July 15 – August 10, 2019

The month-long journey from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Traverse City, MI has come to its end, and we are looking forward to some time in dry dock. Praise God for the extraordinary weather we have experienced on our trips— like San Diego every day–cool and dry! And we appreciate the amazing grace of travel where we arrived with our luggage at every stop on time. We just had to share the nightmare of canceled flights and lost luggage that our friend Sue Kirkland lived over five days to realize that none of this should be taken for granted. The three days in the midst of travel at the Summer Seminar for Women at Camp Miniwanca (Michigan) were satisfying for Sue, so it was not all anxiety and anguish.

On our Road Scholar Tour (guided masterfully by Tammy Pickering), we learned about historically unnoticed people who made significant contributions. It was a lesson in the beauty and magnanimity of lives lived without fanfare, but lived with joy and dedication. Artists and inventors, who followed their callings and spoke from their hearts for reasons they could not explain.

New meaning for the vocation “hooker” was discovered in Cheticamp, Nova Scotia. Elizabeth LeFort, a local rug hooker in large canvases, displayed her work all over the world, including the Vatican, Buckingham Palace, the White House and at the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. The labor that goes into some of her work can hardly be imagined.

“The turning point of the rug industry came when in 1927, Lillian Burke, an artist from New York as well as a friend of the (Alexander Graham) Bell family of Baddeck, visited this area. She became interested in these works of art which she introduced on the U.S. market” [heticampns.com/2015/08/04/rug-hooking/]. She was a mixed blessing, placing Cheticamp on the map of hooking artisans, while pressing the local women to hard labor, according to her exacting standards.

In this historical turn we measure the price of fame. In obscurity the beauty was just as real, yet the beauty might have been lost to history without the crass invasion of the mass production motive of Lillian Burke.  Below a crucifixion scene, an easily 3′ x 6′ canvas of hooked yarn. Amazing detail for  the medium!

 

 

“In the afternoon we stopped at the Alexander Graham Bell Historic Site, an eye-opening display of one man’s genius and humanitarian spirit. Bell was a chronic dreamer and inventor. Early in his career he worked on a system for teaching the deaf, which brought him to the Boston School for the Deaf in 1877, a mile from our (Kathy’s and my) first home in Randolph, MA.” [https://wtucker.edublogs.org/2019/07/19/scotia-scholars-on-the-road/]

Below with Helen Keller, left, and her teacher, Anne Sullivan.

In Bell I recognized the restless spirit of invention and creativity, and yet his earliest impulses were humanitarian, the education of the deaf. His desire to retreat to the obscure, but lovely village of Baddeck, Cape Breton was in conflict with his desire to collaborate with the greatest aeronautic inventors in the world to develop advanced versions of the Wright Brothers’ contributions. He managed to gather his colleagues to Cape Breton to demonstrate later prototypes of flying machines. He had an ample estate capable of entertaining inventors in style.

We spent time in Prince Edward Island chiefly to pay tribute to the industry of Anne of Green Gables, which had put PEI on the map. But we met other less famous historical characters, who were no less inspiring.  On the Seventh Day, we awoke to a whimsical historical lecture by Cameron McDonald beginning inside the hotel and continuing to walk the streets of Charlottetown, PEI.

At a present-day playground and location of a nineteenth century scaffold, Cameron recounted  the hanging of George Dowie, a sailor who lived with a “female acquaintance,” who became the object of a barroom brawl and murder. All appeals for clemency were promptly refused by the Colonial Office. And so, on April 6, 1869, George Dowie was sentenced to meet his fate. https://everything2.com/title/The+Hanging+of+George+Dowie. The story is full of drama and pathos, as George Dowie prevented a riot for his defense by silencing the mob and letting his execution go forward. Dowie was granted a last statement, according to tradition. As it was eight pages of small handwriting, accompanied by an additional seventeen-stanza poem dedicated to his mother and wife, the authorities provided him with a chair from which to read. Apparently, he had experienced a religious conversion, and proceeded to confess his past sins and his new devotion to Christ. His primary message was one of warning to others to shun “drink, vicious inclinations, evil habits, and dens of iniquity.” The reading took half an hour. There was also a moment where he thanked the Clergymen who were present to pray for him, the lawyers who had worked for him, and confessed that he had no hard feelings towards the executioner.

