iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Share a character who reminds you of yourself.

Still of a character named Elsbeth Tascioni from The Good Wife legal television series. Performed to excellence by actor Carrie Preston. A celebration of neurodivergence, in mind, fashion, and humour. Image is of Elsbeth appearing skeptical about something she's just heard.

nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Resharing this post minutes after reading Timothy Snyder's share of "Lesson 18" of On Tyranny via his Substack: substack.com/@snyder/note...

From Timothy Snyder's Substack posted on October 9, 2026. An image of the text he shared from On Tyranny. The text reads as follows:
"A good time to remember lesson 18 of On Tyranny: Be calm when the unthinkable arrives. Modern tyranny is terror management. When the terrorist attack comes, remember that authoritarians exploit such events to consolidate power. The sudden disaster that requires the end of checks and balances, the dissolution of opposition parties, the suspension of freedom of expression, the right to a fair trail, and so on, is the oldest trick in the Hitlerian book. Do not fall for it."

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I grew up a 40-min drive from Canada's largest residential school, Mohawk Institute. Only learned as an adult about residential so-called 'schools.' Indigenous children ripped from their families and communities to attend not 'schools,' but places of forced assimilation, servitude, horrific abuse.

A teepee art installation on the grounds of the Mohawk Institute, Canada's largest residential school. I was already born when it closed in 1970. I took my son to visit so we could learn about residential schools because what my school and the Canadian government's approved curriculum taught me as a child his age in terms of Canadian history were lies. The truth of Indigenous residential schools was buried and hidden, even as settler children like me attended our own schools alongside these institutions without many settlers like me knowing they even existed. Image is the frame of a wooden teepee constructed overtop of a garden. Photo credit: Nancy Forde.

Studded teddy bears, toys, and signs, one proclaiming, "Every Child Matters," left by visitors on the steps of the Mohawk Institute, Canada's largest residential school. The last residential school closed as recently as 1997. Most residential schools were torn down, but the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brentford Ontario raised money to repair the roof of Mohawk Institute so that Canada's horrific genocidal legacy of residential school systems would not be erased or forgotten. The WCC now runs tours for school children and other visitors to the site who seek to learn about this horrifying chapter of Canadian history. Visit and/or support them at their website: woodlandculturalcentre.ca. Photo credit: Nancy Forde.

Candlelight vigil at a local park in Kitchener, Ontario, on traditional lands of Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe, and Chonnonton Peoples. The park has long been known as Queen Victoria Park but local Indigenous Peoples and allies are seeking for an official name change to decolonize the park and refer to the park as Willow River Park. The image is many people seated on the ground holding candles while Indigenous community leaders speak to remember all the stolen children sent to residential schools. Vigils were held nationally as more and more unmarked graves of Indigenous children were discovered at various residential school sites across Canada. The vigils were held in memory of these murdered children and for all those who survived residential schools. Intergenerational trauma amongst Indigenous Peoples from what unfolded at these schools is ongoing and these harms must be reconciled. One movement for reconciliation is #LandBack. Canadian settlers can learn on whose stolen, unceded lands they live by visiting native-land.ca. Photo credit: Nancy Forde.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

On Canada's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, settlers like me have no excuse not to work harder toward reconciliation. Canada has a horrific legacy of genocidal acts perpetrated against Indigenous Peoples upon whose stolen and unceded lands we live. Here's a book I recently read/recommend:

Cover of 'Everyday Reconciliation, published in 2026 and co-authored by Derek Aronhie:nens Montour, an Indigenous man who grew up on the Kahnawà:ke Kanien’kehá:ka Territory, and Swedish immigrant to Canada, Elin Sandberg Miller. With personal stories and perspectives shared from each and tips to make reconciliation an everyday goal
and act. The image is of a book with a red cover and two white speaker bubbles intersecting with a colourful feather illustrated overtop of where the speaking bubbles intersect. Photo credit: Nancy Forde.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Greer Garson was a fave in my household growing up. My parents loved her (my father thought my mother resembled her.)

