The Chronicle Herald, Halifax

Image of new of the Halifax disaster of 1917 from oceanliners

Among Canada's oldest independently owned papers, this daily (except Sunday) began as the Halifax Herald.

The accompanying image shows the report of Halifax Disaster that happened during World War I when a munitions ship collided with another in the harbour. This newspaper described the explosion (the worst human-caused one to date) and its horrible aftermath.

In 2013, the Chronicle Herald, then 189 years old, stopped publishing the Sunday edition it had instituted fifteen years before. The publisher stated that the day of print journalism is not over, but it continues to adapt.

The Telegram, St. John's NL

Image of first issue from Heritage Newfoundland

Now called simply The Telegram, this newspaper soldiers on, including of course, an online version. Notice the biggest headline: "Latest by Telegraph." At the time, the undersea cable had recently been laid across the Atlantic from Ireland to Heart's Content, Newfoundland, now a historic site.

This evening paper got its start in April 1879. It would be another 70 years, however, before the final province joined the Canadian federation, so this was not a Canadian paper -- yet. From 1879 to 1958, it was published daily except Sundays.

As a Newfoundlander, my mother had to emigrate when she married: she left in 1946, three years before Newfoundland joined Confederation. She had fond memories of the Evening Telegram, and I remember, even as a child, being surprised that this paper came out in the evening from its early beginnings. In their heyday, of course. many newspapers had both early and late editions.

There were Newfoundland papers more venerable than the Telegram. The Public Ledger, the Patriot, the Times and the Newfoundlander, However, though they started as early as the 1820s, did not last out the nineteenth century.

Canada's oldest newspaper

Don't look too closely at the image. Then answer without stopping to think. What was Canada's first newspaper?

Image of first issue from the Canadian Encyclopedia

If you said the Montreal Gazette, the Ottawa Citizen, the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, or Le Devoir, you'd be wrong.

The Halifax Gazette was first published in 1752, 115 years before Confederation. It would have come out sooner, if there had been any local news, said publisher John Bushell. Technically, it's still alive, after morphing into the Nova Scotia Royal Gazette, a government information publication.

Horizonless vista

The weather is only lightly clouded, but what little cloud there is has obscured the horizon completely.

Memory assures me it lies just beyond that outcrop of land, but disorientingly, it remains shrouded in mist.

This blurred transition reminds me of how I've been feeling the last while. I know where I've been, and that I'm no longer there, exactly.

But what is coming next, and when will it arrive? At present all I can see is the blurred horizon of change, shrouding a new phase, the precise shape of which remains invisible, until the clouds dissipate.

Meanwhile, I hold to patience and faith.

Mystic fishermen

On a misty afternoon, the eye cannot descry the horizon, nor can it identify the fishermen.

This gives the picture a mystic feeling.

For as long as men have walked the earth near lakes, rivers and seas, they have gone fishing to gather food from beneath the waters.

Gulls behave as if at a formal affair

Approaching the party of gulls at White Rock Beach, I'm surprised by the formal seating arrangement. Males and females alternate as they would at a Victorian dinner. All are decked out in evening garb. The males seem to wear serious expressions, along with their grey suits and white shirts. The plumage of the lady gulls is soft, their colours sober, understated.

Gulls are sensitive to the click of a camera; some members of the party had left before I could snap the picture. I imagine them at table. Dinner is about to begin but one female is in the powder room and a last minute arrival is seen practically skidding in to his place.

As for the two at the near end, they've flouted custom and seated themselves. The hostess will be obliged to request that they switch places before the meal.  

One leaf caught in the act of falling

To create the autumnal carpet we see on the ground, each individual leaf must part company with its tree.

The leaves let go and fall one by one.

This one was caught in midair by my cell phone camera at the park on Kits Point.