Harvest Vegetable Stew

Bay of Fundy farm markets are burgeoning with lots of veggies any time from June onward. Once the autumn weather turns chilly here though my thoughts turn to root & cruciferous veggies. This Harvest Stew recipe is "Vegetarian Thanksgiving in a Pot" so the perfect recipe to share between Canada & U.S. Thanksgivings:

Harvest Vegetable Stew
6 T butter
4 med leeks
1 lb onions
3 1/5 oz parsley root (optional)
4 minced garlic cloves
1/2 t thyme
2 bay leaves
rosemary to taste
1 lb button mushrooms
1 med turnip
2 1/2 c dry white wine
3 T Worcestershire sauce
1 lb russet potatoes
1/2 lb brussels sprouts

3 T flour
3 T butter
2 c hot veggie broth
2 T wine vinegar
3 T molasses
3 t paprika
dash Tabasco
salt & pepper

Melt butter in large pot. Trim and chop leeks & onions. Scrape & thin slice parsley root. Saute with herbs til leeks start to gold. Wash mushrooms and halve if large. Dice turnip in 1/2 dice. Add mushrooms, turnip, wine and W sauce to pot. Stir and lower heat. Dice and peel potatoes, wash & trim sprouts. Add to pot, cover. In another pan, melt rest of butter, add flour. Cook roux for a few minutes, add hot veg broth, stir quickly with whisk. Add vinegar, molasses, paprika, and Tabasco. Stir again til smooth, add to stew.

Simmer, covered, for about 1 hr. Add salt & pepper to taste. Serve hot with dollop of cranberry sauce. P.S. brussel sprouts taste great here (even if you don't usually like em!)

Recipe credit: The Vegetarian Epicure, Book Two.

Columnar basalt? I'm lovin' it!

It's never too late to become fascinated with geology and, I'll warn you, such a fascination could very well develop during a visit to the Bay of Fundy! We're surrounded by so much cool geology, you just can't help but find it interesting.

Half the time I have no idea precisely what I'm looking at but that doesn't keep me from being randomly awestruck by Fundy's many rocks & rock formations.

For example, take columnar basalt: these vertical columns are long cylinders with many straight sides (sometime appearing hexagonal from the top). They are the result of the quick cool of lava flow.

There are many basalt cliffs around Bay of Fundy but one of the most accessible and visually intriguing is the famous Balancing Rock on Long Island, near Digby. Here a single column of basalt appears to sit 'balancing' precariously atop the edge of another, while another nearby column pushes up to form a flat step beside its neighbouring columns.

These are two photos I took while hiking there this week.

Autumn leaves ablaze with colour

I've been hiking and exploring coastal regions of the Bay again this week. Despite brisk autumn winds the fall leaf colours are still quite vibrant in a few pockets. I captured this photo on the trail to Balancing Rock on Long Island, near Digby. They showed bright: almost fluorescent!

Bay of Fundy’s own Great Barrier Reef!

As most of you know by now, we are participating, along with the Great Barrier Reef and other global natural attractions, in a campaign to declare the New7Wonders of Nature.

What you may not know is that the Bay of Fundy already has many of the individual features of the other sites. Take reefs for example...

Thanks to my friend, Ashley at CPAWS, for sending along this guest post & photo:

The Bay of Fundy is home to large reefs that have been formed by horse mussels (much larger than the blue mussels we eat). Images of the Bay of Fundy seafloor (as seen here) shows the mussels grow into long rows that are up to 4 m high, 40 m wide and 1 km long. That's higher than the ceiling in the average room and larger in area than an average city block!

It is thought these reefs rival Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in size. Only a few horse mussel reefs are known to exist, and the Bay of Fundy reefs are the largest such reefs to be found anywhere in the world.

These reefs are important as they provide habitat for many other species and they also filter nutrients from the water column. They are essentially huge mounds of life surrounded by a bare, sandy seafloor.

Horse reefs are very sensitive to disturbance caused by bottom impacting fishing activities. Some of images show long gauge marks where trawlers have cut into the mussel reefs. Yet another reason why the Bay of Fundy is so unique, diverse and a true natural wonder of the world! ~ Ashley

Wow - who knew!! By the way, the Nova Scotia chapter of Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) is working to spread awareness about the reefs and find solutions to best protect them. Learn more!

Crazy fun sea kayaking at Cape Chignecto Park

As much as I love walking along the coast of Bay of Fundy's many tidal beaches, I'm also wildly fond of getting on the water to experience whale watching or sea kayaking.

Yesterday I experienced one of those 'best day of my life' days on a kayak tour with NovaShores Adventures along the coast of Cape Chignecto Provincial Park in Advocate Harbour, Nova Scotia.

We 12 (both experienced and brand new kayakers) paddled along the dramatic coastline past sheer 200 foot cliffs, secluded coves, and carved rock formations - including the famous Three Sisters sea stacks.

