Well, we are officially at a standstill! With the incredibly dry weather bringing on forest fires throughout the province, any and all activity in publicly owned forests without a permit has been banned. This means both our Wild Wednesdays program at Thomas Raddall Provincial Park and our surveying of the protected lands are postponed until the government of Nova Scotia can reassess. For the time being, we’re waiting for word on our request for a permit which would allow us to continue the plant surveying while taking necessary precautions.
Wild Wednesdays are postponed until the forest travel ban is lifted.
Fortunately, the forest ban did not interfere with our women’s only chainsaw workshop a couple weekends ago that I happily participated in! Patrick Allen shared valuable knowledge and safety skills with our tight knit group. Before the ban as well, Dalhousie’s Marine Life course was visiting last weekend. It was a full house in addition to a couple tenters and all field work went off without a hitch.
Action shot of me cutting "cookies"
Photo credits Leah Strople
This coming weekend we are looking forward to hosting the very talented Roger Savage and his Plein Air Watercolour painting workshop. With the summer quickly coming to a close, this is one of the centre’s last workshops of the season. In fact, the next workshop, Milling and Building on August 20th-22nd, is the last program that Leah and I will be here for! Luckily, it’s one of our most unique workshops allowing an optional third day stay, which should be fun for everyone.
Watercolour paints
In regards to mine and Leah’s departure back to university in the fall… the centre is in need of some eager volunteers to host Dalhousie at the end of August and for Harry Thurston’s “Write From Nature” workshop in September. We would be incredibly grateful for any volunteers and for you to spread the word to family and friends! A few hours help in exchange for time to cool out on the shore (cabin and fare provided). Not too shabby! If you’re interested in lending a hand, please e-mail HLC@eastlink.ca for more details.
As for now, we’re at the centre crossing our fingers that rain will come our way soon. Hopefully this time next week we’ll be completing our plant collection to send off to Acadia’s herbarium and enjoying another Wild Wednesday with the kids.
Cheers,
Abbie