A social evening in the Harbour

Having finished fibreglassing the hull a bit early, I thought I would go visit Nancy and Peter to hear about Peter's trip west to cruise the BC coast with some friends. I cycled out to the road and just before turning in at Nancy and Peter's, Sheila came along in her Jeep and asked if I wanted to go to the beach with her. It was shaping up to be a spectacular sunset and she wanted to get some photos. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me but going to the beach sounded good to me. So I left my bike behind a tree in Sheila's yard and hopped in the Jeep.

The tide was out and the rocky Baxter's Harbour beach was wide and long. A couple were having a small bonfire at the top of the beach. The sun was setting over Parrsboro on the other side of the Bay, and down the Bay you could see rain showers slowly moving eastward up and across the Bay. Amazing view. Sheila took pictures and I just enjoyed the view. Off to the right we could hear a seal snuffling in the rocks. We couldn't see it but we could hear it, snuffling and scrabbling over the rocks. I think our voices alarmed it and it was shuffling back into the water. We also saw another seal out fishing in the water.

We watched until the sun had set, the clouds had lit up bright pink and then subsided back to grey. We drove back up to Sheila's house and I retrieved my bike and headed on to Peter and Nancy's across the road.

Peter, Nancy and their daughters were having a little bonfire beside their house. I was offered the bag of marshmallows and roasted a couple over the fire. How can you have a bonfire without marshmallows?

Peter described the trip route he and his friends took on the BC coast, and then the rather horrendous flight home, involving among other things a six hour imprisonment on the airplane sitting on the runway, with no food or water. There was a thunderstorm in Toronto that had rather unfortunate repercussions for people trying to fly into Toronto, most of whom were diverted to the smaller airport of Hamilton. As a result Peter's arrival home was delayed by a full day and he was quite exhausted.

Around 10.30pm we all headed off to our respective beds. I had a flashlight and cycled home through the woods by its light.

Upon getting home I realized I needed a loaf of bread from Mike and Ruth's freezer for breakfast, so I walked over there to get it and found Mike outdoors examining his rock collection.

He showed me the rocks he had collected over the years from different beaches along the Bay of Fundy, a lot of fossils and jasper. He has been practicing flaking jasper into points, similar to how the local Miq'mah would have. We talked about the prehistory and geology of the area, Mike's plans for making a display of his rocks, and tales of some of his rock hunting expeditions. There used to be a Miq'mah quarry nearby, where jasper was mined and flaked into various tools for trading with other aboriginal groups.

I got home for the final time around 11.30pm, after a very busy day of kayak building and visiting!