It was a warm day (20 C, 75 F) and an exciting paddle (leaving at high tide and returning a few hours later on the same beach where the tide was waaaay out!). These tours are available from May to late October (winds permitting!) from the Eatonville day-use entrance of Cape Chignecto Park.

If there are any in your party who'd rather not kayak, they can visit the visitors' centre and the two trails in the Eatonville day-use area and watch you kayak below!

My dog out-hiked me at Fundy National Park!

Longtime readers of my blog know that my yellow lab, Belle, is always keen to explore the Bay. What I may not have mentioned is that, although she is now 10 years old, (pretty much geriatric in dog years) she is one unstoppable adventurer!

This weekend we enjoyed a day or so hiking Fundy National Park's day trails: Coastal Trail, Matthews Head, Point Wolfe, Dickson Falls & Herring Cove beach. In total, we hiked about 10 km. The trails ranged in effort from moderate to strenuous with many steep but spectacular sections on the Coastal Trail particularly.

Belle was a super-enthusiastic hiker who was very keen to keep hiking after I'd reached my limit! Here's a photo of us relaxing on Point Wolfe beach at the end of the day. What you can't see from the photo is Belle nudging me to get back on the trails...

By the way, that sandbar stretching along Point Wolfe beach appears to stay high and dry during high tide - a great place to see high and low tide (park located in Alma, New Brunswick).

Watch Fundy tides via webcam

If you'd like a sneak peek at Bay of Fundy's tides, check out a live webcam at one of our tidal harbours: Hall's Harbour, Nova Scotia.

This picture is a screen shot of the tide half way in this afternoon. At low tide these fishing boats would be sitting about 30 feet (10 metres) below on the ocean floor and at high tide they'll be right up alongside the top of the wharf! Tidal harbours like this are great places to witness the Bay of Fundy's vertical effect. These harbours fill up (and empty out!) twice in 24 hours.

The great thing about Hall's Harbour is that you can buy lobster from Hall's Harbour Lobster Pound to eat at the beach. You can also walk on this beach at low tide.

To see Hall's Harbour webcam click this link for Nova Scotia Webcams live feeds.

Jet boating thru Reversing Falls

I've had a busy few days filming new episodes for our Bay of Fundy Travel Show on YouTube. One of the sites filmed this week was Reversing Falls in the Fundy city of Saint John, New Brunswick.

Now i have to confess, I really don't think I fully appreciated what was going on here 'tide wise' until I hung around for 2 days. A lot of folks who visit Reversing Falls expect Niagara Falls going backwards....well, this isn't the case, of course! But the phenomenon is still really cool.

Basically what you've got here is three very different things going on at various times in the tide cycle: LOW tide: St John River flows out into Bay >> view rapids

SLACK tide: when the Fundy tide height and the river height are the same for about 20 min between high & low (and low & high) >> view dead calm water

HIGH tide: when Fundy's tides keep coming in and are higher than the river (and continue to flow another 100 kms upriver!!) >> view rapids in a different direction than the low tide rapids

The fact that the river (and its rapids) change direction is the 'reversing' part. The 'falls' part is actually happening sub-surface. There are massive waterfalls down there in undersea geology that cause crazy rapids on the surface! These rapids may look fairly calm from the viewing decks but they are HUGE and crazy when you are in them, like I was this week on Reversing Falls Jet Boat Tours (see picture!!).

Hope to have our YouTube episode for Reversing Falls next month!

Flotsam, jetsam & clay pots?

Those of us who regularly walk Bay of Fundy beaches never quite know what kind of flotsam & jetsam we're going to discover. On Fundy beaches due to the constant erosion of our tides treasures can also appear out of the sand!

The words flotsam and jetsam describe specific kinds of debris in the ocean. Historically the words had specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences, but in modern usage they came to mean any kind of marine debris.

There is a difference between the two: jetsam has been voluntarily cast into the sea (jettisoned) by the crew of a ship, usually in order to lighten it in an emergency; while flotsam describes goods that are floating on the water without having been thrown in deliberately, often after a shipwreck.

I'm not sure who, then, is the rightful owner of these two chunks of historic clay pot that appeared on my daily beach yesterday...I think I'll just donate them to the local museum!!

Funky fundy beach art

One thing I love about our Canadian National Parks is their specialized learning programs. Bay of Fundy's Fundy National Park in Alma, New Brunswick, has lots of great programs including this new one: Tidal Art. This is how it works: people go down on the beach at low tide with an artist and a park interpreter, take empty ice cream tubs, fill them with assorted stones, seaweed, etc., then lay out all the goodies in a pattern drawn by the artist on the beach: creating a different funky piece of Fundy art every time!

When I was at Fundy National Park this summer visitors from toddlers to seniors worked together to create this loon. The other neat part about this is that it becomes a visual art piece at high tide when the tide rolls in to recapture the piece. Kinda like an Andy Goldsworthy-type project. The Tidal Art program at FNP is over for this season but expects to resume next summer!

