Summer reading

The past weekend was full of books – tempting distractions during these first few days of summer when the heat brings on a terrible laziness. A casual stop at Vancouver’s venerable MacLeod’s Books on Saturday saw me walk away with five volumes ranging from a quirky 1943 primer for U.S. soldiers on Serbo-Croatian to poet Peter Sanger’s latest release from Gaspereau Press, Aiken Drum. The latter is of interest not only for Sanger’s skill with words, but also his treatment of the tale of notorious 19th-century Maritime escape artist Henry More Smith.

On Friday night I attended the launch of Richard Henriquez: Selected Works, 1964-2005, which was attended by a goodly gathering of local notables. The reception was buzzing and book contributor Geoffrey Smedley ensured the panel assembled for the occasion did Henriquez justice.

But of my recent reading, the most important were the articles I read online last week regarding the relationship between technology use and power capabilities, and the shrinkage of social circles in the U.S. (and, I should think, North America generally) over the past 20 years. The articles were thoughtful items about issues of real consequence.

Both sides now

The big issue in the Lower Mainland this week in real estate and agricultural circles alike is the fate of Barnston Island, a 1,300-acre tract of land east of Vancouver in the Fraser River. An application by the island’s largest landowners (not necessarily the majority of residents), proposes developing industrial space on 85 per cent of the island that lies outside the local First Nations reserve. First, however, the proponents have to get permission to remove the land from British Columbia’s Agricultural Land Reserve. Applications for exclusion always provoke strong feelings, and it was no surprise to see about 250 people show up for a public information meeting last night. There were many familiar faces. The gathering lasted well into the evening; after I got home at 11:30pm, I read a radio report indicating that the meeting continued past midnight.

In other news, I wrote story this week on development opportunities at local airports for Business in Vancouver and completed a package of stories from last week’s Festival of Architecture for the Journal of Commerce. Working to the strains of a CD of organ works attributed to J.S. Bach, discovered this past weekend at the annual CD sale of the Early Music Vancouver society, has been pleasant.

Dinner table tourism

The assignments this week are coming on quick: Yesterday, I wrapped up a near-final review of Real Estate Investing for Canadians for Dummies, due out later this year. Today, I’m in the thick of my weekly real estate column for Business in Vancouver and a couple of other real estate-related stories. Then, later this week I have a magazine deadline for an Atlantic Canada history piece. And let’s not forget a host of short, snappy agricultural stories I need to get done.

This past weekend offered something of a global culinary tour. Put on hold ideas of a 100-Mile Diet, which encourages people to eat local; let’s also enjoy the discoveries we make in far-flung places which make life at home that much richer. Cups of Goodricke Castleton (2nd flush) tea, for example, brought back by friends from Darjeeling. One gets used enough to bagged teas here that we forget how soft on the palate a leaf tea can be. Neither sugar nor milk was needed to make this tea palatable.

A cheese and spirit tasting was another highlight: A selection of fortified apple and pear wines and a fruit schnapps from Winegarden Estate, picked up during my recent trip to New Brunswick, were paired with a 30-month-old Comté from France (bought at Oyama Sausage Co. on Granville Island) and a red wine-washed goat’s cheese from Carmelis in the Okanagan. The apple wine went well with the Comté while the pear was a sweet match for the goat’s cheese. The schnapps was nice, but needed a bit of water to really open up.

Upward spiral

Amazing how some words or phrases come to your attention once in a conversation, then in the following days seem to be everywhere, isn’t it? One phrase for me this week that seems most likely to become a cliché is “upward spiral.” A positive, feel-good term at first blush, a quick check on Google retrieves over 214,000 hits (and rising). Over half the references are from this year, however, a sure sign the phrase is spreading too fast for its own good.

With regards to my own writing, it's been a sluggish week spent getting back on track after two weeks in New Brunswick. I’ve focused mostly on real estate stories, but I also had the good fortune to get away to Abbotsford on Wednesday and press the flesh with various agritourism operators on behalf of Northwest Palate. I’ll spare writing about the event till next week, however. The plan for this weekend is to hunker down with some reading and maybe find some time to reflect and write on cultural topics.

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.