Social Historian and Maternal Feminist ?

L. M. Montgomery A Product of Her Time,
Social Historian and Maternal Feminist
By Wilhelm (Bill) Arends

Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, is the defining novel of Prince Edward Island. The novel may produce a somewhat sugar-coated version of the truth but none-the-less produces an accurate image of life in turn of the century rural Prince Edward Island, with its good points and bad. Montgomery did not attempt to make the Island a total paradise, but does not dwell on the negative, because after all this is a novel for primarily aimed at young women of the time. Montgomery though was a very good observer of human behavior. The characters she created were a product of their times, with all the aspects of that societies’ social behavior, both good and bad. Even though most of the issues that predominated history at the time are only superficially dealt within the novel the connection to the culture of the time is clear. While Montgomery would go on to write a whole series of interesting and influential works, this novel is the one that best describes turn of the century Prince Edward Island. The novel while often described as a “simple but delightful book” has great insights into Island culture if examined carefully. Montgomery a product of turn of the century Prince Edward Island, in the novel Anne of Green Gables has not only produced a work of literature but, an interesting social history of rural Prince Edward Island.
Montgomery was definitely a product of Prince Edward Island she was born to Hugh John Montgomery and Clara Woolner MacNeill on November 30th 1874 in the rural town of Clifton Corner. In Montgomery’s day the academic careers of women were limited and Montgomery who loved writing chose a profession that would allow her to develop this academic nature and in June of 1894 she obtained her teachers’ license. Anne of Green Gables was written in 1908 as Prince Edward Island was on the verge of great changes. The legislature was obviously worried that the age of machines would negatively effect the island. As They passed laws to prohibit the use of machines in the countryside, Montgomery was capturing this delightful rural nature of Cavendish county Prince Edward Island that the province was attempting to preserve. Forbes and Muise point out in their text The Atlantic Provinces in Confederation, Montgomery’s Novel “depicts the traditionalism of the church and family in rural Prince Edward Island.” Montgomery though was not totally approving of all the aspects of Rural Prince Edward Island.
She was concerned with depicting reality within her novel while not offending anyone, as she says in her diary “” I cast ‘moral’ and ‘Sunday school’ ideals to the winds and made my ‘Anne’ a real human girl.” In Montgomery’s world asylums were still used to house orphans, women were restricted to the home, temperance was seen as the way to improve society and Maternal feminism was becoming a force to be reckoned with. All these aspects of life were included in Anne’s story. To say that Montgomery was free of social ills though would be naive and even some aspects of her own social failings can be seen in the novel.
Montgomery in her diary defines herself as having the “misfortune to be a born conservative, hater of change and to live my life in a period when everything has been, or is being turned topsy turvey” Like all conservatives Montgomery was susceptible to prejudices of her day. In the beginning of the novel Marilla Cuthbert is discussing with Mrs. Lynde the choice that Matthew and her have made to foster an orphan that is a “born Canadian” This section of the novel not only shows the racist tendency of her class but also connects the novel concretely to the period. When choosing a boy Matthew and Marilla have an in-depth discussion which Marilla relates to Mrs. Lynde, she says:
There’s never anybody to be had but those stupid, half grown little French boys; and as soon as you get one broke into your ways and taught something he’s up and off to the lobster canneries in the States. At first Matthew suggested getting a Bernado [sic] boy. But I said ‘no’ flat to that. ‘They may be all right - I’m not saying they’re not - but no London street Arabs for me, ‘Give me a native born at least. There’ll be a risk, no matter who we get. But I’ll feel easier in my mind and sleep sounder at nights if we get a born Canadian.

While Laura M. Robinson in her book L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture argues that this is a means of creating “Canadian Identity” within the novel, it would be more likely that the Cuthbert’s reserve was more a product of prejudice on the part of Montgomery. If it were simply for reasons of Canadian identity then why would the Cuthbert’s not have wanted a French boy. It is important also to note that Matthew suggested a Bernardo Boy as an option. Bernardo Boys or, Home Boys were part of a scheme to find better lives for urban children from the crowded city streets of Europe, by bringing them to North America. The scheme though did little more than provide cheap labour for the rural areas of Canada. This can be seen even in this novel as the whole point of the Cuthbert’s getting a boy was to help the aging Matthew around the farm. Even this can be seen as a type of class oriented prejudice. As Owen Dudley Edwards and Jennifer H Litster state in their article “the End of Canadian Innocence: L.M. Montgomery and the first World War” the Cuthbert’s decision was not a preference to establish Canadian identity in the novel but a “prejudice against Bernardo boys.” If as Adreinne Clarkson has claimed “Avonlea . . . opens it arms to welcome the newcomer.” then the newcomer had better be a natural born Canadian like Montgomery’s Anne.
Also Anne’s world suffered from a degree of Misogyny that becomes evident in the novel.The reaction to this misogyny though was one that would have egalitarian problems of it’s own. According to Erika Rothwell in her article “L.M. Montgomery and Maternal Feminism” Montgomery through the character Anne“identifies herself with maternal feminism, a powerful branch of the women’s movement in turn-of-the-century Canada.” Maternal Feminism advocated the nurturing nature of women not an egalitarian feminism that promoted equality. They saw themselves as playing much more of a role in society than women were allowed, but not an equal role to men. As Historian Veronica Strong-Boag states “women themselves, like virtually everyone else in Canadian society, identified their sex with a maternal role.” This “natural occupation” could thus serve as a barrier to the “destabilizing elements in Canada,” whatever these may be.
One of these destabilizing elements that appears in the novel is the devil of alcohol. Alcohol by the standards of maternal feminists was one of the main causes of family strife. Maternal Feminists saw it as one of their responsibilities as the nurturing element of society to protest, and attempt to eradicate the evils of alcohol. While Marilla is, a brewer of Current wine, the dangers of this become apparent as Anne inadvertently intoxicates Diana. More importantly though in the novel, Montgomery shows the danger of alcohol through the character of Mr. Thomas. Montgomery does not recount the sordid details of family abuse, as that would not be appropriate for a child’s novel. Anne uses the hateful experience of the alcoholic Mr. Thomas as a yard stick of bad experiences. She claims that the insults of Mrs. Lynde hurt her more than “Mrs. Thomas’ intoxicated husband” ever did. The dangers of alcohol as maternal feminist see it is its resulting effect on the family, this is expressed in Mr. Thomas demise as he falls in front of a train thus depriving the family of a bread winner.
Maternal feminist stressed the importance of the nurturing nature of women. Women were responsible for the family unit and anything that fell within that realm was theirs to protect. The decisions that Anne makes seem to follow this pattern. While it may seem that Anne is independent in many ways, the constraints of being a woman in maternal feminists view limits her actions. Anne is therefore subject to the nurturing role of women. Carole Gerson points out in her article “Dragged at Anne’s Chariot Wheels:’ The Triangle of Author, Publisher, and Fictional Character” that Anne had to make the “mature choice to assume responsibility and conform to community norms with regard to both class and gender.” One of the most important figures in the Maternal feminist movement was Lady Aberdeen head of the National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC) who promoted the nurturing nature of women and spoke of mothering as the “Grand woman’s mission.” Therefore the natural role of women as mothers forced Anne to stay home and take care of Marilla rather than take a university scholarship. Gerson argues that Montgomery was not a totally dyed-in-the-wool maternal feminist as she does not totally follow what would have been the norm in women’s literature at the time and, “resisted the conventional closure of Marriage.” at the end of the novel. As Rothwell notes “Montgomery’s vision of maternal feminism is steeped in realism. Not all the mother figures in Green Gables are ideals.” and “undermines the political vision of maternal women as centers of . . . pure reformist motives [and]. . . traditional moral values.” This realism as Rothwell points out was what made Montgomery :
an astute Social Historian and Maternal feminist who kept her finger upon the pulse of Canadian women’s experiences. She powerfully knit into her fiction the events, circumstances, beliefs, experiences, and realizations that were of moment in the living history of Canadian women. [ thus creating] . . . The tapestry of maternal feminism in Canada.”

