Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Today is the winter solstice and the holidays are upon us. This post is a brief update about the Elizabeth Bishop House. I won't say the final one, because I said that earlier in the fall and it wasn't; but  likely it will be the last before the turn of another year. Last week I visited Great Village partly because I wanted to drive across the new bridge, which is now open. The photos below were taken by me.

It is a strange experience not to have to slow down and, as was often the case, stop before crossing. The old bridge is slowly being dismantled -- for me, a sad sight; but such is the way of progress.

I also went to check on the condition of the front yard at the EB House: rather a mess. The altered trajectory of the road (because of the bridge) has resulted in less front yard. The new shoulder of the road is much wider and has intruded well into the little yard that was there (there was a time, 100 years ago, when the EB House had quite a good front yard, which was actually above the road; but the road was gradually widened and raised and claimed more of the yard). I was disappointed with the mess that the Department of Transportation has left and hope that their intention is to grade the gravel and tidy up this mess.

My intention is to contact DOT and ask what will be done. DOT has control of land extending in around 30 feet from the centre line of the road, which actually would take up most of the front yard anyway. But leaving such a mess is unacceptable. It is our intention to do some landscaping in the spring, so what you see in these photos will alter -- I hope in part with the help of DOT.

What an autumn it has been in Nova Scotia, a heavy rain storm just about every week, starting with the one on 22 September that resulted in what I call the Equinoctial Flood in Great Village. All our rivers remain much higher than they normally are at this time of year. And the forecast is calling for another deluge with mild temperatures on Christmas Day (rivers will flood again) -- quite a different scenario than last winter, when we were already weeks into snow and cold.

Wherever you may be this holiday, I wish you all the blessings of the season.

Photo by Rebecca Colwell