Sepia photograph of my mother, aged 17, with wavy curly hair, wearing a small string of peaks and a dress with a floral pattern. Dublin 1950. Photographer unknown.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Gordon and RFK Jr. and all those who applaud and support them can only be called mass murderers. Vaccinations save lives. #ScienceIsReal #GetVaccinated

Cartoon of two people at a table. One is handing a piece of paper to the other saying, "The editor says we need to stop using the term 'anti-vax.' She says it's too negative." The person across the table holds a pen and replies, "How about pro-disease?" (Cartoon credit: regrettably unknown.)

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Wishing my beautiful parents - both still going at the age of 92 who met at 16 in a Dublin textile factory and married at 18 - a beautiful 74th wedding anniversary today. I made these portraits of them when they were 70 years together.🥹💗✨ 🎊 Missing them terribly and sending all my love to them both.

My parents kissing. Black and white portrait. December 2021. 70 years together. Credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

My father wraps one arm around my mother as she grabs the hand holding her and my father leans his right cheek upon the top of her head as she leans into him. Black and white portrait. Christmas 2022. 70 years together. Credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Raining cats and canines right now in #HFX. Have I mentioned I love the interaction between rain and photography?

A mennonite buggy heads down a rural road in sheets of rain. Credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

Raindrops magnify a late summer sunset over a farm field. Two white farmhouses sit in the left corner beneath an enormous swath of storm clouds. The effect makes it appear as though the sky is bleeding. Credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

And sharing this lovely dedication by Gloria Steinem in her memory...

Gloria Steinem's dedication in her 2015 memoir, "My Life on the Road." The text of the dedication reads:

This book is dedicated to

Dr. John Sharpe of London, who in 1957, a decade before physicians in England could legally perform an abortion for any reason other than the health of a woman, took the considerable risk of referring for an abortion a twenty-two-year-old American on her way to India.

Knowing only that she had broken an engagement at home to seek an unknown fate, he said, "You must promise me to two thing. First, you will not tell anyone my name. Second, you will do what you want to do with your life."

Dear Dr. Sharpe, I believe you, who knew the law was unjust, would not mind if I say this so long after your death: I've done the best I could with my life. This book is for you.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Since my sentence could broadly apply to many films... I could add "moon-lasso-ing" as a descriptor of the desperate man. 😉

Screenshot from the 1946 holiday classic "It's A Wonderful Life" directed by Frank Capra. The scene depicted shows the character of Mary (played by Donna Reed) clutching a bathrobe outdoors with leaves and bushes behind her and a white picket fence glancing shyly and a bit mischievously at her lifelong crush, George (played by Jimmy Stewart, wearing a striped football jersey. He has just asked her, "What did you wish for, Mary?" Credit: Frank Capra for RKO Radio Pictures/Liberty Films Production.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

This was before his ears learned to stand up straight. 😅

My shepherd pup about 3 months old, before his ears finally stood up straight. Photo credit: me.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I can attest the light ✨ is so very different in the #Arctic. Unlike anything else I'd previously encountered myself, particularly as a photographer. It's a decade since I made this #photograph of 'sunset' close to midnight off the coast of Ilulissat in Kalaallit Nunaat (#Greenland.)

The glow of pale blue icebergs beneath different shades of salmon-pink sky close to midnight during a 'midnight sunset' cruise near Ilulissat in Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland.) August 2016. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. part of my series, "Of the Arctic." nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Heaney's poems on Iron Age bog bodies planted a seed in my 20s that later sprouted me crafting my current WIP. I hope he rests in the peace the peat-kissed face of Tollund Man appears to inhabit when he was placed into a bog formed over 10,000 years. He's missed, but his poetry and spirit live on.