Dowie was truly a reformed drunkard.  His story re-fueled my interest in prison reform, both social and personal. The drama behind the walls is not always violent, it is often transformational.

The life of the author L.M. Montgomery was more fascinating to me than the exploits of Anne of Green Gables. Montgomery had a compulsion to write and kept voluminous journals besides her widely published short stories and poems. Yet she notes in the excerpt below that she suffered bouts of depression and associated them with the burden of creativity. She says “They give us sensitivity to beauty in all of us, but the shadow of the gift goes with it.” She echoes the historical record of the many writers and other artists who struggled with depression. Is there a price to pay for extraordinary creativity? I have often wondered.

In Canada I learned that everything American is not admired– especially our glorious American Revolution.  The Canadians resolved their dependency on Great Britain with civilized negotiation in 1864, nearly a century after the American Revolution. To them, the Revolution was a more radical solution with some trampling on the rights of the people who later came to settle Canada in the late 1700’s. As Will Ferguson writes in his mildly satirical essays, Why I Hate Canadians,

The Patriots trampled on the very human rights they purported to be defending: they took hostages, they seized and opened mail, they staged violent boycotts, they orchestrated kangaroo courts, and they held what can only be dubbed as “consciousness-raising” sessions, where people suspected of being loyal to Britain were badgered into swearing allegiance to the revolution. The Patriots also confiscated and auctioned off the land and property of suspected “traitors (96).

I was awakened to the seamy side of American history by some of Ferguson’s documented essays, as well as by our recent attending of the performance of 1776 in St. Louis is June.  The process of making the sausage of Independence is often more unprincipled than our history books admit.

One of the highlights of our trip was witnessing the tides of the Bay of Fundy. At Hopewell Rocks we saw the ravages of the tide in the gigantic rock formations visible at low tide. We had been invited to “walk the ocean floor,” the bottom vacated by the receding tide, which could rise over 50 feet above the low tide level. But the drama was best witnessed in the rising tide.

“The tide visibly surges twice in 24 hours at the channel running through Moncton, Nova Scotia. When we stayed at the Rodd Moncton the night before, we were told we could observe the high tide cresting as it came up the channel at approximately 2:45 a.m., so we had a dilemma: a good night’s sleep or to witness a “tidal bore.”  We decided to get out of bed at 2:30, since the channel was steps from our hotel door. There was partial streetlight shining on the channel when we staggered out to the observation platform. 

Sure enough, around 2:37 we could hear a rushing sound around the bend and presently a small breaker rounded the corner and crawled in our direction. The cresting foam was barely  high enough to notice, but it approached like a living thing let out of its confinement.  If there is such a feeling as ‘slightly awed,’ I felt it. It rolled by our eyes and upstream into the night.” [https://wtucker.edublogs.org/2019/07/28/green-gables-inc/]

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia was certainly the most scenic of the villages we visited. “In 1995 the United Nations designated Lunenburg a World Heritage site for its unique preservation of the British Colonial layout and authenticity as a working town. There are only three such sites in North America.” [Lunenburg: A Visitors’ Guide, 2019]

During the eighteenth century the British and French vied for control of the Canadian Maritimes. Lunenburg was settled by Germans, Swiss, and French (1753)  as part of Britain’s attempt to establish a fortress against the French, who were fortified at Louisbourg (an actual fortress we visited earlier).  Below a view of the four prominent churches of the skyline, including Zion Lutheran, St. John’s Anglican (1754), Central United Church, and St. Andrews Presbyterian (barely visible).

Like Halifax, up the coast, Lunenburg suffered a devastating waterfront fire that wiped out a stretch of history, but the citizens rallied to recover their waterfront with lovely Victorian buildings. For some reason the diversity of cultures and religions in Lunenburg’s history has made their people most conscious of historical preservation. Lunenburg Academy  kept its place on the hill overlooking the town through fire and internal changes that transformed it into a private school for musicians and sailors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We discovered the contemporary folk artist Maud Lewis, a national treasure, who suffered from childhood rheumatoid arthritis. Each of her paintings was a suffering passion, as you can see from the video, which corresponds with documentary video we saw in the museum. If anything, her husband was more cruel than the independent movie “Maudie” allows him to be.