Hole in the Wall & cliff edge camping!

We're kinda into our edgy cliffs and rock formations here around the Bay of Fundy. Here're some photos I took this week at Hole in the Wall Park & Campground on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick.

The Hole in the Wall formation itself is only about 10,000 years old ~ carved by the tides from rocks that are probably about 300 million years old. There's awesome coastal hiking and clifftop camping at Hole in the Wall Park. Check out the teensy tiny tent on the green patch in the right picture...gives a whole new meaning to 'camp with a view'!

Canine welcome at Fundy's Fairmont Algonquin

If you're a dog person like I am you probably miss your pup while on vacation and crave a 'dog fix' with every canine you pass on the street. Imagine my delight when I arrived at the Fairmont Algonquin in the Bay of Fundy resort town of St Andrews, New Brunswick, this week: the hotel's resident yellow labrador retriever, Smudge, was "in residence" with her doggie smile and warm greeting.

Smudge, the General Manager's dog, accompanies him to work every day where she 'holds court' on her mat in the lobby. No lazy days for Smudge though ~ the front desk keeps a sign-up sheet for guests to take her for walks or runs ~ up to three times a day. Smudge has her own Fairmont business card as the hotel's "Canine Ambassador" and keeps regular 'office hours' 5 days a week. If you find yourself at the Algonquin, give Smudge a pat for me!

Bay of Fundy coast perfect for yoga

I was out doing some filming around the Bay of Fundy this week and spent a day at Burncoat Head, Nova Scotia. While scouting the beach, I noticed that my volunteer cameraman - my teenage son - had wandered off and was down on the beach doing yoga in the wild wind. Just seemed like the thing to do on a Bay of Fundy low tide beach! The idea of 'being one' with the elements rather than merely looking at them almost inspires me to take up yoga!

Baby 'christening' in Bay of Fundy?

I was visiting Hopewell Rocks this week when I came upon this couple 'dipping' their baby's toes in the Bay of Fundy. It turns out they are former residents of the Maritimes who now live in Ontario but wanted to be sure to give their little girl a taste of Bay of Fundy on her first trip home this summer. Starting that east coast salt running in her veins ~ cute!

My ordinary could be your extraordinary

Busy week 'in the field' around Bay of Fundy hosting two videographers from Britain working on a Bay of Fundy episode for Wonders of Planet Earth (USA's Travel Channel series). These folks always have such a good eye for the beauty that surrounds us here in the Bay of Fundy.

A few days of media touring reminds me that my 'ordinary' views of Fundy can really quite extraordinary to visitors. A couple Bay of Fundy locations where we filmed this week: low tide beach at Alma (at the edge of Fundy National Park, New Brunswick) and Horseshoe Cove (near Cape d'Or lighthouse, Nova Scotia).

Bay of Fundy 'sauna effect' swim!

Today temperatures were nice and hot around Bay of Fundy (mid-90s F / mid-30s C) so we did what most coastal dwellers do and scooted down to the beach to cool off. This can be a bit tricky in parts of Fundy where, due to our extreme tides, there can be no water for miles when you get there!

Most locals time their swimming excursions to begin as the tide turns to come back and rolls across the sun-baked beach, making the water the temperature of bath water - the 'sauna effect'. These photos show the start of our low tide trek across the ocean floor to get to the water's edge then, awhile later, the wavelets of incoming tide.

If you're not familiar with Fundy's tides, it's safest to swim at a supervised beach such as New River Beach or Alma, New Brunswick, or Blomidon Provincial Park or Evangeline Beach, Nova Scotia. Fundy's extreme tides can do kooky things, like come in at odd angles in some areas of the bay or create nasty high spots on sand bars that can strand you - so be careful!

44th Annual Gem & Mineral Show

Here's a longtime Bay of Fundy event happening this weekend in Parrsboro: the Nova Scotia Gem & Mineral Show. It's Canada's oldest gem & mineral event (44 yrs). If you live in the region you may even recall it being called the "Rock Hound Roundup" in the early days - must have attracted too many rock bands and dog clubs because they changed the name about a decade ago!

The show, starting tomorrow and running through the weekend, consists not only of exhibits but also interpreted beach tours, exhibits, workshops, demonstrations, and displays. Check out the list of activities of just about everything you can think of related to gems & minerals:
- gold panning demo
- wire wrapping stones for jewelry
- rock tumbling demo
- glass bead making
- healing properties of stones
- intro to basic principles of geology
- dinosaur painting for kids
- prehistoric spear making & throwing
- assorted jewelry making workshops
plus an evening of Swing with Parrsboro's Elastic Big Band at the Gemcutter's Ball on Saturday night!

The show is a great way to learn more about Bay of Fundy's amazing geology!

Happy 150 years to the Origin of Species!

You may be surprised to learn that the Bay of Fundy is home to some of the most significant scientific discoveries which supported Charles Darwin's theory on evolution.

