The Lunenburg Barnacle

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The Lunenburg Barnacle

Print-monthly, digital-sporadically publication chronicling the everyday on both sides of the LaHave Print edition out the second Thursday of every month.
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A print-monthly, digital-sporadically news publication chronically the everyday on both sides of the LaHave. Details on our website.

01/27/2026

Couldn't help but share a whole album of photos from our Celebration of Life.

📸 Samson Photography

01/17/2026

What a day! 🌷 Thank you to all who joined us at the fire hall this afternoon for a perfect Barnacle send off.

Our team thoroughly enjoyed chatting with everyone and hearing everyone's kind words. We will miss our readers!

We auctioned off a pristine Vol. 1, Issue 1 original print copy and raised $100 for .

More event photos from to come.

If you didn't pick up a final issue today, distribution to our regular spots will start tomorrow.

01/15/2026

Celebrate the end of The Barnacle with us! We’re hosting a FREE drop-in party. 🎉

This Saturday, January 17 from 1-4pm at the Lunenburg Fire Hall.

There will be food, speeches at 2pm, and most importantly, the launch of the final issue of The Lunenburg Barnacle.

01/03/2026

We're ending the Barnacle with a big community party!

Join us for a celebration of life as we look back on three incredible years of volunteer operations.

📅 Saturday, January 17 from 1-4pm. Speeches at 2pm.
📍 The Lunenburg Fire Hall, 25 Medway St
📰 Join us to celebrate the incredible volunteer work that put together the paper over the last three years. Mingle, purchase merch, eat some delicious snacks from and pick up the FINAL issue of the Lunenburg Barnacle.

We hope to see you there!

12/17/2025

Isn't this guy so cute? Don't you want him on a t-shirt?

Check out the neat design by Will Maclachlan for the FINAL chance to get Barnacle merch ever. Like seriously, ever.
Deadline is tomorrow to pre-order. Take a look at the cute colours you can get: https://www.thebarnacle.ca/shop/

12/03/2025

🔔 Barnacle Merch Pre-Order!

You asked for it and here it is! This is final chance to get your hands on some Barnacle merch. Our online shop is loaded up. Stickers, buttons and this new t-shirt designed by our favourite illustrator Will Maclachlan! Shirt pre-orders will close December 18th.

SHOP NOW: https://www.thebarnacle.ca/shop/

*These are pre-orders and won't be available for pick up until January 2026!

11/27/2025

The time has come to share the bittersweet news that the final issue of the Lunenburg Barnacle will be published in January 2026. It will mark 34 editions and three full years of operations.

This ending is part celebration, part grief, part beginning.

I want to start by saying thank you. We have so much gratitude to give. I don’t think the group of friends that started this labour of love in winter 2023 could have ever imagined the impact it would have on their lives or on the communities around them.

From the beginning, the Barnacle set out to be a project for a gaggle of new-to-Lunenburg-County folks to have a reason to gather once a week in the dark evenings of winter. We wanted to highlight all the incredible things we had come to learn and know about this special place we call home.

Immediately, people took notice. It was simple—everyone around us agreed that there are so many hardworking people, organizations and small businesses that deserve recognition and warrant a shout-out or boost.

Through this community response, the Barnacle grew in purpose.

We became about pointing to the things we wanted others to pay attention to. This was a radical and simple way to engage in this age of short attention spans and short-form digital content.

I could write a lot more about the journey the team at the Barnacle has been on, but I will save that for a series I will write to send-off the Barnacle. The story is complex and interesting, and deserves to be told properly.

The decision to end the Barnacle on our own terms comes from Carmen and I. We have been holding down the fort alongside a dozen other dedicated volunteers. We’ve decided to turn our attention to new projects in 2026.

The Barnacle has always been volunteer-run. It was never a sustainable model. It was just a way to reinvigorate local journalism, no matter how brief a tenure. The time to transition has come.

I want to invite you all into this process of ending the Barnacle. This is a transition that deserves grace and humility. You have all been a part of this, whether you attempted the crossword with your friends over coffee at No. 9, sponsored an ad to help us cover print costs, wrote a letter to the editor, shared a social media post, sent us an email, commented on our website, you were a part of the Barnacle.

The words of Vanessa Andreotti & Habiba Nabatu guide us through this process of hospicing this project.