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCZ_guQTGNw]

 

“Maudie” is the essence of the artist struggling through pain, both physical and emotional. The incandescence of her spirit as viewed in her art amazes and awes me. She made her very humble and austere life beautiful by her painting and has inspired me to compose under all circumstances. Like other creators — Elizabeth LeFort and Alexander Graham Bell, she was more dedicated to her art than any need for fame, and yet the fame came without invitation.

 

 

Our week between trips was spent with Bill and Wizzy at home and Victoria at the Miniwanca Summer Seminar for Women [https://ayf.com/camps/miniwanca/summer-seminars-women/].  Victoria attended her eighth Summer Seminar.

A Sunday (8/4) midnight flight brought me to  Grand Rapids, where Victoria and I met up following the Summer Seminars for Women at Camp Miniwanca (Shelby, MI).  We had breakfast at Anna’s, where I captured a one-of-a-kind display of electric toasters (left). Someday kids will point to that and say, “What are those things?”

In Traverse City, we were the royal guests of the Standfest Dynasty, specifically Kathleen (Victoria’s sister) and Gordie. They are pictured below in their native habitats, Sleeping Bear Dunes and Mari Vineyard.  On Wednesday we visited the Music House Museum, a unique collection of mechanized music instruments. “The collection spans from the late 18th century to 1950, going from simple music boxes to early recorded sound and radio ” [http://musichouse.org/]

A unique exhibit is the Weber Duo Art Reproducing Grand Piano, which reproduces the player along with the music with advanced player piano technology. George Gershwin recorded his “Rhapsody in Blue” on this instrument, translating his style, along with the music. As with all of the exhibits, this instrument performed for us with impressive fidelity, translating the dramatic flair of Gershwin at the keyboard.

The history of air-powered musical reproduction is displayed in this extraordinary museum with a 90-minute tour and demonstration of many of the instruments. The tour culminates with a silent short film, featuring a recording of the 1924 Wurlitzer Organ of Detroit Fox Theater fame.  Below, three of the impressive variety of air-powered organs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gordie and Kathleen honored us with a royal tour of Traverse City, including the boatyard of the Maritime Heritage Alliance [http://www.maritimeheritagealliance.org/], the Music House Museum, the Old Mission Peninsula, and to the west, Sleeping Bear Dunes and Pierce-Stocking Scenic Drive.[https://www.nps.gov/slbe/planyourvisit/psscenicdrive.htm].

On the Old Mission Peninsula we toured Mari Vineyards, with its impressive stone work, executed by Gordie’s firm,  Standfest Masonry [see exterior below].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This final leg of our journey was most amazing to me, who had criminally neglected the western side of Michigan during the twenty-five years I lived in the mitten. The beauty of the Grand Traverse region was comparable to most any sight in the Canadian Maritimes, rivaled only by the Bay of Fundy. Grateful for even a three-day immersion in this stunning land-and sea-scape.

Gloria Dei for the characters and scenery that delighted us these last four weeks.  We were well-served by the weather reprieve from St. Louis, but more deeply felt the shining beauty of Cape Breton, the stark display of the Bay of Fundy, the  joyful harbor of Lunenburg (with a memorable lobster and macaroni at Grand Banker Bar & Grill),  and the quiet rush of the tidal bore in Moncton, NB at 2:37 a.m., July 23, 2019.  There is more summer to relish in Chesterfield, MO, but we will continue to feed on the movable feast of the Maritimes and Traverse City.

The 11th day of our trip was really a “get-away” day, but we had some morning time to explore the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. To be specific– to see the Maud Lewis exhibit. Riding the bus, we had watched the movie “Maudie” and were inspired to see her exhibit. Here is the trailer:

Maud Lewis is a national treasure, an artist who suffered from childhood rheumatoid arthritis. Every painting was a suffering passion, as you can see from the video, which corresponds with documentary video we saw in the museum. If anything, her husband was more cruel than the movie “Maudie” allows him to be.

The museum moved and restored her home and exhibited it as a work of art. You can see the interior below. She covered everything with bright, colorful images. The dominance of her spirit over physical hardship and pain is stupefying. 

 

 

We were inspired to leave the Maritimes with this amazing example of passion for expression and decoration that transformed a bleak life  into a vibrant space.

On the morning of Day Ten, we wound our way through narrow byways to Peggy’s Cove, one of the most photographed locations in Canada. The lighthouse, along with hundreds of daily visitors, looks off toward the Atlantic Ocean. Victoria and I took counterpoint photos of each other and climbed the white rocks. Visitors are sternly warned against stepping on the “black rocks,” which are slippery with ocean waves and spray.