Darwin was an English naturalist who presented evidence that all species have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he termed "natural selection". In 1859, he introduced the concept of it as a principal mechanism of evolution in his book On the Origin of Species. At the time, no one knew the age of the Earth or of milestones in our planet's history.

2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, in which the Joggins Fossil Cliffs are referenced. Charles Darwin drew on the completeness of exposure at Joggins and the recurrence of the fossil forests to illustrate that the fossil record was inherently incomplete. Darwin argued that even in the unrivaled exposures at Joggins, the intervening beds theoretically could hide “the fine intermediary gradations which must on my theory have existed between them,” with the result that the fossil record generally gives the misleading appearance of “abrupt, though perhaps very slight, changes of form".

The Joggins Fossil Cliffs (Nova Scotia side of Bay of Fundy) were made a World Heritage Site by UNESCO last year. The cliffs are referred to as a "Coal-Age Galapagos" and are the best place in the world to see fossils from this period.

Beluga sighting?

This blog post is proof that we beach-combing types often have overactive imaginations when we're exploring Bay of Fundy shores. My friend, Molly, sent along these photos of the "beluga whale" she spied carved in sandstone by the tides on Melvin's Beach in the Fundy Trail, St Martins, New Brunswick. Reminds me of the winter I found a Right whale on my lawn!!

Here Molly's note describing her adventure:

We walked the Bradshaw lookout through what reminded me of growing up in the West Coast rain forest- ferns, cedars and a muddy slick forest floor! When we got the beach the tide was out and to my left was a giant sandstone cave. Beyond that was a perfect crescent beach with absolutely no one in sight. I started walking, my husband said: "Where are you going"? "To sit in the middle of that beach, can you believe this"??!! I found "Beluga Rock" on the way to the beach.

The water was warm (for the Bay of Fundy, I'm not gonna lie to you) and the sun was beaming down on our faces. After the unexpected trek down to this paradise a nap was in order and then the trek back up Bradshaw with me asking many times if there were alternative routes available, and could I possibly take a look at the map for myself to be sure there was no other way out and why oh why was I doing this to myself? Before I knew it we were at the top and full of smugness for having made the trek and giddiness for the treasures we had discovered on our adventure.

We're not all about fish...here, try some chocolate!

Big culinary week in Bay of Fundy this week - no not another seafood festival (tho' we never get tired of our seafood here!); rather it's the annual Chocolate Fest at Canada's official chocolate town of St Stephen, New Brunswick (also the hometown of Canada's oldest chocolatery, Ganong Bros.)

This year actually marks the 25th year of Chocolate Fest! In addition to the usual events like Chocolate Museum tours, fudge-making demonstrations, and product sampling, the festival will be declaring "Chocolate Lover of the Year". Entrants had to be nominated by a friend with a 200 word essay about how/why they love chocolate so much. Sounds like fun!

Random Bay of Fundy fact: Did you know that one of the original Ganong family chocolate makers, Mr Whidden Ganong, consumed 1 pound of chocolate a day right up until his death in 2002 at age 92? Now that's inspiring!

Raspberry, Goat Cheese & Pecan Salad

Farm markets around Bay of Fundy are burgeoning with fresh produce now that summer is at its peek. My Bay of Fundy travels this week took me to the town of Wolfville, Nova Scotia where I stocked up on all kinds of fresh & organic farm items. It was fresh raspberries that drew me there in the first place and whoa, did I get lots of chubby, ripe, local raspberries. Perfect for making this awesome summer salad:

Raspberry, Goat Cheese & Toasted Pecan Salad
1/2 pecans
3 c assorted greens (try young beet greens or arugula!)
4 oz herbed goat cheese
1 c fresh raspberries

Toast pecans in 375 degree oven for 10 min. Let cool. In large salad bowl toss greens with Raspberry Dressing. Divide greens into four servings, top with pecans, crumbed goat cheese and raspberries.

Raspberry Salad Dressing
1 small red onion, diced
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1/3 c raspberry vinegar
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp orange juice
3/4 c olive oil
Salt & pepper
Whisk all ingredients but oil. Add oil, whisk to cloudy.
Makes about 1 1/2 c dressing
(to morph this into a creamy dressing, add 1/2 to 3/4 c raspberry yogurt)

Sandpipers return to Bay of Fundy

Perhaps one of the lesser-known facts about the Bay of Fundy is that we are biologically linked to most of the rest of the world through migrations of fish, whale and bird species. A good example of this is the annual trek of 95% of the world's population of semi-palmated sandpipers. Hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of these small shorebirds make an annual trip each summer from the Arctic to Fundy where they double their weight for their continued voyage across to west Africa and, ultimately, to South America.

These sandpipers feast on microscopic shrimp that live in the low tide-exposed mud flats of the upper Bay of Fundy. They visit en masse for about two weeks starting right away. The New Brunswick town of Dorchester hosts a annual shorebird festival (starts this weekend) to celebrate the arrival of these incredible birds.

