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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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Featurepreneur: The Giving Vegetable

Author: October 21, 2019

Featurepreneur: The Giving VegetableGenevieve Allen Hearn The luffa gourd is native to the Asian tropics, but for three years now, Cindy Lou Oulton has managed to keep her plants prospering inside a garden tunnel on the grounds of TapRoot Farm in Port Williams. After harvesting, drying, and peeling the luffa, it is then sold as a bath sponge or dish scrubber. As far as she knows, she is the only one selling commercially-grown luffas in Canada. We wanted to know more about this versatile vegetable crop! The Grapevine (GV): For those readers who don’t know about luffa, tell us about…
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A. L. Hardy’s Impact on Tourism

Author: October 7, 2019

A. L. Hardy’s Impact on Tourism By Larry Keddy, Kings County Museum Amos Lawson Hardy was born on October 4, 1860 at Allendale, near Lockeport on the South Shore, yet it was in the spring of 1892, when he moved to Kentville and began work as a photographer, that he left a mark on his profession which lasted long after his death in 1935. In 1847, almost a hundred years after the expulsion of the Acadians, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “Evangeline,” was published in Boston. In it, Longfellow immortalized a people, a place, and time, transforming historical fact into romantic…
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Dispatches from Acadia’s Walker Mycology Lab

Author: October 7, 2019

Dispatches from Acadia’s Walker Mycology Lab By Bruce Malloch When most people think of fungi, it is usually mushrooms and mouldy bread that come to mind, however an incredible diversity of fungi exist all around us. Many species go without being noticed because the body of a fungus is essentially a network of microscopic filaments. These filaments snake through all manner of habitats where they are not easily seen, such as in the roots and shoots of plants, or the dust in our homes. This growth form is so successful that they are virtually ubiquitous in the world, growing in…
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A Mushroom Foray at The Booker School

Author: October 7, 2019

A Mushroom Foray at The Booker School By Jen Wheeldon On Friday September 13, the ‘early years,’ primary, and grade one classes at The Booker School in Port Williams spent the afternoon exploring the school forest with Jocelyn Hatt and myself, Jen Wheeldon. As amateur naturalists and mycologists, Joss and I frequently spend time in the woods with our respective children. My daughter Norah attends The Booker School, and they spend time outdoors and use the natural environments at the school, such as the forest on campus, to enhance learning opportunities. The students at The Booker School often go on…
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The Grapevine’s Federal Election Candidate Special

Author: October 4, 2019

The Grapevine‘s Federal Election Candidate Special In anticipation of the fast-approaching federal election later this month, The Grapevine contacted local candidates with questions reflecting issues of particular interest to the Valley and to our readers. While we have made every effort to include all candidates on the ballot in Kings-Hants and West Nova, we are only able to publish those that contacted us by press time. All answers are printed here in full, unedited and as the candidates sent them. Responses have been included in the order they were received. The Grapevine: What do you plan to do to improve…
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Marie’s Report: Newcomers Gentle Yoga Interest Group

Author: September 20, 2019

Marie’s Report: Newcomers Gentle Yoga Interest Group My Marie Mossman Ever wish you could join a yoga class without buying a wardrobe of tight bottoms and tops, or mysterious belts, blocks, and bolsters? Do you prefer gentle exercise? The coordinator of the Newcomers gentle yoga interest group has organized a new series of ten lessons on Tuesday mornings at a ground-level yoga studio in Wolfville. A member who plans to return for the new series of classes says, “I found the class non-judgemental and inclusive for people of all abilities, and I hope to improve my range of motion through…
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Newest Jan Coates Novel to Benefit Feed Nova Scotia

Author: September 20, 2019

Newest Jan Coates Novel to Benefit Feed Nova Scotia Submitted With the release of Jan L. Coates’ new children’s book, Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say, Nevermore Press in Lunenburg will be donating one dollar from the sale of each book to Feed Nova Scotia from now through October 14, Thanksgiving Day. Say What You Mean is the second middle-grade novel published under Nevermore’s Trap Door Books imprint. In Say What You Mean, twelve-year-old Jake MacKinnon rescues an old hound dog from the pound. Sandy turns out to be a fairy dogmother, who grants Jake’s greatest wish—to be…
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Last words

Author: August 26, 2019

Last words By Jennifer Graham “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on,” says Robert Frost. Like the beaters on the Mixmaster that woke me up Saturday mornings The sound of mom making chocolate chip cookies. She always made a double batch One to bake. One for my brother and I to eat raw at the kitchen table before breakfast. Mom had a rule about cookies: you need two; One for each hand. It kept our little hands busy and her head peaceful. There was only one other rule my mother insisted upon…
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