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The Tides of Time: A Nova Scotia Book of Seasons
Set in northeastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, The Tides of Time: A Nova Scotia Book of Seasons paints vivid portraits of contemporary labourers whose harvests mark the rhythms of the seasonal year. Each of the twelve monthly chapters tells the story of a labour unique to that month, including jobs like tuna fishing, cranberry farming, maple syrup production, sheep farming, beekeeping, lobster fishing, and foraging for wild mushrooms. Stewart revitalizes an older, contemplative view of the sacredness of time. In keeping with the genre of nature writing, her book offers a meticulous way of looking at the world as she blends first-hand observations of seasonal change with stories of the labourers. The Tides of Time offers a refuge from the rush of urban life. It turns to the seasons, rural life and literature for an alternative mode of time, which is fluid, rhythmic, and gentle. The symplicity is there—close at hand.
Paperback
First published October 31, 2018
About the author
Suzanne Stewart
14 books2 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 3, 2021
I was very excited when I came across this book but was disappointed after a couple chapters. The monthly "labours" are almost all activities that I enjoy or am passionate about, but the author's slight condescending tone towards these "seasonal labourers" really put me off. The ties to the works of Thoreau and the Wordsworth siblings seemed like her way of processing her monthly excursions, but by the end of the book the parallels she was drawing seemed strained.
July 29, 2020
When I first started this book, I really liked it. The structure of the book was interesting, with each chapter devoted to a month of the year and a particular “labour”. It was interesting to hear about the farms that are local to us (the author) lives about 60 km away, and most of the places she went to learn about “the harvest” are close to us.
As a “come from away”, as I am, Stewart made some astute observations, and summed up a particular challenge to this area, with its “ancestral Scottish community too tightly knit to readily admit a quiet stranger” quite perfectly, something I have been struggling to put into words for years. I found the first couple of chapters beautifully written and thoroughly enjoyed them.
But, as the book went on, the quotes from classic poetry and literature that she was weaving into the narrative became more numerous and, it seemed to me, more forced, to the point that they became distracting. She also treated some of the people she went to see to learn about farming their various harvests with a hint of disdain, as if they were peculiarities, or “country bumpkins” to her more refined self. This was not overt, but very subtle, and became too much for me over the course of the book. Her constant frustration that she wasn’t getting what she expected from her visits came across as a bit petulant at times. All of this made what could have been a really nourishing work of art a bit less than. I was disappointed that it didn’t live up to its potential.
Having said all of that, I did like the book, and the windows it opened up to the farms in our area. I learned some things I didn’t know, and I appreciated what she was trying to do.
And the cover art was beautiful! One of my favourite book covers ever.
As a “come from away”, as I am, Stewart made some astute observations, and summed up a particular challenge to this area, with its “ancestral Scottish community too tightly knit to readily admit a quiet stranger” quite perfectly, something I have been struggling to put into words for years. I found the first couple of chapters beautifully written and thoroughly enjoyed them.
But, as the book went on, the quotes from classic poetry and literature that she was weaving into the narrative became more numerous and, it seemed to me, more forced, to the point that they became distracting. She also treated some of the people she went to see to learn about farming their various harvests with a hint of disdain, as if they were peculiarities, or “country bumpkins” to her more refined self. This was not overt, but very subtle, and became too much for me over the course of the book. Her constant frustration that she wasn’t getting what she expected from her visits came across as a bit petulant at times. All of this made what could have been a really nourishing work of art a bit less than. I was disappointed that it didn’t live up to its potential.
Having said all of that, I did like the book, and the windows it opened up to the farms in our area. I learned some things I didn’t know, and I appreciated what she was trying to do.
And the cover art was beautiful! One of my favourite book covers ever.
January 4, 2021
This book was a difficult read for me.
The tone used when speaking about the people the author visited, was cringe worthy. Hard working people trying to make a living were described as uneducated second class citizens.
The author needs to leave her world of academia and work within one of these blue collar industries to get a true education.
The tone used when speaking about the people the author visited, was cringe worthy. Hard working people trying to make a living were described as uneducated second class citizens.
The author needs to leave her world of academia and work within one of these blue collar industries to get a true education.
