A Remarkable Thing...

We went to Jamestown, Virginia a couple of years ago and now see another piece of the story at Port-Royal at the mouth of the Annapolis River, Nova Scotia. This was the first real experiment in living in the northern New World, led by Champlain who invented The Order of Good Cheer to ward off serious cabin fever. Port Royal (French 1605) and Jamestown (English 1607) were “it and dit” for timing and not too far apart as the crow flies or warships sail. It was a volatile era of territorial expansion and the two forts were front and centre. Port Royal lost the skirmish and was destroyed in 1613.  An interesting side-bar is that the reconstruction of Port-Royal, from a set of original plans, was energized by a woman from Massachusetts. Construction of this first-ever replica built on the first-ever National Historic was from 1939-1941, ironic timing considering world affairs in those years.

window at Port-Royal

the main entrance or Port-Royal

This Parks Canada interpreter/guide was excellent and later we realized we were seeing his face every where in the marketing materials for the area. At the Tidal Bore Power plant, we were told he is one of a set of identical twins, Alan and Wayne, who both work for Parks Canada. No wonder we saw him everywhere!

Try to keep up here...

The French moved the burned-out Port-Royal settlers 10 kilometers up the river and the now town of Port Royal survived until turned over to the English in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The English renamed the town Annapolis Royal after Queen Anne and it was the original capital city of Nova Scotia, replaced by Halifax in 1749. Fort Anne was built by the Scots in 1629 to protect Annapolis Royal. 

Fort Anne

Finally, the point of the story: the Fort Anne Tapestry. How does every Canadian not know about this remarkable piece of work? Begun in 1985 as a way to commemorate the centennial of Parks Canada, the project got underway in 1988 and was unveiled in 1998. There are four panels, each 4.5 feet wide and 8 feet high for a total of 8x18, and each representing a century of local history. Hundreds of people worked on it, including Queen Elizabeth. The detail is astonishing, including a Mi’kmaq shield made from birch bark and adorned with porcupine quill, a tiny “pearl” necklace, lace, and innumerable types of stitches.

The room is long and narrow so you can’t get a decent photo of the entire piece and my phone camera didn’t do justice to the vibrant colours but I hope you’ll get the gist. And if you get a chance to see it, do; it was a highlight of this trip.

Buildings and More...

Maritime human history is complicated with European contact beginning in 1605 at Port Royal, Nova Scotia. Those original Europeans, under Champlain and Sieur de Monts lived cooperatively with the Mi’kmaq but that harmony ended with arrival of the British. Six colonial wars between England and France, which initiated the expulsion of the Acadians; the Highland Clearances; the Great Irish Famines; and the American Revolution and Civil War; all impacted the area, leaving behind a rich mixture of culture and tradition.

In the 2^nd half of the 19^th century times were good for the rich: the lumber barons, the shipping magnates, and the merchants. On our travels throughout southern Nova Scotia we (Jim, Derek, Gayle, and me) were struck by the beautiful, large, homes of that era, the majority of which seem to be lovingly looked after. Of course there are many that are in stages of disrepair and we speculated what it might cost to bring one back to glory, starting with the foundation, roof, windows, wiring, plumbing, heating systems. You would have a grand dame on your hands that still isn’t insulated against the North Atlantic winds, with endless exterior painting required; a project not for the faint of heart or shallow pockets.

There are a lot of churches in the Maritimes too, many of them empty or repurposed. Along the Acadian Shore we came across two enormous structures for a very sparse population, 10 kilometers apart: Eglise Sainte Marie and Eglise St Bernard. Eglise Ste Marie is one of the largest wooden buildings in North America, built in 2 years (1903-1905) by 1500 volunteers under the supervision of an illiterate architect. The walls are lined with painted canvas! The church holds 800 people but only about 50 people attend mass so it’s held in the community center across the street. Mass is only held in the church at Christmas, Easter and for weddings; the furnace burns 81 litres of fuel an hour and it takes about 3 hours to bring the building to a reasonable temperature. The community is trying to raise enough money to fix the roof before interior repairs are undertaken. St Bernard took 32 (1910-1942) years to build, made from granite hauled by oxen from Yarmouth, open from May to October.

Rounding out the interesting buildings scenario, we came across this amazing cottage/house in Mill Cove near Birchy Head. It looks as though someone drove a lobster boat up on the rocks and then added steel stilts to keep it there. That’s probably not how it happened!

The tides in the Bay of Fundy are the highest and most powerful in the world; boats and buildings are high and dry or afloat, twice a day every day. People have adapted buildings with some very interesting underpinnings which must be a nightmare to repair. So much about a place can be guessed at by the buildings and southern Nova Scotia tells a fascinating story.

