Nova Scotia

Since our last update we have been on the go again and last Wednesday we travelled to Halifax which is located in the Province of Nova Scotia (NS) about a 4 hour drive from Fredericton. Throughout the drive to Halifax we drove in torrential rain. The windscreen wipers were having trouble keeping up with the volume of water being dumped onto the car. Sadly we passed a fatal accident.

The trip to Halifax was to attend an interview at the US Consulate for our visa for the USA, which we now have and it is good for 5 years.

We spent 2 nights in Halifax where we enjoyed great lobster with a bottle of Wirra Wirra. Here in Canada the Government runs the liquor stores and we were delighted to find that in NS they have just stared to get this great OZ wine into their stores.

As we will be returning to the area around Halifax later in the year with our dear friends Jacqueline and John to see the Tall Ships we did not explore the area as closely as we would have otherwise done.

As we had no reason to return home we continued southwest along the coast line to Yarmouth. The weather by this time saw the end of the rain and the scenery took on a different appearance. The ocean waters were a deep blue and the many brooks and rivers where a strong tea colour as a result of the many pine trees that cover this land. The previously ice laden streams were all rushing rapidly along which you can see from the photos.

We took the opportunity to stop off at a number of interesting places. One of these was Peggy’s Gove which is a lovely fishing village not far from Halifax. It reminded us very much of the fishing villages we had seen in Ireland. The Cove is located on the shores of the Alantic Ocean however, unlike the fierce Alantic Ocean we saw in Ireland the day we visited the Cove it was sunny albeit a bit on the breezy side. You will see from the photos what a quaint story book type place this is.

Further to the southwest we stopped for lunch at a pub called The Sea Dog Saloon at Shelburne, N.S. To see more of the Saloon go to http://www.theseadog.com/ . We also had the opportunity to have a conversation with the owner which was most enjoyable.

We stayed in Yarmouth for 2 nights and took the opportunity to do a walking tour of this stunning city. So we got to see some historic Sea Captain’s homes and experience the mercantile heritage of the area. You will see from the photos the style of the homes many of which were built in the period 1855 – 1903. To see more of this lovely area have a look at http://www.yarmouthandacadianshores.com/

On our second day in Yarmouth we had lunch at Rudder’s Seafood Restaurant and Brew Pub. Sitting by the ocean we ate some cajun mussels and enjoyed a freshly cooked lobster. Lobster is so plentiful here at the moment that a whole lobster served anyway will cost in the vicinity of $10 at a pub and much cheaper to buy to take home from a market or store. We are enjoying the mussels here as they are smaller and have a more delicate flavour than Australian mussels.

For a bit of variety we decided that our return trip to New Brunswick would be by ferry. To catch the ferry we had to drive to Digby which is located on the north western side of NS on the Bay of Fundy. Digby is known for its great scallops and Ross can testify that they are outstanding. The ferry is called the Princess of Arcadia and is named for the early settlers who came to Canada in 1604 to get away from the war going on in Europe between France and Great Britain. More information about this group can be found at www.grassroutes.com/clare/acadian.htm

Back to the ferry. It takes 4 hours to travel from Nova Scotia to New Brunswick and it is a little smaller than the ferry from Melbourne to Tasmania. Murphy and Herb stayed in the car during the trip and they didn’t seem to mind the ride at all. They are rapidly becoming well travelled dogs.

Well until next time. Stay safe, happy and well. We look forward to your visit.

Love Bev and Ross

Local Fare and Latest Travels

Hi Again,

Time is going by so fast it is hard to accept that I have finished university for the semester, with only one exam to go on Wednesday 15th. Now I am forced to have 4 months off to get over the stress.

Over the last week in the lead up to Easter we have travelled some more around this amazing area and have sampled some local wild food.

We should start with the food. Here, a popular wild vegetable is Fiddleheads. These are actually fern heads and you cook them by boiling or steaming and serving with salt and pepper and either butter or vinegar. Bev and I think they taste like a cross between asparagus and parsley and are really enjoyable. (photo courtesy of google).

The other local food we tried during the week, again courtesy of our great neighbors Debbie and George, was Dulse. This is a tad more adventurous and is a dried local red seaweed. It tastes very salty when you begin to eat it and has quite a fishy overtone. It is very high in vitamins and minerals but low in sodium and high in potassium and flouride. You can eat it dried (as in a bar snack with a beer), fry it until crisp or grind it up and use the powder in chowders and other dishes. I didn’t mind it, but it was a total failure with Bev (you know the look that comes across someone’s face when they realize that they have swallowed a blowfly).