Read more about Fundy's sandpipers on the Canadian Wildlife Service website.

We know how to put the FUN in Fundy!

Big news this week around Bay of Fundy...our beautiful bay was selected as a finalist in a global campaign to declare the New7Wonders of Nature!! Those of you who've been following my blog know that we've been participating in this campaign for over a year. There were 440 nature sites originally and we just found out yesterday that 28 international sites have been shortlisted and Bay of Fundy is one of them!

Wow... this is exciting stuff! we now have the opportunity to showcase this awesome part of Canada to the rest of the world. I was digging around in my photo archive (in preparation for the media) and turned up this aerial shot of Bay of Fundy's Cape Split in Nova Scotia.

This photo sure takes me back a few decades. When I was a teenager growing up on the Bay of Fundy, I had two friends who flew airplanes so I spent a goodly bit of time flying over this very cape and other parts of Fundy in my 'spare time'. Not typical teenage hobby but one that probably sewed early seeds of interest in Bay of Fundy: certainly MY world wonder!

Thanks to my nature pal, Bob Guscott, for the pic.

Parisiennes & the Brummies to be visited by the Bay of Fundy!

One of my great joys (other than exploring the Bay of Fundy) is checking my Bay of Fundy email...no, seriously, I just never know who I'm going to hear from. Sometimes it's folks who live in other parts of our Bay, sometimes it's visitors reporting in about their Fundy holidays, and sometimes it's someone who has done something 'Fundy-themed', such as a poem, or play reading in Texas, or even a Fundy-inspired musical composition.

Such was the case a couple weeks ago when I heard from composer Bev Lewis, who has an excited Fundy-themed music project launching in Paris & Birmingham, England (hence, the Brummies)....

Hi Terri, I was born and grew up in New Brunswick, mainly around the greater Saint john area, and I studied music at Mount Allison University. I now live in Toronto and am, among other things, a music composer. I recently received a commission to compose a piece for English Horn and Piano from Western Kentucky University.

My piece will be premiered on July 22 at the International Double Reed Society Conference in Birmingham, UK, and will be performed on July 26 in Paris, France. The performers will be Michele Fiala (English horn) and Donald Speer (Piano).

The title of my piece is "Fundy Temperaments" and it is a programmatic work about the Bay of Fundy, based on my childhood experiences as well as on research I have been doing. Within the piece, there are musical effects which represent such things as rippling waves, fog horns, crashing waves, a drinking party complete with sea shanties, a sinking ship, a requiem, etc.

The piece is supposed to represent the fast-changing, unpredictable moods (weather conditions) of the Bay of Fundy.

I thought it might be of interest to some of your readers that a music conposition about the Bay of Fundy, composed by a native New Brunswicker, is going to be performed in Britain and France this coming July.

Congrats to Bev, on this, her opening week!!

Rough tides & new driftwood

We Fundy folk are quite fond of wild weather...well, we do live by the world's most extreme tides so I suppose it only makes sense that we like our weather on the edgey side too.

Since so much of the ocean floor is exposed here at low tide, we're quite tuned in to how the weather and tides combine to interesting effect. Take the famous Saxby Gale, for example, still venerated in local folklore. I've also previously mentioned starfish tides and strange objects turning up in the wrack line.

One of the other things the tide churns up on a regular basis is massive amounts of driftwood... and not just small chunks either. It's quite typical to see whole trees wash up, like this one I took a photo of this morning. If you're planning a beach bonfire though, be warned, it's considered impolite in Fundy circles to actually burn these tree trunks - use them as seats instead! More beach bonfire etiquette in this previous post.

Raining wild rose petals

When Belle and I were out for our run this morning we came across a sight fit for an outdoor wedding: wild rose petals floating down off the breakwater and on to the beach.

The next tide will probably absorb them but they sure looked pretty out here in bright contrast to the grey cobble beach. If you look closely on the right you can see a teeny-tiny Belle patiently waiting (again) for me to take photos.

I love my salty dog!

That's the way to eat lobster

There are lots of great roadside fish markets around the Bay of Fundy and, if you're lucky, you can even buy lobster fresh off the wharf. The Fundy town of Alma, New Brunswick, probably wins the prize though - they've got three really nice waterfront fish markets. No fresher way to serve the over 200,000 annual visitors to nearby Fundy National Park.

In my travels to Alma this week, I popped in to Butland's Seafood Market to grab a lobster for lunch. The one great thing about a lobster market is that your lobster is guaranteed to be cooked to perfection, and this one was! It's served on newsprint in a cardboard box with little tubs of coleslaw and potato salad on the side. I grabbed mine and ate half of it while driving (not generally recommended!) to nearby Cape Enrage Lighthouse. Yum!

Terri's top 10 reasons to vote Fundy TODAY!

