Back to the Garden

  We are gardeners and this is a season for garden visits and renewed garden contemplation.  For the last year or two Sheila has been engaging all types of garden folks in conversations about the garden culture of Nova Scotia and what it might be. Maybe  our garden visits this spring have provided some clues or evidence. In… Read More

Opening Doors and Looking Around

We spent much of the day visiting Doors Open venues at a leisurely pace.  Everywhere folks  were excited and proud to be showing off their spaces and programs.  When I got home it was fun to review what I had been noticing - and to imagine patterns. So here is a real mixture of images from some of… Read More

Building Boom 1860s Style

With 40 venues to choose from during Doors Open you could organize your visits in many themes:  halls of worship, places of learning, seats of power - you get the idea.  A theme that appeals to me is a group of buildings that were all built about 150 years ago, around 1860. Start at St Matthews on Barrington St.  This… Read More

Get thee to the Sacred Heart School

On Monday evening there was a garden lecture sponsored by the Friends of the Public Gardens and the Atlantic Rhododendron and Horticultural Society. I'm bringing this up now because it took place in a theatre in the Sacred Heart School and the Head Mistress, who greeted us, was excited that their building is part of Doors… Read More

The Charms of the Valley in Spring

Spent yesterday in the lower Valley  and it was glorious.  We have been part of a community hosting Panayoti Kelaidis the curator at the Denver Botanical Gardens (he is on a speaking tour in the region and is a fount of plant knowledge and joy in general).  An expert local plants person had put together a a… Read More

Start planning for Doors Open

I am such a fanboy for Doors Open! For me it's a Festival of Noticing.  See my little chair swivel dance of anticipation for this year's edition of 40 venues  on June 7 and 8.  All the details on their site. Leading up to the big weekend  I'll use the blog to tell you some sites that excite me and some… Read More

Making Connections with Connections

I've just been looking at the current issue of Local Connections Halifax and realize I have a couple of images that could be sidebars to several of the stories. There is a major article on the Stubborn Goat gastropub on Grafton St.  I took a picture of their building around 1980 when it was ending its life as something like a muffler… Read More

Gates to Divinity

In my last post I noticed  the entrance canopy to a restaurant that closed 40 years ago (I've since learned that the space is now used for parking by the neighbouring yoga studio).  So I got thinking the city is probably full of similar survivors or echos.  Here is an example that makes me jump for joy. When you go down Pine… Read More

A fragment of an earlier time

Friday evening we were walking down Dresden Row after a delicious meal at Efendy.  I paused to look at this pair of old Halifax style houses that feel more and more anachronistic every year. Sheila glanced over and said "there's the entrance to the Tokay  Restaurant." She was right. Running down the alley next to Moksha Yoga was the elegantly… Read More