On the Tantramar

Other activities have overtaken much of the serious reflecting I was hoping to do this week, but maybe that’s to be expected when one is free from deadlines and surrounded by blooming apple trees. Throw in a drive through the Memramcook Valley and the storied Tantramar area last Friday, and the change of pace from Vancouver is complete.

I’ve always been fascinated by the timeless expanse of the Tantramar marsh stretching beneath the unrepentantly modern radio transmission towers. The towers, pointed out to me since I was a kid, are icons of what holds Canada together. Despite living in a vast geography, of which the windswept Tantramar is but one example, those of us north of the 49th parallel have sought to overcome isolation and maintain our ties with one another and the world. The Tantramar has also been blessed with a few good writers that have spread its fame, Bliss Carman, Douglas Lochhead and Harry Thurston, to name a few.