Another Hot Topic: Beaches

It’s the Maritimes, eh? There is a lot of water and people love “the beach” whatever that may mean to them. I used to love to go to the north shore of PEI in the winter, well bundled against the wind, for the emptiness and the creaking of ice moving with the tide. Another favourite used-to was gathering mussels off our own property for supper. The clamming was impressive there too, soft shell, not bar clams, which are quahogs no matter what anyone says and tough as shoe leather. The trouble with clams is that they live in the sand and are gritty so you can’t eat them right away. They have to have 24 hours in seawater and oatmeal to spit the sand out, like a self cleaning oven. There were millions of clams on our beach squirting us with every step. We lived on a river estuary, about 1 kilometer across and shallow enough that the water got warm in the summer and we also had fun mud flats at low tide. I once counted 39 heron fishing within eye sight. Not being at all interested in the yacht club lifestyle we had two tiny sailboats moored on the beach, one a Mistral and the other a catamaran, and the water was warm enough to wade or swim out to the boats when we wanted to use them. No commitment no hassle sailing, with miles of waterway on our doorstep. In the fall we took down the masts and hauled the boats up on the lawn; easy peasy. 

I’ve drifted away from the beach topic, not quite becalmed but not on course.

PEI has miles of accessible beach, most of it low bank, and all of it a variation on the red sandstone. The most famous beaches, the north shore on the Gulf of St Lawrence, are pale pink even though typically branded as “white sandy beaches” and some areas have fantastic dunes. The south shore beaches, on the Northumberland Strait, are darker red and the sand is coarser. “Up west” and “down east” beaches might be the actual best because they are transitional with enough sand for lounging but warmer water than the Gulf.

Cavendish cliffs

Stanhope Cape

Victoria By The Sea, PEI

 The only other place that I’m aware of with warm water is the Strait side of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Once you move close to the Atlantic, the water is bone-aching cold unless you find a beach that is shallow enough to allow the sun to warm the tidal flats and then the water. Right now we are about a kilometer from Queensland Beach, south of Halifax, and there were lots of people in the water yesterday. Not me!

A few years ago we kayaked out to some small granite islands near Terence Bay, NS, to what is referred to as the Canadian Caribbean which was quite spectacular.

The summer beach season is short and many Maritimers are religious about their beach time, storing up sun and memories for the colder days. The PEI government goes on summer hours to extend employee leisure time, and no one really expects much to get done in the summer. Work is for winter, in fact there used to be a government employment “Winter Works Programme”. Obviously my experience is all PEI, but in our travels we have managed to visit a few other beaches many of which are of gravel or the UK word, shingle. You need a chair to lounge on these beaches, can’t just dig out a depression in the sand for your butt. But beautiful all the same....

Grand Manan Island, NB

Hopewell Rocks, NB

Queensland Beach, NS

Queensland Beach, NS

The Great Lobster Roll Debate

What used to be “poor people” food, lobster sandwiches that were eagerly traded for peanut butter and jam in school yards, have evolved into an iconic Maritime and New England menu item. Even McDonalds golden arches sported a McLobster Roll until this year when the price of lobster pushed it out of their demographic. People are passionate about what is right or wrong about different versions and everyone has their favourite restaurant/cafe/food truck/pub source. When we are in the Maritimes, we eat lobster rolls as often as we can manage it. Don’t be fooled because it’s seafood, this is not a diet meal. Lobster is very rich and a lobster roll includes mayonnaise, white bread, coleslaw, and often french fries; quite the combo for the school-girl waistline and complexion.

Some chefs get too creative with the ingredients, some use rolls that are too big or dense, some put in too much lettuce. There is a long list of “too” meaning, NOT RIGHT. By the way, lobster should never be hot. UGH. 

The body count so far this trip, (I mean the pounds added to the body and we didn’t even get to the two most highly recommended on PEI: The Lobster Barn in Victoria, and Dave’s in Charlottetown) includes but is not limited to:

Gahan Waterfront in Halifax: dill seasoning and too much bread. Who puts dill with lobster? Crazy.  

Irving Big Stop, Aulac: too much mayo so no longer the best

Fisherman’s Wharf, North Rustico: too skimpy and in a wrap instead of bread. Really?

Irving Big Stop, Truro: too big a bun/roll

The Grand Manan ferry: excellent

Brakish Bar and Grill, Charlottetown: outstanding!

How is perfect defined? It’s a simple recipe: a toasted top-split white hot dog roll, which I understand doesn’t exist everywhere; a generous amount of lobster, medium to small dice; enough mayo to moisten but not drown the lobster;  a tiny amount of lettuce in the bottom of the roll to stop the juice from absorbing into the roll. And that is it. I also had a lobster flatbread dish and a lobster pizza. You are allowed to be creative with those, but NOT a lobster roll.

Perfection at Brakish

Dill and too much bun at Gahan, Halifax

Pretty darned good on the Grand Manan ferry, and the cheapest at $12.00.

Lobster dinner with the rellies in Saint John.

And then there is the full-on lobster pig out: in the shell, with potato salad, and probably mussels as a starter. There are rules!