Don't Worry Be Happy

The last part of our trip to Newfoundland has taken us up the northern peninsula to the spot where the Vikings arrived 1000 years ago .  Along the way we kept our eyes peeled along the side of the road for, of course, the fabled Newfoundland moose, of which there are 'supposedly' 4 for every square kilometre. The land was definitely moose country, swampy little ponds with stubby little trees - we would surely see many! In St. Anthony's we had jams and desserts made with 2 local berries I'd never heard of before - bakeapple and partridgeberry.  Bakeapple are similar to raspberries, although they are yellow when ripe. They grow on small plants in bogs, one berry per plant so very time consuming to gather and expensive to purchase. Patridgeberries are small, bright red, round. Both are delicious. As we were driving we noticed, for hundreds of kilometres, huge stacks of firewood, piled by the side of the road. We later found out that the wood is brought out in the winte...

There's one thing you can't help but notice when you visit the Maritimes - big, big lawns.  Every stately looking white clapboard house is surrounded by an enormous, grassy, park-like expanse of green which brings one thought to mind "who mows all this?" Well today we found out.  We were travelling through northern New Brunswick (near Shediac) into Pictou County in Nova Scotia. Most of the way we travelled the "Sunrise Trail" which follows the Northumberland Strait coastline. All along the way we saw lots of the red, white and blue of the Acadian flag; many houses had a large black or gold star hanging by the front door which is also a symbol of Acadian culture. Nowadays, Acadians can be found in several places in NB and NS as well as Maine and Louisiana. So it must have been 'lawn mowing' day in the Maritimes - everyone was out on their ride'm lawn mowers sprucing up their estates. We must have seen several dozen in just a couple of hours. Of ...