Last night we found a little bit of Maritimische culture here in Mannheim: we arrived at a Maritime-themed, 80s-lit, Turkish, queer, smokers' darts bar that should have been in Berlin in 1986 - named after a pirate Kapt'n Störtebeker?!?! We're 500km from the sea? 🤷‍♂️ Whatever - a grand place.

#JamesBarryDiary 12/11/1875 Oh! what a dreadful night with wind and some rain - "it blew as it wad blow its last", and in consequence I lost all my sleep nearly. I was working at my bookcase, nearly finished it - about 1 days work yet. Plenty of water. Kenneth Innes sawing tonight. ** Burns

#JamesBarryDiary 10/11/1875 A very fine warm mild day. Geo. Adamson was here all day with horse and cart filling up the place before mill door with stone and gravel, But it is not finished yet, although it will do for this winter. I got a bad tumble today knocking my head against the house no bully.

I don’t know what the hell I was dreaming last night, but I woke up with this in my head.

#JamesBarryDiary 9/11/1875 Dark and rainy a little most of the day. Very dirty roads now. I finished Johnny McLeod's shingles today. Donald Gunn and I started the sawmill. Fred Cunning[ham] commenced work here today. Alexander Innes making case for door and that is all his days work!!

|￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣| Far right propagandists don’t need to attain power. The result is the same if they can successfully seed their ideologies in the existing body politic. |＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿| (\__/) || (•ㅅ•) || / 　 づ

#JamesBarryDiary 8/11/1875 Cold last night, but this day was moderately mild for this time of the year. Some little snow falling, but melted as fast as it fell. I was grinding and drying and sawing a few shingles in the evening. Donald Gunn was here this evening. I am troubled with the cold yet.

#JamesBarryDiary 7/11/1875 Dark, but not very cold. Froze some last night. It is very evident that winter is coming gradually upon us. But there will be many and serious things happen before that time comes. Some folk went past here to preaching, looking pretty blue in the nebs and muffled up well.

U.S. billionaire financier of Cabot Links golf resort in Cape Breton is Trumpian climate denier, Mike Keiser. Now the Cabot Group wants to take West Mabou Beach provincial park for a 3rd luxury golf course in Inverness, Nova Scotia. Keiser originally got his hands on the Cabot Links land for $1. 🧵

#JamesBarryDiary 6/11/1875 Pretty cold this morning, but the day was sunny and nice enough for the time of the year. I was busy grinding and drying all day - I am still very bad with the cold. A lot of stuff came in today. Annabella still here. Plenty of water now for grist or shingle mill. Amen.

Castles Made of Sand: As sea levels continue to rise, endangering Atlantic Canada’s coasts and a vital link between provinces, people call out for government leadership and look for new ways to protect their homes. Recent Saltscapes feature by Jeremy Hull.

Canadians would too, except only normal for either (a) a party that lies a lot, or (b) a party that few people vote for because they foolishly continue, every four years, to believe (a).

the budget, in all its emphasis on (and funds for) recruiting assistant professors internationally, seems completely oblivious to the fact that there are any number of candidates domestically who are as strong as anyone else. it is an interesting kind of national self-loathing.

View from the top: Workshop for the Mannheim University Canadian Studies Network.

Really excellent short local-history documentary on the Niagara, St Catharines and Toronto streetcar system. Over the past decade, the St Catharines Museum has been doing fabulous community-outreach work (and doing so on a shoestring budget).

From 2002: "market researchers have decided that millions of baby boomers want an adventurous image and care almost nothing about putting others at risk to achieve it, so ... " And clearly they weren't wrong. From today: Xers and Millennials happily joining.

#JamesBarryDiary 5/11/1875 Dark and something colder than yesterday, but still a fine day for the time of the year. I was drying and grinding most all day, and building bridge between kiln and mill. I am troubled with the damned cold in my throat so that I cannot get my sleep complete.

Inspired by Mi’kmaq History Month Emily Pictou-Roberts and Jess Wilton explore Mi’kmaq queer culture and history for our Queering Atlantic Canada Series.

Wait, what?!?! How much ?!?!

#JamesBarryDiary 4/11/1875 Dark but warm and nice indeed. We have a considerable of a frolic today hawling slabs for kiln and house, and sawing for house; hawling stone and building wall at front of the mill and building bridge at mill door .... /1

#JamesBarryDiary 3/11/1875 An ugly day again, sometimes snowing and sometimes raining. I was grinding and drying, and many other things about the premises. I am still much troubled with the cold. Rory Innes making door for house. Annabella here still. I am to have a frolic tomorrow.

#JamesBarryDiary 2/11/1875 An ugly day indeed; some snow falling in the forenoon and raining most of the afternoon. I finished Rogers shingles, the sign of them, and edged the most of them. I spent half the day fixing the damned gate that got wrong. Rory Innes working at the door for house.

#JamesBarryDiary 1/11/1875 Froze something hard last night, but this was a beautiful day – sunny most of the time. I was grinding and poking about many things in the afternoon - making a place for my 2 little pigs in the cowhouse. John McKay's boy to ask the people to the frolic for Thursday.

