Sara Spike

Love this, Jess, and so excited for more of this project to emerge!

Augmenting Christmas: Artificial Trees and the Lure of Perpetual Nature Artificial Christmas trees evolved from feather and aluminum novelties to plastic simulations, revealing desires for safer, cleaner, “better” nature and modern convenience.

To get us all into the festive spirit, I've written a piece on the #EnvHist #histSTM of artificial xmas trees for @nichecanada.bsky.social. Click for the wild ideas, stay for the wisdom of Peanuts. niche-canada.org/2025/12/11/a...

A Cold Colonialism A Cold Colonialism - Modern Exploration and the Canadian North; A Cold Colonialism reframes exploration as a modern enterprise – one through which southern Canadians and Americans sought to exert cont...

It’s my book’s half-birthday today! To celebrate, I’d like to mail one of you a free signed copy.

Just like this post to enter the draw. You can enter your name until 11:59 pm Pacific time on Wednesday, December 3rd.

Please reskeet! #cdnhist #envhist

www.ubcpress.ca/a-cold-colon...

Screen capture of a book cover. It's a white background with a picture of part of a multicolored lobster dominating the bottom 2/3 of the cover. Book title is Contested catch: lobster, localism and Canada's Atlantic coast, 1870 to 1970

It's finally here. A history of the Nova Scotia lobster fishery.

Morton is truly an historian's historian, and from the installments I've seen, the book is going to have riches of social history, politics, economics, and even some marine biology.

share.google/J3GYgjTkjV9I...

We love bringing you smart, fun work about human engagements with the natural world!
Did you know that NiCHE does not have institutional funding?
Your help is greatly appreciated! 🌱

☺️

I love the memories this post has generated in the comments. Did you grow up with dulce (edible seaweed) like I did?
Thanks to @richrray.bsky.social for pulling some stories out of the archives for this fun piece!

Sara’s Trans Canada Trail: Remembering the Blueberry Express Once vital for freight and passengers, Nova Scotia’s Blueberry Express railway now thrives as a scenic multi-use trail celebrating local heritage.

Join our editor @saraspike.bsky.social on the @transcanadatrail.bsky.social to remember the Blueberry Express!

niche-canada.org/2025/09/09/s...

#envhist #cdnhist #trails #novascotia

Raindrops falling on the surface of the ocean at low tide with yellow seaweed all around.

An assortment of small plastic and metal buckets set out on the grass to catch rainwater, each partially full.

Finally rain 🌧

A patch of blooming goldenrod is partially submerged in water in evening light.

Big high tide, the goldenrod is swimming xo

Feel free to get in touch if you have specific questions, I might be able to help!

Thanks Cathy, I'd love it. That email works.

Wildflowers, history, and dulse what else? 💙

Thanks for the nice visit!

Modern types of danger warnings on the sea coast [microform] : Anderson, William P. (William Patrick), 1851-1927 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Caption title

No scholarship I know of (I'm working on it!), but you might find helpful details in Renton's Lost Sounds: The Story of Coast Fog Signals. Jennifer Lucy Allan's Foghorn's Lament is wonderful, but very much about later mechanical foghorns.
This document might be useful archive.org/details/cihm...

Love this!

🌫️📯🤍

You have my attention :)

🙏

A bowl partially full of blueberries placed among leafy blueberry bushes with ripe berries, a beagle is snuffling nearby.

Blueberries 💙

I've been working with Sarah on a project about the history of forestry in our area. Her presentation tonight was excellent; her GIS skills are incredible! We'll be sharing the results of this work this fall. Get in touch if you have any personal knowledge of sawmills in Halifax County!

You were great! Your talk was excellent and clearly demonstrated the incredible skill that goes into creating these maps. And people are excited to contribute their knowledge to the project too!

Watching the World in a Dark Room: The Early Modern Camera Obscura Centuries before photography froze the world into neat frames, scientists, poets, and artists streamed transient images into dark interior spaces with the help of a camera obscura. Julie Park explores...

My essay on how the early modern camera obscura brought us more deeply into our interior lives is now live @publicdomainrev.bsky.social

publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-ea...

Blue water over the gunwhale of an aluminum boat.

Two people wearing sun hats and life jackets fishing with rods from a small aluminum boat. A beagle is sitting on one person's lap.

Two mackerel caught on a line being lifted into the air.

A white bucket on a wooden wharf with 7 small mackerel in it and a beagle looking in.

Mackerel xo

Manchester University Press - Electric wind Electric wind - Browse and buy the Paperback edition of Electric wind by Marianna Dudley

I was excited to find out that my book is available for pre-order! One for anyone interested in energy, climate, and the history of Britain. Thanks to MUP for making it pretty and affordable 🫶 manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526182968/

Congratulations! The cover is beautiful, and the book sounds great!

Two people walking away from the camera on a flat gravelled trail with bright blue sky and blue water around them.

I was asked to write about my local section of the Trans Canada Trail. Here is my short essay called "Remembering the Blueberry Express," about rail to trail along the coast of Nova Scotia tctrail.ca/stories/reme...
#envhist #cdnhist @transcanadatrail.bsky.social

It was beautiful today, a perfect sunny/foggy mix!

A small white building with a red roof on a hill surrounded by fog, a yellow sign warns that the fog alarm may sound at any time.

Finally found the fog, at Cape Spear Lighthouse xo

The way the blueberries feel when I roll them from their stems with my thumbs into my palm.