Brier Island – camping on the Atlantic Ocean

Larry and I used to spend every August long weekend camping with our kids and relatives and friends in Renfrew County, Ontario where we owned a couple of acres of new-growth forest on a small lake.

Cameron Lake, Ontario (watercolour)

Some of my favorite summer memories are of that time and place, of sitting around a campfire at night watching the burning embers;

Camp Fire on Brier Island

or listening to the kids daytime squeals of pleasure as they jumped into the cool lake. We thought we were roughing it because we had no electricity or running water– just an outhouse and pails of fresh water for washing, dragged up from the lake.

During those years, a thousand kilometers to the east, people who we didn’t yet know in Bear River were camping on Brier Island every August long weekend. This August we were invited to join their annual trek.

Brier Island is on the tip of the Digby Neck

Brier Island is down the Digby neck, the last island before it descends into the ocean. It takes 2 hours to get there from here, including 2 ferry rides. The trip there is pretty scenic and relaxing due to the light traffic, the little villages and coastline.

Fishing huts at Westport, Brier Island

I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned to you how laissez faire Nova Scotian’s seem to be about the ‘private’ in private property….at least the ones who are accessing it! You see, Brier Island doesn’t have an official campsite and people were pretty vague about the land where we put up our tents. “Doesn’t Harry so-and-so own this land?” “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind…..especially as we will leave the site in better shape than when we got here”. Meaning, we’ll take with us all of our garbage and any extras that we come across. I ask “well what if the owner(s) show up and don’t want us here?” People looked at me like I was speaking an incomprehensible language. “But we’ve always come here.”…..and then finally: “well, we’ll just move our tents.” I mean, come on, tradition is tradition!

Brier Island - Bay of Fundy side

So with that said, about a dozen tents went up, well spaced from each other, but within a short distance to a communal kitchen. A few people pitched their tents on the edge of the ocean, and listened to crashing waves all night.

Tenting on St. Mary's Bay side of Brier Island

 

Our tent was in a more sheltered spot where we could hear the sounds of distant waves and seagulls all day and all night long.

Our tent's fly kept us dry in the downpour.

We played horseshoes and explored the island, gathered driftwood for the fire and drank wine with supper.

Horseshoes is supposed to be fun, right?

The forcast had called for non-stop rain, but we only had one big downpour. The reward the following morning was hundreds of delicate spiders’ webs which appeared in the bushes.

Spider's web after the rain.

The fog rolled in and rolled out and watching it blow and move around us created the illusion of living in the clouds. In fact the whole island felt like out of the pages of a 19th century novel what with the soaring birds, blowing wild flowers of purple and yellow and white, and the sounds of crashing waves.

I had stessed before the trip about what it would be like for me to stay where there are zero bathroom facilities. Like, how does that work? I’ll tell you how. You bring a trowel. You bring a roll of toilet paper in a plastic bag (so it doesn’t get wet from rain or dew). You find a place in the bushes where things are growing (ie. not sand, but earth). You dig a hole. You squat and do your thing. You deposit the toilet paper into the hole and cover everything up with the earth. This way it all decomposes. Don’t use kleenex because it doesn’t break down as well. Then you go back to your tent where you have a basin of water, brought from home and you wash your hands with soap. It made our former camping adventures in Ontario seem like 3 star experiences, but at the same time I was surprised at how easy it is to adapt.

Wld flowers bloom everywhere.

Briar Island is a favorite migratory spot for birds and I recorded some of their sounds which you can hear in this photo montage of flowers on the Island. We heard the birds all the time and I wished I had an interpreter with me!

It was yet another great weekend spent with over a dozen Bear Riverites of all ages, along with several of their dogs. Watching tides, looking at rocks and camping on the edge of the world.

Pat and Reggie walk the beach facing the Bay of Fundy

Bear River at Low Tide

The other day we went for a walk with Pat and Peter and their enthusiastic doggie, Reggie. Like so many others here, they have worked out lots of different walks in and around Bear River and they are happy to share their discoveries and insights with us.