Having told our friends and neighbours that we were very interested in the New Brunswick fascination with outdoor murals they pointed us in the direction of Sussex N.B. which claims to be the mural capital of Atlantic Canada as well as having a number of beautiful old covered bridges in the region. We headed down there (about 100km) on Easter Saturday and were blown away by the place. It is truly remarkable for the murals, the architecture and the history of the place. We were so impressed that I recommend that you have a look at http://sussexdowntown.com/.

In a recent post we explained that spring was here and although there is some flooding in the province because of melting river ice the temperatures continue to be above 0c and all the snow around the house had melted (so much so that Bev and I were able to walk down the back of the block the other day). So just when you think it is safe to break out the speedo’s or at least the shorts, winter returns with a vengeance. These shots were taken yesterday (Easter Sunday) when we had a snow warning that up to 25cm was on the way. It is still snowing but the warning has been cancelled and they tell us we will be back to sunshine again tomorrow. I remain skeptical.

Stay safe

Bev and Ross

Visiting the Saints

Hi to you all and we hope that you are all enjoying life as much as we are.

Last weekend we travelled south to see the Saints. St Stephens was the first stop and is a border crossing into the USA. We then travelled to St Andrews, St George, St John, St David, St Patrick, and St Croix (not necessarily in that order). These are lovely towns located south of Fredericton on or near the coast of the Bay of Fundy.

St John is by far the biggest city of all of these places and it was from here we collected Murphy and Herb when they arrived from Australia on 26 January this year. The other Villages mentioned are rather small and St Andrews in particular is rather quaint as you will see from the photos below.

We took the opportunity to have lunch in a pub at St Andrews called the Red Herring. It was somewhat eclectic in its choice of furnishing which added to its individuality. You will see what we mean from the photos below. This added to the atmosphere of the place and the friendly staff who made us feel right at home added to the experience.

Murphy and Herb enjoyed their walk around the town but you will note from the photo below it was a cool day.

What were are now seeing as the seasons change is the damage the river ice flows can do. There are huge amounts of ice that is now breaking up and blocking up in rivers with nowhere to go. Families who live close to the river banks in many areas are now experiencing flooding and huge damage to their properties. There is also damage to roads where large pot holes appear after the many months of ice and snow.

Until our next update best wishes to you all and please come and visit if you have the opportunity.

Fondest wishes Bev and Ross

Travelling North

Last weekend we ventured to Edmonston which is about a 3 hour drive north of Fredericton. We stayed at another pet friendly motel which had a great view of the city which you will see from the photo below.

On Sunday we travelled another 1 ½ hours further on which took us into the Province of Quebec and we got to see some of the St Lawrence River at Riviere-du-Loup.

The closer one gets to Quebec the more French things become. We are convinced we need to purchase an English/French Dictionary as it has been many years since Ross learnt french at school and I never did. Among other things we noticed was the greatly different style of housing in Quebec with much greater use of brick and a different style from southern New Brunswick.

On the way to Edmondston we acted like the tourist we are and took some interesting turn offs. We visited Hartland NB which has the longest covered wooden bridge in the world. You will see from the photo below just what an interesting site it is.

We also drove through some beautiful little towns like Grand Falls where there is a major waterfall in the centre of town (right next to Burger King) but it was frozen and Notre-Dame-du-Lac which is a small village on a magnificent lake which we must visit again in the spring.

Weather wise we actually reached double figures at the end of last week with the temperature gauge reaching 13 degrees so we got to see our total drive way for the very first time in the 4 months we have been here and the ice covering the pond stated to melt. What joy and the locals were all very happy about the thaw as well. However, just like Melbourne, Fredericton also suffers on occasion with several different temperature changes often on the same day so since Sunday it has rained and snowed and this afternoon the sun was shining. We can now see the driveway once more.


Enjoy life, Love Bev and Ross

Kings Landing Historic Village

First up we would like to welcome Trish and Murray back to North America for another 6 month adventure in their motorhome. This time they are making their way north and plan to spend a week or so with us in early June.

The weekend before last we were fortunate enough to have a great time spent with our lovely Canadian friends. On Saturday evening Jacqueline and John joined us for dinner and we had a great time.

On Sunday we had the opportunity courtesy of Debbie and George our lovely neighbours to have a local day out. We went to Kings Landing which is an Historic Village some 35 kms from where we live. We were served a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausages, baked beans, toast and of course pancakes with maple syrup and the bottomless coffee cup, this breakfast was all in support of the local search and rescue organization who provided all the staff. It is after all maple syrup season. It was just great and we sat and chatted for hours with light flurries falling outside.

