Category Archives: autumn

Great Art and the Miracle of Sudbury

 

This chronicle of our trip across the east half of the country is now drawing to a close. It was a glorious trip, because we have a glorious country. We had a wonderful stay in Ottawa with Chris’ sister, brother-in-law, and niece. With them we visited the Canadian Art Gallery a wonderful place to spend an afternoon. This time we saw mainly new art from students. I also saw and enjoyed Barnett Newman’s Voice of Fire which caused such a great stir when the museum purchased it for $1.76 million in 1990. But now it is considered wrth more than 10 times as much.  A great investment. But I consider such values for art absurd. No art is really worth the prices paid for it, except it must be worth what people are willing to pay for it.

 

I just wanted to make a comment about Sudbury where we went to visit my cousin Bruno and his wife Lily. Bruno was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and died a month or two late. It was great to have one last visit with this gentleman. This is what he was—a true gentle man. Very glad to have one last visit.

 

I want to close this chronicle with some comments about Sudbury, which we had little time to see on account of that visit and our weariness and eagerness to go home.

Sudbury is a miracle story.  It proves that nature always bats last!  We must not forget that. At one time things looked bleak in Sudbury. They were desperate. Sudbury was the world’s largest atmospheric source of sulphur pollution, with vast associated biodiversity damages. The landscape around it was literally a moonscape. I remember the desolation from my first trip through Sudbury in 1967 on the way to Montreal.

 

The damage was caused by the chemicals emitted during the process of mining nickel. The damage was incredible. Some considered Sudbury completely destroyed.

 

Then after realizing the awful devastation, people came together to try to repair that damage. It seemed an insurmountable task.

 

Since the late 1890s, Sudbury was an important part of the mining industry in Canada. That industry created an environmental disaster in the area. There really is no other way to describe it. According to Climatefast,

 

“Sulfur dioxide released into the environment from the smelting of copper and nickel ores caused acid rain, and formed a black coating on rocks in the area, still visible to this day. Surrounding lakes were acidified, wreaking havoc on their ecosystems. Furthermore, copper and nickel accumulated in the soil, making it inhospitable for plants to grow.”

 

40 square miles around the city of Sudbury there was nearly no natural vegetation at all. It was hell. And environmental hell.

In 1971 and 1972, 4 years after I visited the area, NASA used the area for mimicking the surface of the moon for experiments with their prospective astronauts during the Apollo 16 and 17 operations. Sudbury had an international reputation for being a hell hole.

 

People got together and asked themselves what they could do about the disaster. Researchers told them that treating the toxic metal-contaminated soil with lime might help and enable vegetation to grow again. In 1978 volunteers and students including university students from Laurentian University started working at liming the ground and planting seeds of various plants as well as saplings. The campaign was an astonishing success. The area started to regreen.

 

Over 10 million trees were planted in the cleaned-up soil. Amazingly, the city now has some of the cleanest air in Canada! That re-greening project is ongoing. The newly grown trees and shrubs have helped to trap CO2 from the atmosphere.

 

The surrounding area is now habitat for wildlife and renovating the entire community.

 

At the United Nations Biodiversity Conference  (COP 15 ) in Montreal in December of 2022, a landmark agreement was made to guide global action on nature through to 2030. Representatives of 118 governments from around the world gathered for 2 weeks in Montreal and came up with the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) on the last day of negotiations. That framework agreement tries to address biodiversity loss, and the crucial need to restore biodiversity losses, and protect indigenous rights.

 

The plan includes concrete measures to stop and even reverse nature loss, including putting 30% of degraded ecosystems under legal protection by 2030.

 

At that conference delegates recognized that the stakes for the world could not be higher as the planet was experiencing the largest loss of life since the dinosaurs! One million plant and animal species arenow threatened with extinction, many within in decades.

 

At that conference Laurentian University showcased the important work that had been done in the Sudbury area and what could be accomplished with hard work and dedication.  This has been called “Sudbury’s Regreening Story.”

