Kayaks on the Bay of Fundy

We spent a day wandering near Fundy Park. 

While lunching at a picnic table 

near the Molly Kool Centre in Alma, NB, 

we watched a "how-to" lesson on kayaking, 

across the river from us.

After they got into the kayaks, 

they had to stay close to shore 

and learn left-turn, right-turn.

This is the building where they first learned 

to work life jackets and paddles.

It took some time to get organized, to make sure everyone was comfortable, could paddle, 

could stay in the kayak.

They were supposed to line up single file to exit into the Bay. 

Not everyone understood the concept of single file.

Eventually, they were one behind the other ... nearly.

We left as the cluster of kayaks sat in the foggy 

Bay of Fundy, waiting for the stragglers.

I hope they had fun and made it back safely.

Photos are mine. Words in coloured print will take you to another site for more information, if you click on them.

Perfect Pie

On a grey sky day full of the waning warmth of summer, we go for a bike ride.  Not wanting to sit at traffic lights, sweltering in our motorcycle gear, we head out to the country.  At the bottom of the street, we turn right onto Route 114 and drive toward the Fundy Park area of lower Albert County, NB.  Off to our right are thunder clouds, to our left, grey and blue skies.  We are optimistic.

As we drive, I feel the warmth and smell the scents carried on the wind, scents connecting me to the sights we pass.   Sensory stimulation can be delightful—clover, new mown hay, lilies, pockets of cool air, salt marsh, evergreen forests, or can be pungent—manure, stagnant ponds of brackish water, diesel fuel, asphalt, tar and skunk.

As a passenger on the motorcycle, I am free to gawk as long as I don’t move my body too much and disrupt the equilibrium.   My heads rotates side to side as we pass new houses and houses six to eight generations old, former neighbours, sights familiar from my childhood, fields, marshland, the Petitcodiac River widening as we travel toward the Bay of Fundy.  The closer we draw to the Bay, the cooler, cleaner and fresher the air feels.  We both appreciate the natural loveliness of this drive on Route 114.

We reach the village of Riverside-Albert, home of September’s Albert County Fair and cross roads to Fundy Park or to Mary’s Point and Cape Enrage, to the Trans Canada Trail or Crooked Creek Lookout.

We stop at a local restaurant.  There is no name and no sign, just a flag and a flashing sign in the window; both say, “Open.”  It’s just past the Guardian Drug Store, on the opposite side of the main street.  We’ve not eaten here before and are apprehensive. 

The décor is simple and clean.  There are plastic protectors over the plain tablecloths, paper place mats, and a school binder with menu pages.  We are surprised at the variety of dishes available on the pages, but want only coffee and pie.

Gary has lemon pie, his favourite.  He says that it is just right, tart and bursting with the taste of fresh lemon.  The meringue is perfect.  I order peach pie with French vanilla ice cream.  It is tasty, full of thick juicy slices of peach.  I close my eyes and think “mmmm.”  I open my eyes and realize that I have mmmm’d aloud.  The family at the next table are grinning at me.  They are having fried clam platters and fish and chips.  Their food must be good as they are gobbling bites from one another’s plates.

I eat my pie and ice-cream and feel content.  It’s so good.

When we leave, both the waitress and the cook are at the counter.  I tell the cook, “It’s the best pie I’ve had in a long time.”  She giggles and puts her head down.

Later she waves at me when we are getting our gear on again to ride and she is outdoors on her break.  We smile at each other.

Gary and I know we’ll return, perhaps for more than pie next time.  Or, maybe a meal and then pie, or maybe the pie first, just in case.

Text in red has hyperlinks which will connect you to another website with additional information.   Words and image are © copyright Carol Steel.

Writing by the Bay

I’ve searched for a reasonably priced cottage or retreat opportunity for some months.  I’ve been yearning to get away from here and all responsibilities to somewhere quiet and isolated, beautiful and nourishing, in order to concentrate on my writing.  

I’m wishing for a chunk of time, a week away to clear my head and replenish my energy.  Last weekend, I happened upon just such a place, a cottage on a bluff overlooking the Bay of Fundy, isolated...but close enough to Alma

so that supplies and other people could be found, if needed.

When I returned home from the drive, I called and talked to the man who owns the venue, as his wife who usually does bookings was busy.  I inquired about rates and availability and amenities, all the usual questions one needs answered when renting a place.  He answered everything and I arranged to call the owners back after discussing this news with my husband, who also had to determine whether he could get time off from work to accompany me.

I gave the owner my name and explained that I am a writer, looking for a quiet place to concentrate on the work, in the peace and quiet of a gorgeous setting on the Bay of Fundy.  I promised to call back.  There was a very long pause from him; again I assured him I would call back after supper.

When I reached the couple later on, to tell them that sadly this time it wasn’t going to work out for us to rent their cottage by the Bay, the woman told me that her husband hadn’t heard my name correctly.  He had excitedly told her that “Carol Shields, the writer wants to rent the cottage.”  She had assured him that this was could NOT be the case, but it had been the source of some discussion and wonderment during their supper meal.

We both laughed!

I suppose, in future, that I had better enunciate more clearly when giving my last name.  It did give me a chuckle and for a moment, a pleasant sense of what being well published and famous might gain, in terms of reactions from people.

However, I am happy to be just me, and not at all wishing to be anyone else.  I am a writer and that is enough.  A writer who still dreams of an affordable get-away for a week of solid writing!

Photos are mine.  As usual, words in red will take you to another website with additional information, if you click on them.

Bay of Fundy, NB

I live in a magnificent part of southeastern New Brunswick.  Within an hour's drive, there are wonders!  At Hopewell Hill on Route 114, I can look out and see dikes started in the 1700's reclaiming the Shepody Marsh for hay fields and farmland, grazing cattle and sheep and the Grindstone Island Nature Preserve.

Grindstone Island, the only island in the upper bay of Fundy, has been designated as an Ecologically Significant Area (ESA) largely due to its importance as a nesting area for Peregrine Falcons, Great Blue Herons, Double-crested Cormorants, Greater Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls.

Turning off Route 114 at Riverside-Albert and following

Route 915 through Harvey, Harvey Bank, Mary's Point and on through New Horton, Cape Enrage and Waterside toward Alma, the views include intertidal mud flats, salt marshes, freshwater marshes and beaches; all a part of the Shepody Bay National Wildlife Area.  This is one of the most important stopover sites in North America for various shorebirds, including the Semipalmated Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers.

The Shepody Bay and Mary's Point area was the first site in Canada to be declared a Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve, under the Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve Network

(WHSRH) in 1987.  To learn more about Mary's Point,

read Deborah Carr's book Sanctuary.

Unfortunately, my camera's battery had an untimely demise early on, in my road trip.  I'll go back and do pictorial justice to this magnificent coastline again soon.  For now, I can share only the first bits of the trip.  I encourage you to make this drive a priority and to stop and enjoy the vistas along the way, as there are many more than I have mentioned and many, many more than I have been able to capture in photos.

As usual, words in red will take you to another website for additional information when you click on them.