Harvey Bank Heritage Shipyard Park, New Brunswick

 

 

With relatives visiting from England, we toured the area around Harvey Bank, Albert County, New Brunswick. 

The Anderson Hollow Lighthouse (EST. 1889) with its wooden salt-shaker tower is an historic landmark.  Originally located on the Waterside Wharf, it has been re-located several times.  Currently, it sits at Shipyard Park, Harvey Bank.

 

Shipyard Park was built in 2006 as a monument to this area's ship building past from the 19th century.  The "Revolving Light" is a nearly full scale replica. (Click on the ship's name to read an informative article about its history, written by well-known author Deborah Carr.) 

In photos, you see Gary, his brother Ron and sister-in-law Margaret.  For information on how the replica was created, click on this link to Stone Metalworks.

 

 

We were fortunate to have had perfect autumn weather for our jaunt out to the wetlands in Shepody, and then around to the wind-blown look-off at Cape Enrage. 

We hope our relatives enjoyed the area, as much as we always do.  Perhaps, it will bring Ron and Margaret back again.

Words in colour will take you to another website with additional information, if you click on them.

We Are Maritimers

A view over the water to the Nova Scotia shores in the distance

Saturday, I attended a "Nature of Words" workshop for writers, facilitated by Deborah Carr.  We worked all day on skill-centered focusing exercises.  One required us to sketch a nature scene, including as much detail as possible from memory; we couldn't go outside at that moment...it was bucketing down rain.  Using the sketch as inspiration and as a memory aid, we wrote about the scene, encapsulating as much detail as we could about the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and emotions evoked.



The storm surges last winter tore out the roads and beachheads along Route 960



At the completion of the exercise, group members shared. It helps to gain feedback from other writers.  After several people had read, Deborah asked how many of us had sketched and written about water scenes.  All but one of the ten raised hands.  A burst of knowing laughter!



Beaches with road rebuilding at Bayside through to Upper Cape



We are Maritimers after all.  Water is part of our natural world, part of our daily scenery, part of our sense of ourselves, part of what we hold dear.



 Bayfield looking out at the Confederation Bridge



Whenever my husband and I want to relax and enjoy a delightful autumn day, we drive the coastlines of New Brunswick.  On Sunday, we took the motorcycle and journeyed Routes 960 and 955 along the southeastern coast from Bayside, Upper Cape, Cape Spear, Cape Tormentine through Murray Corner to Shemogue and back along to Shediac, through Scoudouc to Moncton.



Bayfield with Confederation Bridge in background



The air was redolent with scents of sea salt, sun-warmed beach sand, fields of clover and hay.  The breeze still held the summer warmth, but there were hints of the crisper fall temperatures.  The wind-stroked fields rippled as we passed, mimicking the waves on the waters.  Whenever we stopped to rest or to take photos, we heard the water slipping over the beaches and retreating, gulls screaming, crows squawking and the dying grasses rustling farewell to summer.   Sunday made our hearts glad; summer lingering and leaves just beginning their bright colours.



Shemogue Marshes



As we rode, and as we stopped to enjoy the seascapes, the browning marshes, the fragrances, the sounds, the taste of salt on our skin, I thought again of our laughter at the workshop.  Yes, we are Maritimers and we are most at home near the sea, the bays, lakes, marshes, rivers and straits.

We are a water people.

For more information about Deborah Carr's workshops go to:  http://www.natureofwords.com/

For more information about Deborah Carr go to:

http://www.deborahcarr.ca/

For more information about these locations in New Brunswick, click here.

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.