CANEAST SEPT 17,18,19,20

- September 20, 2019

"Isabelle," owner of the pizza place we ate at, makes these cotton cloth-craft during the "quiet" months. We bought one to hang in the trailer. (Trailer=Roulette en Francais). Misty is not thrilled...we are.

Before I forget, there are a couple of better shots of our "boondock site" that was just off the ferry landing in Souris PEI, Sept 15:

Sept 16 was quiet. Groceries and booking some events which we will be updating you about in this blog!

Sept 17.
Today we went to Lennox Island which is a Mi'kmaq First Nations reserve of about 350 residents. Their main industry is fishing and they are developing a great tourist/cultural center.

We booked a workshop on "quilling" and a fantastic young Mi'kmaq woman named "Misty" (same as our cat) was our host which included a guided tour of the museum cultural center. Well worth it.

Misty detailed the trips to New Brunswick to find (road kill) porcupines as there are no porcupines on PEI (or deer or moose). Then she explained the work of harvesting, washing, cleaning and dyeing the quills and how to harvest the birchbark at the correct time as to not harm the trees. We talked about many cultural and historical issues, beliefs and ways of life, residential schools her family, etc. Those conversations were worth their weight in gold.

Misty with her students

Our crafts

"Misty" gave us her creation that she made to demonstrate the technique

It's encounters like these that make our travels. We think our travels are about the journey more than the destination.

Sunset view from our campsite at Linkletter Provincial Park.

My last coffee mug (which was a Frank Loyd Wright from Taliesin AZ)
somehow cracked, and I really liked it, but it was time for a new one!

Sept 18

Today we had an event cancelled due to strong winds as we were on our way to it. We rebooked for tomorrow. So while we were out, we went by the Cavendish (National Park) campgrounds to see the damages. We could not see the campground but they were working on the access road. PEI was hit pretty bad by the hurricane. We spotted trees down and other damage throughout the province.

Oh ya and we can't believe that the leaves are turning already.
What's it doing in Ontario?

Since we had some time, we toured the "Toy Factory" (which was supplied the wooden toys used in the movie "Santa Clause." Then we went to see the "Bottle Houses" which are only about 20 KM from our campground.

The bottle houses are a novelty that a fellow started on his property in the early 80's when he was 66 inspired by a picture of some bottle houses on Vancouver Island. There was no recycling then and he gathered votives bottles from the Catholic Churches and other bottles from the restaurants and pubs in the area. When not fishing, Edouard Arsenault was a carpenter and the last lighthouse keeper at Cap-Egmont. The structures on site use over 25,000 bottles of all sizes and colours.

The property today is owned by his daughters and worth the stop just to see the beautiful gardens, fountain and landscaping.

FJ's favourite place

Elizabeth (and FJ)

FJ and Beer Bottle Cross. If you can't remember who "FJ" is, see our first blog for explanation

The coloured glass really shines in the sunshine but it didn't come through in the photo.

Driving around the island on the coastal routes or on the main highway, we've seen a very rural landscape, lots of farming and fishing, many small communities and even the more industrial enterprises are related to agriculture and fishing. We passed several potato processing locations that are part of the "Cavendish" enterprise on our drive today. I would say that PEI is mainly a rural/agriculture province, although tourism is also a big industry.

Sept 19

Today we toured the Anne of Green Gables museum, the original home of Lucy Maude's aunt and uncle. The museum is owned and operated by direct relatives of LMMontgomery and we had booked a nice carriage ride with narration by "Mathew" a local fellow who knew the area and history well. What a beautiful ride on a lovely day.

"Mathew"

Next we made our way up to Skinner's Pond where there is a museum for a well known Canadian icon, Stompin' Tom Conners.

He was adopted and spent a few years here going to school and working on the farm until he left at age 14-15 to tour Canada and write and sing his famous songs about Canada and Canadians. Tom returned his 6 Juno's and refused admittance to the Canadian Hall of Music as he felt most of these awards had gone to Canadians that didn't live or perform in Canada. In all his years, he refused to tour outside of Canada except one brief 6 stop tour in Ireland I think (?).

He truly wrote songs about Canada and Canadians.