Cape Split Revisited

The last time we visited Cape Split was in October 2012. What a thrill it was to hike this week-end and see the spring flowers.

The forest floor was white with these little white flowers. They had 5 petals and looked a bit like wood anemones. I think they are called Grass of Parnassus.

I love the vibrant pink of the Purple Trillium.  Cape Split must have the most specimens I have seen anywhere. There were hundreds of plants!

I photographed the old broken tree last time, but it has now lost one of its huge branches.

The white and yellow flower is called Dutchman’s Breeches. Seemingly, the flowers look like little pantaloons (upside down), hanging on a clothes line.

Of course the violets added colour everywhere.

At the end of the trail is Cape Split itself. The trail opens into a meadow and looks out over the Bay of Fundy. This is where we always sit to have our picnic and watch the seabirds.

The seagulls seemed to be happy that they were on an island.

There was more colour to be seen as we drove back through Scots Bay.

I remembered, too late, that I was going to look for Ami McKay’s house at Scots Bay. She is the author of ‘The Birth House’ and the book is set in this rural location. I reread this book after my last visit to Cape Split and could imagine the characters as she described them.

A Typical Morning in Lunenburg

Lunenburg has a population of just over 2,000, but in the summer months it fills up with visitors.

We enjoy a walk around the town in the morning, before the tourists are on the streets.

This is Monday morning, looking down to the Railway Wharf.

And across to the Bluenose Golf Course.

This is the same view on Wednesday morning.

This is the Martha Seabury schooner, which was built here in Lunenburg.

https://queensincanada.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/the-launch-of-the-martha-seabury-schooner-at-lunenburg/

During the summer months, this old fishing boat, The Cape Rouge, sits at the wharf. It is used in the filming of the TV series, Haven.

The Adams and Knickle building is undergoing renovation work.

The booths are open ready for trips on the ocean.

The nearest boat does harbour tours, the Eastern Points goes  whale watching and the Eastern Star, sailing trips.

https://queensincanada.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/a-sail-on-the-eastern-star-at-lunenburg/

The waterfront restaurants are open for breakfast.

But no one wanted to sit outside on Wednesday.

The horses are ready to take tourists on a tour of the old town.

And the Fisheries Museum will open to educate visitors on the history and past life of Lunenburg.

There is also a cruise ship in the harbour.

The Lagniappe, registered in the Marshall Islands, which you could charter for $110,000 per week!!!

The little shed beside the foundry is crooked and worn.

The latest boat at the foundry wharf. Am I back in Dundee – it is called the Discovery?

Looking across to Lunenburg from the golf course road,

to the colourful town and the Fisheries Museum.

But there was no view on Wednesday.

Even this osprey didn’t seem to see us.

He flew just above our heads.

Then back into the nest with the young.

There’s always something to see, walking around Lunenburg.

Spring is here at last – well maybe!

This Easter week-end has marked the beginning of some warmer weather here in Nova Scotia. Yesterday we went to Kejimkujik Seaside, which is a National Park.

You can see our walk on Googlemaps.

http://goo.gl/maps/ND7gJ

We started out by walking the rocky shore  along Boyd’s Cove and MacLeod’s Cove.

There is a rough track in places

The sea was very blue – I did not touch up this photo.

Parts of the coastal track had been washed away the last time we walked here. Another path has been cut, a bit further from the shore, through the trees.

And the  boardwalk has been repaired in places or totally renewed, like this section.

Unlike Europe, the ‘history’ here is not very old. This is the ruin of the house of Hugh Cameron, a shepherd on St Catherine’s River Farm in the early 1900’s. But sheep farming here was a harsh existence and the land was eventually given to the Federal Government and became the Seaside Adjunct of the Kejimkujik National Park.

Yesterday, the bay was full of lobster boats, the better weather a pleasant change for these fishermen, who are only allowed to fish here on this part of the shore during the winter months! It has been a tough time for them – probably harder than sheep farming!

In my last post about this park, I added this photo of a wrecked boat that we spotted sitting high and dry on Little Hope Island.

There used to be a concrete lighthouse on the island until just after Hurricane Juan in 2003, when it collapsed.

This amazing photo was taken by Jeff Tutty of Hunts Point, Nova Scotia in August 2003 and the wrecked boat was already there!

Seemingly, the crew of the Lady Helen  fell asleep!!

I didn’t have my tele-photo lens with me yesterday, but the boat has gone and the rocky island is hardly visible above the water.

We continued round to the sandy beach

and walked as far as is possible.

Then it was back to the car – a total of 14 km.

The forecast for this week is back to freezing most days, so maybe Spring isn’t here yet.

If you’d like to see Kejimkujik in the summer, with the birds and flowers, you can look at the blogs I wrote in 2009.

https://queensincanada.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/kejimkujik-national-park-part-1/

https://queensincanada.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/kejimkujik-part-2/

Mount Uniacke Estate Park

On Saturday, we headed to Mount Uniacke Estate Park. The house here was built, in 1813, as a summer home for Richard John Uniacke, a Nova Scotian Attorney-General.

Of Irish descent, Uniacke  modeled the property after the Irish country estates he had known as a child.

The house is of Georgian design with large porticos.

There is the original carriage house

with a weather vane

An avenue of European ash trees goes from the house down to the lake, where there would have been a boat house.

Richard Uniacke called the lake Martha Lake after his wife.

We heard the laughing cry of a woodpecker and looked up to see a PILEATED WOODPECKER!!! above us. I have been hoping to see one of these birds since coming to Canada and saw one last week-end, when I had no camera.

This bird is about the size of a crow, but has this lovely red hat.

It was very busy making a nice nesting hole.

There are several hiking trails around the estate and we headed off for a good walk.

This is the Old Post Road, the original road from Halifax to Windsor. A stagecoach travelled this road daily, the 20 mile journey taking 4 hours! It must have been a comfortable trip!

There are a great many dead and dying trees on the estate.

Some looking quite majestic.

This squirrel was not pleased to see us.

Despite the dying trees, there is a fantastic regrowth of young trees.

In some places the trees cover the path.

We planned to take this track below, but it was like a river bed. We continued around the Wetlands Trail and still had to make several detours to avoid wading in water.

We made it back to the house and looked for the pileated woodpecker.

He had finished his construction, or destruction and had settled into his new home.

The house is now a museum, but was closed for the winter.

You can take a look inside on this virtual tour.

http://museum.gov.ns.ca/uemp/en/home/virtualtour.aspx