Long Cove, Port Medway

Today we walked from Port Medway to Long Cove.

It was good to feel the warmth of the sun after a cold, wet week.

There is a little harbour at the end of the dirt road and Long Cove cutting inland.

Wire lobster traps were stacked up on the dock.

As well as the older styled wooden pots.

Our picnic spot had to be back at the limestone rocks,

with amazing views.

Apple and cherry blossom, plus wild azalea and bunch berry flowers, helped to add colour to our hike.

These tiger swallowtail butterflies enjoyed the heat of the track.

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.

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/

Painted Lady and Monarch Butterflies

On a recent trip to Liverpool, we decided to take the Shore Road that leads to Western Head. The plan was to try to fish at the point near the lighthouse. That wasn’t really a possibility, but we were rewarded with the sight of a huge number of butterflies on the knapweed.

They were mainly Painted Ladies and were here by the hundreds.

They flew and settled continuously around me.

My eye was drawn to a few much larger butterflies – Monarchs. They have veins in the centre of their wings but no brown markings or spots.

It was only once I was home, that I noticed that one had  torn wings.

The Monarch butterfly is famous for its migration from Mexico to Canada and then the reverse at the end of the summer.

Will this injured butterfly manage the trip to Mexico?

How many butterflies can you spot?