Dark peat-hued, preserved face of "Tollund Man," a bog body unearthed in the Tollund bog in the Danish Jutland area in 1950. He wears a cap made of sheepskin and appears to be sleeping. He rests on copper toned turf under enclosed glass at the Silkeborg Museum in Silkeborg, Denmark, where I visited him in July 2023 and made this photograph. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

To celebrate #WorldPhotographyDay, here are a few of my personal favourites, photographs I have made over the years... please feel free to share a few of your own favourites!

Sunset near Marsville, Ontario. Heading home after viewing an exhibit honouring the work of Inuk artist Annie Pitoogook at the McMichael Gallery. Hint of car headlights in the distance down a snow-blurred winter road with salmon pink bleeding across low clouds as the winter sun sinks above a faded copse of trees. Telephone poles diminish in size near the centre of the photograph. February 2018. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

Musicians heading to their next gig stroll in shadow, one carrying a guitar case, in front of a sun-drenched, bright pink facade of an accessories store on Dublin's Chatham Street. July 2023. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

Bare tree branches reach toward a darkening sky as a storm approaches. The sun breaks through clouds momentarily to illuminate the ivory-toned facade of the famous Griffith Observatory towering in the Hollywood Hills over Los Angeles (top right.) March 2023. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

"Smoke break." An empty coffee mug in front of an abandoned chair indoors at a local café awaits the return of the drinker. A blue, wintry tone is cast over the large front-facing window, fogged by the cold outside and the heat indoors, behind which the silhouette of the coffee drinker stands smoking a cigarette. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Ridiculous claim. How did humans survive cold temperatures before the car? Here's my kid briefly on a frozen Lake Huron back in 2015-ish. It was in the minus 20s Celsius bug the weather station said it "felt like" -38C. My kid wanted to walk to the island, but I told him it was a bit too far away.

My child aiming to walk to the island on a frozen Lake Huron (Ontario) during winter of 2014 or 2015. Image shows a child bundled up in snow gear with an island in the far distance across a frozen lake. I told him it was too far. Weather Network said outside was in -20s Celsius but "felt like" -38 Celsius. We didn't stay outdoors for long due to the winds. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I was only 41. Next month's test was much improved (ovaries functioning well on own w/o treatment/why I was given thumbs up for IVF the following month.) My baby turned 17 in May. I'm a very lucky mamaí. In many ways, the insult of that doc's words compelled me to switch docs and pursue 2nd opinion.

My baby during his first year (2009) and me (quite overjoyed to finally be a mom after a decade of infertility struggle with my ex. I left my ex at 40 and pursued IVF on my own a year or so after.) Photo credit: my twin. All rights reserved.

My 'baby' at 17 at my second Master's graduation (MFA in writing this time) in May 2026. Lucky me. Photo credit: Nancy Forde (selfie). All rights reserved.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Those chairs remind me of our former reading perch (and porch.) My kid has always been my best helper. Thanks for recalling this memory for me, Andy. Nice to have a reading perch (more than one is great, too.) But a morning coffee/reading perch from which to greet the day/neighbours is wonderful.

My son around aged seven helping his mom by sweeping leaves from our porch when we lived in SW Ontario. Two Adirondack chairs face the street between which sits a small wooden table with a candle on it. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Just spent past 2 hours reading an entire thread by @trungles.com reliving first time I read Pride and Prejudice. Quote posts=disabled so I regret I can't link it, but hie thee and seek it! It's an epic song to magic of: a) #books; b) #reading; c) #JaneAusten; and d) why social media exists. ✨💗⚡️

Animated giphy of Matthew Macfayden as Mr. Darcy and Kiera Knightly as Elizabeth Bennet in 2005 film adaptation of Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' in which Darcy cannot peel his eyes from Elizabeth's lips even as they are midst argument. Gahhh. Sigh. Swoon.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

My grandfather and several uncles in Ireland weee railmen. Love trains (and steam engines.) Here's one photograph I made of the steam train I rode with my (then) 5-year old son in Southwestern Ontario.