L. M. Montgomery even in her personal writings seems to be a complex character as Roberta Buchanan shows in her article “Reflection piece- ‘ I wrote Two Hours This Morning and Put Up Grape Juice in the Afternoon’: The conflict between Woman and Writer in L. M. Montgomery’s Journals.” She sees that Montgomery was torn by the “conflict between woman as writer and homemaker; and her desire to conform to social expectations of femininity.”
While Montgomery does attempt to be as accurate as possible her historian skills may have been a bit lacking. In the episode where Anne attempts to dye her hair she describes the man who sells the dye to her as a “German Jew ... Who was working hard to make enough money to bring his wife and children out from Germany.” The problem with this may be in a social misconception of identity , as many Lebanese peddlers were mistaken as Jews. David Weale in his book A Stream Out of Lebanon: An Introduction to the Coming of Syrian/Lebanese Emigrants to Prince Edward Island, recounts the tale of one who was tired of explaining the difference between jews and Assyrians to one customer that he would tell the children to “tell your mother the old Jew is here.”
This discrepancy only proves that Lucy Maud Montgomery was simply a product of turn of the century Prince Edward Island and even Weale admits that this misconception of Ethnic identity was common. Lucy Maud Montgomery through the novel Anne of Green Gables, has shown herself to be an accurate witness to the social condition of Islanders. She has portrayed the rural islanders with both their strengths and weaknesses as fairly as possible. The novel while being predominantly a work of fiction is an interesting and accurate social history of rural Prince Edward Island. The aspects of Maternal feminism, Racial misconceptions and even prejudices that find their way into the novel give us interesting insights into Montgomery’s world.

Bibliography

Buchanan, Roberta .“Reflection piece- ‘ I wrote Two Hours This Morning and Put Up
Grape Juice in the Afternoon’: The conflict between Woman and Writer in L. M.
Montgomery’s Journals.” L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture, ed. Irene Gammel
and Elizabeth Epperly Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999

Callbeck,Lorne C. The Cradle of Confederation Unipress: Fredericton 1964.

Clarkson Adrienne. In Laura M. Robinson, “ ‘ A Born Canadian’: The Bonds of Communal
Identity in Anne of Green Gables and A Tangled Web,” L. M. Montgomery and Canadian
Culture, ed. Irene Gammel and Elizabeth Epperly Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1999

Edwards, Owen Dudley. and Jennifer H. Litster, “The End of Canadian Innocence: L.M.
Montgomery and the First World War,” L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture, ed.
Irene Gammel and Elizabeth Epperly (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999

Forbes E. R. and D. A. Muise, The Atlantic Provinces in Confederation Fredericton: Acadiensis
Press 1997

Gerson, Carole. “Dragged at Anne’s Chariot Wheels:’ The Triangle of Author, Publisher,
and Fictional Character,” L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture, ed. Irene Gammel
and Elizabeth Epperly Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999

Irene Gammel and Elizabeth Epperly, “L .M. Montgomery and the Shaping of Canadian
Culture,” L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture, ed. Irene Gammel and Elizabeth
Epperly. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999

Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables, Toronto:McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1968

Robinson,Laura M. “ ‘ A Born Canadian’: The Bonds of Communal Identity in Anne of Green
Gables and A Tangled Web,” L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture, ed. Irene
Gammel and Elizabeth Epperly, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999

Rothwell, Erika. “Knitting Up the World: L. M. Montgomery and Maternal Feminism in
Canada” L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture, ed. Irene Gammel and Elizabeth
Epperly Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999

Weale,David. A Stream Out of Lebanon: An Introduction to the Coming of Syrian/Lebanese
Emigrants to Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown: Charlottetown Institute of Island
Studies, 1988

Brave New World?

Once upon a time I could actually write things that interest me. That is before I became a cog in the great governmental machine. Here is an old essay I dug up and it surprises me that it is better than I remembered it..







Machines and Stability:
In a ‘Brave New World’
by Bill Arends


The slogan of Huxley’s Brave New World is “Community, Identity [and] stability” (Huxley 1). On the eve of World War Two, Huxley saw the growth of German totalitarianism, and the growth of science. With science and control being the prime movers of society, Huxley made a logical connection between the two. He thus created a world where to create stability, science served control, and man became its victim. Ford is the embodiment of the machine, the pseudo-God of Huxley’s Brave New World, and the symbol of science in action. The machine is the only civilizing aspect of society, as the character Bernard says “these people have never heard of Our Ford, and they aren’t civilized” (Huxley 98).
Nell Eurich in Science in Utopia, analyses the role and position of Science in utopian and dystopian literature. According to Eurich, Huxley believes “science and technology should be used and controlled by man: Man should not be enslaved by them” (259). Science in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is the back bone of society. As Huxley states in his Foreword to the novel, the theme of Brave New World is “The advancement of science as it effects human individuals” (Huxley IV). The science of social control is, the means to which society has turned to create a stable state. Social control is applied in a mechanical way, to create a mechanical world. While other writers have interpreted Huxley’s Brave New World as showing the “absurdity of utopian dreams’(La Bossiere 290) it is possible that Huxley did not create his Brave New World as an example of “absurdity,” but more as a warning about the dangers of enslavement by science and control. Therefore an exploration of aspects of social stability, through the science of mechanical social control will prove that Huxley, was more concerned with science’s threat than the absurdity of its abuses.
It is also viable to argue, that the savage reservation offered a kind of stability based on the acceptance of life, death, and a recognized social order. While society on the reservation creates a sense of stability through voluntary acceptance, society off the reservation creates stability by enforced acceptance. The world is programmed like a machine and functions in a mechanical way. The machine like nature of life is enforced, even sometimes violently as Mustapha Mond proudly tells his students “eight hundred Simple Lifers were mowed down by machine guns at Golders Green”(Huxley 44). The individual life becomes unimportant to the machine like whole.
The simple life idea, where man lives in a natural state is easy to villainize in a society of manufactured humans that never grow old, and die only to be recycled as a source of phosphorus. The human simply becomes an element in a social machine, and the human corpse as part of this machine is, “socially useful even after [death]” (Huxley 65), in fertilizer plants making plants grow. In essence the body truly feeds the machine in Huxley’s distopic society. While Huxley’s society is highly stratified, each part is only valued by its usefulness, and in the end “All men are Physico-chemically equal ” (Huxley 65). Like cogs in the machine as Lenina remembers from her hypnopaedic programing “Everyone works for everyone else. We can’t do without anyone”(Huxley 66). As much as a cog is a slave to the machine, so are the people in Huxley’s Brave New World. In turning man into an element in a machine, the machine has turned man into a slave to itself
The world governed society, attempts to overcome worrisome aspects of life through science, and removes the fear of them, creating a false stability. Thus stability is created by removing fear as much as possible, and not by simply accepting that fear is inevitable. The attractiveness of the character John Savage, to the citizens of this brave new world, shows how Stability is marginal in the society. The Factor that science can’t fully control is man himself. Even with the removal of difference, difference still attracts society, as the citizens descend on Savage in a living “Swarm of helicopters” (Huxley 236) as moths to a flame.
One question that still arises is, why Mustapha Mond allows Savage to remain in society as long as he did. Savage’s suicide at the end of the novel leaves one to assume that little has changed or will change, society has become too great to be influenced by the individual. Stability is linked in Huxley’s Brave New World to science which attempts to create maximum efficiency, by reducing society to a type of social functioning machine. In the face of this massive and growing machine the individual has been eliminated, even if man’s innate nature shows some signs of life.

Huxley also saw the machine as becoming the replacement for God, and not the tool it was meant to be. In his personal letters we find that this view was not only an interpretation of his work, but his real intent. Writing to Simon Blumenfeld, Huxley states that he was “ greatly struck recently by a Russian film [called] ‘Earth’” (Huxley in Begnoche p 52) in which was the anti-religion slogan “there is no God. Alas, there is always a tractor or something else to take his place.”(Huxley in Begnoche p 52) In the Russian film Huxley observes how the tractor is worshiped as a God. In His Brave New World Huxley is not simply placing Ford as a god, but the Idea of the machine as the god. The assembly line that was characteristic of Fords means of production is seen in Huxley’s Hatcheries and Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning Rooms. The machine is the product of science in Huxley’s mind, and the machine is the tool that science uses to make man in its own image.
The development of a religion of science and the machine, in Huxley’s opinion dehumanized society. His work was not simply a novel of what could happen if we let the absurdity of unlimited scientific progress continue, but a warning of what he saw as possible. As Krishan Kumar points out in his book Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Times, the period in which Huxley was writing was the “classic era of the Utopia in the negative”(Kumar 224). He describes the times as the “devil’s decades”(Kumar 224). As brutal dictatorships, and the rise of state social control appeared on the European continent, it would be hard to imagine that Huxley would not be influenced by this depressing trend. The rhetoric of the rising German totalitarian state can be seen in the first pages of Brave New World, as Huxley refers to his conditioned children as, not all “pink and Aryan”(Huxley 16). As Frederick Turner points out in his article “Future Shocks,” “there is no better guide to worried regard of the future than Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.” (Turner 21) As science was finding greater and greater ways of eliminating mankind, and better ways of controlling him and conditioning him, as Pavlov was suggesting that programing could improve a species there was obviously need to worry as Huxley believed.
Again in Huxley’s personal writings we see that this uncontrolled scientific progress, was of grave concern if not morbid interest to him. In his letters to Author E.M. Forster we find one account of his unique awareness of the frightening progress of science in a somewhat amoral world:
Bertie Russell, whom I’ve have just been lunching with, says one oughtn’t to mind about the superficial things like ideas, manners, politics, even wars - that the really important things, conditioned by scientific technique, go steadily on and up . . . in a straight un-undulating trajectory. It’s nice to think so; but meanwhile there the superficial undulations are, and one lives superficially; and who knows if that straight trajectory isn’t aiming directly for some fantastic denial of humanity?
Aldous Huxley to E.M. Forster, 17 February 1935. (Kumar 224)