Below, a view of the “black rocks” and surf pounding below.

Victoria the conqueror stands astride her coastal kingdom.

Victoria befriends a welcome bear. Plenty of shops, but we had no time to linger, since we had appointments with lunch and a guide in Lunenburg.

Peggy’s Cove deserves its scenic billing, but there are many such rocky vistas along the coast of Maine. Probably the lighthouse makes it one of the most photogenic.

Afternoon of Day 10 brought us to Lunenburg, probably the most scenic town on our Roads Scholar tour. Below is a small sample of what we saw on our guided tour.

Lunenburg is Fodor’s No. 1 of “Top Experiences” in the Maritimes, probably for its coastal beauty and visible history. Founded by German immigrants, it actually got its name from the British King George II, who was titled Duke of Braunsweig-Lunenburg.  The British recruited settlers from the German, Swiss and French in 1753 to establish Lunenberg, first as a fortress near Halifax.

Below a view of the four prominent churches of the skyline, including Zion Lutheran, St. John’s Anglican, Central United Church, and St. Andrews Presbyterian (barely visible). The whimsically painted houses on King Street are known as the UNESCO Fresco, since they broke the black and white architectural tradition. In 1995 the United Nations designated Lunenburg a World Heritage site for its unique preservation of the British Colonial layout and authenticity as a working town. There are only three such sites in North America.

Savored one of our best lunches: Lobster and Macaroni, at Grand Banker Bar & Grill, right on the harbor. Montague Street is the place for eating and shopping.

Below, outside and inside views of St. John’s Anglican Church, the second-oldest Protestant Church in Canada, celebrated for its Carpenter Gothic architectural style. It suffered extensive damage from a fire in 2001, but was completely restored with community donations.

Lunenburg Academy- 1895

The Academy served as a public school for 117 years. Today it is home to two international schools: Class Afloat and Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance. Another fire reclamation project. Situated strategically at the top of a hill overlooking the town.

On the morning of Day Ten we saw these seagull chicks, calling out to their parents outside our ninth floor window at the Delta Marriott. Occasionally they would make a run to the edge of the building, but they weren’t quite ready to fly.

We were ready to travel, so we descended to the village of St. Martin, a picturesque fishing village founded by Loyalists after the American Revolution. Over 50,000 British Loyalists fled the Colonies to settle in Nova Scotia, which was an island of 19,000 settlers in 1774.

If you want to hear about the American Revolution from another perspective, read Will Ferguson’s Why I Hate Canadians, which criticizes Canada most for aspiring to be the United States. About the Revolution:

The Patriots trampled on the very human rights they purported to be defending: they took hostages, they seized and opened mail, they staged violent boycotts, they orchestrated kangaroo courts, and they held what can only be dubbed as “consciousness-raising” sessions, where people suspected of being loyal to Britain were badgered into swearing allegiance to the revolution. The Patriots also confiscated and auctioned off the land and property of suspected “traitors” (96).

Ferguson claims that the Loyalists were sympathetic to the grievances of the revolutionaries, but disagreed primarily with the method of settling them. So they were deported to Canada in a flotilla containing 100,000 “anti-revolutionaries,” as he calls them, in 1783.  Canada was essentially settled by Loyalists. Ferguson concludes:

As you can see, the Canadian Way was already taking shape long before Canada itself was invented;  evolution rather than revolution, slow, gradual change rather than sudden, traumatic upheaval, incrementalism as opposed to sweeping agendas (98)

Although Ferguson offers scathing commentary on Canada’s lack of resolve or healthy self-image, he is more frustrated by its USA-envy, because he feels Canada took the high road to independence, instead of our low road of rebellion and violence.

Above we see our guide from St. Martins explaining how this striking figurehead of Prince Victor made it to the local museum. Below one example of 19th-century homes, known as the “Ketchup, Mustard and Relish” house. (Guess why?)

 

Below you can see how the dramatic tide shifts of the Bay of Fundy dry-docks the fishing vessels. The lobster season is only three months, because the catch is enormous. Many fisherman go out for crab in the off-season.  The traps are very similar to lobster traps, but more round.

Sighted an eagle on this tower guarding the breakwater in St. Martin.

