Old Album, Number Twelve: Detail, Detail

This is the twelfth album selected from my little collection of photos. These images are architectural details around Halifax photographed in the 1970s and early 80s and are arranged generally by the age of the objects. When I rambled downtown Halifax in the 1970s and 80s the photos I took were often of architectural details,… Read More

Making the best impression

Recently on Twitter I posted some photos of the backs of 18th-century gravestones in St. Paul's Cemetery in Halifax. The photos were taken in 1977 when I happened to visit the old burying ground at a moment when bright sunlight accentuated the patterns of tool marks created by the stone carvers. To my surprise over… Read More

House of Cars

Did you notice the spirit-lifting video of horses frolicking in fresh snow at the Halifax Lancers paddock? It was the medicine that tens of thousands of viewers needed back in early December. The images were so delightful, media outlets across the globe shared the joy. My mind went back to the winter of 2019 when… Read More

Where am I?

In August we went downtown for the first time in quite a while. Walking along Birmingham Street with the Mills block demolished, and new and newish buildings to the right and left, I suddenly had the feeling you get when visiting a strange city: an excited sense of alertness because you don't know exactly where… Read More

Memorialized in Zinc

This is an invitation to join a club, or perhaps it's a cult, that notices grave markers made of zinc. Our enthusiastic group has no name, so you could conjure up something catchy along the lines of Friends of Zinc, or the White Bronze Collective. Unlike birdwatching or tree identification, which require actual knowledge, you… Read More

Patchwork

These days our mantra is "have more fun getting rid of stuff." It takes quite a bit of effort to do this well. Last month we said good bye to two quilts that have been in my family for about 160 years. These are not something that just "belonged to" an ancestor, these are things… Read More