A Little Candadian Adventure! Part 6 - the last days.

Time for a couple of silly days now.  Just doing the old roads round this part of the coast, we decided that, following Sandra Phinney's description (see part 5), we would "do" Cape Sable Island.  No ferry needed, as there is a causeway to drive over.  We drove right to the end looking for Hawk Beach, but the road ran out in front of a couple of houses.  I think that in the summer, a gate is open and you walk across fields to the beach.  However, as we are not sun seekers nor North Atlantic Ocean swimmers (!), we turned back.  The major road (330) does a loop of the island but there is another loop nearer the mainland where we found this lovely quiet spot.  It's referred to as Bull's Head Wharf.   Just once in a while I get what I call a "Calendar Shot"..... I mean if I was looking for pics for a next year's calendar, this would definitely be one!  I mean - one third sky, two thirds land, good colour  etc.  What the picture does not tell you is that at our back was a fish plant!  No shame there.  People have to make a living, and we watched them unloading crates by hand and walking them to the plant.  A nice way to spend an hour or so with a picnic - away from the crowds!

On the way home we drove through Shag Harbour, thinking about the UFO landing of 1967, which Chris had told us about.  Looking out on the way through just spotted the sign.  Nothing much there as far as we could see but I looked it up and found this article and if you like unexplained phenomenon, this is a good one!  A proper visit next time, eh?!

Our last ride out was to Tusket, and then on to Quinan.  Tusket where the big Ford dealer was an Acadian gentleman - Mr Entremont,  who Mr Mac talked to about the British Treatment of the French in the old days, and the world in general.  Tusket where the Tusket Falls Brewery is.  Tusket where you take the opposite road and head off along the road to and through Quinan courtesy again of Sandra Phinney, who took her canoe, turned off at the church and went canoeing.  We didn't, but we had a fun  time just the same!  Fun, because we found two odd things.

A fish that swallowed a mail box!  It just made us laugh, and, if we used mail boxes, we might have had to invest in one.... Apologies to the Surettes whose box we captured on film.

 And then we spotted the sign below -

Vaughn Lake - Bed and Breakfast.

Stop. The. Car!  Laughing, we did, and walked down the lane to an empty house.  Nice business opportunity for someone because although secluded, it looks a darn site better than Bates Motel!

 But of course the reason we laughed is that we have a friend who truly is called Vaughan Lake.  I'm going to tell him I didn't know he had a B and B in Canada!!

And we went to lunch in a wonderful little restaurant called The Creperie in Yarmouth with Colette (here she is taking a photo opportunity at an exhibition of some of Maud Lewis paintings in Yarmoth that we went to see).  Good food, fabulous hostess and a quick tour of the house. 


So thanks to our Ford Escape (Kuga in the UK), we enjoyed our explorations.  She rode well over any kind of road, and sat high, so that we didn't miss much.  Here she is:

And that's it for this holiday.  Lovely times, good chats, delicious food (more scallops please!) and Oh! weren't we lucky with the weather this year!

A Little Canadian Adventure! Part 5

Visiting micro breweries - now that is fun!  We did two on our hols, and tasted samples at both of them.  Have a look at the Boxing Rock Brewing Company which we found at Shelburne.  Boxing Rock has some lovely beers, Mr Mac liked "Hunky Dory" very much - a pale ale full of flavour with, of course, a very suitable name!

Also there's a newer brewer (!) Tusket Falls Brewing Company whose Golden Ale, "Crack of the Rock" is a lovely light beer.  They are very experimental - they have a smoked ale - "Smoked Kiack", and an extraordinary kettle sour - "Left Right Here" which may be the oddest beer we have ever tasted, but would I think, be lovely ice cold on a hot day.

 Shelburne is a small but interesting town on the NS south shore... Go and see how traditional fishing dories are made. And how about a gift shop with fine dining in the back room?  We ate here one day and still want to know what was in that sauce that was served with scallops and pasta... tomato base, possibly some cream added, but what?  what?  what else?

So a few days left.  Exploring is good.  We had a look at the map and decided on an old road (203) between Carleton (above Yarmouth) and Shelburne.  It is right on the edge of the Tobeatic Wilderness Area and has a really bad road surface.... but as there is next to no traffic we drove mostly in the middle of the road.  There are maybe five hamlets on the map, which  consist of 5 or 6 houses, but it was a fascinating area to discover.  You can take a holiday out there somewhere in Trout Point Lodge
but it had no appeal for us, off the grid...... but with expensive food!  They have their own astronomer, and they are in the midst of one of the few Dark Sky Areas in the world. That's a lot of stars ......
                                                                                                      

 

But any road you have never travelled before is interesting.  And because it is the only road that touches the Tobeatic Wilderness Area it was worth the drive.

