The last blog introduced old stone walls of Halifax that were mortared together. This post features my favourite wall: dry laid stone, what you get by just piling rocks with a little care and attention. The peninsula of Halifax and surrounding mainland were once criss-crossed by stone walls. In this 1801 illustration you can see…Read More

Do you like stone walls as much as I do? I think you might, so we are in for a treat, searching out and acknowledging some of the old walls of Halifax. I've been noticing walls around town for the last 40 years, and there are enough examples for two blogs. This one is about the…Read More

These days many of us are obsessed with our lives on social media and forget about strange communication channels from the past. For example, a craze for decorative calling cards, or visiting cards, popular in the 1880s and 90s. A few decades ago I collected a handful of these cards because I liked their colourful…Read More

Back in the 70s, I squandered a lot of time searching for one of Nova Scotia's finest craftsmen, the problem was he had died well over a hundred years earlier. The object of my desire was a Welshman named William Johns. From about 1835 to 1865 he operated iron foundries in Halifax that made the…Read More