Sophie and Rowan in Canada

On Monday we had a well-earned rest. We walked up to the sugar shack (where they make maple syrup here in the spring) and followed a trail through the woods. It was warm and sunny all day and the woods smelled sweet - probably the pine as it's the wrong time of year for maple syrup. At the end of the trail we watched a woodpecker (black and white with a red cap) for a while. In the afternoon we walked down to Baddeck River, which where it runs through the property is wide, quite shallow and in a secluded wooded valley. On our return our Thanksgiving dinner (potato, veg, turkey, stuffing, and beef pie, with apple pie and rhubarb pie to finish) was waiting in the warming oven - leftovers from Nahman and Iris's big lunch. Unfortunately there was none of the traditional American marshmallow-topped sweet potato left, which we’d been hoping to try as it sounds weird.

On Tuesday we hired a car for the day from Baddeck Rent-a-Wreck (it wasn't a wreck). They came and picked us up so we didn’t have to do any hitchhiking, which our hosts had recommended as a good way to get into town. From Baddeck we drove out onto the Cabot Trail, stopping first at the Gaelic College of Arts and Crafts at St Ann’s. There was a craft shop and a small exhibition there (as well as internet access). This week is the Celtic Colours festival, which has performances by Celtic muscians, ceilidhs, art exhibitions and workshops. Combined with the "fall colors", which were at their peak in the last few days, it attracts a lot of tourists to Cape Breton.

The Cabot Trail is a circular drive around the coast of the north part of Cape Breton. It takes about 6 hours, so we decided not to do it all - the Canadians probably thought that was strange, but we still think of driving as a way to get from one place to another. It was another beautiful sunny day, and all the colours were incredible. The trees were brighter than around the Crown Jewel, and the sea and sky were an intense blue. With the sea in sight, being surrounded by the forest felt less lonely than it sometimes does here inland.

We stopped at a pottery, but didn’t see anything that particularly interested us. Next stop was the Ironart gallery, where we met Gordon Kennedy, a sculptor who works in metals (mainly iron). He did all the banisters, railings and ironwork for the Crown Jewel resort. His wife Carol is a photographer and we were very impressed with her photographs (we bought a little one). She used a variety of techniques, including having digital photos printed directly onto photographic paper using an “LED machine” – presumably some sort of projector. The results were very good. It was nice to meet a couple who were both artists and managed to make a living out of it! The landscape is so beautiful that it's not surprising that there are so many artists round there.

We drove up the coast as far as Ingonish, then drove back as it was beginning to get dark. Back in Baddeck, we ate in the Bell Buoy restaurant. Despite arriving in the restaurant at about 7:15 and only having two courses, we were the last out. They shut the doors at 8:30! We also noticed that all the other diners were at least twice our age.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we were back to work. Rowan and one of the other staff put up some scaffolding for the painters on the second floor balcony, then put up some fencing round the sheep. The sheep had been getting through the electric fence, so a manager had bought some wire sheep fencing. It didn't work very well, though, as we had to put it up on the flimsy plastic poles that the electric fence was on, tying it on with wire and tensioning it by hand. Sophie was set to work picking hawthorn berries from a tree, which are intended for a hedge as a permanent solution to the escaping sheep problem. What they call hawthorn here doesn't look much like hawthorns in England, and it has very long sharp thorns, which are apparently sheep-proof. Hedgerows aren't common in Canada but on this farm they aim to use traditional, natural and picturesque methods. After lunch we went back to weeding the pasture, getting hot as it was sunny again. In the evening we were all alone on the ranch again – quite eerie with the Canadian Eskimo dogs howling outside.

Today Rowan went to drop off some fencing planks while Sophie swept the barn, then we headed up to the sugar shack on the buggy (pulled by one of the Fjord horses). We had to take logs and planks from outside and stack them up inside the shack ready for the spring. They are burned in a firebox to heat the evaporating pans in which the maple sap is boiled down into syrup. It was hard work but the maple woods and the shack were good surroundings to work in.

This has been a long entry - we should try to blog more often to keep them short and sweet!