Site 15, Kejimkujik National Park, after the rain

It was raining as we set up our tents on Big Muise Island in Kejimkujik Lake.  Three days later, I had to bail rainwater out of the canoe as we paddled back to Jake’s Landing from Site 13 on Ritchie Island.  In between, however, we had a couple of very pleasant days enjoying the warm water of the lake, the quiet forested islands, the wildlife – even the loud, musical bullfrogs that kept us awake at night – and, of course, our own good company and food.

Backcountry campsites can be booked 60 days in advance.  For peak summer season, you really have to book that far ahead.  So when the day comes, you go, rain or shine!

Site 13, Kejimkujik National Park.

If you go:

A very loud bullfrog. Heike Ortscheid photo.

Finally, here you can download a Google Earth kmz file that will show the backcountry campsites on Google Earth.  Very cool.

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showthreaded&Number=412472&site_id=1#import

Lee Valley plastic mesh with ribbons of flagging tape woven in

It’s not the ribbons of flagging tape that are keeping the deer out.  It’s the almost invisible black plastic netting that the ribbons are hanging from.

It works – so far.  This is my second year using it.  (See previous post about the deer fence.)  I regretted taking it down last fall, as it had been getting entangled in the grass, and removing it damaged the netting.  But I’m gradually enlarging the vegetable garden and wanted to reset the netting.  I have yet to see how well it will survive the winter.

There are different kinds of netting you can buy. The most lightweight is sometimes referred to as bird netting, with 1/2″ openings.  It is easy to throw over strawberries or blueberry bushes, and it catches in the twigs easily, keeping it in place and making it hard to remove!  It is very hard to see.  One of us got it tangled in a lawnmower wheel and it took half an hour to cut it out.  You can get it at a garden centre. If you’re in the US you can order from Amazon. [Easy Gardener 6050 DeerBlock 7-by-100-Foot Netting]

The next level is what I bought at Lee Valley last year.  It is a slightly heavier mesh, 7 feet high, with 7/8″ openings and reinforced margins top and bottom. (My 100-ft length didn’t go round the expanded garden this year, so I filled it in with some of the lighter-weight bird netting.) I pegged it down to the ground with twigs and it keeps the rabbits out, too. (I had a strange surprise, though, before pegging it down this year.)

This deer fence is not invincible. There are some tears in it that I need to fix. But we’ve seen a deer come up to it, and touch it with her nose, and go no further. My neighbour, who has come out on her porch to scare the deer away, has suggested attaching noisemakers to the fence.

Here’s an Amazon link (US only; they won’t ship this stuff to Canada) to a similar product: Easy Gardener LG400171 7-by-100-Foot Deer Barrier Fencing

Finally, there’s a much heavier gauge netting that I saw in a local hardware store. It was more expensive, but looks like it would last longer. It has 2 1/4  inch openings. If and when my current fence isn’t doing the job anymore, this is what I will get. Amazon link: Industrial Netting CXC90x100 Deer Net – 2.25 Inch Openings

The lightweight netting does not require strong posts. This year the garden was expanding, but I had no more of the aluminum posts that I put in last year, so I bought 8′ steel T-posts ($9 each) at the local farmers’ co-op store. They have pointed ends, but I would never be able to drive an 8′ post into the ground, so I cut one in half with a hacksaw, and pounded it 2 feet into the ground with a sledgehammer. (Thank you to my gardener grandfather from whom I’ve inherited all these tools!) After pulling the short post out, there was a T-shaped hole into which the tall post went in with just a bit of persuasion delivered from a stepladder. The rocks deep in the ground caused the post to be slightly askew, but that doesn’t really matter.

I’d love to hear from other gardeners about your experiences with animals in the garden – or with keeping them out.

Theodore Too sailing between the photographer aboard the sailing vessel Mar II, and St. Georges Island. (M. Sepulchre photo)

OK, Theodore Tugboat is not exactly representative of the Canadian Navy, but he was present during the international fleet review in Halifax Harbour on June 29, and so was HRM the Queen.

So also were my son, mother and stepfather (a former naval officer).

They snapped a few photos as they reviewed the fleet from the sailing ketch Mar II while the Queen did the same aboard HMCS St. John’s.

Her Majesty's distinctive hat and gloved hand waving to the photographer, no doubt. (M. Sepulchre photo)

I’ve added a few of their photos to the Halifax section of the Photo Album.

Both the Queen (according to the Chronicle Herald) and my family (according to reliable sources) were given warm wraps by their respective ship’s crew to fend off the foggy chill.

The two groups came into close proximity later (see photo left).

Snapping turtle laying eggs by the side of the road, Upper Northfield, Lunenburg Co., June 24, 2010

This cannot be a good survival strategy.

Snapping turtles lay eggs in June and July uphill from a water source.  This snapper has found some gravel right by the side of the road, a foot or two from the pavement.  The water source, as you can see in the picture, is a human-excavated pond some distance away.

I wonder if  this snapping turtle has tuned into her ancestral memory.  Perhaps, before the road was developed, her mother laid her eggs in a sandy bank here, and when my friend emerged from the egg, she scampered and tumbled down the hill to the embracing water in a natural stream or that once flowed quietly just below this very spot.