The reason behind this drive and a few places we visited (which I'll tell you more about in part 6) was a book called Waking Up In My Own Backyard by Sandra Phinny. Sandra Phinny decided that she'd take a month and visit places within a 100km radius of her own home.  She found loads of stuff and took great joy in telling her readers about it all.   Colette had read it and left it out for me to read.  Sadly I didn't make it to the end, but it will be there next time I go.

Phinny mentioned a tiny library, which happened to be in the village of Carleton, where we turned off to start the Wilderness Drive.  Here's what Sandra Phinny said about  the Durkee Memorial Library in Carleton which was built in 1938.  "The library is an eight-by-five-metre log cabin painted grey with green trim, and sits on an elevated ridge on Route 340 that passes through the village. There are maples, oaks, birch, pine, even a chestnut tree surrounding its sides and back. I’ve driven by the library hundreds of times but have only crossed its portals once – some thirty years ago, when I borrowed two books and never returned them".  So she visited, and so did we.  Closed until the season starts, but we could certain peer in through the glass door and if I pass that way again, I am definitely going in!

A Little Canadian Adventure! - Part 4

After our overnight stay and visit to Green Gables on PEI, we now take a second turn at driving the Constitution Bridge, pay the toll and come off the Island.  You either pay to go by ferry, or to come off by road and bridge.  I always laugh and say "but they want you to stay!"  Another long drive on the way back, stopping at the town of Windsor which I remember staying over at some years ago..... and as we drive into town, I spot The Clockmaker's House.  A glorious old Victorian house with many original features.  Great breakfasts too!

We ate out in town that night at The Spitfire, a British style pub covered in  beer adverts and other propaganda, a real Spitfire propeller mounted on the wall, and great scallops (which cannot be beaten in my opinion - although Colette does not agree!!).  Great service for breakfast at the Clockmaker's House, pancakes came with not only bacon and maple syrup, but a dish of fruit to add or not as you liked.  Good tea and coffee, and the larger breakfasts were cooked on a "build it yourself" style by choosing what you wanted from a long list the night before.

On leaving Windsor we headed south and took in a coffee shop in the Grand Pre area and a few steps up the road was The Tangled Garden, a treat for the eyes and a rest for the soul.  Here's the website with pictures to show how the flowering changes throughout the year, and below are some of my own with things I liked on my visit. 





Left, the shop window with lovely stuff for sale.


Right, forget-me-nots just rambling amongst the grass and under the trees.

ferns unfurling........

... a tripod awaiting a climber

and a crane in full flight!

Tulips were everywhere.... I particularly liked these black ones with a jagged edge to their petals.

 And look at these raised beds?  I have never seen this done before although I'm sure that it isn't new.  The edges are woven from twigs cut from hedges and trees - how recyclable is that?!!  In the UK you can buy these in bunches, I always refer to them as "peasticks", and old fashioned gardeners use them to guide the pea plants upwards.  In the bottom bed you can see huge iron nails which the twigs have been woven around (see the nailheads?).  I am seriously thinking about some of these kind of raised beds in my own garden.  After all, I have plenty of space.   And finally in the Tangled Garden we came across the lovely lady below.  Identified it as a Fern Peony.  Only about foot high, but it was easy to spot it was from the family - the ferny greenery tricked me though!  But that's what it is.  Or officially, a Paeonia tenuifolia. And, bummer,  it requires moist, well drained soil!  I have a hot, open garden at the top of a hill.  Protected from wind by high hedges and good planting, but moist it ain't.    Will I just try one?  Very probably.

Finally that day, a stop for lunch and a quick mooch around Annapolis Royal  which is another town that I categorise as "small and lovely" Anywhere that has a bookshop, places for lunch and a view fits into the category. Annapolis has a couple of nice gift shops too - but our luggage is very small. Historically interesting, it's a place to put on the route you are planning.

A Little Canadian Adventure! - PART 3

Fiddle heads.  Mmm?  What?  Every so often, in a North American novel, I see mention of fiddle heads.  People eat them.  So over the years with a little research I have found that that they are the uncurled heads (a plant in bud so to speak) of the Ostrich fern.  Imagine my surprise and delight when on the way to Yarmouth we stopped at a farm store - a huge shopping area full of fresh foods, and

there, in a basket, were fiddle heads, fresh and ready to cook.  Well, you have to, don't you?  A few of those with our supper later, I think.  Especially as my friend Colette, a Canadian citizen and dweller in the Maritimes for umpteen years, had never tried them and neither had I! Hard to describe the taste, but not like asparagus even though I have seen them described that way. High in several vitamins, but low in everything else, and I guess, when I think about it, they appear in spring when, before the days of freezers and food flown round the world, they were the early fresh greens that everyone craved.  They arrived just in time, like a dose of sunshine!  Glad I found them and glad I liked them.

We had a few lovely days of nothing much catching up on news from home, books we were reading, vegetable patches we have dug, cars we have driven, news of friends;  in fact the same old same old that friends catch up on everywhere.  The view above is from the back  deck overlooking the said veg. patch and on down to the river.  Canada geese and their new babies nesting down there too!

And then, after the Royal wedding (see Part 2 of our Little Canadian Adventure) we set off for a marathon drive to Prince Edward Island.  You really cannot do this drive in a oner, whoever you are, so we stopped at a Comfort Inn in Truro for the night, and then set off for The Bridge.  Forget Scandi thrillers.  This is a long, long bridge 8 miles (12.9 kilometres) and Mr Mac has driven this before.... so why not do it again?  Yay!  Once on PEI we get a Tim Horton's coffee and doughnut (now officially addicted to this little ceremony :o), and set off for our overnight home at the top of the island.  Bless AirBnB.  The gems we have found!!

views from the back of the house, the first two in the early evening....

and this one a little later - what a glorious spot!

There is a whole area called Cavendish  (Avonlea)..... a large area dedicated to holidays/vacations, so cabins everywhere.  When we were there the season had not yet started, but it must be buzzing when school is out for the summer!   But of course, we were not there for that.  We were there for one reason, and one reason only - Green Gables!!!!

How lovely to be able to walk through the house that inspired L M Montgomery to write "Anne of Green Gables".  The house itself was actually owned by cousins of her grandfather, and as a child she spent time there.  Of course, holiday makers, money, and tourism in general will change things, but despite what I consider to be some truly silly remarks on Trip Advisor (and the low scores that some folk gave),  I found the house quite magical.  Remind yourself that the book is fiction, and you should still be enchanted - even though the 21st century encroaches.  Here's a New York Times journalist who found Anne's world without too much trouble at all. 

Green Gables front door

.... and the back.

Spare room for guests should they come....

...complete with lidded pot under the bed.

Marilla's bedroom.....

.... and Matthew's,

and of course, Anne's.

Coming back to the house from "Lover's Lane"

One of  many silver birches around "Green Gables.

Montgomery's typewriter

Such a treat to have visited.  So glad it was not "in the season" either, or we'd have been surrounded by other visitors.  Not that I'm selfish, but it was nice to have space and time.  A youngish visitor, a male, asked one of the staff what the bowl and jugs in the bedrooms were for.  She explained that they were for your daily wash;  to which he replied "no showers?"(!).  No, and no indoor plumbing either lad!  Ah, those were the days!!

Finally, here are two tourists, wondering where the "Lake of Shining Waters" could be.  To bring you back down to earth, it's just at the beginning of the golf course!!

A Little Canadian Adventure! Part 2

If any reader was looking for a new kind of holiday experience - perhaps when you read this you will think about the Eastern seaboard of Canada.  I don't personally know anyone except close family of our own friends in Nova Scotia who have been there, and it's lovely!  Enough of the selling - let's move on to our own travels.

 Eating and drinking are all part of the joys of holidays, so overlook that bottle of wine on the little island there!  Breakfast is never heavy, so if we're out we are looking for a nice lunch.  Mahone Bay has a lot of eateries for a small town, and we were tempted by the name of a fish restaurant which goes by the fun name of OH MY COD!

We also took a ride along to the town of Lunenburg, where we found another treasure.  The most lovely bookshop where every book has been read by one of the owners and has a short paragraph on a slip of paper inside telling you what they thought!  Couldn't get enough of it and wished it was in my town!  Managed to only buy four books but then we travel light these days and that was three more than I should have.  Click here for their website   And of course, look out for their lovely bright board on the street outside.  You can't see them, but just behind the board and outside the shop door are two bright blue Adirondak chairs where you can sit and examine your "just boughts"!

 Now it's a quick pack and a cheery wave and we are out the back porch and on our way to Yarmouth for a few quieter days at 1020.  We wave at the little house as we drive on.  Lovely.

We love Frenchies, but if you don't come from that part of the world you won't know what I mean. It is an entirely Nova Scotian shopping experience.... a cross between a designer outlet and a jumble sale - No! Really!  You will spot the sign in the oddest of places, always a big separate unit.

Stop that Car!

Go inside!

 (Take 10$ Canadian and a spare hour).

Clothes are hanging up, Clothes are bundled up into big flat sided table top units, around 8ft x 5ft (ish). You need to dig around in the units, and look at every piece of clothing (and other stuff too, because my friend has loads of Ralph Lauren bedding!)  If you like a scramble, this is a fun occupation for a while.  And you just might get some serious bargains.  The last time we visited Mr Mac acquired a navy cotton drill Armani jacket (no, seriously); and this year a Ralph Lauren sports shirt, a long sleeved Fruits of the Loom Tshirt and a short sleeved ditto.  All new, and less than 10$ Canadian for all three.  Brilliant when that happens!

And then, on 19 May, like a lot of  others, we watched Mr and Mrs Harry Windsor's wedding!  Up early as in Nova Scotia the Wedding was scheduled to start at 8.00 am and we had a short drive up the coast to the venue.  We left the boys to do "boys' stuff", and sat down for some serious Royal watching.  8 or 9 women, some seriously dressed up for the occasion, some not so serious - Colette and I had a red sash each and the "Order of the Fish Plant" on display, the rest with a few fascinators, or paper crowns, but all truly keen to see the wedding.
Enough food for around 25, and a lemony cake "just like theirs!" says our host.   Champagne available, coffee on tap, and a jolly good time had by all, so thank you Shelagh.

We don't lay on beaches and get tanned, but we sure do enjoy our holiday adventures!

A little Canadian Adventure!: Part 1

Shopping in Mahone Bay.  Met the owner, wanted the chairs!

So it was time for another visit to Maritime Canada, and the province of Nova Scotia to visit friends Chris and Colette.  How long since we'd been?  Turned out to be a long time.  Too long, as we both love the province, and the friends aren't bad, either!  So we set off on 13 May, spent the night at a Gatwick hotel, and flew to Halifax - arriving in the afternoon, ready to hire the car and drive on.  From our own side of the Atlantic we had booked a little house in Mahone Bay for 2 nights, and invited them to drive down and stay with us before we went home with them.  We all like Mahone Bay.  Picture postcard town with a certain charm. 

(1)

(2)

So when you drive up a little dirt road by the river, and find the cottage you booked (1), aren't you excited?  We were!  Lots of oohs! It looks tiny, but this is a three bed house with a full bathroom and a small cloakroom downstairs, and it has two double rooms plus a single.  Plus Kitchen, dining room and living room.


 And the others were with us within about half an hour.  They'd brought food and wine and a few beers, so supper was soon on the table.  The view from the front door (2) was lovely, and the same goes for the view from the sofa (3)  in late afternoon.   How lovely to just sit with a cuppa and see the sun on the birches outside.

(3)

 Have a look at the BBQ area, with picnic table and fire pit (4) and then the river itself (5).  Believe it or not, from the house,  we saw blue herons here, fishing from the rocks, and we also saw several eagles doing the same thing!  What a fantastic sight to see a magnificent bird swoop down from the branch he was watching from and get his supper, fresh!

(4)

(5)

Mahone Bay is famous for it's three wooden churches you see as you drive down into town.  But they appear on every pic and postcard. So I took this with the churches at my back.  Gorgeous, isn't it?

And here is a view just across part of the bay.  Second home?  That little one in the middle would do someone nicely!!

Lulworth Cove, Dorset

Right on my doorstep and never been there before in my life!  We were out visiting a NGS garden open to the public for charity today and decided to come a different way home from Swanage.  The road we chose is often closed as it belongs to the MOD, but today, in glorious sunshine, the signs said ROAD OPEN! 

On this road you pass a turning for Kimmeridge and then you will pass a road with a gate saying No Entry.  That way lies the lost village of Tyneham sitting in a valley.  The entire village was requisitioned during WW2 and villagers were told they could come home when the war ended.  But of course they never did.  You can attend a church service there once a year, but otherwise it is gone but not forgotten.  A novel about the big house at Tyneham is The Novel In the Viola by Natasha Solomons - well worth a read, good on the facts, writing a delight, and just a slight tweek in the name of the village.

Anyway, on past that turning, a lovely drive if the road is open, all the way to East Lulworth where there is a castle, and then on down to the coast at Lulworth Cove.  And after parking the car and stopping for a cuppa, we walked down through the village and stood on the steps down to the little beach just watching people, the water, the birds and generally drinking it all in.

And what a glorious little bay it is - it looks like an almost perfect circle from ground level  - and as though a giant just took a bite out of the coastline!   This part of the coast is dark, as there are no towns to pollute the night sky - I think I must aim to go down one night and look at all the stars I never see.

Anyway, a fascinating detour for us, and a place to go back to again and  again.

Swedish Adventure 2016 - Part 7 - And more!

27 April
Up, breakfast and out!  Out on the metro to Globen, and a short walk to the Ericson Globe for a ride in the pod.  Even though we are early, we have to wait an hour for "our" turn.  Each pod will take 15 people, and there are only two pods.  So we get the tickets, and then go for a drink.  Coffee for John, hot chocolate for me.  "large or small?"  I don't know why chains ask you this question, because even small is so large we both have to leave half of it in the mug.  Such a waste - grrrrrrrr!

It's time.  We are the first in the queue and we are shown into a small cinema for a film about the Globe and the adjacent arena and public spaces.  Not riveting, but there you are.  And then, on round the corner and into the pod.

 This is the view up through the roof of the pod so that you can see the curve.  This is not the ride of a lifetime, but if you like engineering, and views, it's worth a look.  The views across the city are there for the taking of course!  Below is a view as we get to the top.  Disappointed to find that it doesn't actually go right over and down the other side..... just up to the top and a stop for the views, and then back down again.  Of course, thinking about it, if it went over the other side and down, the riders would be standing on their heads, and so it would be a more complicated mechanism to turn the pod over.

 I can't solve that one, and presumably neither could the designer!  Fun ride though and I am sure that kids would love it.  Everyone in our pod did.  And if like me, you are not that keen on looking down from a great height, there is a seat in the middle so that you don't see the ground.  Anyway, here is Stockholm from the top!  We see a little box on the handrail near us inside the pod and quickly realise that it is a tiny "go pro" camera, the kind cyclists and adventurers use.  A guy has taken it out of the strap and perched it on the hand rail so that it takes a movie of the entire journey without a wobble!  Great stuff.  Mr Mac now thinks this kind of camera might be a very good idea. Mmmmmm.

We pre-planned our route for the day, and the next place to have a look at is SoFo, lauded in the guide books as an area with a Soho (London) feel.  Sadly not.  It is about 6 blocks in an area that in recent years has been taken over by trendies, but frankly, we walk a lot and find little.  There's a street market, and some food on offer, and every so often a second hand shop (whichis right on trend now in Stockholm);  and sometimes an art gallery but those were closed.  The oddest thing we find is that every so often there is a stall manned by a person or a family with personal things to sell - the equivalent to a boot sale (UK) or a yard sale (US).  We press on, seen enough and now hungry and stop when a delicious smell crosses our path.  It's a greek restaurant and we go in.  Nice food, but oddly, no humous?!  Home made bread comes to the table with a dish of pink stuff - Taramasalata? Now that I don't eat, so I ask the waitress to take that away and replace it with humous.  "We don't do humous, sorry".  Well!  so I tell her I don't like fish and she says "But it's cheese!".  Each to his own, but for us, far too salty and so we left that.  Good food, and pleasant staff.

Next stop Gamla Stan  or The Old Town.  Island of it's own, cobbled streets, the royal palace, probably the place most tourists want to see.  Interesting, couple of gift shops with not too much tat which is a pleasant surprise, and people everywhere (of course!)  In this picture some of the oldest buildings (and probably the most photographed) in Stockholm in the old town square.   We press on and find ourselves at the back gate of the royal palace just at changing of the guard. A bit of senendipity!  It's just as much a ceremony  as it is at Buckingham palace, but on a teeny weeny scale, because they change just 3 guards.  And as they march away, out of the back gate and right past us, I smile to myself as one of them is short, and is..... a woman! Yay!  equality despite height!

So, we have seen enough now, and my legs ache, so we make our way slowly back to our hotel.  In one of the back streets nearby, I spot this clock over an arch.  Odd I think, because it's on the wall of the arch which is the entry into a quite ordinary building, and I don't think it is as old as it looks.  But I rather like it.

  We stop on the way for a beer and a juice (always the equivalent of £10 in Stockholm and I guess even more in classy places), and then that's it for today.  Tomorrow, my quest for Carl Larsson may reap a result, as a wonderful bloke at hotel reception tells me there is a gallery on one of the islands that has around 24 of his watercolours permanently on show.  We can just about fit that in I think before we fly off tomorrow to Copenhagen in Denmark.