Family and Friends, Music, Fun and Games!
Day 60 - We had circled Kentville and Wolfville on the map to find Lynda in Nova Scotia. In fact she is nestled quietly in the woods in a home filled with treasures in Aylesford. Roger and Lynda are cousins and was in the “went to live with my Aunt and Uncle” chapter of Roger’s life. They spent the evening pouring meticulously put together albums that Uncle Fred could challenge any archivist as near perfect! There are records of the Dowker family back to 1662 in England before they came to Canada in 1845 - records unlike anything I have ever seen, gradually being passed on to Lynda from Fred and Lee and from here the records will pass on to her daughter Emily. Roger has brought his grandfathers book “Birds of Montreal” to pass on to Emily that he had restored by a volunteer at the Repair Cafe in Mission.
Wolfville is in the Annapolis Valley, Kings County, about 100 km northwest of Halifax with views of Cape Blomidon, The Bay of Fundy and Gaspereau Valley. It is home to Acadia University and Acadia Cinema Cooperative, a non-profit organization that runs the local movie/performance house. Meet Jim, one of the 5 Jim’s who owned, or still owns The Odd Book, a rare book store.
Day 61 - 63 - We spent the day exploring the south coast - with a driver! What a treat to have Lynda tour us along the coastline of the Bay of Fundy, Blomidon Park, Canning, Minas Basin = fishing boats at low tide on red sand/clay beaches, farmland and orchards, vineyards, waterfall in Kentville, red sand, black sand, and my 1st Maritime Lobster at Hall’s Harbour Lobster Pound. It’s off season and the Lobster Pound is where to get fresh - it’s akin to an animal pound where trapped lobsters are kept alive by running sea water across their tanks. Here’s the menu - 😋
We went to Centreville - home of the Fairy Houses built by Charles MacDonald. In 1912 he started a concrete factory in Kentville, and as a renowned socialist, instead of paying his employees they had a Company Pot and the employees took what they needed! When he retired he went to the factory, handed the keys to his foreman and told him the factory was his. The 5 Fairy Cottages were built of concrete and knowing his employees needed an income during the Great Depression, he gave the cottages to them. It looks like the chimneys were made out of Jelly Beans and the driftwood fence is a natural work of art!
It was here on the beach that I joined my Friday Friends back home for a quick Zoom visit on a low battery and poor reception, but nice to see them.
And I got to put my feet in the Atlantic Ocean - great joy for a girl from BC. Not a swim though, unlike Lynda who swan in Aylesford Lake after a lovely walk through the forest from her home - and Roger again was a tick magnet, only one tick this time.
Mahone Bay with its colourful parking meter to donate your change to the Mahone Bay Chamber of Commerce, yarn and rug hooking shop and continued along Route 3 to Lunenburg - home of the Bluenose. We stopped in at St. John’s Anglican Church, founded in 1753, and a local pointed out a building to me that was a brothel and now bears the historical plaque The Gothel, so now I’m calling it the Gothel Brothel. He also told me that a really good musician named Turner recently moved here from Abbotsford.
Lunenburg was full of tourists, but we did learn that the Bluenose II was back on tour this week and we booked for a 2 hour sail on the 19th. Wow!! You’ll be hearing a lot more about that when the time comes.
We meand’ered along the coastline to Sand Dollar Beach and lingered long enough to miss the famed LaHave Bakery! Lynda found us great places to explore and filled us with lots of local history. And a family visit with Emily and family in their suburban home with a yard filled with plants, mostly native to Nova Scotia and not a lick of grass to mow - a family after my heart! They also drive a red Kona EV like us and Barbara in Saint George.
And I even got to pump gas into Lynda’s car - that’s been a while!! Took a lot less time than an EV, but a lot more $$$
We shared stories, books and book titles, music and music recommendations, and some seeds for the Community Garden Karen has going at Northview back home in Mission.
Sunday night we wrapped it up at Paddy’s Pub in Wolfville with a music ‘session’ and it was fantastic - real live Maritime stuff I’ve only dreamed of. Lynda was 1 of 4 fiddlers, accompanied by 2 guitars, a flute, a Celtic bodrain & Jenny, who played both fiddle and concertina. 3 of them were also vocal sololists leading some Maritime ballads. All wrapped up in a bow with a young couple in the pub dancing. It was magical.
