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we, we multitude on sun blossomed leaves

dark spotting petal pistol stamen knowing each flower’s golden mean

  • Digby doings & fun on the Fundy

    Nova Scotia rocks.

    On Thursday, I stayed over in Digby

    where there is an excellent used/rare book shop called Crooked Timber, packed to the rafters with all kinds of everything.

    The B&B; owners sent me in the welcome direction of the Boardwalk Cafe, which was a wonderful spot. I had some extremely good seafood chowder (featuring Digby scallops), accompanied by excellent home-made dinner roll

    and I had to leave room for the strawberry rhubarb pie which was sublime.

    After a lunch like that, supper needed to be light, so I wandered into O’Neil’s where I had earlier bought some dulse

    and opted for some steamed Cherrystone clams, which the waitress explained were baby quahogs; but smaller, richer and less sandy. They were just the thing.

    I had been thinking about lemon meringue pie since lunchtime, having just missed the last slice at the Boardwalk, but this was a perfect size to finish.

    And then I was off on a hyper-tour of the Annapolis Valley, Canada’s first breadbasket.

    First stop was Meadowbrook Meat Market, where they had some nice bacon. Then on to Port Williams, where the Fox Hill Cheese House lives,

    and where they sell something called “Parmesran” which I can assure the buying public is nowhere near the item it seeks to imitate. They had a few aged cheeses (Gouda and Cheddar) which were good, but told me they didn’t have the space to age anything longer than that.

    Had some coffee at Just Us! Coffee Roastery & Museum, where they’ve spent a lot of time and money making a righteous display about Fair Trade and coffee production, and they have a fair trade products shop and cafe. I picked up a very good lemon square for the road…

    I didn’t have time for a tasting or tour at Grand Pre Winery, but I did make it to lunch, where I had something they called gnocchi, which I wouldn’t have called that, but which was good and covered in local mushrooms (oyster, portabella and button) and Fox Hill cheese curds.

    I spent the second half of my day on the Bay of Fundy, watching the waves gallop in. Getting there, I found some of the back roads a bit less than perfect.

    The shoreline is dramatic.

    We had a little walk on the beach before the tide started coming in.

    Then we were treated to some of Ian’s local, line-caught (by Ian) grilled trout with spicy mayo

    while Susan demonstrated the amazing portable pedal organ

    and then we ate some salmon pesto pasta

    and the strawberry rhubarb crisp was steaming on the table

    as tragedy struck the cream jug, but it made a fair map of the United States, so that was cool.



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  • Nova Scotia

    I arrived at St Margaret’s Bay to fair weather on Tuesday evening.

    Wild poodles roam the woods, looking for crows to bark at

    or bounce around with Geoff, noted local poodle herder

    who made the spécialité de la maison, what he calls Zulu Bannock (or buns a la bbq)

    with amazing mussels, before

    and after cooking.

    And of course there was lobster.

    And strawberries are in season, yippee! Here with Jan’s hand-crafted tea biscuit:

    If I read tails correctly, this one’s saying Don’t bug me.

    Then on to Lunenburg, where there are more mussels, hanging from the electricity poles along with a lot of other seafood:

    And I noticed some crowds milling around the docks, with a boat in the distance

    coming nearer

    coming nearer

    and packed to the gunwhales with students, returning after a semester on the high seas in a tall ship as part of the Class Afloat program.

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  • Newfoundland to Nova Scotia

    Had a last supper in St John’s on Monday night from the Afghan Restaurant on Duckworth Street. A tiny place where granny literally cooks homestyle, on a home-sized stove in the back of a place that would be stretched to seat 12 people, the food is delicious. Not pretty, at least in my takeway, but the lamb was melt-in-your mouth, the rice excellently seasoned, and the naans stretchy and tasty.

    And I confirmed that I was indeed experiencing a nouveau spring (after experiencing a record number of them this year: Victoria, London, Parma, Alicante, Saskatchewan and now Newfoundland) as the lilacs were just opening in St John`s.

    Spent a last morning in The Rooms, which are big, but I didn’t feel they were terribly well laid out: everything a bit too chopped up with the art gallery divided between different floors. Still, some interesting things there, and some exciting sounding art to come in the galleries. I liked the Merchant Vessels functional pottery show, and in the museum there was a display of a couple of Innu caribou hide coats that blew my mind. Called pishakanakup, they were made of fine, thin hides: summer wear for caribou hunters, their designs intended to flatter their patrons, in colours intended to invoke caribou (the reds are to mimic caribou blood). According to the display only 30 such coats exist in Canadian museums.

    In the seabird display, I was entranced by the story of the Razorbill, which is rare and the closest living relative of the now-extinct Great Auk. Apparently the chicks hatch and launch themselves into the ocean before they can fly, where they are tended by their fathers for the two months it takes them to fledge!

    That wore me out and I went in search of food. The tomato soup with juniper berries was not good, but the salad was

    and so was the view of the harbour (where I was standing the morning before is centre left at the harbour mouth).

    Then it was goodbye Bond Street

    hello Halifax cloudburst (right on our baggage as it was being unloaded!)

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Book cover of Rhona McAdam's book Larder with still life painting of lemons and lemon branches with blossoms in a ceramic bowl. One of the lemons has a beed on it.

In her latest collection, Rhona McAdam navigates the dark places of human movement through the earth and the exquisite intricacies lingering in backyard gardens and farmlands populated by insects and pollinators, all the while returning to the body, to the tune of staccato beats and the newly discovered symmetries within the human heart.

Enjoy

“…A beautiful, filling collection, Larder is a set of poems to read at the change of the seasons, to appreciate alongside a good meal, and to remind yourself of the beauty in everything, even the things you may not appreciate before opening McAdam’s collection….”

Alison Manley

Rhona McAdam is a writer, poet, editor, and Registered Holistic Nutritionist with a Master’s in Food Culture from Italy and a deep-rooted passion for ecology and urban agriculture. Her work spans corporate and technical writing to poetry and creative nonfiction, often exploring the vital links between what we eat and how we live. Based in Victoria, BC, and available via Zoom, Rhona is always open to new writing commissions, readings, or workshops on nutrition and the culinary arts.

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