Air-conditioning – Bear River style

Scarlet runner beans

It’s been quite hot In Bear River for the last couple of weeks -uncomfortabley so- and sometimes the high humidity levels have made everything you touch feel damp. Paper curls in the printer, wooden banisters feel waxy-sticky. On the plus side, it’s much easier to pull weeds out of damp soil, which, along with the edible plants, are thriving because of the humidity. 

Pamela's hand-collected Blue Lake Beans in my garden

Back in hot, and humid Toronto, air-conditioning in public places was a given and central air-conditioning in peoples houses is the norm, and it’s built into all new housing. I remember in the 60’s, movie cinemas in Toronto hung signs outside that said “…it’s cool inside”, because before malls were invented, there were few public air-conditioned places to go to besides the cinema and another helping of ‘Cleopatra’. Buses, streetcars and the subway are all artificially cooled. Office windows aren’t even designed to open, making airconditioning  an essential life requirement.

Queen Anne's lace

So far this summer, I haven’t been into any home in Bear River where air conditioning is installed. Somewhere there must be a few examples of ac units, but I haven’t seen any. Traditionally, it hasn’t been hot enough, long enough to warrant air-conditioning. Temperatures usually drop into the teens at night and if you live on the coast, the ocean breezes are cooling.

Clouds blow across St. Mary's Bay

Even with the heatwave we’ve been having, people here aren’t rushing out to buy air-conditioners. I see this as another example of the frugality and even consumer resistance practiced here. It is the knowledge of knowing the difference between ‘want’, ‘nice to have’, ‘could use’, and ‘essential need’. Those finer nuances in consumer awareness and resistance allow people here to live with far less income (and debt) than their counterparts in a large city can. 

Gilbert's Cove, Nova Scotia

I was thinking last week that this is the first summer in quite a few years where we haven’t had uber-airconditioning at work during the week, followed by inadequate, but constant air conditioning at home. I used to wonder how I ever managed without it when I was a child growing up. It is amazing what we humans get used to and what we learn to take for granted.

Larry at the beach at Gilbert's Cove

Now that I don’t have it, I find that I am adjusting to feeling hot and sticky. So it isn’t that I don’t feel the sweat rolling down my back, dampening my shirt, dripping from my brow. It’s just that it doesn’t feel as disgusting and as oppressive as it once did. I definitely wouldn’t, couldn’t feel that way squashed into a subway car. But I never, ever thought that I would ever be able to adjust to life without airconditioning, but apparently it’s possible.

Beach stones and shells at Gilbert's Cove, St. Mary's Bay, Nova Scotia

These are some of the tips I’m learning about keeping cool in Nova Scotia:

• there is comfort in numbers….it really helps that everyone else feels hot too
• walking around with a damp small towel around your neck feels great…the evaporation has an amazing cooling effect
• Drinking lots of water is refreshing
• sticking your feet in cool water has a cool-down effect
• living in a house with lots of ceiling fans is a must…moving air cools
• opening windows at night to let the cool air in and closing them in the morning keeps the cool in
• eating cold food like salads and cold soups helps
• ice cream is your friend
• if you live in Nova Scotia, you are at most, under 2 hours drive to the ocean where the water is always cool and the breezes refreshing
• if it’s still unbearable, go fo a  drive…..with the car ac on to the grocery store in Digby

So, the other day we drove 40 minutes down the coast to Gilbert’s Cove on St. Mary’s Bay. The breezes were cooling and the cloud formations were gorgeous.

 In that tearoom at the lighthouse we drank cold bottled water in china teacups and ate warm homemade blueberry muffins for a total of $4.

Gilbert's Cove lighthouse

Which turned out to be the perfect combination of hot and cold.