As a city girl, I didn’t learn to really think outside the box in terms of exploring the natural environment. For one thing, most of the real estate in a city is private and the existing parks are fairly tame and well marked with well travelled paths.

Bear River doesn’t have any official, marked walking trails, which is a pity, because there are so many walks and ways that the collective consciousness seems to know about.

We had checked out the marsh flats on the Annapolis side of Bear River, but we hadn’t walked along the shoreline at low tide.

It was quite interesting because the sights were beautiful. The low tide exposed the seaweed and funnily enough, it didn’t really smell seaweedy. I suppose because it is usually underwater, or maybe because of the type of plant?

There is also a lot of shale, flipped sideways by mother nature during the iceage, I suppose. It has eroded and crumbled and surprisingly, walking on the small, broken pieces is extremely slippery, especially if your soles are at all wet…….this even with the designer walking boots that I bought at REI in LA!!

Pat showed me that the water currents create whirlpools that shape the fallen shale pieces.

It is so peaceful and beautiful on the flats, that it all feels quite ancient, like you’ve just stepped into a time machine and been transported back thousands of years.

Reggie, who is adored by his owners and their friends, had fun catching a frisbee and he always provides lots of enthusiasm and entertainment for all.

Ahh, another perfect afternoon in Bear River.

Another Birthday, Another Beach!

Thirty years ago I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who would grow into a beautiful and talented woman currently living in LA.

Emily and our son-in-law Mike are animators who met at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario over 10 years ago.

They are big fans of the entire animation culture that includes custom toys and dolls and anime artists, video games and film.

 In this business you get to be a kid forever and animators and visual effects people tend to have ‘props’ around their computers like little plastic toys and portable DVD players and they listen to soundtrack music from movies.

They can’t watch a movie without analyzing how the special effects were done, and if they can figure it out, they say “wow!!! how did they do that??” 

The job is hardly glamorous, though. The hours are brutally long and most jobs are from contract (film project) to contract. They bring the 2 dimensional characters to life, infusing a flickering image with emotion and personality, but they are truly the unsung heroes of movies that can make millions for studios. How many of us can name an animator outside of Walt Disney? These industry drones even have to buy their own copies of the movies they produce. On the upside, their pay in the US can be double and quadruple of that in Canada and the very best studios and talent are concentrated here in LA. If you want to study with animation mentors, both traditional and computer graphic, then this is where to come.

Apparently there are over 500,000 Canadians living in California. I can’t swear to that figure, but I’ll bet that the majority of them are in the film business and of those, a pile is in animation. I know this because of Mike and Emily who have worked here with Toronto friends and who go to hockey games in LA en masse when their favorites come to town.

So, it made sense that Emily would celebrate her birthday with Michele who also went to school at Sheridan.

Michele took us to Laguna Beach, an artists’ community south of LA.

The Beach has more going for it than just looking like a cross between Portofino and Hawaii. It is also the home of the “tidal pools.”

A few million years ago lava cooled to form this rock surface that catches pools of creatures and plants every day as the high tide recedes.

We found tiny crabs and fish and coral in the tidal pools and it was wonderful to listen, again, to the ocean waves.

The toughest part of being a mother is separating from your child. Thirty years ago I gave birth for the first time to a perfect, sweet baby girl. As hard as it is to have her move so far away and as hard as it was for us to move to the opposite coast, the consolation is that she is part of a creative subculture that includes supportive friends and a loving husband who she’s known forever.

To cap our time at the tidal pools, as we were leaving we saw a rabbit munching away at the flower garden. When our daughter was little, her alter ego was a rabbit for a full year, so it was fitting that she would see one on this important day.

Happy Birthday Emmy, from Jessica Rabbit and friends! xoxo

 

Mist, Mud and Tides

I never knew that air pockets escaping from mud could sound so musical. Unfortunatly, the sound quality is pretty crappy in this video…..I need my friend Victoria to come and record this properly! Still, you’ll get the picture! Not only was the tide high today, there was some pretty mist and fog in the morning.