Steam train outside Elmira, Ontario, with steam billowing across a rural field as the train heads toward waiting passengers. November 2015. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Beautiful. Something in the visual of this made me recall 'Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer' (Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog) painted in 1818 by Caspar David Friedrich.

Famous painting by Caspar David Friedrich painted in 1818 called Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer (English translation: Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog.) A masterpiece of Romanticism during the Age of Enlightenment.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

As Canada celebrates its founding, a small reminder that Canadians live on stolen lands/unceded territories first inhabited by First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples. As a settler, I feel compelled to share the TRC's 94 Calls to Action each July 1: ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/u... #LandBack

A woman holds a sign that reads, "Respect the Treaties" at a night-time land protector gathering in solidarity with Wet'suwet'en First Nation fighting a Coastal GasLink pipeline on their unceded territory. I made the photo on January 9, 2018 in Waterloo, Ontario, traditional lands of Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe, and Chonnonton Peoples. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Closing thread with sunlight at close of day. Summer and winter scenes. Small wonder the ancients worshipped our star, which gives us light, heat, warmth, wonder in all seasons, and hope in dark times. Happy #SummerSolstice to all. Share your own sun worship images by replying to first post 👆🏻 11/End

Sinking sun in summer reflects off Lake Huron down a tree-lined cottage road in Southampton, Ontario. 2021. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

Maybe one of my top favourite photographs I made back in January 2018. Driving home from seeing an exhibition of Annie Pootoogook's incredible art at the McMichael Gallery and the sky bleeding the same pink of my weeping heart over her loss. A muted scene of a rural road with pink headlights in the distance mirroring the sinking sun behind winter clouds as it sets. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Often sunlight is a great collaborative tool when composing #portraits. #photography 10/

My son at 11 years old (2020 birthday under pandemic.) He just turned 17 this year. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

Sunlight hits steam as ferrier Cathy Lesperance shoes a horse at a farm in central Ontario. October 2018. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

Diane Whelan relaxes against a Strawberry Tree on Salt Spring Island as she completes grant applications before making the final leg of what ultimately totalled a six-year, cross-Canada sojourn, sometimes solo and sometimes with the welcome company of others, to traverse the entire Trans Canada Trail, coast, to coast, to coast. You can catch her 2023 documentary of her journey, "500 Days in the Wild" on most channels now.February 2020. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

There's Hope in "The future is female." Sunlight hits the top of the heads of two female besties, one wearing a tee that soells, "Hope." Clutching each other, these two are daughters of close friends. Photograph made and shared with permission. Waterloo, Ontario. 2016. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

More shadow play. Again, a photograph needn't always hold some deeper meaning. Sometimes it's just the juxtaposition of light and dark that is worth framing. 9/

Shadow of an older church and spire against newer brickwork in Old Montreal, Quebec. 2022. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

Tree canopy dances across a summer dirt road outside Elora, Ontario. 2017. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

The five o'clock shadow of an old Muskoka chair resembles fingers and thumb of a hand patting itself on the back on my old porch in Waterloo, Ontario. 2017. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

Inside the Death Valley's Little Brother café, vintage school chairs of wood and metal sit in light and shadow. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

I love when the sun points its finger upon something in a scene, otherwise unlit or in shadow. As if to say, "look here." Simple scenes that drew my eye (and lens.) 8/

Sunset illuminates the limbs of trees within a shadowy forest scene. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

The sun hits the legs of a chair in a small cottage on an island without electricity. Great Blasket Island, County Kerry, Ireland. September 2020. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

"Huron." Soft light dapples a fence with beach grasses and Lake Huron beyond it. One final photo at the close of the day on our final vacation day in Southampton, Ontario, as we move our tired, sun-kissed limbs to the car to leave. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

