The Liscomb River has everything a nature-lover desires. It’s long and cuts deep into the wilderness, providing the perfect spot to canoe, fish, camp, hunt and explore. Or to escape the rat race and to breathe fresh air that will zap your energy after spending the day in it. Sometimes it’s a wide, meandering river. Other times, it’s rapids and waterfalls. Still other times, it’s a salmon pool or a lake.
I’ve been exploring the Liscomb River all my life. It’s where I caught my first fish with my first rod. While it’s beautiful any time of the year, the autumn colours paint a colourful landscape.
Below is the Liscomb River in pictures on October 7, 1990, with a few photos taken in other years for comparison.
Indiana Jones Bridge
Yes, here it is. The bridge we call the Indiana Jones bridge. You can see why if you’ve watched the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
While this one is sturdier and shorter than the one in the movie, if you’re the slightest bit fearful of heights, you will not want to cross it.
This 1990s version has more substance than the one that preceded it. I’ve been across all of those that existed in my lifetime.
This photograph was taken down stream of the bridge.
Just past the bridge up stream is the falls. It’s only about 15 feet in height but after heavy spring rains, it is gushing water like a raging river.
The next book in the Romance Collection, a true romance novel, is A December Knight. Written more than seven years ago, the story takes place in the late 1990s when digital cameras were all the rage and before cell phones became the camera of choice for the general population.
The main character, Jan Cooper, lives in Cole Harbour, Halifax County, Nova Scotia. She works at Mic Mac Mall in the nearby city of Dartmouth.
Here’s the description for the novel.
When Santa fails to deliver, a knight bestows the perfect gift.
It’s two weeks until Christmas, and all Jan Cooper can think about is surviving the rush of holiday shoppers. As the manager of a camera shop, she’s obligated to put on a happy face and wish her customers a merry Christmas.
What the single mother wants to do is curl up in a warm chair with a cup of hot cocoa, read a book and let the season pass without her. When a handsome customer crashes into her well-organised life, she discovers what she really wants for Christmas.
Today, which is Sunday in Australia, I’m a guest of author Rita Lee Chapman. She interviewed me a few weeks ago for her website.
One of the questions she asked was if I had any funny animals stories to share. Since I’ve own many animals during my life time — chickens, dogs, cats, fish, rabbits, turkeys, guinea fowl, sheep, goats, donkeys, horses, ducks, meat birds–I have my fair share of animal stories.
For this guest visit, I shared the one about the guinea fowl. If you’ve never owned these birds, you’ve never had the experience of their weird behaviour. Let’s just say, of all the animals I’ve owned, these were the strangest. I tolerated them until they fell in love with my truck.
For several years, the Seeds of Life story has rattled around in my brain. To silence the chatter, I started recording it on September 13th. I write approximately 500 words a day at this time of year because there’s so many other things going on.
On October 27th, I reached the 30,000-word milestone. When it comes to writing, my journey is like crawling up a large seesaw. At first, the going is slow; the climb is steep, and I need to build momentum. Then, around the mid-way range, the seesaw levels out, and I pick up speed. The seesaw soon starts to tip in the other direction, and by the time I’ve crossed over to the last 1/3 of the story, I’m travelling quickly, non-stop to reach the end. It’s a rush, and I’m excited to learn what happens. I burn the midnight oil and I rise early to continue the adventure. I ignore everything and everyone until the final words are recorded.
At 30,000 words, I’m one-third the distance to the end. Within three weeks, the seesaw is going to be level, and then I’ll write a few thousand words a day. I expect to finish this story by the end of November. It will ripen for the next few seasons, then, if all goes well, it will be published December 2021.
Shortly after the story of the Salvation of Mary Lola Barnes begins, Mary starts walking in the evenings. While she’s been fairly active all her life, winter for many in Nova Scotia doesn’t provide much opportunity for outdoor activities unless you embrace the cold and love snow and ice.
With mild weather casting off winter’s slumber, Mary feels the need to get outside more and walk to the nearby park that has trails through the woods and along a lake. It’s a popular place for adults and children. There are even ducks.
Mary quickly learns that walking is reshaping her body. To be more exact, her legs are becoming stronger, she’s toning muscle and losing the extra weight winter hibernation added on.
My Love of Hiking
I’ve always been a hiker, a walker in the woods, but with work, kids and other responsibilities, I didn’t get onto the trails as much as I wanted to. Two years ago, I decided to change that.
One of the places my feet have taken me: Taylor Head Park, Eastern Shore, Nova Scotia.
I started small, just a kilometre. I’d walk every day it didn’t raining. Each trip out, I’d walk one more lamp pole length until I hit 5 km in one direction. After that, at least four times a week, I’d hit the road and walk that 5-km strip, which totalled 10 km per trip. The changes to my body were subtle, but what incredible changes they were.
I’m certain there were changes I couldn’t measure, such as the increased strength of my lungs. However, the things I could measure were impressive. Besides being able to walk that distance faster over time without getting out of breath, my calf muscles became leaner, I lost weight, my knees grew stronger and I could bend easier. The injury in my left knee went into hibernation. I think the muscles around the knee grew so strong, I no longer felt the injury. It was still there, and when I walked less in winter, it showed itself.
During my walks, I would think about my stories and scribble down on the scrap paper I carried anything I didn’t want to forget.
Another place my feet have taken me: Blomidon Park, Blomidon, Nova Scotia
Benefits
A quick search in the old InterWeb, reveals the top benefits of walking.
Maintain a healthy weight.
Prevent or manage various conditions, including heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
Strengthen your bones and muscles.
Improve your mood.
Improve your balance and coordination.