The denial of humanity and deference to the machine are aspects that would be hard to avoid in Brave New World. If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, this flattery can be seen in Huxley’s society which sounds and behaves like a machine. In the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center, life imitates the rhythmic nature of the machine as “ The Dynamos purred in the sub-basement, the lifts rushed up and down. On all the eleven floors of Nurseries it was feeding time” (Huxley 132). It is interesting to note that Huxley’s society, the glorious machine like world, is also programed like a machine, a computer that is continuously instructed in the betterment of itself. Every evening the youth of the society are given repetition after repetition, of words of wisdom designed to make them function better in society. It would have been hard to imagine that Huxley foresaw computers, when he was writing but it would seem he could see the nature of the machine age as it developed along this path.
Even with this development though, Huxley saw the superficially undulations personified in mankind. These undulations are arguably personified in the person of John Savage. This is not to say that Huxley believed that a ‘brave new world’ was not possible but, simply that undulations such as John Savage where not a bad thing.
Aspects of a mix of science and control can also be seen in the Central London Hatchery, with its science of eugenics, the Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning rooms, and the solidarity services that replace religion in this machine like world (Huxley 16). This machine world, uses science as Sybil Bedford points out to, “dominate people by social, educational and pharmaceutical methods” (Bedford, 249). The drug Soma the universal instiller of happiness in the world feeds the machine. In this new world it is Happiness rather than truth and beauty that matter[s] (Huxley 208) It is “universal happiness [in Huxley’s distopia that] keeps the wheels steadily turning”(Huxley 208).
Not all writers of Huxley’s time agreed with his negative view of the world. The progress of science was not universally viewed as a bad thing and in truth some saw it as beneficial. H.G. Wells while he was apprehensive about the future as his Novel The Time Machine would attest to, was not wholly convinced that it was science that was the problem. Kingsley Martin, recalls Well’s reaction to Huxley’s Brave New World, in which he states;
I remember his talking to me about Aldous Huxley, whom he regarded as the degenerate descendant of a noble grandfather. He spoke with bitterness of Brave New World; it was blasphemy against the religion of science. It suggested that knowledge might be the path, not to the modern Utopia, but to a new kind of servile Hell. (Kumar 224)

This servile hell was obviously not something that Well’s saw as the progress of science. To writers like Wells science was as he stated the path to a “modern Utopia”(Kumar 224) not the evil distopia of Huxley’s Brave new World.
Other writers of the day had impressions of just how science was going to save civilization. This religion of science, this worship of the machine, was not simply something that Huxley created within his own mind. J.D. Bernal in his book, The World, The Flesh, And The Devil, published in 1929 had already foreseen the things that Huxley was writing about, but saw them in a much more positive light. For Bernal science was the savior and saw that “scientists would have a dual function: to keep the world going as an efficient food and comfort machine, and to worry out the secrets of nature for themselves”(Kumar 238). Huxley, with his conditioned and programed society would hardly argue with this fact, but did not see it as positive, as we have seen he saw it as dehumanizing and in the novel he shows it as destructive.
Huxley goes one step farther in saying that science its self becomes self defeating, as control grows in a society. While to Huxley’s programmed citizens, “Science is everything”(Huxley 205), as Mustapha Mond points out, science is “dangerous; [in society] we have to keep most carefully chained and muzzled”(Huxley 205). If science solves all problems and frees mankind to live in a utopic condition, what is mankind to do. Mond states, and with a degree of truth, that labour saving devices are not entirely good, “For the sake of the labourers; it would be sheer cruelty to afflict them with excessive leisure”(Huxley 205). A science that can’t solve the problem of the human element (and never will) is as Mond points out as “dangerous as it’s been beneficent”(Huxley 207).

With Science as the means, stability as the end, and happiness as the path it would appear that Huxley’s Brave New World, is putting the cart before the horse. He thus creates a world nightmare in which ignorance and drug induced happiness create a stable world, that neither degenerates nor progresses. This condition is kind of like a car in neutral, stable but somewhat useless, and entirely pointless. Humanity in this Brave New World achieves nothing, feels nothing, and in essence does nothing. The product of this society is the total dehumanization of mankind.

Huxley’s Brave New World may be an ‘absurdity’ but it is more a warning about the dangers of enslavement by science and control. Social stability through the science of mechanical social control is as we have seen more of a social nightmare than a Utopia. If Wells was truly thinking that a religion of science, was something to be praised , then Huxley has created a successful argument in defense of the opposite. Once truth was eliminated it would seem in Huxley’s Brave New World so was humanity, and all that remains is the machine.

Bibliography

Bedford, Sybill. Aldous Huxley. New York: Harper and Row. 1974.

Eurich, Nell. Science in Utopia. London: Oxford University Press. 1967.

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. London: Flamingo. 1994.

La Bossiere C. R. “Sunken Atlantis and the Utopian Question.” Science-Fiction Studies. 4
(1974): 290-297.

Begnoche, Suzanne R. “Aldous Huxley’s Soviet Source Material: An Unpublished Letter.”
English Language Notes. 34.3 (1997) 51-57.

Varricchio, Mario. “Power of Images/Images of Power in Brave New World and Nineteen
Eighty-Four.” Utopian Studies. 10 (1999) 98

Turner, Frederick. “Future Shocks.” Reason. 31 (1999) 20-27

Kumar, Krishan . Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Times. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.
1987.

2005 Mount Washington Collage

We took the hard trail.

How does one parade a sacred cow?

Sacred Cows

There are in each of us sacred cows that we protect with a passion that can be destructive to any who should try to slaughter them. The problem with Blogging in a community that includes friends and relatives is that we must be very careful to hide the cow completely so others are not aware that cow is being protected. So we build walls around the issues and are very careful not to talk about the cow should the machetes come out. I suspect that we all have such beasts in our metaphorical mental barns.

Some people are aware of my sacred cows (I have several) my question is how does one parade a sacred cow without getting its head chopped off, or endangering those that might attempt to chop off a rump or rib? Of course I am talking in metaphors as I don’t own a Machete but I have a pretty sharp tongue. That said, there are times I regret using my verbal Machete and times I don’t.

So again How does one parade a sacred cow?

Park Cleaning Can be Painful

Ever had to pose for a photo sooooo long that you feel your face is going to freeze in a permanent fake smile?

I'm not sure if I am smiling or grimacing in pain.

Privacy

Just a quick note - I have unpublished this blog so just the current participants and those I invite can veiw it, as it has some more personal details. Please don't share it. If you would like to share it let me know and I will send the invite if I trust the person you are proposing to share it with.

Our New Hampshire Vacation - Day 3 - Sunday Sept 17 2006

Installment #3

A Stinky Puppy, Tame Birds and Plans for Kilimanjaro.

The next morning we woke to the smell of cooking breakfast, making us feel that the $80 per night to stay in the hut might have been a good idea. We ate a quick breakfast of granola bars and carrot cake (left over - from the night before) and headed down the trail. Our objective was to get as far as we could before we had to turn around. I figured that leaving at 8:00AM we had until 6:30PM (sunset) and thus we would have to turn around at about 1:00 or 1:30 PM.

The trail was gentle at first but rose quickly as we came up to Mt Pierce. We passed the couple from the camp that had the two Malamute dogs. The male had a saddle pack loaded with about 20 pounds and the female had a nasty flatulence problem so it was either race to keep ahead of them or let them get farther ahead. As Michelle and I like to take our time we let the stinky puppy get far far ahead. The summit of Mt Pierce was relatively easy to get to and at the top I purposely searched out the Geological society benchmark to take a picture of it. I eventually found it but the mark had been so abused it was almost impossible to make out the elevation. It was nice to be above the tree line as we could now take off our caps for a while. Michelle was talking to the folks that run the AMC Hut and apparently the area has a tick and Limes disease problem, so we had to keep our hats on anytime we were in the woods. Also the breeze made the humidity somewhat more bearable.

