Beaches and Villages

We have now been home for a few days, and have been busy getting caught up with Foundation work, gardening and a dinner party for a few friends. PEI seems a long time ago .  .  .

I forgot to mention as I wrote about Summerside that we drove through Ross Corner, just a few kilometres out of town, in the North Bedeque area. This locale was referred to in some of the birth and/or death records of the Ross family (my mother’s mother). Like so many other places in PEI the place name seems to refer only to a few houses that appear to be clustered in a particular spot. I suppose that ‘in the olden days’ it would be natural to name an area or a crossroads after the people who lived there. It will be interesting to find out more about the family.

We felt very lucky to have decided on a cottage near French River on the northern shore for two days, particularly when the day we decided to just 'stop' for a day was such a glorious one. Around 11:00 o'clock, I headed down to the beach to take some photos, about a 10 minute walk in the sunshine.

Lloyd on the porch of our cottage

On my way to the beach, I found a little path in from the road and walked in to find a tiny cemetery with about six headstones and a number of evenly spaced rocks about the size of a loaf of bread. The cemetery was only used for about 80 years, ending in 1851, with the victims of ‘Yankee Gale’ – perhaps the unmarked stones.

The beach was beautiful. With the tide out, the red sand stretched forever. No wonder families go to the PEI shores for their holidays. I could just see our grandchildren playing in the sand!

Lighthouse on the Cape near French River

Lloyd came in search of me after an hour. It was such a beautiful and tranquil place, with very few people around.

We spent the rest of the day reading on the porch - a welcome change from our touring. Dinner was at a nice family restaurant in New London, both Thursday and Friday nights - very good food. The evening views of the harbour sunsets were lovely, particularly on Friday, but I had forgotten to bring my little "everywhere" camera. Memory will have to suffice for these scenes of still water, pink skies and perfect reflections. Sigh . . .

On Saturday, we returned to the south coast to a lovely little village called Victoria -by-the-Sea. My cousin Judy had recommended it, and Nancy White, from CBC Sunday mornings years ago was performing at the community theatre. She was great - lots of amusing songs, such as "Stickers on Fruit". There was also and island storyteller. Our B&B was not quite as luxurious as the others, but had a gourmet restaurant that easily made up for the room. We had a beautiful meal before the show in the evening, tasty and beautifully presented, as were the two breakfasts we enjoyed there.

Lighthouse at Victoria-by-the-Sea

One more blog entry to finish off our trip - perhaps tomorrow . . .

The Island Experience

                                          Low tide at Summerside

Some more of those lovely rose hips

We arrived in Summerside on Tuesday evening to the happy news that we had been given a nicer room to enable another, longer booking. Our hosts at “Comme chez vous” (another beautiful heritage home) were two interesting men: Wendell, who works as a recreation therapist at a seniors’ home, and André, who teaches at the French language elementary school.

We spent an evening chatting with Wendell, a former nurse, (on the left) who had worked with to Abbott Pharmaceuticals for two summers implementing a project that he had initiated, to use community volunteers to rid their areas of mosquitos and black flies. By the end of the second summer he had over 40 communities on the island involved – and then the government put on the brakes, not allowing any additional projects. At that point, Abbott pulled out. Wendell thought that, had it continued, he would probably have been working with similar community based projects, world-wide, by now. It was a very interesting story.

André was the cook, and made us amazing breakfasts. They left for work before our  breakfast at 8:30, so had a neighbour, Rosemary, come in to put on the finishing touches and serve breakfast. The photos are from their website. I chose their B&B because of the photos of the food, and we were not disappointed. The first morning we had the "Mourning Dove" fruit bowl, with huge blackberries and strawberries, yoghurt and granola, followed by a tasty quiche. The second morning we had poached peaches served on some sort of lemon cake that was thoroughly soaked in the sauce (delicious!), followed by scrambled eggs and a portobello mushroom filled with some kind of jam/relish - again, excellent!

