Saturday's adventures ...

Yesterday, Kait went to a dog groomers on the Bedford Hwy to spend a few hours helping out and learning about aprenticing there.  Bedford Hwy is on the west side of Halifax and so it made sense for Matt and I to drop her there and continue on to have an adventure of our own.

So we drove to Peggy's Cove.  

BTW you can click on any of these images to see them full screen.

It was a lovely morning for a drive.  Trees covered in a new dusting of snow.  Roads pretty clear.  It was a 40 minute drive at 60-70 km per hour.  And we kept stopping to take pictures along the way.  We were lucky enough to see a lovely red fox standing alertly on the snow bank by the side of the road. 

The scenery along the way was very different from that of the Eastern Shore.  It was rockier with many stunted, bent trees that permanently bow before the prevailing winds.

It was low tide. 

During high tide,  bays fill with water that covers rocks and forms an ice crust.  When the tide recedes, the water disappears leaving ice balancing on rocks or crumbling without the watery support below.  The effect is rather mysterious looking.  The first time I saw the phenomenon I puzzled for a while over what I was looking at.

Just before we arrived at  Peggy's Cove we passed a sign for the SwissAir Flight 111 memorial.  I wanted to pull off to see the memorial but the parking lot wasn't ploughed and I feared we'd get stuck.  So I'll save that for a future visit.  Perhaps I'll bring a carnation to cast into the sea.

Peggy's Cove is a tiny, colourful hamlet.  Can't imagine it even qualifies as a "village", though I confess I don't know what the stringent standards are that allow a hamlet to graduate to village status.

The winding road takes you past the requisite sheltered cove with boats hauled up on shore and wind-weathered cottages.   Finally it curves around a long, restaurant and souvenir shop that looks out over the lighthouse.  It was colder here.  We parked and went to take pictures and see the view.  The Atlantic wind is unobstructed.    It was VERY cold.   The lighthouse sits surrounded by smooth snow dusted rocks.  Rather a desolate spot. 

Inside the souvenier shop there were two staff to take care of the tourist throngs that probably wouldn't arrive for another four months.  Matt bought items for family back home.  I bought some goofy post cards.  In the restaurant we took a table a the long window looking out at the lighthouse and the Atlantic and had a cup of tea and decaf coffee while we read the paper, gazed out the window and chatted.  Sea gulls occassionally wheeled by the window.  But one large "gull" caught my interest as it approached.   It was bigger than the others and was dark with a white head.  Of course as it got closer we realized that it was a Bald Eagle. What a special treat !

We saw postcards in the shop of a carved stone wall memorial to sailors who had died at sea.  I might not have noticed the carving as we left Peggy's Cove if I had not seen the post cards.  No sign heralded the lovely monument.  Just a small picket fence enclosing a snow dusted wall.  It was all the more lovely with the snowy coating.

We were back to pick up Kait by 12:30. Hard to believe only  few hours had passed since we'd first dropped her off.