No Training or Equipment Required
Walking is something almost everyone can do; you need only comfortable footwear unless you do as I do sometimes and walk a beach or grassy trails, then I go barefoot. Where I live, people walk by the house every day. They walk at different times and different speeds. Some are old, some are young. One woman wears braces.
If you want to get into shape and all you have is a pair of shoes and a little extra time, start walking. It doesn’t matter how fast you go or how far. Just start, and you’ll find yourself going farther and faster as you rack up the miles. That’s the wonderful thing about walking; you can do it at your own pace and when your body is ready, you can increase your distance a little bit at a time.
And here’s a secret: it’s absolutely free.
Launch Day
Today is launch day for the Salvation of Mary Lola Barnes. The first chapter is available on its book page on this website. It is available exclusively at Amazon, so if you’re a Kindle Unlimited member, you read for free.
If spring can spring, does that mean fall can fall? If so, it has fallen in the Maritimes.
Yesterday was a beautiful day in my Nova Scotia garden. While temperatures reached 13 degrees Celsius, grey clouds consumed the sky, a thin veil of fog perched in the distance and a slow mist fell throughout the day, there was no wind. I worked outside all day in shorts and a light sweater.
Here are a few photos of my garden that captured the season.
Red Berries
High Bush Cranberry
I planted this bush several years ago because I love cranberries, and I wanted the ability to pick some from my yard. However, these berries taste nothing like the low-growing cranberries that grow in Nova Scotia. The berries taste horrible. I’ve tasted them before the frost, after the frost and after may frosts, but they still taste horrible. However, the birds enjoy them in winter.
Ninebark
This shrub has been growing in my garden for more than two decades. Last winter, I cut it back hard because it had grown lanky and wild. This summer, if filled out better than the first few years of it living in my garden.
I’ve often watched birds, considered what they might be thinking and wondered over how they lived their life. I recall thinking many times, with regard to birds and most animals, they have no possessions. Silly humans – we fill our lives with possessions and become burdened with them.
Birds build a nest for the short time they need one, then leave it all behind – every year.
I suppose this thought process fueled these thoughts by Mary Lola Barnes after she received disappointing news.
After exchanging good-byes, Mary hung up the phone. She walked out the back door and plopped down into the patio chair. It was a cool evening, and the forecast threatened frost. Still, she sat without a sweater and let time pass. Robins flew in and flew out, but she didn’t rejoice in their presence. They were birds who flew where instinct took them; they carried no belongings or worries. They sought a place to call their own for short periods of time, long enough to raise their young, then depart for other places far beyond her yard and community. Perhaps birds had it right; when the nest was empty, move onto the next part of life.
The Salvation of Mary Lola Barnes is available for pre-order exclusively at Amazon:
Not long ago, I saw an interesting ad. It claimed: Become a Scottish Lord or Lady Today. Intrigued by all things fantastical, archaic and Scottish, I clicked to learn more. Shortly afterwards, I became a Lady.
But let’s put a little history to this first.
Back when Europeans were exploring The New World by boat and by foot, Scotsman Sir William Alexander devised a scheme that would profit the king in two manners. He “proposed that it might encourage development of a New Scotland if His Majesty were to offer a new order of baronets. The King liked the idea. After all, his creation of the Baronets of England in 1611 and the Baronets of Ireland in 1619 had raised £225,000 for the Crown.”
In other words, they’d sell land in New Scotland to men who wanted to gain status in Scottish society.
While some Baronets came to Canada and developed land, many didn’t. Yet, they were sworn in on Nova Scotia soil and received the title in society. How was this done?
Soil was brought from New Scotland (Nova Scotia in Latin) and put in an area of Edinburgh Castle, which was then declared Nova Scotia territory. It was here “knichts and gentlemen of cheife respect for the birth, place, or fortounes” became baronets, and they then could put Sir in front of their name.
“By the end of 1625 the first 22 Baronets of Nova Scotia were created”. The Order continued for 82 years and by 1707, 329 baronetcies were made. Many of these are honoured still today.
In early October, the first book in the Castle Keepers series Shadows in the Stone became available to read for free by Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited members.
The first draft of Shadows in the Stone was written when I was sixteen, back in the mid-80s while listening to what is known today as Classic Rock. I was in high school and once homework was done and tossed aside, I pulled out my coil-bound notebook and wrote the story in pencil.
Pencil gave me the option pen didn’t: to erase words and complete paragraphs if I didn’t like what I’d written. I’d sit on my bed late into the night when a scene grabbed me and write long past midnight. I was hooked.
The story had been written from every character’s perspective and the details I used to describe them was similar to filling out a character sheet in a Dungeons & Dragons game. You knew their exact height, eye and hair colour and weight. One of the main characters was Argon (known today as Bronwyn). Alaura was originally Anna. Isla of Maura was originally Durania. Where did I get that? Have you ever listened to Duran Duran?
Today is the day. It’s been an amazing month and a half promoting one of the most favourite books I’ve ever written: Northern Survival. To date, I think it’s my best. That means my next – the Salvation of Mary Lola Barnes – has to be better. Oh, my. I better buckle down. I can’t go backwards. No pressure.
With the official end of the book launch, the eBook price will rise from $1.99 to $4.99 at midnight tonight. So if you haven’t grabbed your copy yet, get it now.
These thoughts are from a scene in which Jonathan Stone has blisters on his feet and Olive Tweed is tending to them. I believe it’s the day after the plane crash.
For the past 20 years, he’d had more money than one person deserved. It gave him a lifestyle many dreamt to have, yet he’d never felt sincerely pampered until now. People paid to serve him performed their duties, but they did it for money or attention, hoping to snatch a piece of his fame. This woman did it for no reason other than she wanted to help.
If you’ve read Northern Survival, please, consider leaving a review at Amazon or the book’s Goodreads page.
Diane McGyver 