Randy | October 9, 2011
Signs leading into some communities on the south shore of Nova Scotia read, “We love the beauty that surrounds us and welcome you to share it.” Such a sunshiny bit of prose, but ’twas not always thus. The town of Lunenburg and its surrounding area was settled by Protestant immigrants of German, Swiss, and French […]
Randy | October 8, 2011
The Burning Times By LFM It was a simpler, darker age, An age of Ox and plough, When doughty farmers, iron thewed Wrought life from earth and bough. But woe is me, it came to pass That clergy came to roost, And serving up “the word of God” An awful thing was loosed. “The devil […]
Randy | October 7, 2011
“You know, I often say that the world’s a crazy place – “crazy” in a good sense, and in the sense that, for example, when you walk in the forest or over the fields, or elsewhere, you never know what you’re going to come across.” ~ Laurie Lacey One morning in the early autumn of […]
Randy | October 6, 2011
Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the […]
Randy | October 3, 2011
Dagger Woods is a small rural community located amid softwood forest and marshland slightly less than 10 kilometers east of the university town of Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Anyone driving Highway 104 to or from the eastern part of the province will be familiar with the turnoff. Tales of a malevolent being haunting the woods began […]
Randy | October 2, 2011
In the world of Man we have seen grocery stores expand their services to incorporate pharmacies while pharmacies have opened extensively stocked grocery departments so that, store name notwithstanding, the distinction between the two is becoming blurred. Most so called “department stores” have gone that way too in the inexorable quest to be all things […]
Randy | October 2, 2011
I first heard The Griesly Wife recited to me late one night over a camp fire by a lake shore deep in the woods of darkest Nova Scotia. The person who recited it had learned the poetic tale without knowing its author, and believed the story was set somewhere in a remote part of northern […]
Randy | September 25, 2011
Mrs. LFM and I live in the midst of plenty, all of it provided by Nature and requiring only the investment of time, effort, and gratitude to enjoy. An example of what I’m talking about is the succulent Blackberry that grows in abundance at our place. I decided this past spring to pursue a couple […]
Randy | September 22, 2011
In my 2 June 2010 article titled Contemplations on a Really Bad Idea, I talked about the abysmally stupid practice of “trail running” and its singular ability to enhance a practitioner’s likelihood of being assaulted by wildlife. If you haven’t read it, please do before going further. This morning, thanks to my friend Jim Keating, […]
Randy | September 13, 2011
There’s a saying I heard about 30 years ago uttered by a seasoned hunting guide who was describing the way inexperienced “woodsmen” build camp fires – “White man build big fire, sit far away. Indian build small fire, sit up close.” He was talking about inefficient use of resources, and today I want to sing […]