As we passed to the next part of the ridge of mountains we caught a glimpse of the next summit Mount Eisenhower. When we hiked down to the saddle between the mountains clouds started to fill the Notch below us. Before the entire valley filled with clouds we had a great view of the Mount washington hotel in Bretton Woods, then within seconds the clouds covered the valley and began to spill over onto the Eastern slopes of the range. We literally walked thrrough the clouds as they spilled between the summits and onto the other slope of Eisenhower. The peaks of the mountains were visible through the clouds and the clouds looked like lakes of snow. As fast as the clouds came they tumbled over the Mountains and disappeared in the warm weather on the other side. There was one brief scramble as we approached the summit for about three metres we were on our hands and knees climbing a crevice like slope. When we got to the summit there was a crowd of hikers lazing in the sun. We met a couple of hikers coming the other direction that were locals but avid hikers. They talked about the best hikes in the area and we talked about hiking in general. One hike they described was one they took in the 90's to mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.. It seems that unlike everything that is said about it the hike is not that difficult but requires some acclimatisation due to thin atmosphere from the height of the climb, and doing it slow is a requirement by the guides. They gave us a good contact address to hire guides and such.. They also had a beautiful husky which licked our camera as Michelle tried to take a picture. Interesting picture ! After a brief stay at the summit and a few rolls of film later, we headed down the other side. The trail branched in several directions and we decided to take the trail around the other side of Mount Eisenhower on the way back. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake. There was no wind and the sun beat down on us as if it was mid summer. We hiked as quick as we could to get back to the saddle trail that headed back the way we came. When we came around the mountain the wid had picked up and we had some excellent views of the valley that we had missed due to the clouds on the way up. We hiked until we came to the summit of Peirce an stopped briefly for a snack, which we shared with a crowd of Grey Jays, which the Americans call Canadian Jays. Admittedly it is nice to have such a gregarious creature with the Canadian moniker but I have never heard them call this before. They swooped an landed near us one even took some crumbs directly from Michelle’s hand. As we headed back down the trail leaving our feathered friends to eat the remaining crumbs we left behind the sun started to get lower and the entire look of the trail changed. I was concerned that we might have taken the Crawford path trail instead of the trail to Mizpah hut but things became more familiar the farther we hiked. The trip down was far faster than we thought. With the exception of one slip we made it back in record time. Michelle seems to have developed a sizable bruise and I suspect it was from the trip down. When we go it back we were tired but not totally exhausted. I guess I was feeling my age as I voted to hang around the Hut and not try to tackle the Webster Cliff trail as Michelle suggested but given the length of time it took for the sun to set I suspect we could have easily made a quick trip to the cliff face and back before sun set but it was nice to relax and let my muscles heal before we headed back down the next morning. We ate a very disappointing dinner of dehydrated fettuccine and Black bean and corn chowder. The fettuccini was awful but the bean chowder wasn’t bad. That said when you are sleeping in a tent bean chowder is not a good idea. Enough said I hope. We stayed up late talking to some of the hikers and exchanging some Scouty stories and then called it a night. Luckily my sleeping bag had dried during the day and it was a much warmer nights sleep.

100 Reasons Why I love Michelle

Can you tell me 100 reasons you love your partner?
Here are 100 for mine but I could go on.

1. She listens to me even when I’m boring
2. She has the most amazing hazel eyes I have ever seen.
3. She encourages me when I need it
4. And knows when I am just being lazy.
5. She will hike on even when she hurts worse than me
6. Chocolate is one of our favourite foods
7. She cares what I think about her clothes
8. She cares how I dress (which is cool no one else has)
9. She never quits
10. She loves all seasons
11. She hikes
12. She bikes
13. She Snowshoes
14. She eats my cooking
15. Even when it’s BAD
16. History does not bore her
17. She is rarely as grumpy as me when she is tired.
18. She likes little children and small animals
19.To her Cuddling is a hobby.
20. She lets me sleep in on Saturday
21. She loves to cook
22. She loves to travel
23. We do most things together
24. We share allergies
25. She’s practical
26. She does not suffer fools well
27. She likes hot dogs
28. She can draw.
29. She likes my dated folksy taste in music
30. She likes Disney movies
31. She looks good in an evening dress
32. She looks good in Jeans
33. She looks good in most things
34. She doesn’t like Stephen Harper, Tony Blair or George W Bush
35. She may even vote NDP
36. She loves Christmas
37. She loves Thanksgiving
38. She dresses up for Halloween
39. She loves hot tubs and spas
40. If it's cute she likes it
41. Freckles rock (need I say more)
42. She talks as much as I do (most time unless she is mad at me)
43. She can take a good photo of me
44. She gets excided about vacations
45. She has dreams
46. I’m in some of them
47. She trusts me
48. She has faith in me
49. She believes in herself
50.She keeps learning
51. She has dimples when she smiles
52. She loves roses
53. She sends me roses
54.We like the same TV shows
55. She reads a lot (but sometimes reads novels more than once - I don’t understand that)
56. She loves the stuff toys I buy her
57.She doesn’t like stinky perfume
58. She smells nice
59. She misses me when I’m away
60. She has a great voice
61. She recycles everything
62. She likes “Great Big Sea”
63. She loves Jazz
64. She loves walking in the rain
65. She loves to swim
66. And looks good in a swimsuit
67. Romance never bores her.
68. She loves to dance
69. She loves to camp
70. She loves nature
71. She has an amazing smile
72. She is loyal to her friends (even when they are being stupid)
73. Her favourite colour is yellow
74. She likes parties
75. She speaks French (that’s sexy)
76. She understands me If anyone does
77. She looks good in a T shirt (just a T shirt)
78. She is not afraid of much (except some heights)
79. She faces her fears
80. She is beautiful even when she is sad.
81. She loves Kites
82. She loves to play
83. She is young and refuses to act old.
84. Even when surrounded by old fuddy duddies like me
85. Her teeth are as white as new snow.
86. She will try most things once
87. She never loses her sense of wonder at natural beauty
88. She likes breakfast in bed
89. She will cook breakfast in bed for me
90. She’s spontaneous
91. She is whimsical
92. My arms fit nicely around her waist
93. She loves Hugs
94. She is a great kisser
95. Holding hands is not an option, it is an essential
96. Sharing comes naturally to her
97. She has a great laugh
98. She’s kind
99 She’s enthusiastic
100. She Loves me.

Name That Pond

I am now aware that I have a limited readership of this somewhat self centered little Blog. So to keep you entertained can any of you identify the body of water in the header for this blog?

Our New Hampshire Vacation - Day 2 - Saturday Sept 16 2006

Installment #2

Ash Trees, Kids in FlipFlops and the We Hate George W Bush Society

Saturday morning we learned a lesson in dehydrated food storage. Dehydrated food has a shelf life contrary to the one on the pack. We decided rather that our usual oatmeal breakfast we would try the last Blueberry cobbler pack we had. I started up the stove and put the water and fruit mix on to boil which was supposed to turn into a fruit syrup on which the biscuit mix bakes and hardens. So what you are supposed to get is a large, cookie like, biscuit with blueberry syrup running through it in veins. We have had it before, and it is quite good, BUT not this time. This time we got thin blueberry soup, no biscuit.

As we were going to be hiking 3 to 6 miles today (using miles as it was marked that way - why do American’s resist the metric system?) we went for a quick brunch at Willey house in the centre of the notch. Willey house is a snack bar and gift shop that sits on the site of a famous landslide. Looking at the cliff faces on either side of the notch, the idea of being in the valley during a landslide is terrifying. There are large bare patches on the rock and I was left wondering just how much rock fell in the slide. We stopped at the AMC centre and talked to an older gent who told us if we wanted a good view of the notch to climb Mount Williard at the entrance to the notch, but as we had limited time, we decide to hike into Mizpah Spring Hut starting around noon. Michelle wanted to do the Webster Cliff trail that goes along the side of the notch, but seeing as there is a lot of scrambling (hands and knees) involved we decided to take the Crawford path which is much shorter 3 to 4 miles rather than the 6 miles along the cliff.

