Christmas Letter 2009

Christmas Letter 2009

You almost received a Christmas letter just like the one we sent to you last year:

We are still dwelling on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore with greater or lesser ambivalence: the landscape is so beautiful, the social and professional opportunities so scant.

Karin is still teaching part-time at NSCAD and still hoping that something more permanent will open up. She does enjoy teaching arts students who are interested in creating things and not simply criticizing. She set herself the task of developing a syllabus that used images and ‘zine and book-making to inspire writing skills, apparently with a great deal of success.

As well, Karin is becoming a very accomplished photographer since she started borrowing Elisabeth’s good Canon camera--the Rebel XTi we gave her for Christmas a couple of years ago. Check out Karin’s images online: http://picasaweb.google.ca/karin.cope and at http://visiblepoetry.blogspot.com/.

Elisabeth continues to be the inspired flower gardener of Quoddy’s End. She works for hours and months expanding her rock garden. She is a less inspired but nevertheless constant vegetable gardener at Quoddy as well, always struggling with the scarcity of sun and prevalence of fog. We just cannot get a tomato to ripen here but the apple trees did produce this season for the first time ever. And we grew dozens of potatoes in seaweed—clean and delicious!

Elisabeth is still an avid photographer, specializing in macro-photos of tiny plants which she then blows up into something quite magical. She celebrated her 75th birthday this November and is still learning new computer skills with which to work her images. Go Elisabeth! She proves that it’s never too late for an old French lady to teach herself new tricks! For some of her images see: http://picasaweb.google.ca/elisabeth.bigras

As well as struggling with the medium of acrylic paint, Marike has continued to work on realizing her dream of a green development. She has gotten some major approvals for an “open concept development” scheme from the Halifax Regional Municipality Development Office. This involved a little help from a recently elected provincial NDP MLA—and was despite an obstreperous and insular city councillor. We will not name any names.

Several people we can (and want to) name have contributed to the early conceptualization of the plan. An engineer, Steve Campbell, graciously walked the land with Marike, suggesting house sites and offering advice around community infrastructure (paths, septic, etc). And New Hampshire-based architect, Thomas Hopper, has made some lovely early designs of a green micro-house.

Alas, these things are now on hold however, until we see whether Karin has more secure work at NSCAD and whether the entire project can be made feasible economically…

As she awaits these verdicts, Marike has concentrated on the less glorious but perhaps equally green tasks of energy retrofitting our house in town (now rented) and here at Quoddy. The main obstacle is getting workmen to come quickly!

Last Christmas day was deeply creased by the death of our beloved 13-year old “wolf” dog, Binky—she died in Karin’s arms of congestive heart failure; we buried her the next day beside her old pal Negrita, back beneath the trees by the pond. We miss her enthusiasm and spirit every day!

In the new year, Elisabeth travelled to Montreal and then France to visit friends and family. She welcomed her goddaughter Florence’s new child, Aliosha/Leo, into the family at Antibes. For photos see http://picasaweb.google.ca/elisabeth.bigras/LeMaquisAvecAliochaFloEtDomEtZabEnMars2009#

And Karin and Marike enjoyed some fantastic sailing in the Sea of Cortez. Our friend, Sea King helicopter pilot, Major Barry Leonard, joined us for a few weeks. We also met some new friends, Paul Seamons and Dee Vadnais, aboard Blue Pteron, from Oregon, with whom we buddy-boated (the first time ever) for many miles and anchorages. We thoroughly enjoyed their company over many tequilas, fine meals, political conversations and outdoor painting sessions taught by Dee. We are hoping they will come sailing with us this winter for a time! (Views of travels with Paul and Dee on Blue Pteron at http://visiblepoetry.blogspot.com/2009/05/friends-and-dolphins.html and other nearby posts.)

That seemed as if it would be it for 2009. Then Marike got restless in August. She started hunting for a trip to Bali or a safari in Africa, only to receive an Eagle Eye Tours flier announcing spots still available on summer Arctic cruises. Hmm she thought, we never see mention of these trips in the media in the Maritimes… I wonder if we could do some writing to help pay for this….

Those negotiations successful, within two days the three of us packed, then drove to Ottawa, where we visited with Barry and friends Ken and Moira Gibson. Then it was onto a charter bound for Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, where we boarded the Clipper Adventurer for two back-to-back cruises: Into the High Arctic, and Through the North West Passage. What an adventure! In many respects, we have yet to return from the north in our imaginations. The midnight sun, thousands of icebergs, thick tundra, tiny brilliantly coloured vegetation, Arctic mammals and birds of all sorts, colourful towns in Greenland, northernmost settlements in Canada, and vast vast spaces: all have left an indelible mark on us. We have Feverus Articus now, and are conspiring to find other ways to travel north again. We’d like to be able to stay in one place long enough to contemplate and absorb it, to find the language fitting to describe this part of our nation and world. (See here, http://quoddynews.blogspot.com/ for ongoing updates on the arctic journey—several articles are just coming out now, during the holidays.)

Yes, it is true; the ice cap is melting and breaking up in Canada’s north, and the implications are ponderous--which is one reason why Marike continues to work for the Green Party of Canada. She has asked to shift portfolios on Shadow Cabinet from Arts and Culture to Mental Health.

We could tell you what our plans are for 2010, but we never really do know what is going to happen next. But when it does, we’ll tell you about it!

All the best for the holiday season.

Marike, Karin, and Elisabeth