Thirty-nine steps. That’s how many there are between cracked pavement of Richmond Street and the well-worn carpet of my new studio office, located on the third floor of The Guild. I’ve got a lovely view down Queen Street to a sliver of the harbour. The room is bright, airy, and spacious, well worth the seven months wait. I had started looking before Christmas, hoping I could find somewhere for when we returned from the Marquesas trip.

Just after we got back, in March, I was offered a small room in a building down the road. It was a space with a view of the back walls of the Basilica, and I declined. I kept asking around, and someone suggested that I speak to the Operations Manager at The Guild. I did, who said they were full, but I should check back in the summer as there might be an opening in September.

That would be perfect, I thought; The Guild is literally across a narrow side street from our apartment building, so my ‘commute’ would be down five flights on the elevator, across the road, and then up the 39 steps. Perhaps three minutes, if I had to wait for the elevator, and there was traffic on the street.

I made a note in my diary, I can’t trust my memory bank these days, and went back to the garden. We had a wet and soggy June, which helped the weeds thrive but didn’t do much for my blood pressure, and then the hottest July on record, with very high humidity. We hit 21 degrees Celsius [70F] or more every day, with a heat warning in effect for over a week, and the humidity made most days feel like the mid to high thirties. Brutal. Some days I would have to change shirts three times during the course of the day!

It was hot pretty much everywhere, actually. The weather folks are saying that July 2023 will be the hottest every recorded, a fun fact to remember next February. Seriously, though, it seems that early, less fine-tuned climate records — gathered from things like ice cores and tree rings — suggest the Earth has not been this hot in 120,000 years. Which is beyond border-line scary.

The temperature of the oceans is rising rapidly and that’s causing all sorts of strange things to happen, in addition to the normal land-based litany of forest fires and heat domes. A week ago a fellow was out in his kayak on the Bay of Fundy, just south of here between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He was in the area known as the Minas Basin and was fishing for striped bass. Luckily, he was wearing a camera.

Meanwhile, with the help of a young local lad who I hired, I continued to get the garden ready. To my huge relief we didn’t experience any alpha carnivores, and the atmospheric river that came up the coast stayed to our east. Sadly, it swamped Nova Scotia, with the loss of four people who were swept away by the floods. On the Island, we just had the heat and humidity, a combination that reminded me of our days in Papua New Guinea, waiting for the trade winds to kick in from the Coral Sea.

The weather broke last Saturday. The humidity dropped from oppressive to summery, a light southerly breeze came up, and the 7th Annual Garden Party went extremely well. See Grandview Gardens on FaceBook for some photographs, but basically 60+ people had a wonderful afternoon listening to great music in beautiful surroundings with a pleasant breeze keeping the bugs away.

All during this period, time marched on, as it is wont to do, and I was obviously being far too relaxed because in mid-July serendipity brought its double-edged sword crashing down on me.

First, and quite out of the blue, I was contacted on LinkedIn by the Vice President Academic at Yorkville University. Who knew, social media does work! Yorkville is based out of Fredericton, New Brunswick, and is a private for-profit institution which offers a number of degrees, including the Master of Education. The VPA asked if I could spare some time for a chat.

A few days later we connected. It turned out that the Dean of the Faculty of Education had accepted a new position, at a public university in Nova Scotia, and a delayed search process had resulted in her only being able to provide the minimum four weeks notice. Yorkville was in a bit of a panic, looking for someone who could step in and ‘steer the ship’ while a full search for a new Dean was conducted. There were some excellent potential internal candidates, but nobody wanted to privilege one over the other by giving them the role of Interim Dean.

I explained that I had various commitments lined up over the next few months. Sally and I are going to Labrador at the end of August, along the lower north shore of St. Lawrence, then in September I have a trip to a niece’s wedding celebration in Ireland followed by a week or so in England. In October I’m heading out to British Columbia for a conference of regulators, something I attend in my role as Chair of Council for the College of Licensed Practical Nurses of Prince Edward Island, followed by a few days visiting my daughter on the Sunshine Coast. So, all in all, I would not be able to make this a full-time gig and could basically only work at about 75% time until the end of the calendar year.

“No worries,” said the AVP, or words to that effect. The associate deans were good, and because I had been responsible for chairing the panel which conducted an independent review of the YU graduate programs, I had some knowledge of the structure and curriculum, and a better understanding than most of the various idiosyncrasies of a private institution. He thought I should be able to hit the ground running, as it were.
And so, on 17 July, I began a new job as Interim Dean of Education for Yorkville University.

Meanwhile, the second cutting edge came down. The Operations Manager of The Guild informed me that a studio office had become available earlier than expected, that it was larger than the one likely to be available in September, and was I interested in seeing it? I was, and I did, and on 1 August took on the lease.

As noted, it has a lovely view, air conditioning, and room for both a desk and my easel, so once I finish my term at Yorkville, I shall be able to return to my post-retirement focus on more creative pursuits.

And so, meanwhile, a new adventure begins. And with any luck, the thirty-nine steps will provide a certain health benefit.

Although it would also make a good title for a book or a movie. Hmmm.