Figuring it out: December 2023

Saturday, December 30, 2023

2023: Another Pandemic Year in Photos

Sunset from Cheticamp Island, October 2023

There are many who believe the Covid-19 pandemic is behind us. I wish I was capable of that degree of self-deception but sadly I (mostly) live the real world, where the pandemic continues to cast a long shadow as a new wave of serious illness and death sweeps through Asia and across the US and Europe. To be honest, it often feels to me as if we're living through a slow-moving zombie apolcalypse. I find myself wondering whether society as we know it will continue to exist once a majority of the human population is too sick, exhausted, angry and/or cognitively impaired to sustain anything like normal social interactions.

My grim outlook on 2023 is partly informed by the time I spent nursing a broken wrist this year. While the wrist is mostly back to normal now, reflecting on the months after my surgery still makes me shudder. I'm sincerely grateful for the excellent care I received, but being so disabled - even temporarily - was deeply unsettling.

My outlook is also affected by memories of the series of downright apocalyptic weather events that hit our part of the world. After a polar vortex in February, unseasonably hot, dry weather in the spring, devastating wildfires in June, a massively destructive rain event in July, post-tropical storm Lee in September, and a series of nasty wind and rain storms through November and December, Nova Scotia is finishing the year a good deal more ragged than when she began it. Her coastlines are battered, farmers struggle to plan for the upcoming growing season, fishers warn catches are down all over, dozens of highways and bridges remain heavily damaged, and many of her residents are still waiting for homes to be repaired months after they were damaged.

In short, it's been a lot, particularly given the waves of Covid-19 that have swept through the province at regular intervals.

The weird thing is that looking through my photos from the past 12 months, the stuff that's dominating my memories of 2023 is mostly invisible. A photo like this one, taken one June evening in Queensport, Guysborough County, gives no inkling of the discomfort I felt while making it.

Queensport Light, Guysborough County

We'd driven to Guysborough to spend time with an old friend who was in hospital there and spent our first night at the provincial campground nearby but it was so unbearably hot (in June!) we decided to try and find somewhere nearer the ocean to stay the second night. We headed down the road towards Tor Bay, which we'd very much enjoyed the last time we visited, but my wrist was too sore and the weather was too hot to travel far, so we ended up boondocking in a small parking lot beside the highway in Queensport for the night. It wasn't ideal - it was still uncomfortably warm, humid and buggy - but at least the skies were beautiful at sunset, a cool breeze came up overnight, and we got to watch the fishers at work in the morning.

Towards the end of the year, I took a few photos of Risser's Beach, which was devastated by Lee, but they don't come close to capturing the extent of the damage.

And maybe that's as it should be. Maybe it's better that my photos mostly recorded the happy moments and the beautiful places we visited this year. They certainly offer more comfort heading into another cold, dark pandemic winter than darker, sadder images would.

In any case, here are a few of my favourites from 2023. I tried unsuccessfully to limit myself to one per month. Hopefully, they'll lift your spirits as they did mine.