We bought a weekly parking pass, parked at the trail head to the Crawford path, loaded our packs lighter than usual and headed off down the trail just into the trail we came across an elegant little waterfall that made a very interesting bubbling noise and left the air, cool and moist. The trail then followed the creek that fed the falls for about 1.5 miles through a rather open deciduous bush which had lots of Mountain Ashes growing that were dropping copious amounts of bright red berries. Having never seen Mountain Ash trees I had to ask one of the other passing hikers what they were. Along this section of trail there were many hikers. We were passed by the young employees of the AMC that service the huts. All the supplies are hiked in on the backs of these kids. Yes, they look like kids, no more than 15 or 16 yrs old. Being the end of the season they are in incredible shape not an once of fat on any of them. The first two that passed us were carrying supplies on a simple ladder pack that consisted of a ladder frame held together with canvas and tied to it by twine was stacks of boxes of food. This was no backpack, just a simple frame which the hiker holds by reaching downward and grasping the bottom of the ladder. The pack is not tied to the hikers back it is just held like you might hold a person piggy back. Along the trail we had to stop a couple times to take a breather but these kids just plowed on by, at top speed, some wearing nothing more than shorts, T Shirts and flipflops no hiking boots or quick dry clothes. If Michelle and I have kids, this is a summer job I hope they think about. I would have loved to have done this, for a summer.(had I not been such a lazy little bugger as a kid)

Having left a bit late (1PM) we reached the hut just about dinner time. The tenting area was entirely taken up but they had opened a couple over flow sites one being in a spruce grove behind the hut and another on a grassy meadow in front of the hut. We were put in the spruce grove but as it turns out this was the better site because the meadow site is over the waste reclamation system that dries human waste and turns it into soil. Interesting system which uses manual labour the AMC kids again, to aerate the waste. Only one problem is it STINKS.

The hut was full of children of various ages some from a school group and some from a scout group. Luckily the spruce grove sheltered us from the noise as the cubs and school kids were LOUD. They did however, quiet down about 9:30 PM. Several other tenters came out of the bush to set up their stoves on the rocks by the hut. One couple had a back pack stove much like ours (MSR product) they were cooking dehydrated stuff again much like ours, we agreed that the Alpine Aire Pineapple chicken was a good choice. We realised that George W Bush seems to be the common enemy of tree huggers in the US. I made the mistake of saying something positive about him and got an earful, from one of the hikers. In reality I am no great fan of him but I thought it impolite to say negative things about a countries president while a guest in the country.

The smell of the dinner at the hut made our simple meal seem inadequate but after the hike it was appreciated. Michelle and I have decided that one day wee are going to go back and hike the trail using the huts (a chain of them run along the range) as meals and lodging are proved and thus you have to carry less as you hike. Bunk beds with mattresses are provided and the water is drinkable at the huts so you don’t have to pack as much water. Water is one of the heaviest things you carry hiking.

We ate and talked about what we were going to do the next day as it was getting to late to hike without headlamps (ours seem to be missing). We decided that rather than moving our tent to a new site we would use this site as our base camp and hike away from the notch into the presidential range, as far as we could and return in a day. After making plans, we called it a night and headed off to bed in the spruce grove. I hung the bear bin with our food in it in the tree not far from the tent. As my sleeping bag was wet from our leaking camel back hydration pack, I slept in just the fleece liner. Thank God it was warm when I went to sleep but it got very cold during the night. I got up once during the night, to move the bear bin farther from the tent, because there were odd noises in the bush. However it was not bears but die hard through hikers doing the Appalachian trail AT NIGHT. I could say I was impressed but I kept thinking just what would you see doing that. Oh well whatever turns your crank. Thus ended our first day.

Our New Hampshire Vacation - Day 1 - Friday Sept 15 2006

Installment #1

Fingernails Dehydrated Muck and a Million Stars




This past weekend Michelle and I took a short vacation to the white mountains of New Hampshire. It is one of our favourite hiking spots. A number of years ago we climbed Mount Washington from the Great Gulf Wilderness trail and became totally captivated by the place. Unfortunately money and time have kept us from returning until this week.

We packed as much dehydrated food as we could find and warm clothes because it is after all September (our Mistake) and headed off to New Hampshire. Actually the adventure began the night before as we went off to Mountain Equipment Coop MEC and bought fresh (if you can use the term here) dehydrated food and a new backpack for Michelle.

We packed our gear Thursday night trying, without much luck to keep it light. We left about 7 AM in the morning and headed to the US by way of Montreal Sherbrooke Magog Vermont and I93 to Crawford Notch New Hampshire. That was the condensed version of the trip in actuality we headed out without really planning the route. Most of our planning was done while we ate a very disappointing Breakfast at Casselman Ontario. I say disappointing, because we stopped at McDonalds thinking it would be fast easy and relatively safe food. At least you know what your getting right? Wrong we ordered two sausage and egg Mcbagels (or whatever) and got one BLT bagel and one sausage and egg mc bagel. Oh and as a bonus I found a finger nail in my BLT bagel but by the time we noticed the error and extra human protein we were on the road. I was lucky I did not eat the fingernail I found it in the wrapper of the bagel after I had munched half the thing. I checked all my nails first and I knew it wasn’t Michelle’s as it wasn’t metallic burgundy. YUCK YUCK YUCK ETC....

It was a bit cloudy and grey as we went through Quebec but began to clear and get surprisingly warm as we went south we crossed into Vermont at Darby Line. This was the first time I have ever been asked if I have been finger printed as I crossed the border and I think the guard was surprised when I said yes without even thinking about it. Then I quicky added it was when I was working for the RCMP as a student. As usual we passed through customs with little or no problem. The fall colours were beginning to show but most of them were yellow with a few hints of red. The weather in the east has been very mild I am not sure we even have had our first frost of the year. The countryside in Vermont is some of the loveliest in the east and the people are incredibly friendly. One thing I like is that every roadside info stop in Vermont has coffee available by donation (but I tend to donate as much as the cost because I feel guilty giving less.

We stopped in a small town were I93 enters New Hampshire for a late lunch. I am not sure if we were in Vermont or New Hampshire at this point, I will have to ask Michelle as her synapses being somewhat younger than mine work much better. As an American Blogger friend of mine (49erdweet) noted in New Hampshire "those sturdy Yankee's [have a] practice of eschewing public eateries - or else hiding them in obscure locations, far from tourists' eyes." So finding lunch was not as easy as we thought, and Unfortunately the easy going nature of residents of New England extends to customer service, they are very friendly but none too fast. As we finished our somewhat late lunch a train passed just behind the balcony. It was a small freight train and the sound of the whistle echoing through the mountain air seemed to fit well into the ambience of the warm autumn afternoon. I don't know why but trains seem to remind me of late summer or fall, possibly because as a kid I tried to make summer last as long as I could by taking long walks along the train tracks to the Mad river to fish or just throw rocks off the trestle bridge.

We arrived in Crawford Notch in the afternoon and decided to spend our first night at Zealand campsite before we hiked into the back-country areas. Our eventual destination was Mizpah Hut run by the Appalachian Mountain Club. We planned to tent on the tent platforms available but as it was three miles in and would be dark when we arrived, so we pitched our tent at Zealand campground and took a short hike into the bush and saw the silhouette of Sugar loaf against the night sky. A deer wandered into the brush as we walked up the trail, but we only got a brief look at it before it disappeared. We went back to the campsite and had our first dehydrated meal (I am having serious second thoughts on this dehydrated camping food - most of it tastes like stall mash potatoes) The night was warm and there were millions of stars to count the perfect end to a nice day.

My Accidental Life

49erdweet started me thinking about how our jobs define us, as he outlined his career path or phases of life in a blog article. I thought it might be interesting to followup his article with one that outlined my career path, if you can call it that.

The unfortunate thing about my life is there have been so many small jobs and times when I have done more than one thing at a time it is hard to define what really defines me at any time in my life. I was not even sure that my jobs related to the definition of me, and I am still not sure. Then I came up with the best way to describe my life / career path that did not portray me as self serving, although I admit to a large degree in choosing my life path I was being self serving.

My life up to a point could be best described as the accidental life.

The semi goal oriented phase

In my early years I wanted to go into youth ministries (a surprise to some I am sure) To that end I worked as a camp counsellor for 3 summers as a teen. I worked part time at a daycare run by the Methodist church in Barrie Then in my last year of highschool I did a short placement at the Barrie Banner newspaper as I entered the “I want to be a journalist phase” In this journalist phase I even went to Loyalist Community College for just over a year and dropped out for several reasons the main one being I was getting so bored that I wasn’t bothering to do the work. (And I had one of my first serious failed relationships) I have always been interested in photography so I went on to try Advertising at Georgian College again that did not interest me. I became so disillusioned with education that I decided screw this I will just take things as they come.

The no goal or floating years phase

So I got into cleaning (buildings) which sounds boring but enabled me to earn money so that I could travel one month out of every year . Basically started to float between vacations saving every nickel so I could take that all important trip to Europe or Egypt or Israel.(14 years - 10 or more trips overseas)

The epiphany !

