INSPIRED WANDER

I feel fortunate to live in beautiful, historic Nova Scotia Canada…a place that is surrounded and influenced by the mighty north Atlantic in every aspect of life.  You might even say that salt water runs through our veins here.  Steeped in history and brimming with lore about Privateers, Pirates and even the Knights Templar, this seafaring part of the north east celebrates its past and connection to the ocean with every beat of its heart.

A particularly special event that occurs about every 4 years is Tall Ships.  A time when the Halifax waterfront is once again taken over by schooners and galleons from all over the world, and for a brief moment onlookers are transported back in time, to the golden age of sail when the Halifax waterfront was teeming with life and prosperity.  By the mid-1800’s, had Nova Scotia been its own country, it would have been the fourth largest trading nation in the world.  Even the venerable British shipping line “Cunard” got its start right here in Halifax.

The day I went to see the Tall Ships was particularly magical.  The warm sunlight was interspersed with periods of fog that would roll in from the sea, adding a surreal, ghostly effect to the whole scene.  The silhouettes of what appeared to be pirate ships lined up along the waterfront, wrapped in thick shimmering wisps of fog made the moment feel suspended “out of time”, as though I was peering through a veil into an earlier era that was somehow existing simultaneously in another dimension.  Then the sun would break through and present day Halifax would revel itself once more.