NOVA SCOTIA

Memories of Cape Breton Island and Prince Edward Island ---PEI

Historic Pictou

            A replica of the Hector sits in the harbor at Pictou on Cape Breton Island, Canada.

in the historic village of Pictou.  She sailed from the Isle of Skye in the Scottish Highlands with 200 passengers. A piper wanted to sail on the Hector, but had no money for the passage, so the other adventurers took up a collection to pay for his passage.

            He played the bagpipes during the difficult passage to keep everyone’s spirits up. When they landed on the island, Indians greeted them---not sure friendly or otherwise. The piper played a greeting, which scared the Indians who took off running.

            Strolling down the main street of the historic town we stopped several times to read waist high brass markers giving a single historic fact. I thought this was an excellent way to relate the city’s history. The markers were easier to read than a plaque on a building, which is such a common practice. One fascinating tidbit was that chloroform was produced in Pictou in 1848, ----the first time in North America.

Charlottetown

            PEI is the birthplace of Canada dating back to 1864 when there was discussion of a British Union. PEI is divided into three counties: Prince on the west, Queens in the center, and Kings in the east. The Micmac called the island Abegeweit meaning land cradled by waves. About 1000 Micmac reside on the island and the culture thrives here.

In the French River mussel farming is a thriving industry. There are no true rivers on the island, but the brackish inlets are called and named rivers.

            PEI grows potatoes in its red soil, feeding most of Canada its spuds. The 30 varieties grown on the island are grown for food, seed, and the huge French fry industry. Canadian Farms, a French fry processing plant, is the largest industry employer on the island. It takes 27 tractor loads of potatoes a day to run the plant at full capacity!

Part of the gardens at Victoria Park

            Canadian Bloom is a nationwide project of beautification. Charlottetown is covered with window boxes and concrete planters producing gorgeous blooming flowers. A water truck rides the city each day watering the planters. Many pocket parks throughout the city lend an air of spaciousness as well as peace and quiet. There are also many lovely parks.

            Grass covered sand dunes, salt marshes, sandstone cliffs, and red clay lanes rolling over the picturesque undulating countryside has virtually nothing to spoil the lovely scenery. The north coast has 24-miles of beach in the Prince Edward Island National Seashore.

            By far, the biggest tourist attraction on the island is the Green Gables Museum---the house where Lucy Maud Montgomery visited her aunt as a child and is the setting for her stories about the red headed orphan Anne, spelled with an e.

People living on the island are from here, and everyone else is from away.

A REMARKABLE MAN

BADDECK and BELL

Baddeck, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia is a community of only 1100, but it   is one of the largest villages on Bras d’Or Lake (locally pronounced bra door). Several small low-rise hotels are inconspicuously nestled among the awe-inspiring scenery. The lake is large and from certain vantage points one can catch a glimpse of Alexander Graham Bell’s beloved home, Beinn Bhreagh.

One of Beddeck’s most famous residents, Bell built his 37-room, 11-fireplace home in 1892-93 on 450 wooded hillside acres   overlooking the lake, whose name means arms of gold.  Bell spent his last 37 years at Beinn Bhreagh and died there at age 75, in 1922, from complications of diabetes.

A visit to the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site, built on 25 beautifully landscaped acres on the eastern end of the village, revealed much I did not know about this famous inventor, teacher, and  humanitarian.

Known for the invention of the telephone, I had  no idea he was  involved in so many other endeavors. His mother was partially deaf and his wife was totally deaf.  It is said that his mind explored the world, but that his heart was with the deaf. His lifelong ambition was to help people communicate with each other regardless of barriers. He was a teacher of the deaf in Boston, and he met and mentored Helen Keller. Born in Scotland in 1847, he was to travel the globe during his lifetime. I couldn’t help but reflect on how arduous that would have been in his day!

At age 15 Alexander was sent to his grandfather in England for a ‘proper education’. Two brothers died of TB when Alexander was 23. He loved children and at night when he couldn’t sleep he would get up and write children’s stories.

            Bell applied for the phone patent in 1876 and spent 20 years defending it. He married Mabel Hubbard in 1877. Just before her marriage,  Bells  father told Mabel, “He is hot headed but warm hearted, sentimental, dreamy, and self absorbed but sincere and unselfish. Ambitious to a fault he is apt to let enthusiasm run away with judgement. With love you should have no trouble harmonizing. I’ve told you all of his faults and the catalog is wonderfully short.”  She was wealthy in her own right, but Bell gave her all the stock in the phone company.

He was quite involved in the airplane and conferred in 1903 with the Wright Brothers. In 1908 Bell managed to put a man in the air on a kite, and two years later got his first plane, June Bug, in the air. That same year, 1908, his second plane, Silver Dart, flew 790 meters. It was Bell’s wife, Mabel, who financed his aviation endeavors. She died in Washington, D. C. just five months after her husband of 45 years had died.

Bell also had his hand in the creation of the hydrofoil and iron lung among many other things. He was a remarkable man with a most creative mind.

Baddeck is a quiet quaint little village in a gorgeous setting. The museum is very well done and certainly worth a visit, but allow plenty of time to learn many things about this remarkable man.