Hidden Gems: Halifax Urban Greenway

Check out my past Hidden Gems posts here and here.  
*All photos in this post by me*

Since the weather has become sunnier and warmer, I have been making an effort to get outside on my lunch break to go for a walk, or even just sit and read a book. The shot of fresh air and sunshine is a great midday pick-me-up (essential for good mental health, imho)!

However, working in the middle of a busy section of the city, on a busy University campus can make it tough to find a quiet, peaceful and green area to take my break in. The good news is I recently discovered such a spot just around the corner from the building I work in.

The Halifax Urban Greenway is a roadside, multi-use trail bordered completely on one side by big, beautiful green trees. It closely follows the Canadian National Railway line that circumvents the city, serving as a reminder of past industry. (Note: I didn't take any photos of the actual walkway because they were doing construction on the road at the time and I didn't want ugly, dirty trucks and orange neon vests ruining the beautiful scenery of the photos! But you can view photos of the walkway in various seasons and stages here).

There is only a one-km section currently completed, but this is only Phase 1. The long-term vision is for the greenway to extend from the Fairview cemetery in the West End all the way to Point Pleasant Park in the far south end. I couldn't find any information regarding when the next Phase is expected to begin construction, but I am looking forward to it.

I hope they add more spots, such as the one featured in my photos (on the corner of South Street and Beaufort Avenue), for people to sit and read or have a snack along the way - it's a great place for people to go for a peaceful and scenic break.

The trees provide a wonderfully shady canopy

The idea behind the Greenway appears to be to provide a green space and a place for citizens to get outside and get some exercise in the centre of the city. It is also a way to naturally and scenically connect various major destinations, such as Universities, main driving routes, parks and water access points. The Halifax Urban Greenway Association (HUGA) was set up to work with HRM to plan and develop this slice of nature. You can 'like' the HUG (aww) on Facebook here.

One of my fav Halifax features - the big, beautiful trees

  Work in the area? Come down and check out this Hidden Gem on YOUR lunch break sometime.

Where do YOU take your lunch breaks? Any hidden gems you would like to share?

Hidden Gems: tommy mcculloch

This post is part of my Hidden Gems series. To read up on what this is all about, check out this post.

For this week's HG, I wanted to highlight a cute little place that I walk by every morning on my way into the office. For those of you that don't know, I work at a large University in my home city and in order to get to my office in the administration building, I have to cut through the Life Sciences Centre.

Tucked into a connector section between the two buildings, enclosed in a glass "box" is the Thomas McCulloch Museum. I never realized this place was here until I started commuting to my current job and I barely noticed its presence during the first few weeks. Well, I did notice it but in kind of a subconscious way. Mainly I just saw the glass display cases holding lots of bizarre things like taxidermy, mushrooms, bones and shells and thought "hm, why is all this stuff here? Weird". Then kept walking. 

One day I decided I needed to learn more about this odd and nondescript place - it seemed so wrong to walk by it every day and not know anything about it (you know in Love Actually when Hugh Grant tells Natalie that he wants her to tell him about herself because working alongside her every day and knowing so little about her feels elitist and wrong? Anyone? Bueller?...just me? Ok, moving on...)

From the Museum website:

Thomas McCulloch was a Scots Presbyterian minister, an educator and a political reformer. He came to Pictou, Nova Scotia in 1803 from Scotland at the age of twenty-seven. His controversial views and opposition of the establishment left a lasting impact on Nova Scotia and eventually on Canada.

-          He arrived in Pictou when the colony was growing and in need of education and change.

-          He became a missionary and a minister of the First Presbyterian Church.

-          The founder and principal of Pictou Academy.

-          He was ordained in the Secessionist Church.

-          The first principal of Dalhousie College in Halifax in 1838.

-          He created the Audubon mounted bird collection in the McCulloch Museum.

-          McCulloch sent a collection of Nova Scotian insects to the University of Glasgow who in recognition of the gift awarded him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1822.