 

Since the project began the following has been achieved:

 

  • A 98% reduction in air pollution from an industry that is still thriving;
  • Nearly all air quality advisories have been eliminated;
  • 10 million planted trees and shrubs have been planted by the community;
  • 50% of the lost sport fish populations have been restored;
  • More than 3 million tons of carbon have been sequestered by those newly planted trees and shrubs;
  • 22% of the zone that was damaged has been converted into lovely parks.  I can testify to the beauty of much of the area that was once a despoiled wasteland. Unfortunately, because we had a deadline to visit my cousin I did not have time to go back to provide photographic proof. My bad. I will do better next time;
  • One species (aurora trout) has been delisted from the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada ( COSEWIC) which recommends what species should be placed on or taken off of the list of critically endangered species;
  • The area has seen the emergence of a biotech industry based on a sustainable harvest of critical metals for the e-economy.

 

The successful restoration, which is not complete but is ongoing, was made possible by an energetic public, and extensive partnerships between citizens and various governmental, scientific, and business communities. The work here was also instrumental in encouraging the establishment of a very successful international treaty to stop the generation of acid rain.

 

That really is the key—avoiding the catastrophic losses in advance.  The United States has forgotten about this, as under Trump II they are relentlessly dismantling many environmental protections in favor of giving businesses free reign to do about whatever they want. I believe that is a huge mistake. Sudbury shows that to us all. It is much easier to prevent environmental degradation than mitigating it.

 

The community has become involved in the demonstration of how damaged nature can be restored even in extremely difficult circumstances. A story about the project was included in the Jane Goodall film Reason for Hope.  I think the maple leaf symbolizes that.

There is reason for hope! Nature does bat last. But we have to be smart.

 

 

Leaving Cape Breton Highlands National Park

 

I was sad to leave the area around Ingonish, but that’s life. After a short stop there, we continued on our path along the glorious Cabot Trail. At the edge of Cape Breton Highlands National Park we stopped because I noticed a lovely islet as we passed. As I have said, I love those little islets which I think are symbols of Canada. Small rocky islands in a lake or stream. It turned out this was an exceptional example of exactly that.

From here on the extreme east coast of Cape Breton Island we realized that we were heading back home. From here on in we would be travelling west. We also decided we would not make as many stops. Less meandering. More getting home. When we left the Cabot Trail, we realized we were on the way home. Sad, but we were ready for it. We had spent nearly 5 weeks on the run. It was time to go home.

Autumn is my favorite time of the year. North America, I believe has the greatest autumn colours for foliage in the world.  I consider the forests of eastern North America in autumn to be one of the wonders of the world. I have not seen anything as spectacular in Europe. The fall leaves there to me seem dull. Not as brilliant and varied as they are in Canada any way.   I really don’t know about other countries.  In Canada, particularly in eastern Canada, we are blessed with an outstanding array of fall colours. This I believe is the result of a great variety of trees coupled with the cold climate.  Some thinkers have suggested that there is no spiritual insight without suffering.  That’s why if you go too far south, the colours are no longer as spectacular. So too, I think there is no great autumn colour without suffering. As you need to suffer to become enlightened, so the trees need to supper in the cold to evoke great colours.  Without the suffering, the rewards are thin and shallow gruel.

 

Kletic Lodge: A Gracecful Old Lodge in Trouble

 

 

 

I wanted to stay one more night in the lodge we stayed at, the Glenhorme Resort. Christiane was not enamoured of this idea. I thought since we were not staying at Inverness as planned, we should stay here. Christiane was keen on moving on. Frankly, we are running out of gas on this journey across half the country and back. We are tired and don’t have the energy for long trips which we once had.  So we decided to move on. She did not have a difficult time persuading me.The New Keltic Lodge

The first time Christiane and I visited Nova Scotia many years ago, in 1979, we flew in on a seat sale, rented a car, and visited as much of the province as we could in a week. That year we  and ended our stay at the Keltic Lodge. It was an elegant old-fashioned Lodge unlike anything we had ever seen before. We had to dress up for dinner. And I had no tie. I had never heard of such a thing, being a very unsophisticated rube from the sticks of Manitoba. One of the staff lent me a tie if I recall as we were allowed to dine, with perhaps some reluctance.

 

 

In 2024, we were saddened to learn that this lovely lodge had been closed for substantial renovations. The old lodge is closed probably for good. A smaller replacement lodge has been built and hopefully the owner, partly government owners, will restore the site to some extent. Frankly, nothing will replace the old lodge.