Great Memories
Great Family Connections and Bonds
and Lots of Love
Day 65 - Left Aylesford and headed back on the 101 to Windsor, along the Evangeline Trail Scenic Route, named after the principal character in the epic poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but one of Windsor Nova Scotia’s claim to fame is “Birthplace of Hockey”, and is sister city to Cooperstown, NY, the “Birthplace of Baseball”.
On along Hwy 14 through Greenfield to Hwy 2, north to Stewiacke where we met Kamie, one of the two young proprietors of the Big River Cafe, (we made an Independent Bookstore connection). Stewiacke has a population of 1550 people, just over the 1300 at Mission Secondary, and it’s nickname is Halfway between the North Pole and the Equator. Now I haven’t tested that out, or fact checked, so my friends who like to do that type of thing, please let me know!
We charged up in New Glasgow where Roger talked to a guy charging a Ford 150 Lightning EV truck who has a company that sells and installs home and business charging stations, and business is quite brisk - good to hear. He spends $200/month less, including car payments on the EV truck and cost to charge it, than he used to pay on just the fuel to run his last truck.
The devastation from Hurricane Fiona is everywhere we look and I don’t know if we can give you pictures to let you comprehend just how horrible it was, and still is here. Fiona was a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane which was the most intense tropical cyclone to hit Canada on record. It hit landfall near Whitehead, Nova Scotia September 24, 2022 with winds of 105 mph (169 km/h), moved through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Nova Scotia from Halifax eastward, most of southeastern New Brunswick, most of P.E.I., some parts of Newfoundland and over southeastern Labrador Peninsula, lasting 3 intense days in the area. We saw some evidence of it in parts of the coast in Quebec and in New Brunswick, we just didn’t know what we were looking at. On the northern part of PEI the forests were so badly damaged by the blasts of the heavy gusts of salt water and sand that the forests that are left standing are filled with dead trees.
You can google Hurricane Fiona at cbc.ca hurricane fiona, but it doesn’t show near the devastation left behind or the years of work that it will take to restore. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/fiona-storm-damage-photos-nova-scotia-1.6595229
Arriving at Marilyn & Glen’s beautiful “cottage” at Melmerby Beach, in Little Harbour, Pictou, Nova Scotia, 20km from New Glasgow NS (there’s a New Glasgow in PEI too), through rolling hills, destroyed forests and lots of old farms, but not a lot of farming being done here now. It’s on Northumberland Shore and the beach is beautiful. This is everything I imagined - coastal community filled with families who have lived here for a few generations, grand parents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, everyone! Summer at the cottage, complete with games like Mexican Train and Rummy-O.
Glen drove us around Antigonish County, stopping in at Knoydart Farm in Merigomish, an organic cheese producer, Frazer Hunter, from the Scottish Highlands:
Arisaig Harbour where we talked to a couple of lobster fishermen (Glen says they never disclose their catch, just “fair” or “good”):
Ballantyne’s Cove Bluefin Tuna Interpretative centre where we spoke to a young girl studying to be a welder who is crew on a lobster boat with a female captain. Won’t that be nice when that is so normal that it’s not noteworthy 👍. Anyway, there is record there of a fisherman, Ken Fraser, who landed an Atlantic Bluefin Tuna weighing 679kg (1,491 lbs)! Holy Tuna Martha Jean!
On to Cape George Lighthouse overlooking Northumberland Shore, Cape Breton Island and PEI on a clear day - so windy we just took a few minutes for photos!
Glen knows most of the families around here, including some Bagnall’s - now wouldn’t that be a coincidence if Roger’s paternal grandmother is related, she was a Bagnall! And I think he quite likes driving the electric car! Lots of evidence of Fiona everywhere, especially when we were out in Merigomish Harbour and the shoreline.
Independent Bookstore update - The Curious Cat Tea and Books on Main Street in Antigonish, home of St. Francis Xavier University, owned by a young man who’s only been open a couple of years, very nice guy and very cool store.
Back at the cottage we poured over maps, shared stories with their family and friends and set our sites on PEI.
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