Editor’s Note: We’re re-running another of Michelle Smith’s timeless farming columns, this one originally published on 24 January 2018.   There is a country proverb that the best fertilizer is the footsteps of the farmer. Anyone who follows me through an average day could be forgiven for taking this literally,Read More

Really, we should have seen it coming. Former Glace Bay MLA Geoff MacLellan has never disguised his feelings for the Donkin Mine. When the Cline Group, which had bought a 75% stake in the mine from Glencore Xstrata the previous December, announced in 2015 that it had begun hiring, then-MinisterRead More

Raymond Plourde, senior wilderness coordinator with Nova Scotia’s Ecology Action Centre (EAC), has, as you might imagine, some thoughts on the advisability of situating golf courses in protected areas of ecological importance. We spoke by phone last week about Ben Cowan-Dewar and his partner Mike Keiser’s plans to turn partRead More

Editor’s Note: This column first appeared in September 2017.    Inspiration for this column can come from the strangest places. This time, I was deep in the heart of my favorite blackberry patch, high canes arching above my head, hands and mouth stained as purple as my bucket. A flockRead More

On Monday night, I attended the information session for residents of Sydney’s North End still waiting for answers about the leak at the Imperial Oil tank farm at 1 George Street on July 8. The leak occurred when a front-end loader rolled down a containment wall and punctured a largeRead More

A tweet from Conservative MP Michel Rempel Garner caught my eye Monday morning (I’m still able to see her tweets because I’ve never been so bold as to lock horns with her online where she’s notorious for blocking anyone who disagrees with her). It said: Tomorrow morning, my bill regardingRead More

Editor’s Note: I caught myself looking rather bleakly at the snow yesterday and decided I needed a timely reminder about embracing winter, so I re-read Paul MacDougall’s 25 November 2020 piece on coping with the cold and I thought you might like to too.   There is probably as muchRead More

Growing up in South Bar, wedged between the larger centers of Sydney and New Waterford, you quickly learn that to get anything done for “The Bar” you have to work hard, organize and make a lot of noise to get any kind of action from local politicians who focus onRead More

I watched Westmount native Doug Doucet, founder of Bedford-based Doucet Developments—and a suite of related companies—present his plans for waterfront development to CBRM council last night. Much of the presentation (which also featured Chris Baldwin, his chief financial officer) focused on Doucet himself and his companies and why it’s aRead More

Editor’s Note: This column last appeared on 13 November 2019.   What to do this week The garden is just about done for the year, but already I want to keep the taste of something fresh in my kitchen. Fortunately this year it is not too late to bring someRead More