Wooden letters that spell "Love" hang on a lime green wall and a lightning bolt of sunlight hovers across it. A good and vital reminder. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Sometimes sunlight lights up something in a scene when it breaks through storm clouds. Something I love to witness (and document.) 7/

"Hope." Part of my series entitled, "Fallow." (nancyforde.com/fallow.) A white rural outbuilding is illuminated by sunlight when the sun breaks through storm clouds. I pulled the car over waiting for this scene exactly. Outside Waterloo, Ontario. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

The world renowned Griffith Observatory is brightened against storm clouds when sunlight breaks through them. Los Angeles, California. March 2023. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Sometimes the sun can turn the sky incredible, deep hues. A pre-dawn, magical, lavender hue (no colour alteration) one early morning in Halifax. A dramatic fiery orange of sunset in Cork City, Ireland. 6/

Pre-dawn purple across a Halifax sky in the city's North End. October 2022. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

Sunset paints the dissipating storm clouds orange near the market area of Cork City, Cork, Ireland. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Photographers love the "golden hours" made golden by sunlight in early morning toward/around sunrise and close to sunset/dusk when light is angled with softer shadows versus the harsh sunlight of midday. I've many times left my home in darkness to be elsewhere to meet the sun when it rises. 5/

Sunrise en route to Perth County. July 2016. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

More sunlight/shadow play. Light draws the eye. 4/

A figure enters through the doors of the National Gallery in Ottawa, Canada. October 2017. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Oops forgot to number the above photograph "2/." I love how sun and shadow are sometimes the primary thing that grabs my eye. 3/

The morning sun illuminating a bulb hanging over my kitchen table in the home I lived in from October 2010 through August 2022. A window with a drape is to the left of the photo. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

The word 'photograph' has Greek origins: photos meaning 'light' and graphos meaning 'to draw or write.' So photographers draw light or write with light. Good photographs have a sense of light and shadow play. Sometimes the sun is the primary influence for why I pick up my camera or frame a scene.

Canon battery died so all I could do was grab my iPhone to try to document the way the setting sun was magnified by sheets of rain poring out of storm clouds, giving the effect of a sky raining blood. Two white farm buildings sit in the bottom left of the photo against green fields darkened by cumulonimbus. Just outside Elmira, Ontario. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Freely admit I've never been a hot weather gal, preferring snow to humidity. #SummerSolstice thrills me bc our days now begin to shorten toward autumn & winter, seasons I prefer, and #WinterSolstice, my fave holiday of the year. But here's a thread of photographs in which I've worshipped the sun. 1/

Midnight Sun cruise at close to midnight. Pink and peach strokes across the sky hover over icebergs and snow Ilulissat, Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland). August 2016. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

At same time I wish to thank some amazing men who've consistently shown up in my kid's life and been perfect male role models (often pseudo-father figures.) First and foremost, my own wonderful Da and my nephew, Chris. My friends Jay, Thomas, Michael, Thom, Jonney, Dylan, Jonny, Geoff, Anand, Nick.

My father and my kid. c. 2018. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

Good friends, Michael and Thomas. c. 2021. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

Wonderful pals (and Dads), Jonney, Thomas, and Jay. c. 2022. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

My kid is one of 12 cousins, but he's closest with his eldest cousin, Chris who has just this month become a Dad to a second child, a sibling for his own incredible lad. Here's my kid with him while we were visiting London in 2018. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Here's a great illustration of the attitudes toward "stay-at-home" moms that now hangs in the V&A. This poster created by the See Red Women's Workshop entitled "My Wife Doesn't Work" (c. 1980). For a lot of people, these attitudes were unfair back then and they continue into modern day.