This is the last day to vote in the 2nd phase of the global New7Wonders of Nature contest. Bay of Fundy is competing as Canada's top site. Click here to vote for Bay of Fundy!

Need to know what makes Bay of Fundy so awesome? Here are my top 10 fav things about our bay:

10. The Bay of Fundy boasts some of the best and freshest seafood in North America: lobster, scallops, salmon (fresh & smoked), halibut, mussels, sole, haddock, herring, mackeral, flounder, dulse (edible seaweed), etc.

9. The Bay is home to the largest whirlpool in the northern hemisphere: the Old Sow Whirlpool off Deer Island, New Brunswick.

8. The Fundy region has so many geology firsts it's almost embarrassing:

• world's best fossil forest
  
• Canada's oldest dinosaurs
• world's most complete fossil record
• world's smallest dinosaurs
• evidence of the 'missing link' between the Jurassic & Triassic periods of geological history
• best place in the world to see all three rock types from three different geological time periods: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic

7. Fundy is the hottest site in the world for tidal power potential (outdated barrage or causeway-style technology - destructive to the environment!! - has been replaced by new, much less invasive, underwater turbines that look like modern wind mills).

6. Our Bay is the summer habitat and feeding ground for these gentle giants: 12 species of whales, including the rare and endangered North Atlantic Right whale (half the world's population of Right whales visit Fundy annually).

5. Fundy's low tide mud flats are a critical feeding ground for 95% of the world's semi-palmated Sandpipers on their annual migration from the Arctic to the west coast of Africa then South America.

4. UNESCO loves us! Upper Bay of Fundy as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and Joggins Fossil Cliffs as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

3. Bay of Fundy tides, 54 feet/15 metres are the highest on the planet. To put this in perspective: South Carolina, USA, tides are 5 feet and Vancouver, BC's tides 10 feet.

2. Fundy is one of the world's richest marine ecosystems and has been compared to the Amazon rainforest in biodiversity.

1. The people of the Fundy adore & protect their bay and love sharing its mysteries with visitors. They are also a formidable troupe who have risen to the challenge of promoting and voting for our Bay... propelling to top Canadian site in this contest. I love yez!!

Kipper pesto omelet

Bay of Fundy Kippers (smoked herring) are most often eaten as a snack or for lunch straight out of the can around these parts. In the UK, though, it's not uncommon to eat kippers for breakfast in some combination with eggs. Here's one of my favourite kipper recipes, combining eggs, kippers and pesto just to jazz things up a bit...

Kipper pesto omelet
3 eggs (or 1 egg, 2 whites)
1/4 sm eggplant
1 c sauteed mushrooms
1 to 2 Tbsp pesto
2 Tbsp parmesan cheese
1 to 2 cans of regular kippers, drained & crumbled
1 c pineapple
a few slices of cooked bacon (opt)
salt & pepper to taste

Sauteed diced eggplant and mushrooms in butter. Whisk pesto and egg together in a bowl. Add other ingredients to pan, cover with eggs. Cook flat in fry pan til almost dry. Flip into omelet shape. Cook low heat, covered.

Rare whale sighting

This time it's not the whales that made for a rare Fundy whale sighting - it was the location! On the weekend there were a dozen pilot whales in the Upper Bay of Fundy in the vicinity of Hopewell Rocks. If you'd like to check your Bay of Fundy geography, take a look at this map. (Hopewell Rocks is up near where Nova Scotia (yellow) meets New Brunswick (orange).

I can tell you that live whales very rarely come up this high in the Bay of Fundy. In fact, in the 13 years since Baymount Outdoor Adventures has been operating kayak tours at Hopewell Rocks they've never seen whales on their tours. So you can imagine the surprise of the kayakers in this video when they went for their paddle. A rare and wonderful day on the Bay of Fundy...

Whale watch update

I've been getting quite a few emails from folks asking how the whale watch season is going so far. Here's a guest post from one of our whale watch tour companies with an update:

Hi Bay of Fundy Blog followers! I'm Danielle and I work with Quoddy Link Marine, a whale watching company out of St. Andrews, NB. Our tours take passengers out on the NW corner of the Bay of Fundy around Campobello, Deer Island, Grand Manan and the Wolves. Here's how our season is going so far... It's been a foggy start, and the fog remains but we have managed to get quite a few afternoon trips out amongst Head Harbour Passage where there are some holes in the fog (as the warm air blows over Campobello it creates some clear spots in the Passage). We are seeing minke whales on a consistent basis as well as lots of seals (both harbour and grey) and harbour porpoise.

For all you birders out there, the common birds sightings are good (bald eagles, herring and greater black back gulls, black guillemots, black-legged kittiwakes and eider ducks) but with the fog we also get some unique offshore visitors to the inshore area such as puffins, murres and shearwaters. We had a group of northern gannets the other day that we actively feeding, so diving from over 50 feet in the air, off East Quoddy Head Light. All of the bird activity is a great sign of herring (food for both the whales and birds) in the area.

