Talking to people who are drawn to live on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, I find it interesting to learn about what attracts them here.
Living in Nova Scotia is a choice, whether you come from “away” or have your roots in the province.
I often buy meat from Kevin Veinot at local farmers’ markets. His farm has been in his family for seven generations. Yet he too has made a conscious choice to live here, and to farm sustainably.
As he says in this video, “There’s lots of room here to be different.”
It took my friend Richard to tell me this. He’s French by origin, and so is Frédéric Tandy, the chef of Ratinaud, a gourmet charcuterie in Halifax. Good buddies in a culinary sort of way.
So here is Richard chez Fred, showing the world how to eat these fabulous sea urchins from Digby. I haven’t ever tried them – have you?
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.
This stunning video by Nova Scotia’s tourism folks features flyovers of the Bay of Fundy coastline, especially dramatic Cape Split. The Bay of Fundy, including its inner Minas Basin is a fascinating place to spend time watching the world’s highest tides. The video gives you the high speed flyover, but if you can spend a few days along this coast, taking in the changing landscape at a slower pace, you won’t regret it.
Singer-songwriter and banjo player Chris Luedecke is not really old, but he’s definitely a cultural treasure in Nova Scotia. His songs have a charm and maturity that belie his relative youth.
Here he and his wife, potter Teresa Bergen, explains how and why they got here:
An iconic sight in the waters of Mahone Bay and beyond, Dorotheahas 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.
The 12th annual Sand Castle Competition was held on a perfect sunny day, July 14, 2012. Here are photos of some of the entries. The winners were the giant lobster and the pyramids.
The Ernst Family of Lunenburg are semi-finalists on Canada’s Got Talent. Please watch and vote/vote/vote for them. You can vote 50 times for the group. They are amazing singers. The video below is a beautiful rendition of Loch Lomond, and there are many more on YouTube. Check out the Canada’s Got Talent webpage on for more information about the Ernst Family and to find the Vote link in the menu. Voting is open Sunday nights after the TV show.
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.