 

 

As large as the image of Anne of Green Gables is in Charlottetown, L. M. Montgomery overshadows her in the “Green Gables National Historic Site.” It is an ample 19th century home surrounded by a substantial museum and grounds for hiking. When we visited on Monday it was congested by people of all ages and nationalities: young Asian families, Caucasian teenagers, mature Indian couples– the wide appeal of Anne of Green Gables is stunning. The museum does justice to her career as a children’s writer, but also as a newspaper correspondent, and writer of poetry and short fiction. 

Her portrait with her minister husband belongs to her later life, after most of the Anne books were published. He was not well for most of their marriage and predeceased her. Apparently they both share bouts of depression ( see above journal excerpt).

On Day Nine we entered Hopewell Rocks at Fundy National Park, heard a lecture on the origins of the rock formations, and then descended 99 steps to the ocean floor at low tide. At right the squarish formation with a rounded cavity is known as “the elephant.” Other formations, created by the erosion of sandstone by the action of the tides, include the “dinosaur,” various “flowerpots,” and an enormous version of E.T. High tide ranges from 35 to 48 feet, the highest in the world. The positioning of the moon and the sun and the force of the seas determine how high each tide reaches. The local record is 54 feet.

The tide visibly surges twice in 24 hours at the channel running through Moncton, Nova Scotia. When we stayed at the Rodd Moncton the night before, we were told we could observe the hide tide cresting as it came up the channel at approximately 2:45 a.m., so we had a dilemma. We decided to get out of bed at 2:30, since the channel was steps from our hotel door. There was partial streetlight shining on the channel when we staggered out to the observation platform. Sure enough, around 2:37 we could hear a rushing sound around the bend and presently a small breaker rounded the corner and crawled in our direction. The cresting foam was barely  high enough to notice, but it approached like a living thing let out of its confinement.  If there is such a feeling as “slightly awed,” I felt it. It rolled by our eyes and upstream into the night.

Day 5 found us at the Fortress at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia.

The Fortress at Louisbourg is the largest reconstruction of an historic site in Canada. perched along the harbor south of Cape Breton. It was built by the French, but captured during the French and Indian War in 1755 by the British.  It was during the British occupation that the Acadians were expelled from the maritimes, shipped to Boston, Philadelphia and points south.

Below we witness a demonstration of muskets and cannons, followed by a parade from the outer walls into the center of f0rtress.

 

On Friday evening we attended a “ceilidh” or “kitchen party” of traditional Gaelic music with fiddle and piano. Almost no written music was employed for concert, because it is chiefly an oral tradition passed on by master to apprentice. The fiddler and pianist were remarkably synchronized and skilled. Photography was permitted, but not flashes or social media posting.  We were warned twice with dire consequences promised after the first incident. We put our phones away.

The next day (Sixth) we had lunch at the Pictou Lodge (below), a small resort facing the Straits of Northumberland. The situation was exquisite, the pizza buffet delicious, the weather warm enough to welcome a shore breeze. Pictou is where we would have taken the ferry to Prince Edward Island, except for some mechanical failure, which hastened our detour to the

Confederation Bridge, a nine-mile colossus covering the shortest gap between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, yet the longest span in the country. It consists of short “approaches” from each side and five-mile connector in the middle.  Technically the western approach comes from New Brunswick.  En route we saw a film of its manufacture.

That night we attended a performance of Anne of Green Gables, featuring talented, but overage actors playing Anne and Gilbert, making the teenage characters appear more post-college graduates than young adults. Probably Sara-Jeanne Hosie, as “Miss Stacey,” the successor teacher, was most lyrical and age-appropriate.

On the Seventh Day, we awoke to a whimsical historical lecture by Cameron McDonald beginning inside the hotel and continuing to walk the streets of Charlottetown. At the site of a town playground he recalled the hanging of  George Dowie, a sailor who lived with a “female acquaintaince,”who became the object of a barroom brawl and murder. All appeals for clemency were promptly refused by the Colonial Office. And so, on April 6, 1869, George Dowie was sentenced to meet his fate. https://everything2.com/title/The+Hanging+of+George+Dowie

The story is full of drama and pathos, as George Dowie prevented a riot for his defense by silencing the mob and letting his execution go forward.  Read the grotestque details above.

