The Canadian Maritimes: Fiddler's Elbow & Other Stories

Friday 14 September 2012, Judique, Nova Scotia

We got our whale watch in at 7.30 this morning in Cheticamp - saw a few pilot whales but mainly it was just nice to be out on the water early in the morning.

Lunch was at the Celtic Music Centre in Judique, an area that has produced more than it's fair share of fiddlers as well as singers and other musicians. It was a nice way to round off a musical tour for me: I'd seen Gordon Belsher & Richard Wood in Charlottetown, Sylvia LeLievere in Cheticamp and Kinnon Beaton here for the second time. I'm just fascinated by the way he holds the fiddle upside down and back to front.

We'd also spent a couple of days on the French Shore in New Brunswick, where,as the name suggests, the locals speak French. There are also French speaking communities in Nova Scotia (Cheticamp is one) but most are in New Brunswick. They are Acadians, descendants of the original French settlers in North America. The Acadians were forcibly removed from Nova Scotia by the British in 1755 during one of the many conflicts with France. Some ended up in Louisiana (a French colony at the time) and became known as Cajuns. Others either took to the woods  in Nova Scotia or escaped across the Bay of Fundy or to Prince Edward Island.
Most just wanted to return to their homes in Nova Scotia. When the war between Britain & France ended, they were allowed back but most of their lands had been given to English speakers, mainly from New England, so they either ended up in small pockets dotted around Nova Scotia or they moved to what is now New Brunswick (followed by many Loyalists who had fled the New England Colonies during the War of Independence).
Officially, around 37% of New Brunswickers speak French but they have to work to keep the language and culture alive, though in common with many minority cultures and languages, there has been a reclaiming and resurgence of pride in their culture and identity.
The bottom photo is of a dory at Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia.

Kinnon Beaton

Acadian Gentleman, New Brunswick

Peggy's Cove: I'll Go To Sea No More

Oh Canada

Sunday 5 September 2010

En route to Cape Cod via Boston, we flew over Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick & Nova Scotia. I don't usually bother with pics from a plane but it was so clear and sunny so I took shots of each of the provinces.
The shot I chose shows the Annapolis Basin, which feeds into the Bay of Fundy. Samuel de Champlain founded the first French settlement in New France on these shores in 1608. The British came along and founded Annapolis Royal (Just out of shot to the left). In the right hand corner of the bay is Digby, the scallop capital of Canada and where the ferry crosses the Bay of Fundy to Saint John, New Brunswick.
In August, the Bay is visited by whales: Humpbacks, Fin, Minke, Northern Right Whale & Blue Whale.