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What’s Growing at the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens: Earth, Sky, and Plants

Author: December 15, 2019

What’s Growing at the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens: Earth, Sky, and PlantsBy Adrien Rawley, Horticulture Assistant and Educator The changing of the seasons is a powerful experience, especially when we choose to pay attention. We forget, amidst the busyness of our lives, that what is happening in the natural world around us is mirrored within us as well. Spring is an explosive celebration of new life, sometimes overwhelming in its displays and intensity. Summer is a time of growth, moving us upward and forward with great energy. Autumn finds us harvesting the literal and metaphorical fruits of our labours, knowing…
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They Built a Dome: The Dome Chronicles Book Launches December 14

Author: December 13, 2019

They Built a Dome: The Dome Chronicles Book Launches December 14Emily Leeson (with Zoe D’Amato) “Can you hear that?!” My mother was yelling into her phone. “Hear what?” I whispered back, lowering the volume on my receiver. I was in class, but I have a policy of always picking up when family calls…well, when my parents call, that is. They have a habit of getting into some sticky situations — like when Dad got stuck down the well, or when they crashed the wagon into the woodpile (everybody including the horses ended up upside — down, but ultimately fine). “I…
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Art Actually

Author: December 13, 2019

Art ActuallyBy Anna Horsnell Artists are different creatures. They communicate in a language that goes beyond words. They see possibilities and potential where others might not. Whether their chosen medium is photography, painting, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, video, or any other visual art, artists attempt to shine a light and draw attention. They point to the beautiful and the sublime, the unjust and the controversial. They hold up a mirror, and capture the moment. They inspire and they confound. Most of all, artists mark a universal wall to say humanity was here. In this time and in this place, we lived….
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2019

Author: December 13, 2019

2019 Spring that year was late to the game,The smelt snow a blizzard and then freezing rain,The full moon in May was no day for planting,Wet fields in June and farmers were ranting.But through the good valley swam gaspereaux,The fiddleheads green, the fish fat with roe. Summer, that year, flew in fast and high,Hot as Jamaica, new moon in July,Hay fields checkered with great golden bales,Larks in the meadow, frogs in the swale.And down the good river tubes waltzed along,Sun-burnt bellies and bop-a-longs songs. September’s first shot was a Dorian blow,Hard day on willows, creeks overflowed,No hum in the wires,…
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What’s Growing at Acadia: Student-Led Research

Author: November 15, 2019

What’s Growing at Acadia: Student-Led ResearchBy Laura Clerk, BScH 2020 Tucked away on the lower floor of the K.C. Irving Environmental Science Centre, plants, lichen, and fungi are being dried and pressed, then carefully glued to paper. These specimens, preserved and displayed in an almost artistic way, will become part of the E.C. Smith Herbarium and Irving Biodiversity Collection. The mounting and labelling process is just one step of many that occur at the Herbarium, one of three parts of the biodiversity collection within the Centre. Although the Herbarium moved into the K.C. Irving Environmental Science Centre in 2002, its…
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Featurepreneur: Conrad Mullins Insight into the life of an architectural designer

Author: November 15, 2019

Featurepreneur: Conrad MullinsInsight into the life of an architectural designerBy Genevieve Allen Hearn Insight Design Co., owned and operated by Conrad Mullins, is a design firm based in Windsor. The company does many things, from conceptual drawings and drafting to consulting and project management, and it all started from a love of building tree forts. The Grapevine (GV): Tell us about what got you into architectural design.Conrad Mullins (CM): As a child I had a fascination with tree forts, endlessly redesigning my bedroom, carpentry, and now building science. GV: We have watched Insight Design work on some cool projects over…
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Repurposing to Bring us Joy

Author: October 31, 2019

Repurposing to Bring us JoyBy Laura Churchill Duke How often do you look around your home and see things that you don’t use, but yet you love them so much, you just can’t bear to part with them?Consider repurposing your items, starting with clothes. Brenda Wilson of Aldershot, NS is an expert at doing just this. She creates memory quilts from old clothes. She started about 10 years ago, when she made a quilt for her daughter out of her old onesies. “I couldn’t part with them, so I turned them into a blanket,” says Wilson. “There was no point…
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Canning Home to Ships and Soldiers

Author: October 31, 2019

Canning Home to Ships and SoldiersBy Tarina Bambrick & Bria StokesburyKings County Museum Known early on as Habitant Corner and Apple Tree Landing, the current name of Canning was bestowed in 1830 in honour of British Prime Minister George Canning. Over a century ago, Canning was the home of Sir Frederick Borden, a physician and businessman elected to the House of Commons in 1874. Under Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s administration in 1896, he was appointed to Cabinet as Minister of Militia and Defence. Sadly in 1900 Harold Borden, the only son of Sir Frederick, was killed in action during the Boer…
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What’s Growing at Acadia: Corophium: A Tasty Feast for Sandpipers

Author: October 21, 2019

What’s Growing at Acadia: Corophium: A Tasty Feast for SandpipersBy Sarah Lavallée (Class of 2022) This past summer was a busy one for student and Arthur Irving Scholar Sydney Scholten. Now in her final year at Acadia, Scholten spent the summer in the laboratories of the K.C. Irving Environmental Science Centre and at Avonport Beach conducting research for her honours degree. Scholten’s honours research concerns what are commonly referred to as “mud shrimp” in the Bay of Fundy. Scientifically known as Corophium volutator, they are a member of a suborder of crustaceans called amphipods. Corophium is actually considered a keystone…
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What is a Mushroom Foray?

Author: October 21, 2019

What is a Mushroom Foray?By Philicity Byers This past weekend was the 11th annual fall mushroom foray organized by the Nova Scotia Mycological Society, held at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, near Canning. Upon my return from the event, my roommate asked me what a mushroom foray was, so, to my roommate and anyone else who is wondering: Most simply, a mushroom foray is an expedition for the purpose of collecting mushrooms, but it’s a lot more than just that. It’s a gathering of people who are interested in unearthing – literally and figuratively – the world of fungi….
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