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.