Back to Grand Manan

After my recent visit to the Grand Manan quilt show, I remembered that I never got back to showing you more GM photos after my visit last July. Why don't you skip back and read last year's post here which will acquaint you with Grand Manan and where it's located... go ahead, I'll wait right here....

Okay, ready to carry on? My visit last July was for a teaching gig, but I was lucky to have a half day on either end to explore and do some photography, and luckily I had both a sunny day and a foggy one. (It just wouldn't seem like the Bay of Fundy if there wasn't some fog...) So here are some of my favourite photos.... in no particular order....

You know you are almost there when you spot the famous landmark Swallow Tail Light from the ferry as it approaches the dock at North Head.

Here is another view, taken from Pettes Cove, which clearly shows the Swallow Tail peninsula. Can you spot the footbridge which spans the "Sawpit," a split caused by erosion? The house at the top left is where I stayed last year - a beautiful spot with a great view, but not so wonderful in the middle of the night when the fog horn starts blowing.... (I have yet to perfect the skill of sleeping through a foghorn.....)

When arriving on the ferry, we passed a boat hauling salmon cages to a new location. Aquaculture is one of the main industries on the island, along with fishing and tourism.










Grand Manan is a "quiet" island... there are no big shopping malls, no movie theatres, no heavy traffic... but it's a wonderful place to enjoy nature, hiking, birdwatching, painting, photography, etc. One of the popular hikes is to Hole In The Wall, a large natural rock arch at the edge of a cliff. It's a relatively easy hike through coastal forest. The weir you see in the background is known as the Jubilee weir.














Of course I am always looking for wildflowers in the summer wherever I go. I immediately fell in love with the vivid blue Common Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare) that seemed to be growing everywhere along the roadside. (It is a biennial and member of the borage family.) I joked with someone about digging some up and taking it home to my garden but was quickly avised not to, that it spreads and would not be a good thing in a garden. Too bad, I sure loved the beautiful true blue colour.




What's an island without beaches? I had to stop along the roadside and put on my telephoto to get some images of these children enjoying some beach time. Despite the distance, I could hear their squeals of delight as they played. That moment sure took me back to earlier times when my two were little, playing on the beach. Seems so very long ago....

Fishing and the use of marine resources has shaped many aspects of Grand Manan. The island used to produce some of the world's finest smoked herring, long the mainstay of GM's economy. Unfortunately with stiff regulations and the loss of traditional markets the industry collapsed and disappeared in 1997. The smokehouses of Seal Cove where the herring were cured and packed for market, now stand empty. The area around "the Crick" in Seal Cove has been designated as a National Historic Site and is one of the most photographed areas on the island.

Seal Cove at low tide

This post is getting far too long. Let's close with end-of-day images taken at sunset at Dark Harbour on the west side of the island. Dark Harbour is well known for its dulse, an edible seaweed. Anyone on the island will confirm that Dark Harbour dulse is the world's finest. A natural rock breakwater provides a protected "pond" from which the dulsers' dories can enter and leave at high tide. High cliffs surround the pond, blocking early morning sunlight, therefore the name "dark" harbour. Dulsers travel the west side of the island picking dulse at low tide during spring and summer. It is then spread out on net-covered flat gravel beds to sun-dry before being packaged for market. Dulse has many health benefits and is packed with minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron and potassium.

** Some info in this post was obtained from Grand Manan Guide, Laurie Murison, Editor, 6th Edition, 2013.

Next up- foggy fotos....

Peace,
Linda

"We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came." ~ John F. Kennedy