Yesterday we did make a short trip down off Bliss Island to see if we could hear any fin whales, in the fog, when there is little wind, we often listen for whales, being able to hear them blow, or exhale, over a mile away. We didn't hear anything yesterday but you never know unless you "look".

Thanks for taking the time to read my guest post, if you want daily updates on our settings check out our blog and you can follow us on Twitter.

Bring on the parting of the sea

As a lifetime resident of the Bay of Fundy I'm often surprised and delighted by visitors' impressions of our region. And sometimes it takes a newcomer to see the Bay with fresh eyes and new potential. Such was the case a few years ago when a Californian arrived on the shores of Five Islands in the upper Bay on the Nova Scotia side. Dick Lemon turned up and created an ecological retreat atop one of the islands then, while looking out at his extraordinary view, thought "wouldn't it be fun if we created an event where people could enjoy this beauty by walking and running across the ocean floor during the one or two lowest tide days of the year." Hence, the Not Since Moses race was born!

This year's race is today and tomorrow, sold-out, with over 600 walkers & runners attending. This short video I made last year will give you an idea of what a crazy bit of fund this was last year. Bring it on again today!

MIgratory bird habitat now under protection

A goodly portion of the Bay of Fundy is rural & small town - the road less traveled - so not subject to massive amounts of development. Still, there are some areas of critically important habitat that warrant a higher level of protection. Johnson's Mills along the Bay of Fundy coast in New Brunswick is one such areas and Fundy nature types are happy to hear that more of this region has just been acquired by the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

This new 80 hectare purchase adds to the current 128 hectares protected by the Johnson's Mills Shorebird Reserve. This area, along with adjacent Mary's Point, is a critically important feeding area for migratory birds on their annual trek from the Arctic to South America (via Bay of Fundy and the west coast of Africa). Indeed an estimated 85% of the world's population of semi-palmated sandpipers stop here in Fundy every summer to pump up their weight on our tiny mud shrimp for their next non-stop flight.

Three cheers for the NCC for adding Johnson's Mills to their national protected areas!

A child's view of our BIG tides

In addition to high-low tide photos sets, videos of Bay of Fundy are great ways to represent our intriguing seascape. Here is a delightful video that shows the genuine curiosity and pure delight of a little gal exploring the Fundy coast with her dad. It warms my heart to see our young friends embracing our tidal coast like this!



Thanks to Dave at Annapolis Valley Audio Visual for sharing this video. Another enthusiastic Fundy fan!

Sea kayaking on the Fundy coast

Every time I sea kayak the Bay of Fundy I'm astonished that we can do this awesome sport in such an extraordinary coastal environment. First kayak of the year this season happens to have been with Nova Shores in Advocate Harbour, Nova Scotia.

Like many of the kayak companies based in Fundy, owners Werner and Else Marie like to have a little fun with their guests by 'parking' the kayaks on dry beach and allowing the tide to come in to float the kayakers out to start the tour. Kinda makes an impression with visitors, that's for sure.

Here are some images of the coming-up-to-high tide launch then way low tide (this was after we were well back and had enjoyed dinner at the Wild Caraway Cafe). 'twould be a long haul dragging those kayaks across that vast expanse of beach had gone on a longer adventure!

Check out previous blog posts for all Fundy companies I've kayaked with, all on the New Brunswick side: Baymount Outdoor Adventures, FreshAir Adventures, and Seascape Kayak Tours. All fun folks who run super tours!

Bay of Fundy BACK in New7Wonders campaign

Every day is an interesting one here on the Bay of Fundy but there is one day last week that I'll remember for quite some time. We had a call from Brussels, Belgium, to say that Bay of Fundy has been reinstated as Canada's official nominee in the international campaign to declare the New7Wonders of Nature!

Those who follow my blog may remember that Bay of Fundy was in a neck & neck race with several other Canadians nature sites late last Fall and early winter to represent Canada in Spring Phase 2 of the contest. In January, we appeared to have lost first place to an Alberta site (western side of Canada - we're on the east coast) but just found out that they lost their standing in the contest and we are back in! Fun!!!

Even if you voted for us in the Fall, you can now vote again. Bay of Fundy has been back in the campaign for a several days now and the New7Wonders website is going wild. Please help by voting before July 7, 2009, when the top 77 international sites will be declared...Bay of Fundy can be on this list with your help!

Fundy's chique urban park

In addition to Saint John, New Brunswick, offering a vibrant waterfront and historic streetscape downtown, the city is also home to two fine parks: Rockwood Park with 10 lakes, golf, zoo and hiking, and Irving Nature Park with 8 walking trails on the Fundy coast.

Just a few minutes from the centre of the city, Irving Nature Park offers a fully accessible low speed park roadway along with coastal and woodland walking trails. What's somewhat more surprising at Irving Nature Park is are the rocks ledges where harbour seals and porpoises congregate...fun wildlife watching so close to the city! And if you're a birder, this is a great place to spot up to 250 species of birds.

