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Songs of Bread, Wine and Salt: Composer Explores Poems of Alden Nowlan

Author: August 9, 2019

Songs of Bread, Wine and Salt: Composer Explores Poems of Alden Nowlan By Kim Barlow Composer Pete Johnston has brought his two worlds together in the album Songs of Bread, Wine and Salt. Johnston spends summers in the Valley, but his work is in Toronto, where he and many colleagues converge to create innovative jazz and improvised music, and where Johnston is a bassist, composer, and educator. Last year he assembled a group called Stranger Still, with vocalists Mim Adams and Randi Helmers, Johnston on guitar, and Rob Clutton on bass, to perform Johnston’s musical settings of the poetry of…
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Mike Butler Recommends: Summer Reading 2019

Author: August 9, 2019

Mike Butler Recommends: Summer Reading 2019 By Mike Butler It’s the summer (finally)! I look forward to my seasonal reading articles and here is the summer 2019 edition of literature that I recommend you sit back and absorb. We’ve all heard of binge-watching right? When you sit back and take in LOTS of TV at one time, usually polishing off a season of your favourite show or a bunch of shows. Well, there’s also binge-reading! I love binge-reading: when you pick an author and read through a chunk of their books. Two authors I am loving right now are an…
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Hitching Post: Zakary Miller and Franny Rutchinski

Author: August 9, 2019

Hitching Post: Zakary Miller and Franny Rutchinski Both born and raised in Toronto, Zakary Miller and Franny Rutchinski have made their home in Kentville, NS. Franny is a vintage and handmade seller, in the midst of launching a general store in Wolfville, and Zakary is a musician who plays Western and Canadiana swing. Zakary and Franny were married on June 8, at a friend’s property in Blomidon, which they consider a sacred and special place. The ceremony was officiated by Sarah Anderson. The bouquet was bursting with peonies, lilacs, and poppies in peachy pink and purple tones. The bouquet, as…
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Featurepreneur: Christy Ann Conlin on the Business Side of the Literary Arts

Author: August 9, 2019

Featurepreneur: Christy Ann Conlin on the Business Side of the Literary Arts By Genevieve Allen Hearn Christy Ann Conlin, known for her novels Heave and The Memento, is about to launch a new collection of short stories entitled Watermark. Christy Ann can be seen spinning many plates, including as an author, mother, teacher, and motivational speaker. On top of this, she takes the business side of being an author very seriously. The Grapevine* grabbed a moment of her time to discuss how she finds balance between her myriad roles. The Grapevine (GV): How do you achieve a balance between the…
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Lots of Great Local Reads for Kids

Author: August 9, 2019

Lots of Great Local Reads for Kids By Laura Churchill Duke As the author Beverly Cleary says, children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something teachers make us do at school. In the Valley we are blessed with so many great local authors who write books specifically for kids. The best ways to find these books are by asking a librarian at your local library, or by stopping by one of our bookstores. Box of Delights in Wolfville and RD Chisholm in Kentville always carry a great selection of local reads. Here are some of our favourites for…
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A Telling in Pictures

Author: August 9, 2019

A Telling in Pictures By Anna Horsnell Doretta Groenendyk’s paintings elicit a smile. There is something familiar, something comfortable, that pulls the viewer into a world of colour and whimsy and storytelling. We recognize the landscape. We feel the playfulness. As an illustrator and author of 11 children’s books (and illustrator only on 4 more), the Canning artist has created an enviable career around her priorities of family and getting outside. She does not see her work as author and illustrator as separate. “I see things in pictures first,” she explains. “The stories or ideas that I want to communicate,…
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What’s Growing at the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens: Reading the Forest Around You

Author: August 9, 2019

What’s Growing at the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens: Reading the Forest Around You By Riley Scanlan, B.Sc Honours, Environmental Science Stepping into an old growth forest can be a calming, inspiring, or even breathtaking experience, but what is it exactly that makes old growth forests so beautiful? So worthy of our attention? Just as you gain insight from reading a book, reading the forest around you can empower you to better connect with nature. Reading a forest is as simple as taking the time to acknowledge what is actually going on around you, thinking about how it all works together…
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The Dome Chronicles: Skunked

Author: July 18, 2019

The Dome Chronicles: Skunked By Garry Leeson In 1972, a boxcar from Toronto containing a menagerie of farm animals and an eager young couple pulled into the station platform in Kingston, Nova Scotia. They were bound for a deserted hundred-acre farm on the South Mountain, determined to preserve the foundations of farmsteads past while constructing a geodesic dome. They were pioneers of the future, armed with respect for tradition and an irrepressible sense of humour. They didn’t call themselves farmers. They were back-to-the-landers. Farming was industry and their calling was sustainability. Over the next forty years, through flood and fire,…
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Museum Page: The Kentville Heritage Centre Opens its Doors to the Past

Author: June 17, 2019

The Kentville Heritage Centre Opens its Doors to the Past By Lynn Pulsifer The residents of Kentville haven’t heard “a train a-coming, coming round the bend,” since 1990. However, the small Via Station that was originally built in 1988 to sell tickets to ride the train has now taken on a new purpose. On Saturday, May 18, the Via Station became the new home for the Kentville Heritage Centre. Following the ribbon cutting ceremony, and official opening by Town Crier Lloyd Smith, over 80 people, ranging in age from 9 to 90, who had gathered along Station Lane to watch…
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The Museum Page: D-Day Commemorative Coin Honours NS Soldier

Author: June 17, 2019

D-Day Commemorative Coin Honours NS Soldier By Ellen Lewis “The Royal Canadian Mint has issued a new coin (Special Edition Silver Dollar) to mark the anniversary of D-Day, and it turns out that Ellen Lewis, our summer student here at the Kings County Museum, is the granddaughter of the soldier featured on that coin! We asked Ellen to write about her connection to the coin.” –Bria Stokesbury, Kings County Museum June 6, 1944 marked a day in history when the lives of thousands of men from countries around the world changed forever. The D-Day attacks on five beaches in France…
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