Canada
I am a freelance writer and photographer living in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. I contribute photos and stories weekly to The Valley Harvester, the community paper of the Chronicle Herald which mainly serves the area from Windsor to Digby.
Morley Googoo grew up on Waycobah First Nation in Cape Breton where his father was chief. At seven years old, he watched his father die saving his life, when they fell from a midway ride at Port Hawkesbury. "It was then I said I'd be chief one day."
Imagine being tucked into a tiny airplane, flying at 3,000 feet above the countryside. Add to your mental picture that it's early April, alternately raining, sleeting and snowing and the wind is howling. It's cold and you are in an open cockpit.
Last week, 101-year-old Esther Chute of South Berwick donned one of her 52 square dance dresses, buckled up her dancing shoes and took to the floor. Chute, the oldest active square dancer in continental North America, was honoured Sept. 24 with a bevy of awards.
The Bay of Fundy is home to not only a vibrant fishing industry, but up to 12 species of whales. The International Whaling Commission estimates that 308,000 whales and dolphins die every year due to entanglement in fishing gear. Entanglement can lead to drowning, laceration, infection and starvation.
Some of my personal favourites
"A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere." ~ Joyce Meyer In New Glasgow in 1940, a boy was born who would spend his life with a #2 pencil in hand and a dream in his heart - a dream that could finally be realized this summer in the Annapolis Valley.
"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young." - Henry Ford Three mornings each week residents at Mountain Lea Lodge extended care facility in Bridgetown go to school. Classes include science, English, geography, and even psychology. The youngest student is 53, the oldest is 99.
"He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands." ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson The Mi'kmaw believe he was sent from heaven as a guardian of their people. Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote about them, Audubon and Bateman painted them.
On Dec. 4 Honorary Staff Sergeant Andrew Kennedy, dressed in his freshly pressed uniform, arrived at the New Minas detachment of the RCMP. He was met in the parking lot by Const. Jeff Wilson, dressed in his red serge for this special occasion - a celebration of Andrew's birthday.
Young maritime skaters got quite a treat on Friday, Oct. 21, as four-time world figure skating champion Kurt Browning and Canada's highest rated skating coach, Doug Haw, taught a two-day clinic in Kentville for 60 of them at the Kentville Centennial Arena.
In September, 19-year-old Adam Hassan Haggar started Grade 10 at Annapolis West Education Centre (AWEC). For him, that is a huge accomplishment and he's grateful for the opportunity to live and learn in a free and safe society.