Category: Mahone Bay

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After the storm

Ice pellets
Ice pellets

We had a whopper of a nor’easter last night. Schools closed early yesterday and it was a foregone conclusion that they’d be closed today. Many offices in the Maritimes are closed today.

Here close to the Atlantic coast, we had little rain though it was forecast. It came down as ice pellets. The top couple of inches are made of ice pellets, averaging about 1 mm in diameter.

We I don’t often get to ski on our road before it’s plowed, but at time of writing it still is covered, though it seems that 4-wheel drive trucks can get through.

As you can see, the snow drifts around to collect on the sheltered, south-facing side of my swingset greenhouse.

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Education in Lunenburg Co.

This video profiles the educational opportunities for children and adults too in the Bridgewater – Lunenburg – Mahone Bay triangle, including the public schools particularly the newly-opened Bluenose Academy (primary to grade 9) in Lunenburg, Park View Education Centre (grades 10-12, with a variety of options including the International Baccalaureate as well as skilled trades) and the Francophone Centre Scolaire de la Rive-Sud (primary to grade 12) and also the private but accessible South Shore Waldorf School in Blockhouse, and Nova Scotia Community College programs in Bridgewater and Lunenburg.

When you combine the educational opportunities with the sane lifestyle and the beauty around us, Lunenburg County is a great area to raise a family.

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Nova Scotia Sea School Restoring Dorothea

An iconic sight in the waters of Mahone Bay and beyond, Dorothea has taken hundreds of young people on maritime sailing adventures as part of the Nova Scotia Sea School.

It’s the kind of intense, group adventure that teenagers crave and need for their development, and that schools don’t usually provide.

Lives have been changed.

Dorothea needs an overhaul. Compare the $30,000 they’re looking for to the cost of rebuilding Bluenose II! Small projects like this are very satisfying to support as they can have a huge positive impact on individual lives.

 

Click here to visit the Nova Scotia Sea School website.

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Blockhouse School getting recycled

École de la Rive-Sud and schoolbus
When it was the French school

Exciting things are happening around the old Blockhouse School near Mahone Bay. The 1962 building has been abandoned since the local French Acadian school moved to its new location outside Bridgewater in 2010. That left the property in the hands of the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg  (MODL).   Plan B was to bulldoze the property. They were looking for someone with Plan A.

A growing group of people has been coming together around a vision – repurpose the building, and show the world how it can be done.  Insulate it to its eyeballs and add active and passive solar heating. Use it as a business incubator for projects that will make the area more self-sufficient and sustainable.  Plant perennials that will add to our food supply in the long term, and teach people how to do the same. Aquaponics. Permaculture. Green roof. Composting toilets. Time-share commercial kitchen.

Possible future model
All these things have been done elsewhere; we just need a model of how to do it here.

Check out the new website at TheBlockhouseSchool.org.

 

 

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Lunenburg MLA Pam Birdsall reaches out with her website

Pam Birdsall in Canada Day parade

Just wanted to put in a plug for Lunenburg MLA Pam Birdsall and her website.

I first saw Pam years ago when we both had booths at the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council shows. Pam was a force behind that organization, as well as local business organizations and community groups like Second Story Women’s Centre, all while co-running Birdsall-Worthington Pottery Ltd. and raising a family.

Among her other legislative duties, Pam is chairing the committee to set up Arts Nova Scotia.

Pam would like her website to bring government and people closer together. Nova Scotia being a small and friendly place, its can happen.

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Mahone Bay Swimming Pool

Mahone Bay Swimming Pool website

Kids in Mahone Bay learn to swim at the Mahone Bay Pool, a gem in the heart of town.

The pool is open in July and August, and welcomes visitors as well as locals.

There are public swim times in the afternoons and evenings.

Mornings are devoted to Red Cross swimming lessons, from beginners to Bronze Medallion and Bronze Cross.

The teachers are mostly young people who have come up through the system. It’s a great summer job.

Classes and public swims are not crowded.

Registration is coming up soon. Find more information on the Mahone Bay Swimming Pool’s new website, created by yours truly.

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An impressionist’s view of winter in Martins Point

Late February: the best part of winter. The sun is shining straight through my office window in the semi-basement. How pleasant. Meanwhile, outside, all is white, hard and frozen. Last weekend, a couple of anglers walked about three hundred meters over the frozen sea in front of our house, carrying two chairs, a pack of beer and their fishing rods. They sat there motionless for hours, looking at the hole in the ice they had made for fishing, while drinking beer and having a good chat, I bet. Way to go!

Winter ice at Martins Point
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After the snowstorm

Two snow days in a row! The kids are happy. We have about 35cm/14″ of fluffy stuff on the ground. We’re glad we stayed on top of it yesterday during the storm, plowing the driveway twice, clearing the entrance after the snowplow went by, and keeping the car near the road and shoveled out, ready to go.

Scraping the car
A bit of scraping this morning after the storm.