July 26, 2026
Suzanne Stewart is a professor of Romantic literature who teaches at St. Francis Xavier University. Sadly, she now reports that she hasn’t taught literature of that period for several years. I guess there’s not enough demand for it, which baffles me. That hasn’t stopped Stewart from bringing the words and mood of the Romantic writers to life in her book of lyric essays, The Tides of Time: A Nova Scotia Book of Seasons (Pottersfield Press, 2018).
In Tides of Time, Stewart goes through the year, month by month, looking at the labour of the people who produce the food we eat—real food, food from the earth, not from a factory. Starting in September (which is why I’m posting this on the first day of fall), she gets on her bike (or sometimes in her car) and cycles out to interview fishers, farmers, bakers, beekeepers, and cheesemakers, to name a few, around her home community of Antigonish about the work they do and why they love doing it.
In keeping with the form of the lyric essay, she regularly quotes from writers of the Romantic Period, such as John Keats and William Wordsworth, Dorothy Wordsworth and Henry David Thoreau, and she occasionally throws in something from Aristotle or the Bible. But what’s most impressive about her writing is the vivid word pictures she paints of places and people and feelings. Here’s how she opens the chapter she calls Spring’s Overture:
"Dawn comes suddenly now, with a beautiful blush. On March 1, the sky fills with muted amber and soft pink, as if wine had been poured into the air, tinging it with sweet fruitfulness. A burst of darker purple-pink appears like a cherry tree in blossom. Then the sky turns orange as the softest pink dissolves, which lightens to yellow as it spreads, like liquid from a lemon squeezed.
"A few thin grey clouds smudge the light.
"Feeling tired and distracted by the length of winter, I haven’t noticed beauty or looked this hard, for days, but this morning is different. Colour pours and blends and moves with the light. I’d like to slip into its heat.
"Now the colour is gone. Morning evolves. The day becomes dull: the sky plain and covered in clouds.
In March, light stretches and retreats, still finding its comfort in the whiteness of winter. The days are longer but they haven’t lengthened all the way to spring. March’s fingers are still curled in the cold, unable to unfold, to reach that far."
To read the full review, visit https://lynnemelcombe.com/2025/09/22/..., just one of the reviews I've posted featuring creative nonfiction books by Canadian authors.
In Tides of Time, Stewart goes through the year, month by month, looking at the labour of the people who produce the food we eat—real food, food from the earth, not from a factory. Starting in September (which is why I’m posting this on the first day of fall), she gets on her bike (or sometimes in her car) and cycles out to interview fishers, farmers, bakers, beekeepers, and cheesemakers, to name a few, around her home community of Antigonish about the work they do and why they love doing it.
In keeping with the form of the lyric essay, she regularly quotes from writers of the Romantic Period, such as John Keats and William Wordsworth, Dorothy Wordsworth and Henry David Thoreau, and she occasionally throws in something from Aristotle or the Bible. But what’s most impressive about her writing is the vivid word pictures she paints of places and people and feelings. Here’s how she opens the chapter she calls Spring’s Overture:
"Dawn comes suddenly now, with a beautiful blush. On March 1, the sky fills with muted amber and soft pink, as if wine had been poured into the air, tinging it with sweet fruitfulness. A burst of darker purple-pink appears like a cherry tree in blossom. Then the sky turns orange as the softest pink dissolves, which lightens to yellow as it spreads, like liquid from a lemon squeezed.
"A few thin grey clouds smudge the light.
"Feeling tired and distracted by the length of winter, I haven’t noticed beauty or looked this hard, for days, but this morning is different. Colour pours and blends and moves with the light. I’d like to slip into its heat.
"Now the colour is gone. Morning evolves. The day becomes dull: the sky plain and covered in clouds.
In March, light stretches and retreats, still finding its comfort in the whiteness of winter. The days are longer but they haven’t lengthened all the way to spring. March’s fingers are still curled in the cold, unable to unfold, to reach that far."
To read the full review, visit https://lynnemelcombe.com/2025/09/22/..., just one of the reviews I've posted featuring creative nonfiction books by Canadian authors.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews