Beautiful little Prince Edward Island

We hadn't visited Prince Edward Island in several years. I think the last time we went there was around 1998. We used to go to PEI, as the natives call it, frequently with our three-man tent and, later, our tent camper in tow.

Somehow we switched allegiances, I guess, and Nova Scotia became our favorite of the Maritimes. On this trip we visited both provinces, and I came away feeling that my heart is now with PEI again.

We took the ferry from Nova Scotia over to PEI, a 75-minute ride. It was a beautiful, warm-and-sunny day, which tricked us into thinking the weather had finally turned for the better. Wrong.

Nonetheless, the PEI countryside was as sweeping and beautiful as ever. The rich farmland is ideal for growing potatoes, PEI's principal crop.

This spring, however, the weather in the Maritimes has been as miserable as the weather in all the Northeast, with a lot of rain, so as of the end of May, farmers still hadn't been able to plant their potatoes. I hope they've been able to get the seedlings into the ground since our visit.

The northern coast of the island is our favorite area, dotted with little villages nestled into valleys and beautiful, red beaches. The ocean water is warmer there than it is here in Maine, because PEI gets the benefit of the Gulf Stream currents.

The Anne of Green Gables House is located in Cavendish. We didn't visit it on this trip because we've been there before.

For some reason I didn't read any of the Anne series as a child. I guess I was too hung up on Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden.

So on one of our visits to PEI in the mid-70's, I purchased several in the Anne series and read them all while on the island.

We spent one day in Charlottetown but didn't seem to find much going on. The tourist season doesn't get into full swing until early July, I'd guess, and the weather has surely deterred tourists this year.

When it was time to get back to the mainland and head home to Maine, we took the Confederation Bridge over to New Brunswick.

The building of this $1 billion bridge was quite controversial in the early 1980's. You can imagine how folks feared it would ruin the culture of their here to fore-accessible-only-by-ferry province. Eventually the bridge did get built, and it opened in 1997. It was quite a thrill to drive across the bridge the first time.

The bridge, 8 miles long and the longest bridge in the world over ice-covered water, is a masterpiece of engineering.

I talked with a clerk in a PEI sweater shop, asking her if she felt the bridge had dramatically changed PEI. She said no, it hadn't. She went on to say what a pleasure it is to be able to get to the mainland any time one wants to now, rather than waiting for a ferry, perhaps missing it, and having to kill time until the next ferry came along.

She surprised me then by saying each fall she and three friends rent a van and come to North Conway, NH, to shop in the outlets. I shop in North Conway, too, but I can't imagine being willing to drive for 12-14 hours for the experience!

We traveled across the bridge in mid-morning, spent that night in Bangor, Maine, then drove the rest of the way home the next morning.

It was a good trip all 'round, and it was fun to be in that area of North America again. Now I'm looking forward to going back. We're thinking some September, when the leaves are beginning to turn, would be a good time to go.

Cape Breton

The island of Cape Breton, on the northeast tip of Nova Scotia, is our favorite part of the province.

I've often thought that those who go to Nova Scotia but limit themselves to the Yarmouth-Halifax region don't really see the true beauty of the place.

Cape Breton is about a 4-5 hour drive from Halifax. We set out for the Cape early in the morning and, after taking the Canso Causeway onto the island and driving another hour, arrived at our destination, Baadeck, around mid-afternoon.

Baadeck is a small village on the Bras d'Or Lakes. It's where Alexander Graham Bell and his family spent their summers, so of course there's an excellent Bell Museum located here.

We spent two nights in Baadeck. All the while we were there we debated whether to drive the Cabot Trail, surely one of the most scenic drives anywhere, or give in to defeat and head on to Prince Edward Island. The weather just wasn't cooperating: clouds, misty rain, chilly temps. We'd already driven this trail three or four times over the years, so I said if we didn't drive it this time, that would be OK with me. Ken agreed.

Then the morning of the perhaps-drive arrived, clouds and all, and Ken said, "Let's do it. Maybe we'll get some clearing along the route."

I was glad he suggested that, because it turned out to be a beautiful drive. The clouds did lift, and the coastline showed us its stunning beauty. We also spotted some patches of snow when we reached the summit of the island; this was a surprise since it was late May and the maximum elevation was perhaps 500 metres.

This (below) is my favorite view along the Cabot Trail. I'd waited for this view ever since arriving in Nova Scotia several days earlier. Once you see this area of the province, you understand how Nova Scotia which means "New Scotland," got its name.

By the way, the east coast of Cape Breton is heavily Gaelic, and to this day you still see place signs in both English and Gaelic. (Be sure to click on the link here to see a beautiful video of the Gaelic culture of Nova Scotia.)

The west coast of the island, though, is heavily French, so Gaelic gives way to French on the road signs.

The drive along the entire Cabot Trail, with occasions stops for photos and a stop for lunch, takes five hours.

We ended up back in Baadeck and headed immediately to the mainland again. We would catch the ferry to Prince Edward Island early the next mornining.

Home from NS and PEI

Yesterday Ken and I returned home from our ten-day jaunt to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

I'd mentioned to Ken in March that it would be nice to go up to Nova Scotia and check out some of those good Canadian yarn shops. Ken was game for it, and before we knew it we'd decided to go to Newfoundland as well.

Then we came to our senses. Ken has friends in St. John's, NFLD, and if we went to that island, we'd definitely want to pay them a visit. But once you get off the NS to NFLD ferry (a trip of something like 8 hours across the choppy seas), it's a 500-mile drive across the island to St. John's. It just didn't seem feasible to us to make Newfoundland a part of this trip. So we decided to go only to Nova Scotia....

But then, I mentioned a woolen mill on Prince Edward Island that I'd love to visit, and getting to that tiny island is easy from NS, so our itinerary became Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in ten days. Easily do-able.

We drove from southern Maine to New Brunswick the first day, then on to Halifax the second. The top photo shows you the weather that greeted us in Halifax.

Our hotel was located across Halifax Harbour in Dartmouth, so we hopped the little passenger ferry any time we wanted to go into the city.

One day we spent touring the coastline from Halifax south to Lunenburg. Our first stop was Peggy's Cove, an adorable little fishing village with quaint scenes like the one above. The Peggy's Cove lighthouse is my banner photo at the moment.

It was just off Peggy's Cove that Swissair Flight 111 crashed in 1998. I remember hearing stories after this air disaster of the kindnesses extended by the people of Peggy's Cove to family and friends of those who died aboard the flight. There is a monument in memory of the victims just a short drive from the heart of Peggy's Cove.

After we left Peggy's Cove, we drove farther down the coast to Lunenburg. This is where Ken and I spent our first night in Nova Scotia on our honeymoon in 1970. (Wink) It's a fishing village, naturally, and there's an interesting fishermen's museum there.
I love the colorful buildings in Lunenburg. Actually, colorful buildings can be found in almost any of Nova Scotia's coastal villages.

The two fishing vessels to the left were actually docked in Halifax Harbour. I wanted to show you that not every day in Nova Scotia was rainy! All of them were quite chilly, though. Ah, well, we enjoyed ourselves despite the less-than-ideal weather.

This last photo I took in the Hydrostone district of Halifax. Ken and I walked from the harbour front to the Hydrostone district specifically so I could visit a yarn shop there. We easily walked ten miles that day, no exaggeration. Once we found the shop, we discovered it was closed because it was Canada's Victoria Day. So that was that. We walked back to the harbour and consoled ourselves with a delicious seafood lunch.

BUT, my reason for including the photo of the Hydrostone district is to tell you about the Halifax Explosion of 1917.

My mother would have been thirteen years old then. She lived on a remote farm about 25 miles from Fredericton, NB. One day her father, my Grampy Haines, was out working in his fields when suddenly he noticed all of his cows were startled and looked to the east.

Grampy was curious as to what had caused his cows to do this. It was several days later, when the newspaper arrived, that he read of the tragic Halifax Explosion. He realized his cows had managed to hear the explosion or, perhaps, to feel the earth shake, even though Halifax was a good 300 miles or more from his farm.

The Hydrostone buildings, named for the type of granite used in their construction, were built after the explosion to replace homes that had been destroyed. Check out the link I've provided to read more about this devastating accident in Halifax Harbour.

In my next post I'll share our next stop: Baddeck and Cape Breton Island. After that comes Prince Edward Island. The story of my yarn-cation will be a post all by itself. Stay tuned, please.

At least rain is good for the rhubarb

Maine's weather forecast for this week:

Yesterday: rainy and chilly

Today: rainy and chilly

Tomorrow: rainy and chilly

Wednesday: rainy and chilly

Thursday: rainy and chilly

Friday: rainy and chilly

Saturday: ditto

Let's face it: Maine is having a lousy spring.

But at least this weather is good for the rhubarb, and I've been trying to grow rhubarb in my garden since we moved here eleven years ago.

This year there's finally enough rhubarb for a pie, so Saturday I got to work.

I used my favorite rhubarb pie recipe, rhubarb-strawberry pie, from Majorie Standish's cookbook.

Marjorie was a Mainer, and boy, did she know how to cook.

I had no strawberries, though, so I used blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries.

This was the pie Saturday afternoon.

And this was the pie Sunday afternoon.

The pie consoled our rain-weary souls for about twenty-four hours, as you can see.

But then, last evening, a pair of indigo buntings arrived in our front yard!

I know they won't stay for long. They make a brief appearance every spring before moving on to more luxurious accommodations, I guess.

They sure are pretty, though. My goal today is to try to get a photo of both of them at once. So far they haven't been cooperating.

Spring has sprung, sorta

Things are looking up around here.

My flowers are starting to bloom, which means I can pretty much have a fresh bouquet of flowers in the house from now until fall. I do love to have a vase of flowers on the coffee table.

The strange brown object in the lower right corner of the flower shot? That would be Molly, our chocolate Lab's, nose. She likes to inspect anything brought into the house and give it her stamp of approval.

The wild violets are in bloom. We have wild violets bordering our property, and I enjoy seeing them come into bloom each spring.

I noticed the wild Jack in the Pulpits are up through the soil and starting to develop their amazing blossoms. I'll be photographing some of those for you before long, and then it'll be time for the Lady Slippers....

And....the bluebirds are still here!

I was all but certain they'd left the nesting box. I even tapped on the box lightly last Friday but no one came to the door. I announced to Ken they were surely gone, and to lessen my grief I turned my attention to the arrival of the hummingbirds.

Then, on Saturday, lo and behold, I glanced out the pantry window and spotted the bluebirds. They seemed to be setting up the little crib, laying in a stock of Pampers and formula, in general getting ready for the arrival of their little family.

And finally, as if my joy could not possibly grow, today I found some fresh fiddleheads while grocery shopping.

We love fiddleheads. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, they're an edible fern which grows in the Northeast and, perhaps, elsewhere.

Fiddlehead season is a season to celebrate. Fiddleheads, steamed and served with a dab of butter and a little vinegar, are absolutely delicious.

I paid an arm and a leg for this pound of fiddleheads ($4.50), but I couldn't help myself. Several years ago when I was driving up to central Maine to spend a Saturday with my mother, I spotted a sign at someone's driveway: "Fiddleheads, 75¢ a pound." I bought five pounds and should have bought twenty.

One of my big dreams in life is to discover the location of a batch of wild-growing fiddleheads. So far, I've had no luck. Folks who've found fiddleheads keep the location a secret. I don't really blame them.

I haven't told Ken we'll be having fresh fiddleheads for supper. I want to surprise him.

Stressed

I've been on an emotional roller coaster since the bluebird couple arrived and began setting up housekeeping in one of the nesting boxes.

If I don't see any sign of them for hours, I panic and worry that they've moved on.

If I see them, I'm ecstatic and assured they plan to stay awhile and raise a little family.

At the moment I'm panicked. I haven't seen any activity at the nesting box for 36 hours.

I'm trying to keep a level head. I've put out fresh nectar for the hummingbirds, which should blow into town any minute.

I've set out an orange half for the Baltimore orioles, which sometimes arrive here as early as May 3. I've also made fresh cakes of suet, which they absolutely love.

I've made a Frozen Mocha Toffee-cruch terrine, not for the bluebirds but for human consumption. And the humans consumed it mighty quickly. Recipe here.

And I've been knitting to calm my nerves. These slippers are Duffers, a free pattern and a quick knit. I'll definitely make more of these, and next time I'll make the instep just a little higher by adding a couple or three more rows.

I've also knit a Tulip baby sweater, size 6 months, for no one in particular but just because I wanted to experience the fun to incorporating various colors into one design. I think of it as a Crayola sweater.

So that's it. Back to my binoculars trained on the bluebirds' nesting box....

When what to my wondering eyes should appear....

I love my birds.

We used to see rose-breasted grosbeaks and evening grosbeaks galore at our old house, but we had lots of pine trees around us then.

Here at our "new" house, which we moved into in 1999, we seldom see grosbeaks, because we have mostly oak trees, I guess, but oh, the birds we do see!

That's an indigo bunting in the first photo. He arrived one rainy spring day a few years ago and hung around only a few hours before moving on. He was kind enough to pose for this shot before taking off.

I'll never forget the day I was working in the kitchen and glanced out the window in time to see this at the suet feeder. It's a pileated woodpecker, and I'd seen only a few, from a long, long distance, before this one stopped by. I couldn't believe my eyes at first, because I'd never seen such a large bird partaking of the suet. He came back several times over the next few days and hammered away at the suet cake. He pretty much reduced the cake to a few crumbs in no time. We still have pileated woodpeckers in our woods out back, but I haven't seen one at the suet cake lately.

Bluebirds! I think bluebirds are my very favorite birds. I love their beauty and their shyness.

The first one shown here perched on the same bird feeder mentioned above, posing patiently while I snapped his picture, two or three years ago. When I e-mailed this photo to my sister, she accused me of having put a plastic bird on the feeder. I guess he does look almost too beautiful to be real, but real he is. (Click on the photo to get a larger view of him.)

There's nothing more striking than the sapphire blue of a male bluebird.

I hadn't seen bluebirds around our yard for a couple of years and was getting quite discouraged. I got even more discouraged when Grammie G posted these photos of bluebirds in her yard a little over a week ago. She lives in central Maine, so I figured if there were bluebirds in her yard, that must mean they'd by-passed our southern Maine home to get to her beautiful yard.

Wrong! Yesterday morning I peered out the pantry window, did a double-take, and hollered to Ken, "There are bluebirds in one of the nesting boxes!" Ken put up these new nesting boxes only recently, and we generously rent them for a song. :•)

And I've pretty much spent every spare minute at the pantry window, binoculars or camera in hand, watching the comings and goings of the bluebird couple building their nest in this nesting box.

A few minutes ago I watched the male waiting patiently on the box's roof while the female went off to gather nesting materials. She returned with a mouthful of pine needles and one old, dried leaf. The male grabbed the leaf from her, whittled it down to size so it would fit through the nesting box opening, and took it inside. She did the same with her pine needles.

I see baby bluebirds in my future.