#JamesBarryDiary 31/10/1875 Last day of October 1875. I may say that all the good fall weather is gone, and a fearful looking for of [sic] bad weather to commence. November's surly blasts will soon be here. Indeed this night sounds ugly enough outside, raining and blowing betimes ... /1

The other day a colleague here asked me what’s surprised me most about Germany. The answer is easy: the inter-city “hi-speed” trains are consistently late, and not just a little - very often by 2-3 hours. My colleague laughed, and said, oh, I know: I live in Cologne - I’m late almost every week.

#JamesBarryDiary 30/10/1875 Somewhat of a fine day, sun shining sometimes. All the snow away again. Cunningham was half a day, but it goes free for the frolic day – I having paid him for it. Robert Elliott and the animal was in town today and spent a lot of money and bought lot of things of course.

#JamesBarryDiary 29/11/1875 A nasty day indeed; snowing some the most of the day, but after all it only fell about half an inch that appears. No grinding today - some grain came in though. The [ water ] was rather scarce for the shingle mill to go steady. I am still bad with the cold yet.

Houston’s Conservative majority just showed its hand today, refusing to approve a motion from Liberal Iain Rankin to protect protected land in Nova Scotia. One wonders if Houston’s govt wouldn’t sell off their own kids and parents if they thought that would bring “jobs” and have “economic” value.

#JamesBarryDiary 28/10/1875 General fast day. I don’t mind it, and many more. A moderately fine fall day; some sun appearing. I was sawing shingles. Cunningham ½ day; I paid him $9, in full, and he went home. I was grinding some. Annabella is here still. I am still bad with the cold.

Not just Caribbean and South Pacific islands:

#JamesBarryDiary 27/10/1875 Another ugly raw cold day with very strong wind from, I cannot tell where - the most of it from north and N.E. Elliott boy finished cleaning about my house today, and he helped me to plank part of the waste way. I paid him off, and Fred will soon go too.

The CFP for the 2026 Atlantic Canada Studies Conference, hosted by UPEI, has been issued. For more information:

I swear, every day in Mannheim is like this (except when there’s no sun!)

#JamesBarryDiary 26/10/1875 A very ugly cold raw day, some snow. I started the shingle mill this afternoon, but the water is too low. R. Elliott and son finished up the walling of the house. There is some trimming to do around the posts. I paid Elliot $7.75. The boy is to pay yet; he's slow, slow.

#JamesBarryDiary 25/10/1875 Dark all day and some little rain in the morning and now and then, but nothing to hinder people from working. I am still bad with the cold, but was poking about. Robert Elliott finished the levelling of the house and built part of the wall round and before the house.

#JamesBarryDiary 24/10/1875 A very beautiful warm sunny day indeed. I took 3 of R.R.R. Pills last night; they operated but I felt bad all day. This is the most terrible cold that ever I had by a long chalk.There was some gowk of a person lecturing or preaching at the schoolhouse this afternoon.

#JamesBarryDiary 23/10/1875 Cold last night, but the day was fine. I was attending the mill, and Fred was with Robert Elliott and Alexander Innes moving the house. They merely got it up to its place, but not leveled. Fred went home before dark this evening. I paid R. Elliott $4.

William Elvis Thomas, Eva Linklater, Laura Golebiowski & Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation's "So Far from Home: Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and Red Deer Industrial School" The latest in our Land, Memory, & Schooling: Environmental Histories of Colonial Education series niche-canada.org/2025/10/21/s...

I have never seen a golf course as lovely as a provincial park. #nspoli #savemabou

#JamesBarryDiary 22/10/1875 Froze pretty heard last night and somewhat cold all the forenoon, but the afternoon was fine and sunny. I am some better this evening. The Innes’s and Elliot did not put the house in its place yet. Cunningham helping them all day.

#JamesBarryDiary 22/10/1875 Rained this morning and somewhat throughout the most of the day. I am still confined to the house and sometimes to bed. Innes and Elliott moving the new house, but they were hindered by the rain. They only got it elevated. They will fix it tomorrow, if the day is dry.

#JamesBarryDiary 20/10/1875 Another beautiful day indeed, sunny some of the time only. Cunninham attending mill and kiln. He went home tonight. I suffered greatly last night with fever, and I did not leave the house all day. I feel a little better, not greatly.

Tim Houston and his yes-men are yesterday’s men, gearing up for an assault on the environment, and those who would protect it commentary by @joanbaxter.bsky.social

An abridged version of my letter appears in the Provincial paper today, the Chronicle Herald. www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/...

#JamesBarryDiary 19/10/1875 Another beautiful sunny warm day. No one here today working, but Cunningham and he sometimes grinds and sometimes clearing away at the foundation of the old house. Fearful night I had of it last and all this day - only just able to sit up a little.

“No Kings” meant something different then. But the core principles were the same. We may regret that Brown turned to violence—as long as we remember that the power he fought was built on violence. Likewise, today, condemnations of violence must first be directed against those wield the most power...

Renaming Savage Harbour, PEI? Something that honoured its Mi'kmaq name, a name often recorded on French-era maps, would be good. Katewpijk [rendered Cadopiche on French maps] - points to Mi'kmaw use of eel traps [cf. Havre à l'Anguille]. Katewpijk would be a very good gesture of reconciliation.

#JamesBarryDiary 18/10/1875 A very beautiful sunny day indeed. Kenneth and Roderick Innes pulled down our kitchen half of our host today. I am fearful bad with the cold - in bed most of the afternoon - feel terrible altogether. Cunningham grinding some and working about.