The complex is situated on Middle Head peninsula which in 1979 Christiane and traversed from the lodge to the end along a spectacular trail that in places led us beside the high bluffs. Those were the days my friend; we thought they’d never end. It was a magnificent walk.

This year we drove right up to the Old Lodge for what might be our last look at it. We remembered that the views from the lodge are stunning. We could sit in the dining room and look out at ocean from two opposite sides of the dining room. It was delightful  being on an isthmus.

We also stopped at Ingonish Beach for a view of the Lodge from there as it shows off the isthmus on which it is located. Truly an awesome location for a magnificent lodge

Cape Breton Trail, Nova Scotia

 

Just past the Margaree Valley we landed on the famous Cabot Trail.

The Cabot Trail is a scenic 298 km (185 mile) loop drive on Cape Breton Island famous for its sensational views of the coast line, and the highlands, particularly in the autumn.  It is considered one of the most beautiful drives in all of North America, but today, it could not shine, at least when we were there. We should have really stayed another day, but frankly after more than a month on our trip Christiane and I were starting to run out of gas. A trip of more than a month was difficult for us. In our youth it would have been much easier.

Chéticamp, where we had lunch, was settled by Acadians after they were expelled from other parts of Nova Scotia.

At least not with this photographer. We still enjoyed the drive of course. I am not sure how this will show up on the blog but when I looked at this image on my big monitor I noticed hang gliders at the top of the large rock on the rick jutting out of the water.

By this time of day I realized for the first time, that we had past the peak colours of autumn. Still lovely, but the prime was past. I know some people like that too.

 

Autumn 2024 was sensational. I will never forget it.

At Neils Harbour we stopped to take a look at the Lighthouse. I was disappointed at where it was situated, in a small fenced in location.  Of course, I had to try to photograph it with only meager success.

 

We spent the night in Ingonish a few kilometres past this lighthouse that was sadly enclosed in fencing.  showing no respect.

 

Wabi-Sabi: Rebirth and Renewal

 

Wabi-sabi is a gentle Japanese philosophy that seeks and sometimes finds, beauty in imperfection, in impermanence, and in nature. It encourages appreciating the beauty of things as they are, without embellishment, rather than striving for perfection. It recognizes that such striving can be harmful as anyone who how looks around can easily see. Instead, practitioners of Wabi-Sabi celebrate the notion that life is a cycle and is in a state if constant flux. Life is an endless cycle of change and growth. And, of course, that cycle ends in death. The particles of the body can be reborn however. Not in heaven as far as I can tell, but in new organisms.  Our bodies get reborn in new creatures and plants.  Really, that is the only type of rebirth that makes sense to me.

 

Wabi-Sabi favors the beauty of aging rather than the vigor of youth. It acknowledges that  the passage of time can bring wisdom provided we remain humble and modest and open to thoughts from others. Impermanence is good enough. There is beauty in transience and we need not despair that we will not love forever. We can enjoy what we are given to enjoy without lusting for more.

 

Like Leonard Cohen we recognize that flaws, cracks, and imperfection allow beauty and light to permeate our souls. Both of them can soak in gently and yet with power. Wabi-Sabi declines excessive ornamentation or conspicuous consumption. Wabi-Sabi helps us to accept ourselves as we are even with our obvious failings. Such an attitude helps to find beauty in the natural world even far from the spectacular scenic highlights. Such an attitude can help us to accept the moment as the crowning achievement of life.

 

Here are some of the core concepts of Wabi-Sabi:

Great beauty, wisdom, and pleasure can be found in the simple life amidst simple things. Such are things that can lead to quiet and tranquility rather than hustle and bustle. This of course is closely related to humility.  Proponents of Wabi-Sabi favor the quiet and gentle unlike the loud self-serving shouting of the boisterous MAGA crowd. Only the humble qualify. Donald Trump would be the first person impeached from the movement. Or better, yet would not be accepted as a member without sincere correction of character. Braggarts are not welcome unless they genuinely reform. Modesty is much more congenial to Wabi-Sabi than brash boasting.