Following this we embarked on a walk around the village. This was a wonderful opportunity to see ice toffee being traditionally prepared on a bed of snow (the toffee is made from reduced maple syrup and placed on the snow to set). You will note from the photos, staff in period costume and you will see the large pots over open fires all at various stages of perfecting the exclusive maple syrup which is a prized product of Canada.

Weather wise it is now officially spring in Canada so most days the temperatures are on the plus side of 0. During the night the temperature still falls to – 8. However, there has been sunshine during the day and it is palpable in the community that there is great joy that warm weather is on the way. All things summer from BBQs to swimwear is on sale and we are already talking about what to plant when the last of the snow is gone.

Last week in an embarassing moment we locked ourselves out of the house. Fortunately it was a mild evening with the temperature sitting around -7. Ross had no jumper on and was in his socks. If you could have seen the looks on our faces it would have been priceless. With the assistance of our wonderful neighbours we were inside in a relatively short period of time and we have now made sure this will never happen again.

Well best wishes to all and have a great week.
Love Bev and Ross

Sleigh Ride

Two weeks ago Ross returned to university following a 10 day semester break. Therefore needless to say we have not had the opportunity to travel far. We did however; take the opportunity to go on a sleigh ride last Saturday evening a week ago with the lovely folks from the Nasonworth Baptist Church. Following which we enjoyed pizza and soda.



We were fortunate that weather was just perfect for this event. By this we mean there was no icy wind blowing, no falling snow or rain and with the appropriate clothing we sat as comfortably as one can on a sled with 16 others. We were hauled by two magnificent horses in a convoy of three. You will see what we mean by viewing the photos of this event.

This was a wonderful opportunity for us to experience this mode of transport and we were lucky to see a moose and other wild life up fairly close.

It was very peaceful travelling through the woods and having the opportunity to get close and personal with the fauna and flora.

In the meantime the deers in the woods out back are obviously feeling safe enough to venture closer to the house.

We will update the blog again in the next day or so with the details of our outing from the weekend just gone.

Stay Safe.

Ross and Bev

Semester Break

Hi again, this year is just flying by and on Tuesday Ross goes back to university following his first semester break of 10 days. This break has given us an opportunity to travel a little further from home.

Once the snow stopped late on Monday we travelled to Bangor, Maine in the USA. Bangor is about a 31/2 hours from where we live and this gave us an opportunity to try out for the very first time a pet friendly hotel. The trip was uneventful but the scenery was magnificent with lovely little villages like this one called Lincoln.

The return was more exciting as we decided to leave the freeway and travel the back roads crossing the border at a tiny village called St Croix.

As you can see from the shots below, the back roads are only ploughed as required and therefore driving always has the potential to become very exciting very quickly as it is mostly ice under the snow.

Another thing we spotted on the return journy was our first glimpse of ice fishing on a small lake near the border. As you can see the cabins are on sleds and the guys drill their holes and then push the cabin over the hole and the fishing and I daresay drinking begins.

As many of you would know in Australia we are not as ‘pet friendly’ a society as North America tends to be and further when we travel we usually leave our little ones with our lovely Vet, Kaz. Now our two are with us at all times so very quickly we have all had to adjust. We are happy to say that they have quickly adapted to car etiquette which requires sitting down when the car is in motion and getting up to gaze out the window when the car stops. They also adapted very quickly to motel accommodation and seem to take everything in their stride.

Tonight we embark on day light saving so this is an indication that yes, it does get warmer here. Certainly the shops now have their BBQ’s on sale and winter clothes are now relegated to ‘yard sales’.

We are now into + figures albeit +3 during the day and this assists in melting the snow. So today we can see the bitumen on the highway which runs in front of our house and the bitumen in our driveway is visible now under very slippery ice. Ross was out today sprinkling salt so that we do not slip and slide getting out of the property.

With the warmer weather we have had several deer in our backyard and you will see a photo of a some near the frozen pond in the backyard.

This morning we ventured to the local markets which are located down town. The reason was to place an order for plain beef sausages. Many of you would be aware that our local butcher at home has great plain beef sausages which are always a staple for Australia Day Breakfast and any other time really. Plain anything in North America is hard to find. When we placed the order we were asked “and what spices do you want added?” We said none and he said “who would eat this?”. We go back to collect them next Saturday. We hope they will be tasty as we have had to buy 10 lbs worth.

Just so you do not get the idea that we about to burst into spring and all start wearing shorts etc in the next few days. This shot is of our drive yesterday so you can see that the melt has a long way to go yet.

Best wishes to you all and stay safe, happy and well

Love Bev and Ross