Bay of Fundy cruises

Although I dedicate lots of space here on my Bay of Fundy blog to rural and small town touring around our 'road less traveled', I also like a good dose of city - particularly our lovely coastal city of Saint John.

Seems I'm not alone....this New Brunswick city is going wild as a favourite port-of-call for cruise ships visiting the east coast of Canada. In the past 10 years this cheery, walkable city has grown cruise visits from 28,000 passengers aboard 24 vessels to 181,000 passengers aboard 80 vessels.

"Anchor in the Bay of Fundy" is the theme (happy smiles from me!) for cruise visitors to Saint John. There are lots of options for day trips to see various tidal phenomena. Judging by the article that appeared in the news this week, cruisers are hugely satisfied with the city, its friendliness and charm....awwww shucks!

Poppies ablaze in the garden

I'm not much of a 'fancy gardener' but a sure do enjoy the many perennials that pop up in our ditches and flower gardens each spring & summer here on the Bay of Fundy.

The first shrub to bloom in my garden is February Daphne (which folks around here call "May Bush")...it must bloom somewhere (Florida?) in February but it's April or early May blooming here.

Next in the harbinger-of-spring sequence are Forget-me-nots and fruit blossoms (apple, pear, etc.) which are pretty much fading by now. Next in line is Columbine - my purples are waving away this weekend and, of course, bright Poppies (pictured here from my garden) which burst forth this week. When my kids were little we'd take bets on which day the first poppy would pop - just like us, they sure respond to the sun at this time of year!

Can you hear the tide turn?

As a lifetime resident of the Bay of Fundy, I often get asked some really interesting questions by visitors. Such as:

• when the tide is out in the Bay of Fundy, is it high on the other side of the world? (answer: it's likely to be "out" on the other side too but "in" a quarter way round the world)

• where does all the water go when the tide goes out? (answer: creates a massive bulge in the middle of the ocean - this is weird but picture the cornea of the human eye relative to the rest of the eyeball - that's what the tide bulge looks like, tho' proportionately smaller, of course!)

• can a resident of the Bay sense whether the tide is in or out? I'm not sure how to answer this one but I can tell you that we can sense/hear when the tide stops coming in and turns to go back out. Or at least I can...er, I assume other Fundy folk can too? Seriously, if I'm at the beach at high tide, when the tide reaches it's peak, there're a few seconds where it makes a sluffing sound - like a thousand puppy tongues lapping - before it turns to go out. I'd record this and put it on YouTube but you kinda hafta visit hand-in- hand with a Fundy resident to catch the subtleties of this!
  

At Last... A Bay of Fundy Limerick!

I've gotten used to seeing the Bay of Fundy used as a metaphor for predictability ("as regular as the Bay of Fundy tides") or for massive change ("the difference between them was like the difference between high and low tides on the Bay of Fundy") but I rarely see Fundy used in poetry. It, well....it just doesn't really rhyme with much or so I thought until I came across this clever limerick:

A man loved a gal named Bundy
Who came from the Bay of Fundy.
But to his despair,
She gave him the air
Sic transit gloria mundi.

No author indicated but it's 'poem of the day' on Jokes2Go.com.
(In case you're not up on your Latin, the last line means something like "so passes the glory of the world" - poor fella!)

Go fetch!....er, Fundy style

I've often been asked if living by the world's highest tides effects people in any way...well, we could have a lengthy chat about that .... but I do think our coastal canines develop some interesting habits uncommon in their city counterparts.

Take, for example, my dog Belle: I've previously mentioned how she likes to fetch driftwood every time we have a bonfire, and also how she snurfles out ice pebbles in winter. She's also a pretty good judge of what's normal and abnormal about the rack line and she likes to swim year round in the Bay of Fundy.

One of the other things she does is play fetch at the beach, though not of sticks but stones. No stone-skipping in our family, no sirreee, every stone tossed into the water is cheerily retrieved by the little rascal. Here she is in action - can dogs smile? she sure looks pretty proud of herself!

Another Bay of Fundy lighthouse... Walton, NS

If you're a coastal explorer like me, chances are you're also interested in exploring built heritage of the sea. Although travelers by land and water now navigate with sophisticated GPS units now instead of fog horns there are still lots of preserved Bay of Fundy lighthouses in great locations that are usually open to the public for touring.

Pictured here is the 'salt shaker' style Walton, Nova Scotia, lighthouse. This lighthouse, built in 1872, is located on Route 215 - a somewhat less traveled but gosh-so-darn-pretty coastal touring route. This lighthouse played a key role historically in guiding boats loading gypsum, lumber & other cargo in this extreme tide harbour. Now open seasonally as a visitor's centre and small musuem. Panoramic view of vast exposed ocean floor of Fundy's Minas Basin at low tide.

Click here for more info on Nova Scotia lighthouses.