 

Wabi-Sabi favors the beauty of aging rather than the vigor of youth. It acknowledges that  the passage of time can bring wisdom provided we remain humble and modest and open to thoughts from others. Impermanence is good enough. There is beauty in transience and we need not despair that we will not love forever. We can enjoy what we are given to enjoy without lusting for more.

Like Leonard Cohen we recognize that flaws, cracks, and imperfection allow beauty and light to permeate our souls. Both of them can soak in gently and yet with power. Wabi-Sabi declines excessive ornamentation or conspicuous consumption. Wabi-Sabi helps us to accept ourselves as we are even with our obvious failings. Such an attitude helps to find beauty in the natural world even far from the spectacular scenic highlights. Such an attitude can help us to accept the moment as the crowning achievement of life.

The essence of Wabi-Sabi is a way of seeing, understanding, and living that embraces the beauty of the imperfect, the transient, the marred, and the natural world.  It is a philosophy of life in which we are encouraged to find peace and even joy in the simple things of life.

 

Really, I consider Wabi-Sabi the spirit of autumn.  The time when decay sets in but often with great beauty.

St. Mary River, Nova Scotia

 

This is a panorama shot of the St. Mary river consisting of about 8 images merged into one.

The St. Mary’s River in Nova Scotia was a delight I discovered about 10 to 15 years ago.  I was surprised by the beauty. So today I was not surprised.  I was confirmed in my high expectations. This is an area of simple, yet great, beauty. After all, it’s a river in a forest. What can be special about that?

The St. Mary’s River runs for about 250 km. (160 mi.) and drains an area of approximately 1,350 sq. km. it has 4 branches with 130 lakes. The river was named Rivère Isle Verte by one Canada’s premier explorers, Samuel de Champlain.  A fort in the area was also called Fort Sainte Marie when the French built it in the 17th century, but it was later taken over the English who changed the name of the fort and the river to English versions of the old French names. Sort of like Donald Trump who wants to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.  Little minds do things like that.

The river is one of the many east coast rivers that contain the extremely interesting northern Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) species.  This is the 3rd largest of the members of Salmonidae family behind the Pacific Chinook and Siberian taimen salmons. Sadly, it is now an endangered species. Most populations of salmon of are anadromous, meaning that they return up river to spawn where the offspring  hatch in natal streams and rivers but move out to the oceans when they grow older and mature. The adults then move seasonally upstream again to spawn.

But interestingly some populations only migrate to lakes and become “landlocked” and spend all of their lives in freshwater. So iot is not true that they must return to salt water. Some of them just choose to do so.  When the mature fish return to rivers and streams they change colour and appearance.

Unlike the Pacific salmon species, the Atlantic salmon can survive spawning and return to the sea to repeat the process again in another year. About 5-10% of them do exactly that, returning to the sea to spawn again. Such individuals grow to extremely large size.

The life stages of Atlantic salmon are the following: alevin, fry, parr and smolt. The first stage is the alevin stage when the fish stay in their breeding grounds and use the nutrients from their yolk sac. During this stage their gills develop and they become hunters. The next stage is called fry, where the grow and then leave their breeding ground looking for foodk so they move where more food is available. During this stage in freshwater they develop into parr where they start preparing for their trek to salt water.

 

 

Young salmon spend from 1 to 4 years in their natal rivers and when they are large enough they smoltify, which means their skins change colours from colours adapted to streams to colours adapted to the oceans. They also are subjected to endocrinological changes to adapt to the differences in fresh water to ocean water. When smoltification is finished, the young fish (parr) learn to swim with the current instead of against it. That behavioral change  allows the fish to follow ocean currents and find prey such as plankton or fry from other species of fish such as herring. Apparently during their time at sea they can sense changes in the Earth’s magnetic fields. Nature never ceases to astound

After a year of strong growth, they will move to those sea surface currents that lead the fish back to their natal rivers. It is believed by some scientists that they use their sense of smell to detect the “right” rivers as well. They don’t move thousands of kilometres as many have suggested, instead scientists have learned that they “surf” through sea currents. Only 5% of the salmon go up the “wrong” river. As a result, it is more likely that they stay close to the rivers where they were born when they are out to sea and swim in circular paths to do that.

