Hurricane Earl

We followed Hurricane Earl on its way up the East Coast of America and prepared in case it should hit Nova Scotia.

After a week of temperatures in the 30’s we headed to Hirtle’s beach on Friday to see if the storm was making its presence known. Lots of people had come out to enjoy the surf and the air was cooler at the coast.

I was happy that the storm did not hit us until Saturday morning. The weather stations tracked it as it made landfall at Lunenburg. The winds bent the trees and the rain battered every window. We lost our power about 11am, along with 200,000 customers around the Maritimes. As the storm subsided and the sky lightened, I took this photo from the house.

The sea was rough, but nothing like the surf we had last year after Tropical Storm Bill.

Then, there were huge waves.

You can compare Earl with Bill –

https://queensincanada.wordpress.com/2009/08/

We had a few dead pine trees that we intended to cut down soon, but Earl did that for us.

Unfortunately, they were right across our driveway.

Sunday, was spent clearing up and then we headed to Green Bay for a walk.

This barn did not manage to stand up to the storm, but then it only needed a last push as the roof had fallen in some time ago.

The only signs of the storm at the beach were the rafts of kelp, ripped up and dumped on the sand.

The lobsters hadn’t fared too well. There were lots of parts tangled in the weed.

But the cormorants were enjoying the day and as the weather man had said -‘What Hurricane?’

For more news of the storm around the Province go to

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/storm_watch_stories3&stormfile=hurricane_earl__the_afterma_050910?ref=twitternews

Another trip to Kejimkujik

We thought we needed another trip to Kejimkujik Seaside Adjunct before the winter and we couldn’t have chosen a better day.

We decided to walk out the stony beach way first and then have our picnic on the sandy beach. There was a barrier across the route we wanted to take and a notice saying the route was closed due to storm damage. But we have waded across mountain streams and even the head of Loch Avon, so we didn’t think there would be anything that would prevent us from getting round the coast. Obviously the damage was caused during Hurricane Bill, that I wrote about in August. You will remember my photos of the seas after that storm, so it is quite understandable that we found boardwalks ripped out and carried well up from the shore. Where the boardwalks had been was like crossing burns, but we managed. Trees had also been ripped up and huge boulders washed up from the shore.

We noticed this boat washed up on this island, the last time we were at the park, so it was not caused by Hurricane Bill. Nor was it washed off this time.

The sky was blue, the water green and just a light swell on the sea.

We thought this little piping plover would have gone, but he was obviously enjoying the sunshine too.

The storm had changed the  sandy beach and the first part has now become a stony beach.

But there there was still enough sand for us to sit and have our picnic.

We wonder if someone can tell us what these prints were made by. There was a large gap between each set of prints, looking as if the animal had bounded forwards.

These look more like a dog, but there were no prints of people and no dogs around. We had this fantastic beach all to ourselves.

I couldn’t leave Kejimkujik without yet another rock picture for my collection. I have photos of rocks from the tors in the Cairngorms to  rocky outcrops in the Dolomites; I just love rocks.

You might notice that wrecked boat again out on the island.

No doubt we will notice more changes on our next visit to thepark. That’s the great thing about the coast, it is always changing.

Hurricane Bill hits Nova Scotia

We have been a bit tense the last few days, watching the progress of Hurricane Bill. The Hurricane Centre at Dartmouth was predicting it would hit the East Coast of Nova Scotia last night and today and might be serious, due to the extremely hot weather we have been experiencing for the past couple of weeks.

We tied everything  up outside that couldn’t be moved inside and cleared our deck. This meant bringing all of our garden pots inside, some to the basement, leaving an empty deck.

We had heavy rain in the morning and lost our power for an hour but the winds did not get to the speeds predicted.

Once everything calmed down a bit this afternoon we all headed to Hirtle’s Beach to get some spectacular photos.

We had been kayaking the past three Sundays, but perhaps to-day was a day we had to miss.