I woke up ! I noticed I was travelling but really going no where. I didn’t have a life, life had me. I had been telling everyone that one day I was going to go back to school and finish a program maybe even university. However I was almost 34 and the likelihood of going to university was getting slimmer and slimmer. So with the money I saved for my next big trip and having developed a loathing for my life I decided just for the hell of it to apply to university. I chose something I thought would be interesting and that was to work toward a career as a history teacher starting with a history BA. I sent out applications to four universities and was accepted at all of them I chose the one farthest from home and applied for student loans,

I spent 4.5 years studying history in the coop program at the university of Ottawa and graduated Cum Laude with an honours degree and some how acquired a wife along the rout.

I was out of work for two months and then was picked up by a the Canadian government full time as a policy analyst and have been here ever since. (4 years)

Conclusion

Did any of these Jobs define me, does my current job do so, not really, and I have left out all the part time stuff I have done on rout. (Cadet instructor, construction worker, carpet layer, carpet cleaner, printing press operator, part time photography instructor, Fridge delivery person, mover etc.... and a million volunteer things) What defines me is me. If I have any real goals It is to be the best I can be in any situation I find myself and since I headed back to school in the nineties I think I have done that.

Welcome to my accidental life.

Our Vacation to the East Coast: A Piper, Forts, a Phony Indian and why I hate the Sûreté du Québec.

(Final Installment #7 - Saturday - Sunday)
Photos and many edits to follow.

Our next stop now on the way home was at the info centre on the border between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick where we stopped and watched a piper play sending eerie wails of Celtic history over the Bay of Fundy. After a brief stop to fly a kite in the ever present Fundy winds we headed off to Fort Beausejour.

Fort Beauséjour National Historic Site of Canada commemorates the role of the Fort in the struggle between France and Britain, and between Britain and the American colonies, for North America, 1751-1783. At Fort Beauséjour England and France were caught up in a tug-of-war for supremacy in Acadia.

Today the Fort’s ruins sit atop a hill overlooking the Isthmus of Chignecto, the land bridge between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Watching only the occasional passing train which traverses the low land below the Fort. As we wandered around the fort a VIA Rail passenger train passed below the fort making a wide arch around the low lands it was an incredible site to see the contrast of history and modernity. The powder magazines have been recreated realistically with some of the original stones, thus there are inscriptions (graffiti) on the walls dating back to the 1700's.

In an effort to find a campsite during the daylight hours we headed off stopping only once in Edmondston New Brunswick to look at Fortin du P'tit Sault Blockhouse

Constructed in 1841 at the height of the hostilities between the United States and England, The P'tit Sault Blockhouse was one element in a long line of defence installations stretching all the way to the province of Québec. It was destroyed by a lightning strike in 1855 and reconstructed, thanks to the generosity of the community, in 2000. Unfortunately we were only able to take a look from the outside as the Blockhouse was closed when we got there.

Our final campsite of the vacation was at Camping Cabano out side the village of Cabano this area is another historic one with echos of the War of 1812 all around there is an interesting but underfunded fort named fort Ingle just across the road from the Camp ground. This area was also made famous by Archibald Belaney AKA Grey Owl. Belaney adopted an Indian identity and the name Grey Owl, married an Anishinaabe woman, Angele Egwuna, worked as a fur trapper, wilderness guide and forest ranger. He told everyone he was a child of a Scottish father and Apache mother and had emigrated from the US to join the Ojibwa. Even though he was a total fraud his writings had an impact on environmental conservation in Canada. If you can find a copy of his writings read them they are inspiring. The Fort was interesting but small and so underfunded the uniforms used by the animators looked like Children’s Halloween costumes.

The rest of the trip home was not so pleasant. I have to admit that I am a bit lead footed when on the highway so I go on average 120 kph (which 7 out of 10 people do) but I neglected to remember that the Quebec police are not so forgiving of speeders as the Ontario police and especially unforgiving of speeders with Ontario plates. While I KNOW I was driving 120 kph I passed a Quebec provincial police car and quickly slowed and moved into the right lane, which was my mistake because it was then he followed me and pulled me over. He addressed me in French and when I said I did not speak French he grunted and said “I clocked you at 132 KPH” this he repeated 5 times as he handed me the ticket. I kept my cool and explained that I must have been watching the speed of traffic not the speedometer (but wisely I did not argue). I could have pointed out that every other freaking car on the road which was bumper to bumper was going the same damn speed but what the heck it was not worth it. I could have argued the speed on his radar was wrong but this guy seemed to be waiting for me to disagree, I suspect so because he kept repeating the speed to me.

So from now on in the province of Quebec I drive at the speed limit, no more no less.

Knowing we now had a sizable fine and a small bank account I headed Due west Arriving in Ottawa around 9:00 PM I would have made better time if I drove the speed of traffic but that as you have read was not an option.

Our Vacation to the East Coast: Cannons Muskets and Funny French Food

(Installment #6 - Friday)
Photos and many edits to follow.

After leaving Broad Cove (AKA noisy and crowded Cove) we headed off in search of the recreated town of Louisbourg. Last time we were in Nova Scotia the historical site of Louisbourg was closed so this time we made specific plans to be there in plenty of time to see the site.

Louisbourg is a recreation of the French fortified town which thrived on Cape Breton or Isle Royale as they called it from 1713 to 1758 The French came to Louisbourg , after forfeiting Acadia and Newfoundland to the British by the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, leaving them with only Isle Royale (Cape Breton) and Isle Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island). The history of the town was violent as they had barely finished building it before the first siege in 1745. Eventually it was to fall in a siege in 1758 at which time the British laid total waste to the town leaving only the foundations to prevent reoccupation.

In 1961 the Government of Canada at a cost of $25 million dollar rebuilt approximately one-quarter of the original town and fortifications recreated as they were during the 1740s, immediately preceding Louisbourg's first siege.

You enter the site via the visitor centre and a transit style bus takes you the few Kilometres to the town. The size and scope of the project is amazing. It is, by all accounts, a small town with streets and walls and many buildings all functioning with a staff of actors dressed in period costumes. Michelle and I enjoyed it immensely being both history majors (Hers an MA and me a BA in history). We walked in and around all the buildings we were greeted by several actors that all stuck to their roles well. We met soldiers and merchants and cooks. We watched as they fired muskets and cannons heard the sounds of drums as they marched down the broad streets of the town. We even ate an authentic 1745 meal in a low class establishment. We where given only the utensils you would have in 1745, which amounted to a simple metal plate a chipped ceramic cup and a heavy metal spoon. Eating an open-face sandwich and vegetables with only a spoon proved challenging. I cut through the very heavy bread with some difficulty cleaving the thing into two pieces then gave up and used my hands (I am told this was the norm)

The day was warm but cloudy and some what foggy but it only added to the ambiance of the place. The firing of the cannons left an interesting but slightly acrid smell in the air. Mixed with the smell of wood smoke that was endemic to the place, it left a lasting impression on our memories of the place. Every time I smell a slightly sulfury smell now I think of Louisbourg.

We stayed as long as we could watching the actors go about their business and following wandering sheep and goats in the street. The enclosures held goats, sheep, pigs but there seemed to be many that preferred the narrows streets to the pens.

As we left the town on one of the last busses we watched the final cannon firing for the day accompanied by drums yelling and marching all in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Our Vacation to the East Coast:: No Seagulls or Good Food in Neils Harbour

(Installment #5 - Thurssday)
Photos and many edits to follow.

After leaving Meat Cove we headed back to the Cabot trail stopping at a very interesting Catholic Church called Saint Margarets in the village of Saint Margarets. What was interesting was that the church was open 24/7 and there were two young girls hired to watch the building. It is nice that the Catholic Church gives its members this place to pray any time they want to. It is however unfortunate that if the doors to the church were left open here in Ottawa 24/7 someone would abuse it. Across from the church was a large cemetery that had the words Pray for us written with stone on a hill side facing the road. I have never understood the idea of praying for the dead but I guess that is why I am not Catholic.

We headed westward and as we were tired of highway like roads (the trail is a well paved highway) we pulled off onto a more rural rout towards Neils Harbour. As we entered town we noticed why the trail bypasses the town, as there is a large smelly fish plant just near the shore. Why the town is lovely the smell is not. We stopped by a road side craft store as Michelle saw another Bald Eagle on the rocks in the harbour. When we went into the store the shop girl mentioned she had seen the eagle swoop down and eat a seagull that morning. She also mentioned to Michelle that when the eagle is in the harbour there are usually no seagulls around. As it was getting later in the day we decided to eat at the Chowder house just off the end of the harbour. Unfortunately the food was mostly fried and I suspect McCain frozen fish from the packing plant, as both Michelle and I found it too greasy and we did not feel all that well afterwards.