Rosemary was very engaging. She is originally from Innisfail, Alberta, and her husband worked on the Oldman River Dam and the Confederation Bridge. He is now working on a huge project in Kitimat, building a storage facility related to the pipeline.

Summerside was a bit of a surprise – many things were closed for the season, as they are all over the island after Labor Day, when the summer workers go back to school. We drove north to Lennox Island to see the MiqMaq interpretive centre. Their ad in the PEI booklet “overstated” their offerings, but we had a pretty drive. Finding a place to eat after a late afternoon nap was a challenge, as those restaurants that were still open tended to close early. The streets were deserted by 7:00. I cannot imagine what the young people do.

We had a wonderful lobster supper almost alone in a place on the pier. We were the last to be served for the night, and they reduced our dinner price from $29.95 to $18.95 (I think the cook had cleaned the deep fryer and didn’t want to have to make fish and chips!) It worked for us! In an adjacent area, they were rehearsing for a new dinner theatre production, “Titanic”, which opens at the end of the month in that venue. It sounded as though they were still writing and arranging the music, so not as entertaining as it might have been. The dinner menu will be based on actual First, Second and Third class menus on the Titanic. They are supposed to play for 10 days in Summerside and then to on tour to five other cities.

Of course the big excitement was the Elton John concerts scheduled for the 13^th and 14^th. Too bad we’ll be home by then.

Oh- traffic lights that have square red lights, circular green, and triangular yellow – perhaps there are alot of color-blind people on the island?

Although our day was quite pleasant in Summerside, it rained the next morning, and it appeared that it would be well ‘socked in’ for the day, but by 2:00 the sun had appeared and it was a beautiful afternoon. We had driven over to the Cavendish area, but the Green Gables national site, “Avonlea” and other spots did not seem appealing in the rain. We did visit an old Acadian church and  home, and considered returning for an Acadian meal, but the cottage we had rented for two days was too appealing. The first photo shows the old Acadian house and small barn that had been moved on to the property. The little structure in the middle seems to have been a covered well, as it has, on the hidden side, a crank to turn, and a portion of the 'roof' lifts up. Unfortunately we did not see inside the buildings as we were planning to return later . . . and didn't.

Also on the site, in a beautiful old brick building, was the Farmers’ Bank of Rustico, which operated from 1864-1894, a precursor to today’s credit unions. They actually printed their own money, which was accepted in Charlottetown banks. This site also had the oldest Catholic church on the island. We have seen so many gorgeous churches, many quite small, too many to stop for, and to include here.

By the time we headed home, the sun was out and the countryside looked much more inviting - so much so that we decided to stay put once we had checked in to our cottage, enjoying the sunshine on the porch before dinner.

colorful boat houses at New London, next to a very good restaurant

We were surprised at how wooded the landscape is. Many of the lots are long and narrow, with low brush in between, in the old style, and the sides of the roads were bright with many kinds of wildflowers.

We did manage to get lost twice on Thursday, as the narrow roads are marked with very small signs and the intersections are sometimes easy to miss - especially on our way back from Kensington where we had gone to buy coffee and sandwich makings for our day 'at home'. But, as everyone says, everything is close together on the island, and we managed to redirect ourselves and find our way home. 

It was showery today - thus the work on the blog, but time for bed now, after a wonderful meal and concert in our new location at Victoria-by-the-Sea. 

On the Road to the Island

 

 Friday before dinner

After a week of perfect weather, we left Mahone Bay in warm weather and light rain. By the time we arrived at Peggy’s Cove, on a side trip east from the main highway, the fog was starting to roll in. When we stopped at the memorial for the Swissair crash in 1998, it must have been ten degrees cooler.

When we arrived at Peggy’s Cove, the fog was not too bad, and there were only a few vehicles. I went out on the rocks to get ‘a few’ photos, and Lloyd stayed close to the car, due to his recurring problems with vertigo.

