Where Natures Pallette of Perfumes is Just Enough

We've all been to a big city. We've all had those experiences of odour; sewage, trashy smells, diesel fumes, petrol fumes, smog...those scents of a big city. We try to escape them, desperate for a breath of fresh air. It often starts when we drag our luggage out of the airport doors to hail a taxi. It slams us in the face and we know we're in Big City X. Nice. Not.

It struck me the other day, returning from Washington DC on another business trip. Tired. Ready to just get home. But often if you live in another major city, well, you come back to, smog. Petrol fumes and all the other odours of a big city. But not Halifax. I walked out those airport doors for the bus to the extended parking and well, yes, I got slammed with odours. Actually, scents. A fog was rolling in. From the ocean, 20 KM's away. I could smell the ocean. With the breeze I could also smell the pine trees. No gas, no diesel. Just nature's perfume. In a city of 400,000 people.

That's Nova Scotia. Ocean winds that carry away the detritus smells of a big, bustling city, and anyone who thinks Halifax doesn't bustle? You need to visit here. We know how to bustle when the bustling is good. A major container port, a high-tech corridor, five universities.

We don't manufacture on big scales here. That's not what we're about. We're about being smart with how we work and what we do. Knowledge-based industries and a passion for our healthy environment. Clean. Ocean breezes that carry fresh, salt-scented air that clears the lungs and mind. The scent of pine on hot summer days, the Lilac bushes in summer throughout the city, the uplifting scent of fresh lawns after a heavy rain. The falling leaves in the autumn and the crisp fresh air of a winters day.

That's Nova Scotia. Balance between bustle, hustle and sanity for the senses. Pure gold.

(Photo Credit: Johnfromnscas)

Seeing The Trees for the Forest is Nice

We must have a love affair with trees in Nova Scotia. Some say that when you can't see the trees for the forest it's a bad thing. I'm afraid I have to disagree in this case. In the autumn, you can seriously see the trees for the forest...they're those glowing red, yellow and auburn maples and oaks so brilliantly backdropped by a curtain of tall pines and spruce. In spring it is the bursting vibrant green of maples, oaks, beeches and more again highlighted by those kindly evergreens.

In summer they offer cool shade from the summer heat. In winter a great chance to climb high in their embracing arms where you can leap into a deep pile of snow and laugh. In any time of year, they offer a rolling vista from the highways, sometimes with stunning layers of fog and sunlight, making the distant hills seem to roll mysteriously in the distance, ever beckoning you forward to new discoveries.

You can climb some amazing trees and gaze across the ocean or a deep lake and drift into pleasant and sweet memories of childhood. You can attach a mighty truck tire and feel the thrill of the peeling laughter of children as they swing madly. Or in some places you can take a running leap, grab a rope attached to a pine hanging wildly over a cliff and drop into a cool, clean fresh water lake in the depths of summer.

I guess for these and many more reasons, it's why I like seeing the trees for the forest around here.

What about you?

(Photo Credit: Archer10 Dennis on Flickr)

A Symphony of Seasonal Sounds

There's something about living in a place that juts out into the most notoriously unevenly tempered ocean on our wonderful planet. Particularly when you're not too far north for bitter cold or too far south for gentle warmth.

We hover somewhere in between. Living on such a turbulent edge of seasons and natures fell moods makes for one of those sublime perks that is Nova Scotia - the seasonal symphony sounds ones ear can attune to.

In winter it is that quick crack of water and syrup freezing under the bark of the trees as the temperature plunges downward. The woods behind our house snap and pop in a cacophony of chill, a gentle breeze tossing an undercurrent swoosh. When the snow has laid it's canopy over the land and the air is brittle as you walk, that distinctive crunch underfoot wakes you up and carries you hurriedly forward. At times when the snow is heavy and falling hard, caught between freezing rain and ice pellets, the sound against the trees is a mesmerizing

When spring descends upon the land like a warm face-towel at the end of a long red-eye flight through the night it awakens you so suddenly. As if the harsh scrubbing of winter had left the land clear to breathe and start anew. Spring rains hypnotize one to sleep, the uncurling leaves bring a sweet undercurrent of happiness in their song. Falling maple seeds spin and if you listen close, they sound of laughter. Different birds take up their songs and familiar tunes are sung of new birth and delights of the rising early worms.

As spring fades and brightens into summer come, the lap of the waves on the seashores around the province seem to calm, as if the sea were laying down it's angry concerto of the winter and spring months. The tempests and squalls will be but interludes to the pervading calm.

Summer rests hot and humid as august rolls in. The blanketing of a fog just the soft timpani of a muted drum over the land. Drops of moisture like the soft bells across the land. Ones heart is restful then, yet chuckling inside.

As autumn rolls in, the colours of the land turn into brilliant cascades of light. Accompanying this Manet's canvass is the gentle rustle and fall of leaves. In the quiet of a sun-dappled glade as one sits, the falling leaves are gentle in their sound and a sigh escapes them, promising they will return with the turn of the seasons.

Where else in the world is one surrounded by such an ever changing symphony of sounds to inspire and ignite so many emotions? No wonder so many musicians, artists and authors have found such inspiration in this province...

(Photo Credit: Dave Saunders Photography on Flickr)