As we headed down the coast we noticed it was getting dark and thought we had better find a place to camp for the night it was a short driving day as we stayed most of the day in Meat Cove.

We stopped for the night at a campsite just inside the park at Broad Cove, a wooded campground near ocean, north of Ingonish near east entrance of park. There was really not much to see at the campsite. Broad Cove is just that a large open cove with a sand and rock beach. The campsite was too tightly packed in and the residents were noisy. It reminded me of Place Rouge in Quebec (also crowded and noisy). We walked down and sat on the beach for a while watching the lighthouses flickering in the distance and counting the millions of stars visible in the night sky, until we both started to feel unwell because of the greasy food we ate in Neils Harbour, and then called it a night.

Our Vacation to the East Coast: Whales, Wild Horses, Ocean swimming and Coastguard boats.

(Installment #4 - Thurssday)
Photos and many edits to follow.

After we left the moose to her own devices (eating leaves and snorting) we jumped back in the car to avoid the rain, and headed off down the trail again. Our next stop was meat Cove the Northern most point on Cape Breton Island and the most remote community in all of Nova Scotia. The Cove was named thus, because apparently in the past passing mariners could smell rotting meat from moose slaughtered in the cove. As we headed into the cove the road became narrower and more rugged. Finally the road became little more than a dirt track. Just as we entered the cove the road turned to the right to follow the coastline and gave way to some amazing views. The campsite was on a rocky cliff that sloped down to the sea. The hiking guide book we have described this as, resembling the end of the world. which was a fair description as there are two sets of sheer rock face that plunge into the sea. Nestled between the cliffs is a pebble beach created by a slow trickling stream, that brings pebbles and sand down between the rocks. We pulled into the very basic campground, and the young guy in charge of renting campsites told us to go pick a site and come up and pay. There were two very interesting sites one was on the grass by the edge of the cliff and one was out on a spit of land surrounded by cliff edges. As the site was perched on top of this sea stack of sorts with a rocky causeway leading to it we decided not to camp there. Mainly because going to the washroom at night might be dangerous. The site we chose however had an equally amazing view. The entire cove was visible from the tent. After an unsuccessful attempt to light a fire we called it a night. The wood I chose was wet I didn’t have any kerosine (for my infamous woof lighting method) and my cub scout leader pride wouldn’t let me give up trying and join the neighbours at their fire, something I think Michelle won’t forgive me for. The next morning I woke up early and headed out to the empty campsite on the point. I guess no one else thought it safe enough to camp on either. There were two young girls standing there pointing out to sea. As I followed their line of sight I noticed two large moving humps in the water, there were two whales not more than 20 metres off the point and clearly visible.. I hurried back to the tent to wake Michelle unfortunately by the time we got back the whales were farther down the shoreline, but we did see the occasional tail flip out of the water. We decided to head out for a hike along the cliff tops toward the point where the whales had swam off to, we looked at Meat Cove mountain and decided as the trails were not very well marked we would do them another day when we had a better map. The cliff trail headed off into the woods just north of the campground the first bit of the trail was well beaten but gradually the brush started to overgrow the trail. Part way up the trail we came across an abandoned log cabin in an overgrown meadow. The hill in the woods got steep as we headed toward the cliff top. Just as the land levelled out the trees made way for open pastures. In the woods we saw horse tracks apparently there is a wild horse in the area. The path followed a saddle like hill that formed an outcropping into the ocean. The trail began to head downward steeply toward the water passing a burned out patch of trees and finishing at the cliff face. We sat on the cliff for about half an hour or more watching cormorants on the rocks below. Boats would pass in an out of the harbour around this point. We met a couple from Ottawa on the trail, a military man that worked at NDHQ and his wife and two kids. We headed back along the trail with the woman and her daughter while the husband headed to the end of the point with the son. We got a bit turned around in the woods as we followed the woman, but finally made it back to the main trail past the cabin and back to camp. The husband however was a bit better navigator and had made it back before us. I think he was less than impressed with his wife but given the trail was not well marked it was hard to blame anyone.

We got back to the camp at noon and decided to have lunch as we where eating lunch at the small camp seafood hut we saw a coastguard boat pull into the cove. The locals seemed to show great interest in the reason it would be here. I guess it is not a common occurrence. The speculation was that they had been called because the sea-kayakers that had come to the cove last night and camped on the beach were having problems. However it seemed the Coastguard boat was simply following a drifting old lobster trap that had been left out beyond the end of the season. Apparently they are strict on fishing season rules since the death of the cod fisheries. The woman that served us also mentioned that the wild horse ( which may have once belonged to a meat Cove resident) had frightened a few hikers on the trail this morning, unfortunately we only saw hoof prints. We watched as the coastguard hauled the old trap out of the water, and then we went for a very brief swim in a very cold ocean. For some reason I was not in a brave mood and decided to forgo the idea of swimming and just dunked myself into the fidget water, that was enough for me. Michelle loved the water and floated in the waves with her toes out of the water. It is interesting how you float higher in salt water that fresh water.

After we went for a swim we decided to head off back to the Cabot trail but that is another installment......

Our Vacation to the East Coast : Oat Cakes, The Green Party, and a Moose

(Installment #3 - Wednesday)
Photos and many edits to follow.

Not far down the Cabot Trail we found a campground. I believe it was called Macleod’s or something like that. While it was mainly a trailer park like all the campgrounds on the trail it had an excellent ocean view. The problem was that the ground was not level enough to have a good night sleep the tent sites were on a steep hillside. In the morning I let Michelle sleep in a bit as because the hill made sleep so unpleasant I’m sure neither she nor I got a good night sleep. I wondered down to the washroom and on my way back I ran into a guy selling traditional Scottish breakfast food out of the back of a PT Cruiser. He had oat cakes, tea, coffee, scones and a number of other things. As I was low on cash, I bought coffee tea and an oat cake to share with Michelle. After Michelle woke and sleepily munched the oat cake (which was really good) we went back down to the PT Cruiser Guy and bough another for the road. As we were buying the oat cake the sister of the guy that runs it, was talking (basically campaigning) to a bunch that had gathered at the Cruiser. This was Elizabeth May, from Ottawa, one of the candidates in the race for the leadership of the Green Party. She seems to have some good political opinions unfortunately I tend to think the green party has a few too many idealistic dreamers in it but I could be convinced to vote for them if they found some way to strengthen their party.

After a short yack on politics we headed off down the trail once again. As the trail passes Pleasant bay it cuts inland and passes a really interesting highland Bog. Michelle and I stopped and even though her cold/flu was still being a pain, we decided to hike the bog trail, which was mostly a boardwalk but very pleasant. As we were entering the trail, we saw a moose on the far edge of the bog just by the trees that hid the bog from the highway. There was a growing crowd of motorists that had pulled over to watch her through the trees. I think the moose (a cow - female moose are called cows) was getting a bit annoyed because she was gradually making her way away from the highway. We walked the rest of the bog trail and noticed a number of very interesting bog plants some that were even carnivorous bug eaters. The signs on the trail warned us to look out for moose especially around the late afternoon (which was when we arrived). As we came back to the beginning of the loop we found the moose had moved even closer to the trail we stood and watched her from no more than 20 feet away. I took a lot of really good photos (that I will blog after I scan them).

The crowd on the trail was getting larger as people from the highway pulled over and hiked up the trail to see her. Then this obnoxious fat preteen brat decided to yell and push his way off the trail to get closer and spooked her, and she headed toward the highway ditch. Luckily there was no traffic as she scooted across the road, and disappeared.

Our next stop was to be Meat Cove but that will be another installment.......

Our Vacation to the East Coast : Moose and eagles on the trail

(Installment #2 - Tuesday)
Photos and many edits to follow.