-          McCulloch had a profound belief that education should be liberal and available to everyone. Therefore he felt his greatest work was the creation of Pictou Academy which manifested these beliefs. He was met with a lot of opposition from the officials of the time.

 Cool, huh? McCulloch came to Dalhousie in 1883 and taught Logic, Rhetoric and Philosophy for five years. He also developed a series of scientific lectures which he took on tour throughout the Maritime provinces, which supposedly greatly piqued the public's interest in and knowledge of biology.

The highlight of the museum is McCulloch's preserved bird collection - 22 cases altogether! All Nova Scotia birds mounted in natural settings (according to the Audubon style). The museum also includes a mushroom collection, coral and shell collection, and butterfly and insect collections - all contributed to by life science professors at Dalhousie.

You can visit the museum for free daily between 8:30am and 4:30pm and classes are often held here. 

Ok, I know some of you are thinking "This place is just a bunch of dead/stuffed things in cases...how boring is that?". But I think it's fascinating that this man took the time to amass so many specimens and that there is a free space just steps from my office that I can peruse anytime I like and learn about species I have never even heard of. The natural world is so fascinating and complex; there is so much to learn about it and I feel the only way to really have full respect for this world is to educate ourselves as much as we can. That is why I think this museum is cool. 

Plus, it's sort of quirky and a little weird, and I always love things like that. And it's always nice to learn a bit more history about the storied institution where I work (I think it makes me appreciate it more). 

And to think most people just walk right by this museum with barely a second glance. I'm glad I took the time to learn more about this hidden gem. 

Do you know of a person, place or thing that you think is really cool but is not very well-known? Are there little pieces of paradise in your city/province or in cities that you have visited that are off-the-beaten-path, but you think everyone should know about them? Well, I want to post about them on Gathers No Moss! Email me, tweet @KimHumes or leave a comment and I'll share it in an upcoming post! Here's to celebrating the little things! And exploring off-the-path to find them!

Hidden Gems: Blackboard Poems

I am starting a fun new post series here on the blog and I'm calling it "Hidden Gems":

See, I have started to notice lots of neat but barely noticeable things around my home city and I want to share these with others so that they can enjoy them, too. It's so easy to focus on the big, popular, shiny things and celebrate those, but sometimes it is the small, unknown things that are the most interesting.

I like to seek out these "hidden gems" not only in my hometown, but also in other places I travel to. I like going to the back-alley stores and restaurants, the less-trodden (but most beautiful or well-preserved) streets and paths - the places where locals go and the things that locals love. These "hidden gems" are what make a place truly unique, and reveal the most about the character of a place also.

What can I say - I am an explorer at heart!

For my 1st "hidden gem" in Halifax, I wanted to post about a cute display that I walk by every day on my way home from work. For privacy reasons, I won't say where exactly it is, but I am sure anyone who lives around my neighbourhood or has explored the side streets there has seen it:

Excuse the crappy Blackberry photo

This blackboard is nailed to the front of this porch, and it always has some kind of poem or saying on it. The current selection is Walking the Dog's Shadow, by Deborah Brown. Apparently this is also the title of a book of poems by Brown (as you can see if you click the link above). It talks about pondering thoughts such as grief, within the metaphor of walking a dog on a leash.

Personally, I don't so much care what poem is listed on the board, just the fact that there is one there is lovely enough. It is a nice pick-me-up on the walk home - there is the anticipation of what will be written there next, and what it will make me think about for the rest of my walk. I think it's nice of the person who lives here to share such works with the people that walk by. Art is meant to be shared with whoever is open enough to take it in.

Do you know of a person, place or thing that you think is really cool but is not very well-known? Are there little pieces of paradise in your city/province or in cities that you have visited that are off-the-beaten-path, but you think everyone should know about them? Well, I want to post about them on Gathers No Moss! Email me, tweet @KimHumes or leave a comment and I'll share it in an upcoming post!

Here's to celebrating the little things! And exploring off-the-path to find them!