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Sara Spike

@saraspike.bsky.social
2K followers 989 following 364 posts

Cultural historian of rural communities and coastal environments in Atlantic Canada. History of fog. The ocean and the woods. Visual cultures. Senses. Flora. Adjunct Prof, Dalhousie University. Executive Committee, NiCHE. PhD, settler, she/her

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Reposted by Sara Spike
NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
In "Wilmot Springs: Nova Scotia’s Elixir Vitae," Colby Gaudet writes about Nova Scotia’s 19th-century Spa Springs, which offered natural mineral cures and retreats before fading into obscurity. niche-canada.org/2026/09/10/w... #envhist #cdnhist #histmed #novascotia
niche-canada.org
Wilmot Springs: Nova Scotia’s Elixir Vitae
The popularity of Wilmot Springs reflected a broader nineteenth-century interest in outdoor bathing. As industrialization reshaped ideas of cleanliness, bathing in springs, pools, rivers, and bays was...
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Hi Dan! 😺
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Thanks so much for the encouragement! I will post some bits from my talk when I get home 😊 I'm at the Canadian Historical Association and Atlantic Canada Studies conference in Charlottetown PEI. It's lovely here!
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Hi!! Nice to see you! I am at a conference right now presenting about my fog history research :)
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Alan MacEachern @alanmaceachern.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Me choosing a session at #CHASHC2026.
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
😊
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I knew it! :)
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NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
If you are at CHA next week, join our executive members @drheathergreen.bsky.social & @saraspike.bsky.social at the #EnvHist Group Meeting on June 2nd at noon to chat about what we're up to and how you can get more involved. niche-canada.org/2026/05/28/n... #cdnhist @cndhistassoc.bsky.social
niche-canada.org
NiCHE Environmental History Group Meeting – Canadian Historical Association 2026
2 June 2026 - University of Prince Edward Island - Join us at the Environmental History Group Meeting! Connect with NiCHE Executive members Heather Green and Sara Spike to discuss all things NiCHE! We...
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Hi is it spring where you are?
Salamander spawn in a vernal pool.An old road through coniferous woods and a beagle.Coltsfoot blooming.Beagle at the edge of a brook in spring.
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Jeff Miller @theghostpine.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
I'm taking Temporary Palaces on the road! Hope to see you in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Peterborough, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Charlottetown this spring!
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Jeff Miller @theghostpine.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
My novel Temporary Palaces is out now from @houseofanansi.bsky.social! Available at your local independent bookstore or library. I can't wait for you to meet these punks! houseofanansi.com/products/tem...
houseofanansi.com
Temporary Palaces
"A plainspoken, punk-rock hymn … This is a book that will pick you up off the floor of a mosh pit and wrap you in its arms." —Sean Michaels In the fevered summer of 2001, charismatic activist Rob and ...
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
Love this, Jess, and so excited for more of this project to emerge!
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Dr. Jessica van Horssen @historiamagoria.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
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...
niche-canada.org
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.
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Tina Adcock @tinaadcock.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
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...
ubcpress.ca
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...
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Shirley Tillotson @stillots1.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
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...
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
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
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! 🌱
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
☺️
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
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!
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NiCHE Canada @nichecanada.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
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
niche-canada.org
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.
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
Finally rain 🌧
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.
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
Big high tide, the goldenrod is swimming xo
A patch of blooming goldenrod is partially submerged in water in evening light.
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Feel free to get in touch if you have specific questions, I might be able to help!
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Thanks Cathy, I'd love it. That email works.
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Wildflowers, history, and dulse what else? 💙
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Thanks for the nice visit!
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
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...
archive.org
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
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Love this!
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
🌫️📯🤍
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
You have my attention :)
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
🙏
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
Blueberries 💙
A bowl partially full of blueberries placed among leafy blueberry bushes with ripe berries, a beagle is snuffling nearby.
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
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!
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
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!
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Julie Park @juliepark.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
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...
publicdomainreview.org
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...
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Mackerel xo
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.
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Marianna Dudley @dudleymarianna.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
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/
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
Manchester University Press - Electric wind
Electric wind - Browse and buy the Paperback edition of Electric wind by Marianna Dudley
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Congratulations! The cover is beautiful, and the book sounds great!
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
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
Two people walking away from the camera on a flat gravelled trail with bright blue sky and blue water around them.
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
It was beautiful today, a perfect sunny/foggy mix!
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Finally found the fog, at Cape Spear Lighthouse xo
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.
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Christi Belcourt @christibelcourt.com · 18/07/2025
The way the blueberries feel when I roll them from their stems with my thumbs into my palm.
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
@sociologyofplants.bsky.social can you point Tina to environmental histories of beer? Tina, Jennifer is writing a book about the history of hops in the US Midwest and has taught beer histories 🍻
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Enjoy it! There is a heat wave and not a wisp of fog here in St. John's this week haha
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Getting foggy at the Memorial U Folklore and Language Archive @munfla-archive.bsky.social
A reading room with large brown tables and filing cabinets along the wall.A MUNFLA Legend Index card with synopsis of a story from Change Islands: the cries of men drowned at sea could be heard on foggy summer nights until a priest rowed out and gave them a proper burial service.
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
My mom made a lot of the clothes for this fashion show, based on historical photos from our local archives. It promises to be a lovely time, and another great reason to come to the Eastern Shore 💗 visitmemorylane.ca/events/1940s...
A woman in 1940s garb on a poster advertising the 1940s Costume Magic Fashion Gala at Memory Lane Heritage Village, August 9 and 10.
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Looking for fog in St. John's at @theroomsnl.bsky.social
A pile of yellowed paper on a wooden table beside a big window looking out over St. John's harbour.
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Waterfront Media HFX @wfmhfx.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
(Weather) A high fog settles over the Halifax waterfront as temperatures climb today. Temperatures are expected to climb into 30+c over the next few days with high humidity. Molly the dog was definitely taking advantage of a fun cool down activity. Take steps to avoid heat related illnesses
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Heading to eastern Newfoundland to visit archives and talk to folks about fog. Any suggestions for fog- or non-fog-related activities, great community museums, excellent food, people to connect with all greatly appreciated! Hoping to get back to Elliston, where I took this photo a few years ago ❤️
Three puffins perched at the edge of a rocky cliff, the foggy ocean behind them.
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Sara Spike @saraspike.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Thank you Sonja! 🌊
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