“To be stewards of this time, we must develop the practices and capacities to tend to these endings, not with urgency or control, but with a kind of stillness that invites the birth of new ways of being. Endings are not failures; they are part of a cycle that requires presence, reverence, and humility.”

Read the full goodbye 👉 https://www.thebarnacle.ca/the-end-of-an-era/

09/11/2025

📰 Did someone say Barnacle? 📰

Volume 3, Issue 8 is out now! For those in Lunenburg, the Barnacle box can now be found outside .

--
READ IT ONLINE 👉 https://www.thebarnacle.ca/volume-3-issue-8-is-here/

When our editorial board wrapped up a meeting a couple of weeks ago, the porch light flicked on as we stepped out the door. A sure sign, we thought, that summer is winding down and the evenings are closing in earlier and earlier.

But then we noticed something unexpected: a monarch chrysalis clinging to the siding, right beside the front door. Carmen had been tracking where over 20 monarchs landed in her garden and quietly transformed.

I’ve always associated butterflies with spring. This sign of new beginnings showing up in late summer is a good reminder that change can come at any time.

This issue of the Barnacle carries that spirit forward, with a few ideas for stepping out of your shell as the season turns. Whether it’s booking an afternoon tea close to home or wandering into one of the lesser-known local museums, fall offers its own fresh starts.

Even as the leaves begin to fall, we can ask for newness, we can ask for change.

- Sal Falk, editor-in-chief

08/14/2025

We're not on here much anymore but you know where we are at? Either in your inbox or at your favourite local coffee shop.

Sign up for our newsletter 👉 https://www.thebarnacle.ca/newsletter/
Find out where to pick up a physical copy 👉 https://www.thebarnacle.ca/distribution/

04/10/2025

🌟 VOLUME 3, ISSUE 4 IS OUT NOW 🌟

📰 https://www.thebarnacle.ca/volume-3-issue-4-is-here/

Over the first weekend of April, some friends and I embarked on an adventure that had been brewing for years. We’re the kind of friend group that doesn’t just own a tandem bike — we own three. The dream? To gear up a group of six and take to the roads of Lunenburg County on a “tri-tandem,” a full-on tandemonium ride.

It was a chilly yet sunny spring day, and five intrepid cyclists and I put on our finest lycra and fleece, strapped a Makita radio to the back of one of the bikes and hit the road with the sounds of Madonna and Britney Spears trailing behind us.

If you’ve never been on the back of a tandem bike, you might not know how different it is to a regular bike. The front ‘captain’ is in charge of gears, stearing, and setting the pace. In the back, you’re essentially just the engine.

Though I’ve driven and biked along Highways 331 and 332 more times than I can count, it wasn’t until I was pedaling on the back of that tandem that I really saw the landscape. I noticed a pink house I’d never clocked before. A backyard with some cute little pigs. Crocuses pushing up through front lawns.

This issue of the Barnacle is all about paying attention. Our new history columnist, Jay Lalonde, shares a local story hiding in plain sight. Christy Kelly-Bisson checks in with federal election candidates on the issues that matter. And Michael Goodfellow shares the unexpected discovery of old photographs tucked away for generations.

As the snow melts and the daylight stretches a little longer each evening, I hope you find something new to notice in Lunenburg County. And if you do — we’d love to hear about it. Drop us a line at [email protected].

03/13/2025

🗞 EXTRA, EXTRA 🗞

Did you pick up your Barnacle yet? Volume 3, Issue 3 is out now!

Read all the latest online or in print ➡ https://www.thebarnacle.ca/volume-3-issue-3-is-here/

And if you want the Barnacle right in your inbox each month, sign up for our newsletter 💻 https://www.thebarnacle.ca/newsletter/

03/04/2025

🌊 Ready to show the world your love of the Barnacle? 🌊

You can now order merch online through the new Barnacle Shop!

Stickers, buttons and tote bags all feature your favourite designs from illustrators like Jessie Mclaughlin, Sienna Maeba, Will Maclachlan, Emily Powers & Cat Bluemke.

Order for shipping anywhere in North America or select local pick-up in Lunenburg.

➡ https://www.thebarnacle.ca/shop/

Address

PO Box 983
Lunenburg, NS
B0J2C0

Website

https://thebarnacle.ca/

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