Now she is laying her eggs in gravel that has been brought in to elevate and level out the road.  If the eggs don’t dry out in the gravel and hot sun, or get squashed by a truck parking on top of them, her hatchlings will have to reach the artificial pond in the distance in order to survive and thrive.

Trying circumstances, it seems to me, and not unsimilar to those facing many young members of a much more recent species on this planet, homo sapiens.

Great food and entertainment in Berwick

Jenny Osburn of the Union St. Café in Berwick has a great new blog, Kitchen Witch – the secret ingredient is love.  She’s interesting, funny, and has a great recipe in every post.

Don’t just visit her blog, though.  Go eat!  The restaurant which she started with her mother, sister and aunt a decade ago is still going strong with Jenny at the helm.  She comes from a family of great cooks. More than that however; the food is far from your ordinary fare. It is healthy and local, made from scratch, creative and delicious.

The Wick Pub next door, part of the same establishment, is home to an open mic Kitchen Party on Friday nights, hosted by Jenny’s dad, singer-songwriter and soundman Don Osburn. It is also a concert venue. All this information can be found on the Union St. Café website.

After many washings, it still looks good.

This is the “Kid’s light Nova Scotia T-shirt” from the CafePress shop behind the “Gift Shop” link above, in ash grey.   Here it is after lots of washings, still looking good and still a favourite.

If you’re in the US, ordering clothing from CafePress is fine, but if you’re ordering from Canada, you have to be prepared to pay duty, as well as GST, on clothing.  (So much for that free trade agreement!)

Printed materials, however, including Nova Scotia fridge magnets, have come through just fine for me by Canada Post.  Your results may vary.

Disclaimer: I earn a small commission if you order any of my products from CafePress.

Click to go to Mahone Bay Regatta website

The Mahone Bay Classic Boat Festival, formerly known as the Mahone Bay Wooden Boat Festival, isn’t happening this year, but a new group has come together to present the Mahone Bay Regatta on the same weekend.

So if you’re used to making a trip to one of Nova Scotia’s most scenic towns at that point in the summer, for food, entertainment and a bit of “messing about with boats”, or if you have a boat and like to take part in the races, you should continue to mark that weekend on your calendar.

This year has a strong Pirate theme, so if you come on Saturday or Sunday, bring along some Pirate garb, or at least be ready to say “Arrrggghhh, me hearties!”  You can practice by changing the language on your Facebook to Pirate:  Account > Account Settings > Language and from the drop-down, choose English (Pirate).

Irises in the fog

Fog is really neat.

I’ve been mesmerized by it out on the ocean on a sailboat, where it becomes your whole world – but that’s another blog post.

The other morning after the fog moved in, I was startled by the colours of the flowers.  It was partly the contrast between the saturated colour close up and the grayed-out view in the distance.  And partly (as photographers understand) the non-directionality of the light – the lack of shadows, so the colours are purer.

Another pleasure of gardening in Nova Scotia.

Pure colour close up

Look who has his Pleasure Craft Operator Card!

We moved to the South Shore of Nova Scotia for the sailing, essentially. Lots of folks here have boats. There are kayaks, runabouts, sleek motor cruisers built for speed, a few “trawlers” (non-planing motor cruisers), fishing boats converted into pleasure boats, “personal watercraft” (sea-doos), small and medium-sized sailboats of all vintages, some wooden, and more (if I left your kind of boat out, no offense; just leave a comment below). No mega yachts to speak of; when you do see one of those, it’s probably “from away.”

Even if your boat is just a runabout with an outboard, and even if you’ve been running about with it since God was a boy, since September 2009, if it has a motor, you’ll need your Pleasure Craft Operator Card (PCOC) to run about with it in the future – in Canada, that is.

So there’s a bit of a rush on to get the card. Courses are popping up here and there, and presumably they’re being filled by those who’ve been putting it off all these years.

Courses are offered by various groups, such as the Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons (CPS), where I got mine in 2003 as part of their more in-depth Boating Course. CPS now offers a standalone Boat Pro course which is geared towards the PCOC exam.

Converted fishing boat

My husband, a lifelong sailor, and our 9½-year-old son recently took a 2-evening course with local instructor Michael Ernst. Ernst uses the curriculum developed by the Lifesaving Society.

Taking a course with a group of people and a teacher who knows what he or she is talking about is actually fun. It allows you to ask questions and learn from other people’s experiences.  There are also online courses available, or you can study the materials on your own and write the standardized exam online with a proctor. Exam challenges are also held at boat shows around the country.

Course prices vary from $30 to $85 or more, depending on venue costs and what the instructor charges. Some teachers, such as the CPS instructors, offer the course voluntarily, as part of that organization’s long-standing interest in promoting safe boating through education. For other providers, including the online courses, it’s obviously a business. Some of these providers are probably showing up in the Google ads on this page, above left.

We are proud of our new young cardholder!  The card is good for life, so he has lots of time to benefit from getting it now.  It serves as a great base for developing his boating knowledge.