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Hello everyone! I'm a writer and former teacher living in Nova Scotia, Canada. My work has been quite widely-read online and off; I've also won several poetry awards. Rising Tide Press has published the print edition of my first poetry collection, "Cleansing" (November 2005) and I hope to have another one ready in a year or so.
Please visit my website if you'd like to know more about me, and read some of the poems there. I've also included my own photography to illustrate the written text, as I'm anxious to improve my skills with my Olympus camera (an eBay find). Much of what I write or otherwise portray is drawn from familiar experiences and settings in NS, especially in my home area of Yarmouth County.
I live on 4 1/2 acres in a rural community called Pleasant Valley. My home is located beside the Annis River, which flows past my back yard. I share this special place with my husband and four cats. Our daughter and her husband are only 6 km away at my former home, a small horse farm where they keep Arabians and Appaloosas. Both are also teachers. It runs in our family, I guess.
I collect mineral and fossil specimens, which are abundant in Nova Scotia because we have such a long coastline and complex geological history. The ancient lavas around the Fundy shore yield amethyst, agate, jasper, chalcedony and zeolites of many varieties. Fossils erode out of the sedimentary sea cliffs and break loose from rock ledges along the beaches. The Windsor Group, which was once part of an inland sea, gives us gypsum, selenite and limestone with associated marine life such as horn corals and brachiopods. Productive mainland collecting sites along the shore include Joggins, Parrsboro, Wasson's Bluff, Arisaig, Horton Bluff, Blue Beach, Rainy Cove, Rossway Beach. Many of these sites span the Triassic-Jurassic boundary and include species not common elsewhere. There are also numerous localities in Cape Breton where Carboniferous fossils may be found. Closer to my home, the Bear River area features Silurian brachiopods. Worm burrows and other trace fossils are collected near Cape Forchu in Yarmouth County.
My other passion is water gardening. I currently have two very small pools (one with fish, one without), a fair-sized liner pond (about 14' in diameter) and a 1/3 acre clay-bottom pond which was recently excavated. I keep koi and goldfish, mostly shubunkin and sarasa. The newest pond has 22 young, Florida-raised koi to start it off. I'm always surfing eBay for aquatic plants and other related items but sadly, there are few offerings here in Canada and cross-border shipment of plants is made difficult by import regulations. I keep hoping that more water gardeners will start listing their excess water lilies, irises and so on. In the early spring, I'll start some lotus seeds I recently won on eBay (we can easily import seeds). As a side note, I keep a collection of orchids in the house. The complement the water garden in summer, when I can take them outdoors.
Thanks for reading about me! Please contact me if you have similar interests.
Brenda
The Writer's Respite is my poetry site, with links to other writers and to my publisher. It also includes numerous photos, many of them featuring natural scenes, flowers and animals. Some of my fossils are also on display.
http://www.brendatate.com
Please sign my Guestbook if you visit!
I maintain several photo albums on www.webshots.com under the username of faranya100. Stop by for a look!
Here's the page that allows you to order Cleansing, my new poetry book, online through Paypal!
http://www.brendatate.com/rising.html
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