The weathered rocks provided lots of opportunities for photos.

The fog grew thicker within a few minutes, and all of a sudden about six or seven busloads of tourists arrived. The place was crawling with people, and I was glad we had arrived when we did.

We stopped at a Tim Horton’s outside of Halifax, and caught this little fellow enjoying a meal of rose hips. We have seen this ‘snack food’ in several locations. The rose hips are the size of BC cherries, and are really stunning on the rose bushes.

As we drove towards New Brunswick and the Confederation Bridge to PEI, the landscape changed quite dramatically. The forests became thicker with fewer farms and houses. We couldn’t believe the number of racoons and porcupines we saw dead at the side of the road. We laughed when we saw a moose crossing sign with a bull moose several kilometres after we had seen a sign with a cow moose. We hadn’t realized that the New Brunswick government required them to cross at different points.

The Confederation Bridge was quite intimidating, due to the wind gusts, and we are used to wind! We could not imagine what it must be like in a storm. Apparently they have only closed the bridge completely a couple of times, but it is not unusual for the bridge to be closed to semi-trailers. We were told that the concrete sides of the bridge (4 ft.) cause a ‘tunnel’ effect that protect cars from the worst of the wind and snow, but the big trucks get the full effect.

We were pleased to arrive at Summerside and change into warmer clothes before we went out for dinner. Those heavy suitcases with both warm and cool weather clothes were worth the extra weight. We are getting better at choosing our travel clothes. Of course, the carry-on with the a couple of books, the laptop and all the cords and chargers for the cameras and the GPS is heavy as well. The KOBO e-reader helps a little.

I started this last evening, but could not post it as we had no internet. I hope to get the photos added to the next exciting episode later.

Mahone Bay

Our three days in Mahone Bay were delightful. We stayed at a B&B called Fairmont House, located on Main Street, with the waterfront right across the road. (Darrell, the Bird Store/Nature Store was just across the street, but closed until Sept. 14. I guess everyone needs a holiday).

Mahone Bay is a charming little community of 900 people. There were, of course, lots of people around on the long weekend, but it didn't feel crowded. There were lots of little shops and galleries, although we certainly did not see them all. One of the most photographed places in Nova Scotia is the view of the three churches as you first drive into the town. We stopped at a restaurant just where this photo was taken and had a wonderful lunch of chowder made with fish, lobster, and shrimp.

After dropping off our things at the B&B, we went for a stroll along Main Street. Lots of interesting little shops selling the work of local artisans, including one called Drifted Spirits, that sold native crafts, including drums and stone bowls for burning sweetgrass. There was a HUGE shoe store, called the Mahone Bay Trading Company that had a discount area at the back. I was tempted to buy another pair of Naot sandals that would accommodate my orthothics, but they were actually more comfortable with the cork insoles than with the orthotics, so I guess I'll wait until spring to shop at home for the next pair.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Amos Pewter shop. The shop is a deep turquoise color and the factory next door is done in a strange purply-pink with turquoise trim.

Amos Pewter makes such pretty pieces, and demonstrated at the rear of the shop how the pressed pieces were made. They said that pewter is quite easy to work with as it melts at around 400 degrees. They have a 2-piece mould that they dust with powder and place in a press. They then pour a small dipper-full of molten pewter into the top of the press, and it runs down into the spaces in the mould. After pressing for a minute or so, the mould is removed and the desired bits are cut off the ends of the 'arms', with the stem of the casting and any imperfect bits dropped back into be remelted.

The photo above shows a casting of the new Christmas ornament for 2011. the five circular ornaments are ready to be cut off, trimmed, and polished.

