I wrote last week that dealing with international waste (IW) at the Sydney Marine Terminal will involve more than simply getting in a stash of orange garbage bags. You can read the details here, but the gist is that international waste coming off vessels must be segregated from domestic wasteRead...

What to do this week If there is one thing that is true about gardeners, it is that we are always thinking ahead. You might think we would all be busy enjoying what we have grown, or perhaps be scattered in multiple directions picking and processing everything that is comingRead...

The CBRM has an environmental assessment of a property owned by local businessman Jerry Nickerson on which it hopes to construct a second cruise ship berth. We know the assessment exists, as Nancy King points out in the Cape Breton Post, because Mayor Cecil Clarke has referred to it, asRead...

There I was with my many questions about shipbreaking in Sydney harbor and all I had to do was ask my local member of parliament. That would Mark Eyking, MP for Sydney-Victoria, who invited me to go to Sydport last Friday and take a picture of him standing next toRead More

I recently read an article that fascinated me. It was about a conversation between President Donald Trump and the mayor of a small island off the coast of Virginia that is quickly disappearing beneath the water as sea levels rise. The article is accompanied by a short video that demonstratesRead More

One Ocean Expeditions (OOE), purveyor of luxury Arctic and Antarctic wildlife cruises, hopes to make Sydney its home port, so I thought I’d try to get to know the company a little better. Obviously, the best way would be to take a cruise, but one look at the rates putRead More

What to do this week Let the serious harvest begin! (Depending, of course, on what you have planted.) Many of us plant garlic, and mine is about ready. You can tell for sure when the stalk is two-thirds yellow. You might want to do a test harvest, if you haveRead More

There I was, looking for signs of shipbreaking on Sydney harbor and I forgot to mention North Sydney. Apologies to all my North Sydney readers, who must have been left scratching their heads. How did I forget about that time the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) sold Archibald’s Wharf, aRead More

If you’ve read this week’s article on large-vessel disposal in Canada, you probably think you know everything there is to know about shipbreaking and recycling in this country but let out your sheets, friend (an expression I just made up as the nautical equivalent of “hold your horses”), there’s moreRead More

This year my farm has seen a succession of middle to top predators with catastrophic consequences for the chicken population and, by extension, my livelihood. A raucous crowd of ravens was first, flying boldly into the barn and coming out with whole eggs in their beaks. I was sure they wereRead More