Day 229 of a 365-Day Portrait of Canada: The Cabot Trail

McPherson’s Cemetery

A man in his yard with his barking dog near Bay St. Lawrence.

Young Evan

Faces of the day, Cabot Landing

An early morning talk on the beach at Cabot Landing.

Breakfast in their home away from home.

Wharf at the Bay St. Lawrence

Steaming into port with the first day’s catch of Lobster…today would normally be the season’s biggest catch, however many fishermen were less than impressed with their haul.

Allan re-hook’s his fishing line with brand new hooks.

Hines the Fisherman

A father and son take in the sights and sounds down at the Bay St. Lawrence.

Sorting the Day’s Catch

Heading home after a day of fishing on the Bay St. Lawrence.

This young boy was out helping his father fish.

Two Thumbs up!

Joe “Buck” has been collecting moose and deer antlers for over 23 years.

Meat Cove is at the northern most tip of Nova Scotia.

Meat Cove

A room with a view!

Days 227 of a 365-Day Portrait Of Canada: The Cabot Trail, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

Please Note – The cellphone towers aren’t so frequent in the small fishing villages along the Cabot Trail, so sorry for not being able to update the blog daily. Please check back to see more from the Cabot trail in the next 48 hours. It’s raining cats and spitting dogs, but we’ll be able to find something to photograph, providing the wind hasn’t blown it across the highway or into the sea.

Fly Fishing Near Ingonish

View From Little Smokey Mountain

No one told me the roads were so hilly and curvy on the Cabot Trail, which might have been a good thing, because it would have intimidated me knowing what hazards lay ahead. This is a good stretch of pavement, much of the Cabot Trail is just that…a trail, with potholes and pushed out sections all joining together to make one big suspension-busting experience.

A Canadian flag greets this family at the entrance way to their home. Cape Bretoner’s fly the Canadian flag everywhere.

Neil’s harbour is a classic Cape Breton fishing village along the Cabot Trail. Lobster season is set to open tomorrow and there is a buzz in the air with everyone getting their boats, fishing gear and minute by minute weather reports  for the 5 AM start. With Lobster being the main economic generator, each of the 60 days that the Lobster season is open is important. Fishermen will check the traps each day for the first couple of weeks and then every other day after that, with the lobster numbers decreasing steadily over the 60 days.

Young Ben and his father cut up mackerel for bait used in the lobster traps.

High School is out for the days leading up to the opening of the Lobster season, and everyone has to help out however they can. These boys help bait each of the 275 traps. A smelly job.

Baiting the traps which are to be set tomorrow.

Opening morning of the lobster fishing season, I arrive at the wharf at 5:08 AM to photograph the boats leaving the harbour, but I’m eight whole minutes late and the entire harbour is empty. Out at sea, around Neil’s Harbour I can see the fishing boats bobbing up and down in the four foot swells. It’s a windy morning, making it even more of a pain to set the lobster traps off the side of the boats. Each boat is loaded to capacity with lobster traps which weigh in at 100 pounds.

Hazards are around every corner, with the winds reaching 35 km/hr even the most seasoned fisherman must keep a keen eye out for rocks and other boats.

Sunrise over Neil’s Harbour

Heading out to sea with a second batch of traps. Each fishermen is allowed 275 Lobster traps.

Tying Down the Lobster Traps

Everyone gets involved on the first day of Lobster season.

High School kids throw a Grad BBQ down at Neil’s Harbour to raise funds for their Grad.

Flag Of The Day

 

Here are just some of the faces we’ve photographed for the Canadian Flag Mosaic

Day 212 of a 365-Day Portrait of Canada: Truro, Nova Scotia

Battle of the Atlantic Ceremonies in Truro to honor the lives lost during World War I and II.

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign^[2][3][4] of World War II, (though some say it was a series of naval military campaigns and offensives^[5]) running from 1939 through the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, and was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) against Allied convoys. The convoys, coming mainly from North America and the South Atlantic and going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United States from 13 September 1941.^[6] The Germans were joined by submarines of the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) after Italy entered the war on June 10, 1940.

The name “Battle of the Atlantic”, first coined by Winston Churchill in 1941, covers a campaign that began on the first day of the European war and lasted for six years, involved thousands of ships and stretched over hundreds of miles of the vast ocean and seas in a succession of more than 100 convoy battles and perhaps 1,000 single-ship encounters. Tactical advantage switched back and forth over the six years as new weapons, tactics and counter-measures were developed by both sides. The British and their allies gradually gained the upper hand, driving the German surface raiders from the ocean by the end of 1942 and decisively defeating the U-boats in a series of convoy battles between March and May 1943. New German submarines arrived in 1945, but they were too late to affect the course of the war.

Navy Cadets

Reviewing Officers, John McCabe and Paul McCabe, who interestingly enough are father and son.

Legion Branch 26 Presidents and Members

Jarvis Stewart served in the second World War in the Canadian Navy.

Angela Reid is a Memorial Cross Mother, her son Christopher Jonathan was killed in Afghanstan, on August 3rd 2006.

Ron Trowsdale built these model airplanes back in the 1960’s as a teenager where they were stored in an attic until 2005 when the Legion saw the importance of them and built a display cabinet in their memory room. Any of the models haven’t been reproduced for years, making them impossible to get.