There were a number of antique shops, galleries and gift shops. There was a lovely little knitting shop, and I was all ready to buy two skeins of yarn to knit a simple shawl in varigated colors, but they only had one skein of each color - disappointing. I did find a pretty shawl in Suttles and Seawinds. They used to make a lot of quilted jackets and appliqued skirts in the 80s. I had a beautiful jacket that I wore forever, until it was really worn at the wrists. They only make a few now, and they are made to order - a couple of quilted ones and a gorgeous lightweight boiled? wool crepe. The latter was very tempting, but very pricey. They had one shop with good quality clothes and gifts and another with quilts, fabric and hooked rugs, again gorgeous and very expensive, but fun to see.

We did buy a limited edition print by a local artist by the name of Carol Ann Shelton. Their gallery is in a beautiful old house that shows her paintings and folkart sculptures by local artists. The whole gallery was full of light and color, and so fun to spend time in. Her website really doesn't do the colors justice. Like many shop owners in Mahone Bay, they live upstairs.

Kit, you would have loved the Zack and Nemo Mercantile shop. It felt like you were walking into that
 magazine that we like - Country Sampler. It made me want to redecorate the whole house! But I was strong and brave and didn't buy a thing!



Sunday afternoon, after wandering the flea market on the parking lot of the grocery store, we drove down the bay past Lunenburg to the Blue Rocks, as our host, Michael said it was more colorful that Peggy's Cove and far less crowded. It was indeed, very colorful, and the day was a beautiful one. Just a few photos here.

Painted lobster traps for sale at Blue Rocks


A typical upscale cottage in Blue Rocks, complete with colorful Adirondack chairs, which appear in all colors

Monday afternoon, we drove a few miles out of town for a tour of Oak Island, the supposed site of buried treasure, that people have been searching for since 1795. The tour lasted for two hours, and the volunteer guide was very knowledgeable. The current company is planning to start to dig this fall, based on deep resonance images (or some other technology that acts like a CT scan). Past efforts have managed to go down over 200 feet before encountering some sort of large enclosure. It was fascinating. If you are interested there are lots of books about Oak Island as well as websites. http://www.oakisland.ca/

One interesting fact is that oak trees grow only on this small island, leading them to supprose that they were planted there to make the place easier to find.

We found a good pub with a deck, and enjoyed a couple of evenings having dinner overlooking the bay - very peaceful - and they could make an excellent Margarita! All in all, a great place to spend a few days. We would go back in a second.

Tuesday  morning we left for PEI - I'll tell you about that trip, with a short side trip to Peggy's Cove next time.

Wine Tasting in Grand Pré

I want to tell you more about our wine tasting and dinner Friday night. The Grand Pré Winery has won many awards, and is one of a growing number of wineries in the area.

Cecilia was a charming host and introduced us to some lovely wines.  She and her husband, Jurgen, who was a Swiss banker, bought the vineyard and developed it. It is a beautiful site, and includes a restaurant that is rated among the ten best vineyard restaurants in the world.

Our favorites were a lovely oaked white, L'Acadie Reserve, and a wonderful sparkling wine, Ice Cuvee, which we brought home for dinner. We also really liked the Dolce Vita dessert wine - a lovely surprise! - but did not get it. We will have to look for the Grand Pré wines when we get home. I expect that they will be more expensive in Alberta.

This is their website:  http://www.grandprewines.ns.ca/winery/wines/dessert/dolce-vita/

Darrell was pointing out the grain on the white oak barrells. He is an accomplished wood-turner. The winery uses some wooden casks and some stainless steel. It was interesting to compare the same vintage, oaked and unoaked.

We enjoyed a display, on loan from a local collector, of antique corkscrews, mostly from Europe. This photo shows a few. You would have found them interesting, Charlie. (Charlie is a knife maker who uses a wide variety of  materials for the knife handles.

Of course the grounds were beautiful, too - too many views to show here, but I couldn't resist a few of the flowers and, of course, of the vineyard itself.

When we got home we had lovely appetizers on the deck and then dealt with the lobsters! All in all a great day.

I have tried several times to add the photo of our lobster, but every time I turn it in my viewer, it disappears - just like the lobster did! I will have to try the photo editor to see if that works - just problems with this one photo . . .

