Category: Non-fiction

My Favourite Place to Hike: Liscomb River

by Diane, posted in Non-fiction, Photographs

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.

Continue reading “My Favourite Place to Hike: Liscomb River” →

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Fall in My Garden

by Diane, posted in garden, Non-fiction, Photographs

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.

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Introducing Lady Diane McGyver

by Diane, posted in Non-fiction

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.

Castle ScotlandBack 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.

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Water Bottle Used in “Northern Survival”

by Diane, posted in Non-fiction

Shortly after the plane crash, Olive tells Johnathan ‘John’ Stone: “I have a refillable bottle that self-filters. I can drink from any water source.”

These self-filter water bottles can be life savers if lost or stranded in the wilderness where water quality is questionable. Because I hike, camp and boat far from civilization, I bought one of these water bottles a few years ago. I don’t use it as my water bottle; it’s there in case of emergency, when the only drinking water available is from the ground.

Olive explains how to use the water bottle a few chapters in after Johnathan asks her to refill his regular plastic water bottle.

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Wandering without Complaints

by Diane, posted in Non-fiction, wanderer

Cape Split on a foggy day in June.

I’ve always been a wanderer. As a kid I’d follow the bigger kids or adults into the woods and along babbling brooks in search of adventure. Some times we walked a short distance on well-beaten paths; other times, we bush-wacked our way deep into the forest where we set up tents and spent the night.

The more time I spent in the woods, the more I wanted to be in them. The older I got, the more I went off alone. By the time I was 16, I was wandering for hours alone in the forest. By the time I was 19, there were days I’d be gone eight hours. Just me. Sometimes a dog. Most times not. I took nothing with me, not even water, a compass or matches. I never feared the woods; it made me stronger, more independent.

Like everything in life, not everyone goes on adventures or into the woods eagerly. Sometimes they are asked and feel obligated to tag along. Other times, they’re coerced, such as siblings and children, because they are forced to experience the outdoors or they couldn’t be left alone.

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March Challenge – Book Haul

by Diane, posted in Non-fiction

Continuing with my March challenge, today I’m to write about my best book haul.

Book Haul

The best book haul was at Word on the Street, Halifax, about five years ago. I bought more than 20 books, some for me, some for my kids. The most recent book haul was bought at Dartmouth Book Exchange, Cole Harbour. It’s a wonderful story. If you live near it, visit.

March Challenge – Currently Reading

by Diane, posted in Non-fiction

Continuing with my March challenge, today I’m to write about what I’m currently reading.

March Challenge

Currently Reading

Since January 1st, my mind has been preoccupied 80% of the day with events that happened decades ago, leaving me little time to focus on work and the list of tasks to complete the novel I am writing, Mystical Series, book 2, and the one I’m editing, Scattered Stones. This leaves no time for reading for enjoyment.

However, I read blogs almost daily, and when I need a five minute break, I pull The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks from its spot next to my laptop and read a page or two.

March Challenge – March Writing Goals

by Diane, posted in Non-fiction

Continuing with my March challenge, today I’m to write about my March Goals.

March Writing Goals

  1. Complete the March Challenge
  2. Complete reading the proof for Scattered Stones, book 2 in the Castle Keepers series and release it.
  3. Begin editing Beyond the Myst, book 1 of the Mystical series
  4. Continue to write every day. Currently, I’m writing book 2 in the Mystical series. As of yet, I haven’t found a title for it. Perhaps that will happen this month.