The Blue Willow Journal

Provincial Wisdom

I spent last July in Waterside, New Brunswick, Canada, at my parents' summer place bought back in 1966. Waterside is right on the Bay of Fundy and has a population of 100.

If you are living or staying in Waterside one of your nearby go-to villages is Hillsborough, population 1,962. The bank is there. You can go to great auctions at the Hillsborough Kiwanis Club, you've got several restaurants to choose from and there's even a museum. It's a happening place.

Last year the New Brunswick Women's Institute was celebrating its 100th Anniversary and in honor of this milestone the Hillsborough branch published a cookbook. Of course I bought one. Besides some winning recipes, I noticed that sprinkled throughout the cookbook were tidbits of New Brunswick wisdom on life, weather, gardening and cleaning.

Here are some of the best:

~ Enjoy the pleasures of gardening or don't bother doing one ~

~ Use ketchup to clean silverware ~

~ Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning ~

~ Always have something to do, something to get up for each morning ~

~ Grass stains: use molasses, let stand, then wash ~

~ Keep digging at your garden and keep it

loose between plantings ~

~ Mackerel sky: not long wet and not long dry ~

~ To remove pen stains on clothing or crayon marks

on the wall, take the outside of a cucumber

and slowly use it to erase the stains ~

~ Follow the Canadian food hints and keep active

in your personal life ~

~ Put vinegar on rags to keep deer out of the garden ~

~ Blueberry stains: soak in milk ~

~ If you are retired, adopt hobbies with up and going activities. Avoid sitting down and too much napping as it is not good ~

~ To deodorize shoes, place sheets of Bounce in them overnight ~

 

 

 

New Brunswick, Canada

I am spending July in New Brunswick, the large Maritime Province just over the US border. In an earlier post I talked about how Grand Manan Island, which is part of New Brunswick, goes unnoticed by Americans, even Americans who live very close to it. The entire province of New Brunswick suffers the same fate.

I guess I can understand this - looking at these photographs, why would anyone want to come here?

 

 

Grand Manan Island

This past summer we vacationed on Grand Manan Island, a day's drive from our home in New England.  As we were making our preparations to take off on vacation I had occasion to be asked where we were going. When I answered "Grand Manan Island", off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada, the reply every time was "Where is THAT?" After what I thought was a great geographic description just about everyone said, "Oh yeah. You mean Prince Edward Island".

In one sense this is fine with me - next to nobody will discover this beautiful place and we can enjoy its uncrowded charms at will. On the other hand it drives me crazy that such nearby geography apparently is completely unnoticed.

So here is a short primer on how to find your way to Grand Manan Island from the New England area:

1. Have a look at a map of eastern Canada. You will notice three provinces that either border the ocean or are surrounded by it. These are the Maritime Provinces. They are: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

2. Zero in on New Brunswick. It borders the state of Maine. Travel to eastern Maine through Bangor; continue east and cross into Canada at Calais/St. Stephen.

3. Continue east on the Trans Canada Highway a short distance, exiting at Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick.

4. Board the Grand Manan ferry and enjoy the crossing which takes about 1 1/2 hours. During the trip look for whales, porpoises and a wide variety of sea birds.

5. You have arrived! If you like stunning scenery, incredible birdwatching, hiking, photography, rock hunting and whale and puffin watches you are going to be very happy here.

 

The east side of the island is filled with beautiful coves and cottages that face the sea.

The west side is dominated by sheer cliffs - good for hiking trails but less so for inhabitants.

 

For a small island it has everything needed for a great vacation. Including few people. Hope I haven't blown that in my attempt to improve the geography education of New Englanders.

 

 

Cape Cod Rhodies

Made quite a discovery over the weekend - the beautiful Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich, Massachusetts. It was peak rhododendron season and the blooms were everywhere - pale pink, fuchsia, deep magenta and even a specially-bred pale yellow. Spectacular. Beyond the gorgeous flowers there are many other great activities to enjoy for every member of the family. Next time you are traveling to Cape Cod I would highly recommend a stop here.

Newport, Rhode Island.............10/3/08

Beijing

I have been very curious to see how the Beijing Olympic spectacle would be. I was in China in 2001 right before Beijing was chosen as the site of the 2008 summer games and there were signs and promotions for attaining this honor everywhere I went. Later in the year, once Beijing was selected, I remember trying to imagine how the average Chinese person felt about this great news. It certainly seems as though China has hosted an unforgettable Olympic Games - what a great end to the story!