1980 Poster of blue and white panels in which a woman responds to a crying baby at 6am, feeds her family breakfast, cleans the kitch, strolls her children, does laundry, gets groceries, spoonfeeds her baby, sweeps, irons, takes her kids to the park, bakes, sings her baby to sleep, cooks, serves up dinner, washes dishes, and overall cares for her family. From the See Red Women's Workshop that now hangs in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. One panel of the comics in the poster has a man speaking to another man who says, "My wife doesn't work." All the remaining panels are showing the unappreciated, invisibilized, unpaid work she does to keep her family going, clean, happy, and fed. Credit: See Red Women's Workshop Collective.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Love that my twin has (for years) called/texted me "Happy Father's Day" bc I'm a single parent. When I first dropped my kid off (at almost 2 y/o) to daycare, for a long while he began calling me "Mommy" and "Daddy" bc he heard other kids use these monikers for whoever picked them up. #SingleParent

Black and white, grainy image of me with my kid on my lap in a diner booth. I'm smiling with dark short hair and bangs and he's got curly hair beneath a hat that says "Team Cute." My kid is now 17 so this was photographed about 13 years ago in Southampton, Ontario. Photo credit: Geoff Hays.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

And #HappyFathersDay to my incredible Da in Ontario. Born in Dublin, emigrated to Canada at the age of 24 in the late 1950s. Here he is (standing) at around age 17 (the current age of my son) with some of his brothers after a pal of theirs brought his car to visit Inchicore (Inse Chór/Inse Chaoire.)

Black and white vintage photo with my Uncle Christy (RIP) squatting against the back door of a car, my father standing (right) outside it, my Uncle Dan in the Driver's seat and my Uncle Gerard (RIP) in the passenger seat pointing his finger at the person making the photograph (unknown). Inchicore (Inse Chór or Inse Chaoire) in Dublin. 1950.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

I live in #Kjipuktuk in Mi'kma'ki on the Atlantic coast. Today is National #IndigenousPeoplesDay. There are MANY nations whose stolen and unceded lands/territories comprise what many call 'Canada.' Not just one 'nation.' I was honoured to recently be sent on assignment to Sipekne'katik First Nation.

People gather at dusk holding lighted candles in memory of Indigenous children forcibly removed from their parents and communities by the government of Canada to attend residential schools, often hundreds of kilometres away from their birthplaces. Photo shows a candlelight vigil during summer of 2021 for all the Indigenous children dead or missing, some being discovered that year through ground penetrating radar in unmarked graves at various residential 'school' sites across lands called 'Canada,' evidence of the nation's genocidal attempt to erase Indigenous Peoples, culture, language, and lives. To target a specific group and separate children from their parents is one definition of genocide codified in Article II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide after the United Nations first recognised it as a crime under international law in its 1946 General Assembly. You can read Article II here:

https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/doc.1_convention_on_the_prevention_and_punishment_of_the_crime_of_genocide_0.pdf

Photo credit: Nancy Forde. nancyforde.com. All rights reserved.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Sharing (again) an illustration I wish I could credit. Saved it years ago. #VaccinationsSaveLives #GetVaccinated

Illustrated cartoon/meme of two people at a table. One is handing a piece of paper to the other saying, "The editor says we need to stop using the term 'anti-vax.' She says it's too negative." The person across the table holds a pen and replies, "How about pro-disease?" (Cartoon credit: unknown.)

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

I believe it may be time for additional information about knickerbockers from @dieworkwear.bsky.social... fingers crossed, calves exposed.

Image of two men in the 1920s wearing suit jackets, ties, vests, hats, and knickerbocker pants. Credit: The Fashington Post.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

The intermittent downpour of rain currently descending in Kjipuktuk sounds like applause. Like the rising roar of a crowd cheering in a stands of some vintage recording of a radio baseball game. Summer is nigh and I'm thankful for any rain on a warming planet. #HFX

Reflections of car headlights against glass during a rainstorm. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Love this by @urbanecoloutsider.bsky.social. I've often made photographs of plants breaking through cracks. This one (a yew) thriving upon ancient granite deposited by glacier retreat. From a tour of Polly's Cove (near Peggy's) for #Wetland Appreciation Week led by Jeremy. Signs of resilience, hope.