We drove from Cavendish beach across the Island leaving the land of Anne of Green Gables and Lucy Maud Montgomery behind. Although it is a pretty place the tourist stuff is taking over, I never want to see another red headed doll again. As we passed Charlottetown we saw signs for a lighthouse at Prim point, driving down some seriously rough roads within twenty minutes we were at Prim point. The light house was the last brick lighthouse on the island. However the brick while visable inside the lighthouse was covered with asbestus siding. Michelle sat and watched the ocean as I climbed my way to the top. The stairs were very steep and there were no hand rails but the veiw from the tiop was awesome. I took a picture of the veiw and kept the glass of the light in the picture to show where it was taken from the photo turned out incredable. As we made our way over to the ferry I thought about the project concept I had considered some time ago, to investigate the reconstruction of the Nellie J Banks. A project I am seriously thinking of dumping due to the constraints and the risks involved. The banks being one of the most famous rum runners to sail the shores of Nova Scotia and PEI. However with it still on my mind, and as we had an extra hour till the ferry crossed to Nova Scotia I mentioned that it may be interesting to head up to Murray Harbour to Michelle. Michelle said that if we didn’t I might regret having been so close and not going, and so we made a detour to Murray Harbour the last resting place of the Nellie J Banks. In Murray Harbour I realised that there was not enough people to really support such a project as the whole town consisted of 500 souls. We stopped at Ellie’s a gift shop, and I phoned Sue Burns the owner of the property were the Banks was burned, and she said come right over. Sue was very surprised to see us but with the usual Maritime friendliness she showed us down to the spot on her property where the banks was burned. Sue told us her neighbour a 95 year old woman was the widow of the man that lit the Banks on fire in 1953. Unfortunately the woman was not available when Sue called. Sue said if she had known we were coming we could have camped in her yard. When we walked down to the beach I picked up a peace of metal strapping that Sue believes came off the Banks and Sue told me to keep it. As for the project I am not sure that it will go much farther unless I can find an enthusiastic Murray Harbour person to take it on.

Having only about 20 minutes to make it to the ferry we bid farewell to Sue and headed off to the ferry. We made it just in time, and were not the last in line. The trip across was great Michelle spotted herons in the harbour so I took several photos of the herons feasting on shell fish on the shore and some of the lighthouses that flank the entrance into the port. Arriving in Nova Scotia Michelle and I decided that as the last time we were there we went up the south and east shore first and did not have enough time for the North west shore, we would start by going up that shore.

The drive to the Canso Causeway seemed long as there was little scenery to see but it was good to see the moose fences once again as last time we were up that way we saw several moose running along the fence line so we kept our eye on the fence but saw no moose, unfortunately. We made our way to the causeway and like last time as we headed over Michelle saw another Bald Eagle. I think this is nature's way of trying to entice us to move to the east coast. However money still holds us back as there is little or no work for us out there at the moment. After we crossed the causeway we took the Ceilidh route along the shore through Inverness and Margoree harbour. We entereed the Cape Breton highlands park at Cheticamp. The area around Cheticamp is mostly Acadian so we stopped at a craft shop and watched Acadian needle work being done. Unfortunately the tourist trade has raised the cost of needle work to a point where it cost thirty dollars for a 6 inch square of it, so we passed on that souvenir. We stopped at the info centre as we entered the park and got some info briefly and then were back on the road. Michelle was concerned, and rightly so, that we were spending way too much time driving and not enough hiking, so we drove only as far as Cheticamp and parked to go on our first sizable hike of the vacation. We stopped below Grand Falaise a steep rock face and took a few pictures then moved the car to the parking area across the road to take Le Chemin du Buttereau trail. As the full trail would take us back to Cheticamp we decided to do the loop trail (I forgot the name) that takes us around the hill and cliffs overlooking the ocean. As we went down the trail we came to a point were the trail ended as the ground had eroded away and fell into the ocean. As we came up to the cliff, a bald eagle flew across the end of the trail, following the shore looking for food. We turned back to follow the trail around the drop off and headed along the cliff face where there were some amazing views of the ocean and the sand bar that used to be the road to Cheticamp.. The trail itself was a settlers cart track to Cheticamp so we found several sites of ruined homes. As we came past a very pretty meadow we met a few hikers going the other way and they told us that by the ruins of the le Blanc house there was a moose cow and calf, so we hurried on and looked through the trees to see the calf grazing on meadow flowers. We hiked back around the loop to the look out again, meeting a few more hikers and telling them to watch for the moose. We met the first group of hikers again as we came back around the loop to look at the cliff where we saw the eagle again and they told us that when they first saw the moose they were actually walking on the trail ahead of them. We followed the trail back to the car and headed up shore to see how far we would get before it got too late to camp.

But that will be another installment.....

Our Vacation to the East Coast

(Installment #1 - Saturday Sunday Monday)
Photos and many edits to follow.



The first few days of our vacation where spent on the road and in hotels, rather than camping as we had planned. Our first night after a feverish pace of travel, landed us in the mid size town of Riviere du Loup (pronounced Rivee-Air duh Loo) roughly translated as wolf river.

We arrived rather late about nine o’clock in the evening and as Michelle was very sick, her cold/flu having got very bad during the travel, we decided to search for an hotel. We stopped at a riverside motel that wanted almost eighty dollars for a room. It smelled bad and had an extremely rude owner who smelled like stale liquor, so we moved on. In Riviere du Loup we stopped at three different hotels, all were booked solid and we were told that there were no rooms available anywhere in town. At the last stop Michelle was feeling so miserable and tired, that she stayed in the car, as I fought with my very limited french to find out if the motel had a room, which of course it didn’t. However the owner did know a place down the road in a small suburb, if you can call it that, of Riviere du Loup. Michelle braved the rain to come take directions and we drove through the rain for a few minutes to a B&B motel called Hotel De La Plage (I think) It was an incredible place, very old and had a bathroom down the hall, but was creaking literally with charm. When we pulled in we hadn’t eaten so the owner had a meal made up for us less than 30 dollars. As I recall it was seafood pasta and Ham in maple sauce. We made our way up the creaking stairs and collapsed into a rather oversoft and small bed, but comfortable nonetheless.

In the morning Michelle was still feeling bad but it was evident that her cold was not as intense as the night before. We had breakfast looking out over the water, as the hotel was as it claimed, right on the beach. The food was great we helped ourselves to the buffet and ordered fruit wrapped in a crepe to go with it. We looked out at the water and thought about a hike on the beach, but had to get moving as we wanted to hit the Maritimes relatively quickly. As the rain was bad and we did not get off as quick as we hoped, we made our way to Moncton by evening and again we hunted for a hotel as Michelle’s flu/cold was being nasty. She cried on my shoulder wondering when this stupid cold/flu would pass. But we found a Comfort Inn easily as the weekend had passed. But when we were watching the TV we noticed that the weather was to be bad for two more days but the weather on Prince Edward Island (PEI) looked good so we headed for the island by way of the Confederation bridge. The clouds and rain remained, but got thinner. As Michelle was feeling better and did not want to spend her entire vacation in the car or a hotel, we stopped for a short hike in Kensington PEI along the Confederation trail which follows an old railway bed. There were also couple of museums in Kensington, a very cute little veterans museum and a rail museum which we walked through. By the time we reached Malpeque bay , the weather had improved we stopped for lunch at a great lobster hut on the harbour and had some delicious mussels. We hiked at Cabot Beach park where the cubs had the national jamboree last year. We saw some great views of the harbour and walked the dunes. The boats pass into the harbour there through a narrow channel and that made for great photos. We also collected a number of shells from the beach and Michelle warned me about what had happened last time as the shell’s owners had rotted in the car leaving the car with a bad odour for weeks so we checked out our shells with care to avoid bringing the remains of shellfish back with us. In amongst the dunes we found a dump were the locals had obviously illegally dumped mussel shells It seems not everyone walks the full length of the beach or turns back before they reach the shell dumping area. The camp area at Cabot Beach was full so we drove on to Cavendish beach and camped right on the grassy knoll before the beach. The surf was loud at night but the view was amazing. The evening we arrived we met a couple from Orleans as we walked on the beach flying our pocket kite. Our neighbours were students just graduated from high school in Germany who were hitch hiking from Montreal to the Maritimes and back. Although the wind was high and the salt spray coated the tent at night there were no leaks, our pre-trip water proofing seemed to have worked Michelle hinted at staying in cavendish beach, but being the not so good listener I am at times I missed the hint, I was also suffering from a lack of quality sleep and tended to be some what cranky to Michelle’s annoyance. It took me some time to live down my bad humour. However it passed and we did stop and do some shopping in Cavendish and then stayed for a while and Sandspit amusement park. Michelle loves Ferris wheels she finds them very romantic so that was our first stop. The wheel stopped a couple times at the top and the view from the top was breathtaking of the beach and dunes and ocean. PEI has this amazing contrast of grass green red mud and ocean Blue with highlights of white in the surf. If there was work there it would be an amazing place to live. We also went on the bumper boats which helped to cool us down as the sun was now shining regularly and leaving burn traces across Michelle’s shoulders. After that Michelle wanted to go on the roller coaster, which is not my favourite thing to do as I am a consummate coward about the things as I am sure the car is going to leave the track at any minute I haven’t got the trust in engineering that Michelle has I guess that is because her dad is an engineer.

Expanding My Musical Library
My 20 Top
Modern Artists with Folk Influences
Acoustic Sonority
(Resembling Great Big Sea)