. Wild grapes wave from behind the spruce trees. My hawthorn fairy tree, with its solar owl light, wind chime, and fairy sits silently, […]

Back to Series Overlooking our rose gardens, spruce trees, and then meadow beyond is an old balcony that has seen better days. We finally replaced some of its rotting wood this year but noticed that the railing needs work as well. It’s also slowly rotting, and the compost forming therein […]

Back to Series “In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” ― Margaret Atwood I’ve begun my most recent newsletters with a quote. This one by Margaret Atwood is so true. It’s not just dirt we smell like at the end of the day. […]

Back to Series Actually, it’s not quite back to the garden yet. It’s too early to even order soil yet. I’ve done some mint and jasmine shopping lately but haven’t found what I wanted and will probably wait until more plants are at the local nursery around Mother’s Day weekend. […]

Back to Series In this short March post, I talk about dreams for the spring garden! This past week we’ve done some cooking at home. I made a pea soup that was delicious! And I thought, gee, what would make this perfect is some of my home-made chow chow that […]

Back to Series There’s a few turkeys in Canada these days who think it’s cool to, having been co-opted by what appears to be accelerationist loons both politically and monetarily, blare loud horns demonstrating that their anti-science protests (anti-vaccination mandates) are a reason to halt other Canadians’ actual freedoms to […]

Back to Series It’s been an amazing wild winter, with two big storms just in the last two weeks, but of course I am dreaming of spring projects. We’re done planting trees and have a lot of new work to do on the garden this coming May, but I’ve got […]

Back to Series This month, I look at main categories of wildlife in Nova Scotia, with the help of Nova Scotia Canada’s government site, and then go on to talk about the ones we’ve interacted with the most. Note that the government site seems to list the main species, not […]

Back to Series November’s wildlife post is about deer and SARS-CoV-2. I recently began a new job. It’s based in Halifax, though all of us writers work from home. We have coffee chats three mornings a week and often we talk about wildlife in our yards, like beautiful owls and […]

Back to Series It is officially my favorite time of year. A tingle is in the air. Summer lingers, but things are slowly changing to magnificent colors. At the same time, we are reminded of the cycle of life as the meadow turns brown and the Queen Anne’s Lace shrivels […]