We love Mahone Bay, and I will tell you about this area next time.

Wolfville Area, Nova Scotia

We spent three wonderful days in the Wollfville area of Nova Scotia with our friends, Darrell and Elaine, who live on a lovely wooded acreage between Hantsport and Avonport. The weather has been exceptional, and we have been out and about every day. We have been too busy visiting to do this blog, but now that we are on our own, I can finish up this first posting.

As we prepared for our trip to Nova Scotia and PEI, I was working on my mother's family's geneology, and have had great fun researching her father's family, the Cogswells. They settled in Nova Scotia in 1761 as "Planters" from Connecticutt, settling in the area that had been developed by the Acadians. 

Our first visit on Wednesday was to the small but beautiful national park at Grand Pre, where we watched a very moving film about the removal of the Acadian peoples. We then wandered the beautiful gardens and enjoyed the old church and blacksmith shop - set up to shoe oxen rather than horses!

The haystacks were raised on wooden platforms to keep them above the pasture land which was flooded each day by the rising tide.

We then drove into Port William, and were able to locate the house that we had identified in the book about the Planter homes, that had been home to my grandfather, Edward Cogswell, who was born in 1864. We drove into the driveway just as the current residents were getting out of their car, and introduced ourselves. They are cousins of some sort (I will have to figure out the exact relationship later . . . ) and Robert's family has been living on that site for nine generations. He is a descendant of Edward's brother, Leonard. He is still farming the original farmland and his wife is a veterenarian. They have two sons about 10-12 years old. She showed me a new version of the Cogswell family history that was published in 1996 that has "everyone" in it to that date. I will have to try to get a copy out of the states.

We are fascinated with the systems of dykes that were begun by the Acadians to hold back the tidal waters from the low marshlands. These have been improved and expanded over the decades, and now enable huge areas of rich farmland.

Thursdat, we drove up to the highland, called "the Look Off", where we could see the Minas Bay and the Annapolis Valley.

We then drove across country to Hall's Harbour - a tiny harbour, very picturesque. They had had a very high tide due to the hurricane, and water had come over the breakfront, but there appeared to have been little real damage.  Darrel said that they had had worse storms through the year that the one related to the hurricane.

We stopped in mid-afternoon for a bowl of seafood chowder at a little pub in Wolfville - scallops, shrimp, lobster, and fish. Very tasty!

Yesterday we went to Superstore and bought lobsters, which they cooked for us. Darrell's sister and her husband were also visiting, primarily to attend a Black Watch military reunion, and after hearing her directions for coooking the lobster, we chickened out, and decided to have cold lobster and hot steak for dinner. They were great! I will put those photos in tomorrow.

After stashing the lobster in the fridge, we went to the Grand Pre Winery for a wine tasting. The owners are close friends of the Slauenwhites, so we were treated like royalty. Lloyd and Darrell tasted about 12 wines, while I tried about half that. Cecilia, the co-owner and wife of the winemaker, was our host, and showed us the area where the wines are made after the tasting. We then took a walk in the late afternoon sun around the edge of the vineyards.

Everything here is so lush and green. We are envious of the zone 5-6 climate that they enjoy in the valley, that allows Darrell and Elaine to grow wonderful vegetables, fruit and flowers. The range of trees is so much more interesting than on the prairies, and Darrell, being very interested in botany, knows the names of everything.

Today we picked up our rental vehicle and headed to the Lunenburg area for the weekend. We are staying in a very nice B&B in Mahone Bay for three nights. It was a perfect day, clear and sunny, and the town is charming. Lloyd had a huge bowl of mussels for supper.

Tuesday we're off to PEI, to the Summerside area, where my grandmother was born. Our trip will include a couple of days on the north shore and a weekend at Victoria-by-the-Sea before returning home. The great weather may not last much longer, but I'm sure we'll have a great time anyway.