Atlantic salmon have been severely affected by humans as a result of heavy recreational and commercial fishing as well as habitat destruction, all of which have affected their numbers. As a result serious efforts have been made to conserve including aquacultural methods, though those have also been criticized by environmentalists. 50% of farmed Atlantic salmon now come from Norway where the aquaculture has been most effective.

The natural breeding grounds of the Atlantic salmon are rivers in Europe and northeastern coast of North America in both the United States and Canada. In Europe they can be found as far south as Spain and as far north as Russia. Sport-fishing in Europe has been so popular that some of the species in Europe southern populations have been growing smaller. The distribution of Atlantic salmon is strongly influenced by changes in freshwater habitat and climate, particularly changes in water temperatures, which of course are affected by climate change.

When the salmon leave their natal streams they experience very fast growth during the 1 to 4 years that they live in the ocean. In the ocean they must face an ocean of predators including seals, Greenland sharks, skate, cod, halibut, and of course humans. Dolphins have been seen “playing” with salmon but it is not clear that they eat them.

Once the salmon are large enough to undergo the tough track back upstream to their natal streams, the stop eating entirely prior to spawning. It is believed by some scientists that odour allows them to sense when they are again in their natal streams.

 

You will not be surprised to learn that Atlantic salmon populations were significantly reduced in the United States and Canada after European settlement. Rivers were degraded by the activities of humans in the fur trade, timber harvesting, logging mills and the spread of modern agriculture. As a result, the carrying capacity of most North American rivers and streams was also degraded as the fish habitat declined. The historian D.W. Dunfield claimed in 1985 already that “over half of the historical Atlantic salmon runs had been lost in North America by 1850.” In Canada a bill was presented to the Canadian Parliament that called for the protection of salmon in Lake Ontario. In the Gulf region of Nova Scotia where we have been travelling 31 of 35 salmon streams and rivers were blocked off by lumber dams and as a result many watersheds lost all of their salmon.

Where humans come damage often follows.  Then when damage occurs humans learn to regret the error of their ways and sometimes make heroic efforts at great cost to change things back to the way they were. Could there be a better way?

Despite all of that such rivers are flanked by the incredible variety of trees of the eastern forest as shown by the incredible variety of the autumn colours.

 

A Good Place to Reflect: Liscomb Nova Scotia

 

We spent a night at Liscomb Lodge and Conference Centre  in Liscomb Mills Nova Scotia. It seemed to be the main attraction in the area. Chris and I sat on our tiny little deck overlooking the lovely little cove shaded by red and sugar maples interspersed with birch trees. I was hooked.

It was Thanksgiving weekend so we were lucky to get a place to stay. There was no other place where we could dine. It appeared to be a nature resort and conference centre for busy executives from Halifax.

Sitting on the deck enjoying a drink and the view on a lovely autumn day with my lovely wife, I began to think I had arrived in heaven. Until I realized that of course I did not qualify. At least this was a little slice of heaven. I got that much and it felt fine.

I took a brief stroll down to the water where a fine dock offered an opportunity to watch an Asia family canoeing and to admire the reflections in the water. The colours were sensational. A Kaleidoscope of colour.

Later that night we met a very odd guy.  He was an accountant. Accountants are usually not odd. They’re usually boring. Do you know the difference between a lawyer and an accountant? The lawyer has a personality.

We met this one who definitely had a personality. He was there for the weekend  with his wife and like us they were going to the dining room in for dinner.  I did not realize he had talked to Chris as we were going in and he came up to me as if we were long lost friends. Calling me by name, he told me it was great to see me. And I didn’t have a clue who he was. That was the point. He just wanted to bewilder me for a bit. We enjoyed a lovely dinner and chat together.

Sheet Harbour: Sweet Waters

 

Sometimes, meandering is just plain fun. This day was one of those. We were leaving the area around Lunenberg that included Mahone, Bay, Chester and Peggy’s Cove and started heading north east of Halifax along the shore. It is called The Eastern Shore or Marine Scenic Tour.

We stopped to admire and photograph the lovely falls and autumn foliage at Sheet Harbour. That is a pretty good combination. The Roman poet, Ovid said it well: “There is no small pleasure in sweet waters.” I think that is a perfect description of this day.” The water here sure looked sweet.