The boys sit around and enjoy a pint together.

Day 210 of a 365-Day Portrait of Canada: Blue Beach, Nova Scotia

Fossils at Blue Beach

The rocks exposed at Blue Beach contain many fossils. In fact, there are so many fossils that it is almost impossible to put your foot down without stepping on a record of ancient, past life. The fossils at Blue Beach-Horton Bluff can be divided into four groups: three groups of body fossils (plants, invertebrates, vertebrates); and trace fossils. Trace fossils are indirect evidence of ancient life and include such things as footprints, body drags, and coprolites.

I was lucky enough to have a one on one tour of the Blue Beach Fossil Museum followed with a hike on the beach where I tried my luck for fossils where important discoveries are still being made. Blue Beach is recognized world-wide for its fossil footprints and the only known tetrapod fossils from the early Carboniferous Period of 350 million years ago when this part of Nova Scotia was still a part of Africa. What was then a giant freshwater lake has become today the shales and sandstones of the Horton Bluff formation.

Chris Mansky and Sonja Wood have collected a fascinating array of fossils from this area and have them professionally displayed at the Blue Beach Fossil museum and Research Centre. Chris and Sonya are working hard on getting a world class museum built at Blue Beach as well as trying to get the Blue Beach designated a world UNESCO site.

Chris explains what each fossil means in “the fossil find of 2009”

Day 208 of a 365-Day Portrait of Canada: The Look Off, Delhaven, The Bay Of Fundy, Kentville, Nova Scotia

Kentville and Area

 

Chickens greet the new day at “The Look Off”.

 

The sun raises over farm land near Canning, Nova Scotia, this is the view from “The Look Off”, a 850 foot perch that is possibly the best overall view of what the Annapolis Valley is all about. Fertile farm lands used for a variety of uses, from apples to wineries and everything in between.

A quaint rural landscape complete with horses, not normally found in Nova Scotia.

Row upon row of apple trees add geometeric lines to the landscape throughout the Annapolis Valley.

A school bus navigates along a country road, taking rural children to Canning, the nearest community big enough to have a grade school.

A red barn on red, red soil near Canning.

The Bay Of Fundy, With the Tide Receding

Carl is a Orchard Technician in the Delhaven/Canning area.

40 years apple trees once stood here, now only stumps mark where trees once produced a bounty of apples. The Nova Scotia apple industry is changing from traditions apples like Macintosh, to newer more popular apples, driven by a USA market.

A blood red sandy beach with unlimited possibilities for exploring with not a soul around, how Canadian, miles of space! I love it. We Canadians love it and it shapes us and our minds. If you look closely there’s two people walking on the beach.

With the Bay of Fundy tide dropping 27 feet these fishing boats sit on a sandy bottom, waiting for the tide to come.

Ribs from a whale create an archway on a rural property near Canning.

Lois Newcomb, has been a fixture in Canning since 1938. Lois has runs and owns a china shop in Canning since 1964. Lois was recently awarded with the “Honorary Member Of The Historical Society award” in Canning.

“I think Canada is a pretty good place, with each province having something different to offer.”

Lois recalls the olden days of ship building in Canning.

Wanye spends the day weeding a one acre plot at the “Day Lily Garden” which Wanye and his partner own near Canning, Nova Scotia. Wanye and Wanye sell Day Lily seeds around the globe.

Reporting From The Canadian Landscape

I didn’t have the heart to wake Mya and move her off my camera, so instead I photographed her, hoping the bright flash going off in her eyes would wake her and then I’d move my camera. Notice the dirt on her nose.. well both my dogs are mouser’s and will spend many hours digging up fields or forest in pursuit of mice. Its now tick season and each day I’ll pull off six ticks off each dog.

Flag Of The Day

The Cornwallis Inn is a centre piece in Kentville.

Day 207 of a 365-Day Portrait of Canada: Annapolis Royal, Granville Ferry, Halls Harbour, Nova Scotia

Annapolis Valley

Enjoying the Afternoon Sun In Granville Ferry

Doing Some Gardening In The Backyard

Annapolis Royal’s oldest resident

Annapolis Royal Barber Shop

I photographed “Paul The Barber” back in 1998 (left photo), and I stopped by Paul’s shop 11 years later to do a follow up photo today. Neither Paul, nor the shop had changed much in appearance. Judge for yourself.

Hand Made Shoes, In Granville Ferry.

Janel Warmington and John Gray work away on custom-made boots that will be used in a Seattle Opera. Boots made by the Hand Made Shoes have been sent around the globe, with Broadway plays being one of the biggest purchaser of their boots and shoes.

Fred Longtin cuts a pattern for a pair of boots, to be worn for an opera performed by the Seattle Opera company.

Stitching a Pair of Boots

Halls Harbour Beach

Photographing The Sunset At Halls Harbour

A Small Creek Runs Into The Bay Of Fundy

Playing Music On The Beach Halls Harbour

Cory from Halls Harbour

Johnson and Cindy

Crowd At Halls Harbour

Boats At Halls Harbour

Light Beacon on Halls Harbour

Tubs Of Fishing Bait

Reporting From The Canadian Landscape

People checking out the pictures on the van… each and everyday wherever we are, people stop and check out the mini exhibition on the van. This was probably the largest crowd I’ve seen at one time though.