A yew tree stretches itself upon 375-million year old granite stone deposited by glacial retreat some 12,000 years ago at Polly's Cove (near Peggy's Cove) in Nova Scotia. A Deep Time place. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. 2023. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Heaney building thoughts of my 92-year old parents this morning. Met at 16 in a Dublin textile factory. Married soon after. They will celebrate their 74th wedding anniversary this September. My heart aching for them. What a solid wall they've built together, still standing close to 8 decades later.💗

Portrait I made of my parents kissing in December 2021. My father on the right wraps his arm around my mother on the left. You cannot see their faces. Only their kids and the love they've shared for seven decades. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. nancyforde.com. All rights reserved.

Portrait I made of my parents kissing in December 2022. My father on the right wraps his arm around my mother on the left. She leans her head on his shoulder as his face leans on her brow. Her right hand grips his at her shoulder. My mother slid into dementia around a decade ago or more. My father remains her love, her champion, and her primary caretaker. He helps her remember all the decades they've shared. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. nancyforde.com. All rights reserved.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

MFA in Creative Nonfiction done and dusted. 🎓✨ I continue to write and polish my big idea, eco-lit creative nonfiction on bogs, Iron Age bog bodies, and planetary preservation. Ongoing craft ahead, but lovely to tuck this degree beneath my wings. Proud to have my darlin kid by my side yesterday.

Closeup selfie of my kid and I smiling. He has brown curly hair and wears a winter jacket over a Donegal Tweed vest and Tartan tie, And I am wearing a graduation cap over my silver hair and the strap of my faithful Canon camera on my shoulder. May 2026. Credit: Nancy Forde.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

My teen sometimes plays music to help him fall asleep. I can hear him singing Feist's "The Park" through the wall. It's making my eyes tear up. He turns 17 this week. After giving birth alone to the miracle of him on heels of a decade of infertility struggle, I remain the luckiest mom alive. G'nite.

Me in my "Wonder Woman" red boots crouching beside holiday trees while my son at five years of age leans back against me in a snowsuit with a plaid coat. A friend we bumped into made this photo of us in December 2014. Credit: L. Hill-Ring.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Grateful I can celebrate this day now, but it was a painful day for many years. Solidarity with those who dread this day or for whom it's heartbreaking. I wrote this a while back for you. For those celebrating, enjoy your day.🌷 open.substack.com/pub/nancyfor...

Image by Ann Taintor of a 1950s illustrated housewife in front of a fridge with the words 'make your own damn dinner.' And the words of the title of my story: "It's Okay to Hate Mother's Day (on having been there myself) by Nancy Forde. nancyforde.substack.com.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

I made this photograph for my documentary photography project 'Six Miles Deep' about my responsibilities as a white settler on stolen lands. The title of this photo is "The Indian Act."

Car headlights light up an overkill of orange warning signs against the black of night at a bridge in Waterloo-Wellington County on traditional lands of Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe, and Chonnonton Peoples (near Elmira, Ontario.) I call the photograph "The Indian Act" because of all the rights the Act prevents and restrictions it outlines in being recognized as Indigenous on lands called 'Canada' (unceded and stolen lands.) The signs made me think of the Canadian Government's overkill in trying to control the lives and rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Act is hugely racist and sexist. Part of my documentary photography project, "Six Miles Deep" about growing up near the Grand River and my responsibilities as a white settler on unceded lands. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com/6milesdeep.

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nancyforde.com @nancyfjorde.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Today is #RedDressDay, the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirit people. #MMIWG2S

A red dress is lifted by the wind against a snowy landscape on the Wilfrid Laurier University campus in Waterloo, Ontario, to remind students, faculty, and staff about Missing and Murdered Indigenous, Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit Peoples. Photo credit: Nancy Forde. 2018. All rights reserved. nancyforde.com.

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