I recently spent a weekend in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. The location of an annual Mi’kmaq summer coastal community prior to European settlement, today Antigonish is known for Saint Francis Xavier (SFX) University, and the oldest continuous highland games in North America.
It was quite cold (minus 20 windchill!) and mostly snowy, so I elected to leave the car at the hotel and take my camera for a walk instead. The town is very pedestrian friendly, and has lots of interesting buildings and things to see, reflecting a vibrant arts scene. It was quite outside my usual nature-focused forays and offered a new challenge to focus through the lens.
Welcome to downtown! Note the strong Gaelic influence.Even the seagulls were hunkering down to conserve warmth; this was the coldest day of the winter so far. However, I was surprised to find I was far from the only person out for a walk in -12 C.Each house has unique architechtural details and no two share the same colour palette.Luckily, many homeowners still had their winter decorations up. A common theme is to tie in the colours of the house with the decor.Shopkeepers put a lot of effort into seasonal ornamentation as well.A warehouse for what? I liked the composition of this image with the opposition of royal blue and brick red.
As it seems to be in every town or cluster of homes in the province, there are several churches in the community. This is Saint James on Main Street.
Intricate carvings on the doors of Saint Ninian’s cathedral, on the SFX campus.
Saint Paul’s Anglican church, an old wood building with interesting details in the shingles and paint.
Would you like some bibilical allusions with your multiple houses of worship?There are many murals in downtown Antigonish. This was one of the best, on College Street, appropriately named for a university town.
This mural won the annual contest in 2014.
View from a downtown park to a gold dome at SFX.
I later found the gold dome building as I explored the campus.
Most of the buildings at SFX feature domes with crosses, like this aging one.
An optician with a sense of humour. I thought the conjunction of this clever sign with the old 60’s building made an interesting contrast to the more typically scenic parts of town.
Such a cute and inviting sign for this day care. As you can see from the snow, it was getting colder so I decided to head back to the hotel.