This community is located on edge of the 100 Wild Islands. We photographed the river and falls near the bridge across the highway. Nova Scotia is laced with lovely drives. Since the first time Christiane and I travelled to Nova Scotia, about 40 years ago, we have used those scenic routes as our guideposts.  I remember that first year, we actually met the young lady who had written the book for Nova Scotia Tourism. We were really blessed.

Only about 800 people live in the area around Sheet Harbour. Like most places in the Maritimes it was originally settled by the Mi’kmaq First Nation who have inspired me so much. The Mi’kmaq called the place Weijooik which means “flowing wildly.”  I guess that is why the surrounding islands are called the Wild Islands. Currently, West of Sheet Harbour lies Sheet Harbour 36 a small Mi’kmaq Reserve.

In 1773, nearly exactly 100 years before Mennonites arrived in Manitoba to settle the prairies, the first European settlers here were Loyalist refugees who fled the United States, much like refugees who show up on American borders today.  But these were welcomed by the British who wanted British settlers. They settled this area together with British veterans of the American Revolution and they called it Port North. That name was used until 1805. After that, it was called Sheet Harbour on account of a rock at the entrance of the harbour which resembled a sheet. This became a prosperous lumber area and its sawmill became a hub. The sawmill was built about 1863.

It was lovely. No sweet.

 

Chester: Captain Canada

 

Chester Nova Scotia is a lovely little village on the southeast coast of Nova Scotia. We have been there many times and never tire of it.

The original inhabitants were of course the Mi’kmaq First Nation.  After that came the French, particularly the Acadian, who of course were expelled by the British. On the south shore where we were there were only a few Acadian settlements.

After British took over from the French after they left the English decided they needed to repopulate the area. It would not do to just have Indigenous People of course. So, they offered land grants, naturally without consulting the Mi’kmaq, to English colonists from New England.

During the American war of Independence Nova Scotia was invaded many times by American revolutionary forces including what were called privateers. Chester was raided by these forces in 1782.

However, after the American revolution, many of those were not loyal to the British. Maybe the English should have kept the Acadians?

Nonetheless it is a lovely region with lovely homes and even some nature where autumn sparkles.

Peter Gzowski, my favorite CBC radio broadcaster of all time, though not without his faults, lived in Chester for part of many summers. He was very popular and came to be called Captain Canada. He had a deep love for Canada and rarely travelled anywhere out of the country. He hosted an annual golf tournament for literacy in the area. Every time I go there I think of him.

 

Stonehurst Nova Scotia: another gem of small Nova Scotia town

 

Stonehurst is one more lovely tiny community in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia just a few miles from the town of Lunenburg Municipal District.

It’s known as a quiet little village that some have called “far from city life and off the beaten path.”

Yet it is notable for one strange thing which I discovered one day while watching a TV series starring Tom Selleck as a former police officer from Boston now a sheriff in a small town called, interestingly, Paradise.

What I noticed was that in the series the police officer called Jesse Stone lived in the red house at the end of the bridge in the photograph above.  I had photographed without knowing that fact. I had been struck by the quiet beauty of the house. That’s why I photographed it.

 

The series is based on a series of detective novels written by Robert Parker.  He wrote another detective series where the detective was called Spenser. Another TV series was made of that series of novels too.

I loved the little brightly coloured outhouse in the above photos.  It reminded me of a series of outhouses in a book filled with photographs of outhouses by a Nova Scotia photographer called Sherman Hines.

 

In the Jessie Stone series of films, the detective was a recovering alcoholic with a dog that looked disappointingly at Stone when he slipped off the wagon.

Stonehurst in one sense does not seem very hospitable.  Rightly or wrongly, I got the impressiosn that outsiders were not wanted here.  Not sure why I felt that way, but I did.  Maybe it just me.

 

The TV series was filmed mainly in the town of Lunenburg. I remember seeing photos of Selleck on the wall of our favorite restaurant in the town. I guess he ate there as well.

To tell you the truth, in previous vists to the small town I concentrated more on the view of the village from the other side of the only road leading into town. This day I noticed that this side was pretty nice too.

 

But  I must admit in any direction particularly in autumn it looked good to me.

All in all, time spent in Stonehurst is time well spent.