Words By Whittall

I thought I was ready for country living when my husband and I made the decision to move from downtown Toronto to rural Nova Scotia.   I grew up on a farm. We’d been vacationing here for more than a decade.   Just moving to a new province. No big deal. It was charming, at first. We laughed at ourselves for trying to adopt a neighbour’s runaway rooster, feeding him gluten free crackers and giving him a name before “he” laid an egg in the weigela. I volunteered to help the Ladies’ Auxiliary at the local fire hall and found the squabbling over the right kind of cheese for the ham and cheese sandwiches highly amusing. That first December, I got a kick out of watching Santa walk into the South Shore Mall carrying his own lunch bucket. Soon, though, charm turned to annoyance. Why did everyone drive at least 20 kilometers under the speed limit and stop twice during right hand turns?   Why did the highway crew paint new lines on the road and send a second crew out th...

Soon I’ll be posting more stories to this blog. Soon. I’ve been busy/distracted with the book that my writing group is publishing together. Sometimes it feels like it is moving ahead through shear force of will and not really writing at all. I’ll get back to real writing, soon.  Soon the book, One Word , will be published. Its with the printer now. We’re going to unveil it at a library conference October 19, with an official book launch at LaHave River Books the following week. How exciting! All profits from One Word ($20 + shipping) will go to support the local bookmobile, which is well travelled and indispensable, and needs an upgrade, soon. It is a lifeline to far flung and remote communities across the South Shore.  Meanwhile, the South Shore – all of Nova Scotia – is preparing for Hurricane Dorian, whose arrival is imminent. Wind gusts of up to 150 kmph, storm surges on the coast, and heavy downpours bringing 70 to 100 mm of rain to hard packed earth that ha...