Dust from Our Eyes

A Nova Scotia friend of ours, Joan Baxter, has spent 20 years working in Africa and has written a provocative book about the myth that the west is a saviour of Africa. There is a short video introducing the book on youtube that is quite interesting. See below:

Shocker

I had the privilege of interviewing this woman for my latest feature. She's coming to Halifax this month. Click the picture for the story.

Rosy and Green

Click the pic for my latest story.

Big Bellyfish

Happy Fall! I love the fall. I have an irrational love for this season. It's the cool air, it kind of invigorates me. Even though I'm a tad under the weather, I'm happy. It might also have something to do with upcoming births. There is of course our little baby, who is now about 3 pounds (the size of a cabbage) and 15-and-three-quarter inches long, kicking madly, and already has assumed a head-down birth postion. Smart and feisty like Mama.

I should note here that we switched midwives. We just weren't quite connecting with our initial choice. We felt a bit awkward changing over to her partner (like fussy shoppers) but she was really cool about it and said the main thing is that we're comfortable. So, our new midwife is Kelly. The first midwife, Maren, will still attend the birth - which I think most know we hope will be a home-birth. Also in attendance will be our good friends Jason, Jocelyn, and Isabelle, and possibly out-of-towners Aimee (also a mid-wife) and Jeff (my oldest and best friend). It's getting really exciting right about now. I've included some belly pictures and some other recent images.

Then there is the other birth that I'm hoping will happen: the publication of my book. Nothing concrete yet but the exciting thing is that since I won that prize I've had other writers recommend agents, and a local publisher actually asked me to see it (rather than the usual me begging them to look at a chapter). He also invited me to contribute a chapter to an anthology he is putting out next year, an invitation which I gladly accepted. I'm madly editing the book right now, trying to get a better draft to show him.

And also, my brother is home! Not sure for how long, but after 5 yrs in Japan he's nurturing his reverse culture-shock right here in the Halifax Regional Municipality, for a while anyway.

Well, blah blah blah a picture's worth a thousand words, so here is a much more easily absorbed story, in non-chronilogical order:
































Big belly!




















Mika and Sian spent part of their honeymoon here and we had the obligatory Nova Scotian lobsters - they were fantastic!





















The buskers festival was a 5-minute walk from our place, always fun.






















This is the newest Benjamin, Zaila, daughter to cousin Jessie and Bola.






















Cousins abound: Jeremy and Jessie with Zaila (and puppies Maleah and Nate) in the background, Miia with Jessie's eldest, Kiara, in the foreground.
























Big jellyfish!























We took Mika and Sian on a Keith's Brewery tour, which would have made the Nazis jealous for its mastery of propaganda.























The first annual Beaver Bank croquet tourney.























Moon testing out the stroller.























Mika and Moon.



















Newlywed Bliss



















At Duncan's Cove

Benjamin's Fishy Africville Art

Hi folks,

What fun, I made the Books section in the main daily here for winning the prize for my novel. Click here to read that.

I also have an Arts feature in the Coast this week with some of my own photography (which I did not expect them to actually include in the article). Click the pic below for that:

And, click the next picture for my usual sustainability column:

-CB

Popular Diversions

Click the pic for a light piece I did for The Coast's Student Survival Guide.