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

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

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

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

Like many folks, I drive by the sign to Deadman's Island Park almost every day but have never made the effort to stop. Public service announcements for the annual Memorial Day ceremonies at the site reminded me of my resolution to visit and I did. The entrance is well marked on Pinehaven Drive, and there are… Read More

Like most folks, when I started using Twitter it wasn't exactly clear what it was supposed to do. After a while I realized that if I amused myself that would handle most of it. So I started tweeting from the small collection of photos I had taken over the last 4+ decades. The Twitter audience tends to be younger… Read More

The last blog looked at examples of the old Halifax coat of arms found outdoors.  My favourite print version is a delightful illustration on the back cover of the official guide book to the Halifax Bicentenary in 1949.  This was four years after the end of the Second World War and the sailor is in a contemporary navy… Read More

Our city has recently been through a branding exercise and among the elements of the brand there is a new wordmark that we will learn to love and to exploit.   All the excitement made me remember examples of earlier city identity programs that have stuck around because they are literally carved in stone and cast in… Read More