Sometimes, the stories we publish on Scotiana begin long before the writing itself. A few days ago, I was speaking with our webmaster, Jean Liboiron, someone I’ve had the pleasure of working with since 2014. We were reflecting on one of Scotiana’s popular articles, about the once smallest village in Canada, New Glasgow. That story, rooted in local history and … Continue reading →
The Canadian heart of Findhorn, tracing heartfelt connections from Guelph, Ontario, to the Moray Firth community in Scotland, blending transatlantic stories of heritage and belonging.
Continue reading →Scottish Place Names in Quebec Hello Dear Friends, The maple trees will soon be vibrant with colors of red and golden-yellow and all their multiple combinations as we are now entering the autumn season. It brings back the beautiful memories of when MairiUna and Jean-Claude flew fom France in the fall of 2010 to meet me in Montreal. We then … Continue reading →
Hello dearest friends, As you might know by now, I’m passionate of all things Scottish related! Therefore, in my ongoing quest of Quebec-Scottish links, I’m very happy, as a native Quebecer, to share a glimpse on the origin of a brave, courageous and thoughtful municipality in the Centre-du-Québec region of Canada named Inverness ( referring to Inverness, Scotland) which first … Continue reading →
Dear friends, I am so excited to write about the story of an abandoned village, Rivière de La Guerre, located in the province of Quebec, where Scottish settlers began to come over from the Hebrides Archipelago, west of the Highlands. Originally, the area was called Godmanchester. Named after a man known as Francois dit La Guerre, a settler that had … Continue reading →
I was making for Havre-Saint-Pierre. When I told that to the bus-driver, he said: ‘It’s the end of the road. Can’t go any farther than that. It’s the end of the road.’ Two Indian youths got on the bus at the same time as myself (..) ‘Where you makin’ for?’ ‘Havre-Saint-Pierre.’ ‘That’s the end of the road.’ ‘So they tell … Continue reading →
During his journey to Quebec, about thirty years ago, which he relates so unforgettably in The Blue Road, Kenneth White stops at Sept-Îles, a turning point on his road to the most remote and wildest places of Labrador. He lingers some time there, making friends and sharing life with a few Amerindians he has met there. Several chapters of The … Continue reading →
A colder spell had set in. It had been a summery Autumn, but now suddenly there was a sharp Winter’s bite in the air. ‘November chill blaws lood wi’ angry sugh…’ Funny how a line of Robert Burns should come into my head. Maybe the ghost of some Scotsman who trekked up here before me? I was to come across … Continue reading →
I’ve always delighted in the reading of old geographers and explorers.You feel in their texts the first tentative steps, see the earliest visions, register the initial astonishment at the appearance of the world in all its phenomenal strangeness. (Kenneth White – ‘Along the Atlantic Coast’ – The Wanderer and his Charts – 2004) In the morning, I’m standing at the … Continue reading →
After the road, the trees… After the trees, unknown territory… After that, nothing at all. (Louis Ferdinand Celine quoted by Kenneth White in The Blue Road) Hi everybody! I’m very happy to be back with you on our blue road… ages seem to have passed since I have told you about our marvellous whales watching zodiac cruise on the St … Continue reading →
Hi Mairiuna 🙂 I have “giant” news for you today and I’m all excited to tell you about it! You mentioned in your recent article Following the Blue Road on the Steps of Kenneth White in Quebec: Episode 5 , that it was difficult to identify the whale species that came breathing at the surface of the water while we were … Continue reading →
Herman Melville came North to Canada on his honeymoon trip, when he was twenty-nine years old. In Montreal, he met Captain Coffin, about to leave on a whaling expedition up the norh Coast to Labrador. Maybe that was when the idea of the White Whale started germinating. A few months back, at Stromness, a little port in the … Continue reading →
We’ve been lapping up mile after mile in the clear blue light of an October afternoon. There were a few passengers when we left Chicoutimi, but the bus emptied at Tadoussac (…) Walt Whitman visited the ‘savage Saguenay country’ around 1880. Wrote a little piece about it, saying that the Saguenay is different from all other rivers; ‘a more vehement … Continue reading →
Those who follow the North Road, trying to get into the clear, beyond all the fuzz. (The Blue Road – Kenneth White) While Iain and Margaret are flying towards the blue skies of Italy we’re beginning our ‘Blue Road’ towards the North, dreaming of Labrador… From 1st to 3rd October 2010, our travel takes us from Montreal to Grandes Bergeronnes … Continue reading →
That night around midnight – there’s a big round Autumn moon sailing grandly over Montreal (Kenneth White – The Blue Road – Mainstream Publishing Company – Edinburgh – Ltd 1990) It is with great pleasure that I write these few words today about a marvellous journey which Scotiana team (Mairiuna, Jean-Claude and I, Janice) are delighted to embark upon. Flying … Continue reading →