St. Dunstans Church was the fourth structure erected for worship for Roman Catholics, the previous three burned down or moved unsuccessfully.  An awesome gothic structure, it felt dark and ominous on the day we visited, as an organ played discordantly in the afternoon.  The scene of Pilate’s hand-washing is depicted, among the many friezes of the Stations of the Cross around the sanctuary. The couple in period costume are among many performers to be found on the streets of  Charlottetown.

The highlights of Day Seven  have to include excellent meals at The Brickhouse (Crab Cakes) and The Pilot (lobster roll and Caesar Salad), as well as indulgent purchases at the Roadrunner (running shirts and a jacket) and at The Book Emporium (featuring C.S. Lewis, Laura Hillenbrand and Shaun Tan). Really the best way to enjoy a Sunday in Charlottetown.

The weather, bright, cool and dry! The coast rocky with steel blue waters like the coast of Maine.  The Acadian Stew and the Chicken Medley awakening tastebuds. A cheerful entry into the maritime culture of eastern Canada.

Day One, great immersion into the history by Prof. Jay White, who seemed capable to trace the history of every building in Halifax. Nova Scotia was farmed by waves of immigrants from the abortive seventeenth century Scots to the the eighteenth century French Acadians and Germans,  to later migrations of the Scots and Brits who finally settled in the land. The Acadians suffered the 18th century expulsion by the Earl of Halifax, which carried them down the eastern coast of American Colonies before they eventually moved on to New Orleans. In the nineteenth century Samuel Cunard  carried tourists and settlers across the Atlantic and built a reputation for cruising, as well as transporting immigrants.

Day Two, the extraordinary model of the “Ship Hector” that carried 189 hopeful Scottish settlers to Pictou, Nova Scotia in 1773. They were given a false bill of goods by the con man, JohnPagan, making an eleven-week voyage in the steerage of the ship, reminiscent of the harsh quarters of 20th century Concentration Camps and losing 18 to smallpox before they landed.

When they arrived the land was not cleared, the winter was bad, and they lost another 20 or so. Still, the Hector was re-created in 1999 to commemorate their voyage, and we got to go below and see the dark, cramped quarters they endured.

In the afternoon we stopped at the Alexander Graham Bell Historic Site, an eye-opening display of one man’s genius and humanitarian spirit. Bell was a chronic dreamer and inventor. He worked on a system for teaching the deaf, which brought him to the Boston School for the Deaf in 1877, a mile from our first home (Kathy’s and mine) in Randolph, MA.

Below with Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan (her teacher).

He discovered the gorgeous sea and hills of Baddeck, Cape Breton in the 1880’s, after he had patented his telephone and began working on tetrahedral kites, then gliders, then machine-driven airplanes around the same time as the Wright Brothers. He worked incessantly with four other men, the Aerial Space Association over an eighteen-month period to perfect a motorized air vehicle. 

 

 

He developed a hydrofoil boat that could reach speeds of 114K/hr by elevating the boat from the water

On Day Three Cape Breton.  Delightful panoramas of the natural harbors, the steep hillsides, the tourist-lite villages with history to sell and share. Like Cheticamp, the home of hookers of art and industry. These hookers created magnificent rugs, some mass-marketed, some hung in art galleries, some sold to low-rollers passing through on tour buses.  “The turning point of the rug industry came when in 1927, Lillian Burke, an artist from New York as well as a friend of the Bell family of Baddeck, visited this area. She became interested in these works of art which she introduced on the U.S. market” [heticampns.com/2015/08/04/rug-hooking/]. She was a mixed blessing, placing Cheticamp on the map of hooking artisans, while pressing the local women to hard labor, according to her exacting standards.

Elizabeth LeFort, a local hooker in large canvases, has displayed her work all over the world, including the Vatican, Buckingham Palace, the White House and at the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa.

At left a crucifixion scene, easily 3′ x 6′ of hooked yarn. Amazing detail for  the medium!

 

 

 

 

 

Midday we saw the glories of the Gulf of St. Lawrence from the “mountains” of Cape Breton (no more than 2,000 at the highest). The “Cape” is actually an island with the Gulf on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. The steep roads wound through the hills and coastland inspiring with  contrast.

Cape Breton invites gorgeous hiking and camping spectacles when the pioneering spirit kicks in!

We have a day at the reconstructed fort at Louisbourg before we ferry to Prince Edward Island. Appreciated the savvy guides on this trip and the seasonably warm, dry Nova Scotia weather.