Gardens on an Island Paradise

 I am back from a fantastic camping trip alone with Josh in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We went to Grand Manan, an island in the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick. We were inspired by my friends Maria and John who had camped on Grand Manan a few years ago and raved about it. It is a small island with a population of around 2500, lots of fisherman, artists, little cafés and restaurants. It attracts tourists who like quiet, beautiful and non-touristy types of places. It has marshes, beaches and cliffs. We stayed on a cliff edge campsite overlooking the Bay of Fundy.

 On the right was a lighthouse, down below gulls and seals, in the distance the sound of whales blowing, behind us forest. We did the 12 hour drive in one shot. We drove from my parents' house in Morin Heights to Blacks Harbour and took the Ferry to Grand Manan. I watched sunrise through the mists over lakes and hills in New Brunswick. We saw deer and rabbits along the road, and at one point we saw a wolf crossing the road. We were on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, more than 50 kilometers from the nearest house.

 When we googled wolves in New Brunswick this morning to see if we could identify it, we discovered that wolves had been wiped out in New Brunswick in the 1920's and only this year was the first wolf seen (and shot, and DNA verified to be certain) again in New Brunswick. I have never seen a wolf in the wild before, and the fact that it is such a rarity, this was really exciting for us.


I made sure to take lots of pics of wildflowers and some of the gorgeous and creative gardens we saw on the island as an excuse to be able to blog about our trip. I will have other pics (non-floral) on Josh's Facebook page once I am done blogging. I will start with the gardens on this post, save wildflowers and wildlife for the next one.

 This first set of photos come from the garden of an artist and jeweler, owner of Seawind Beads. We passed her house several times when the sign read "closed" until the day before we went home when it was open. She has a beautiful solarium/workshop/boutique at the back of the house, and an extraordinary garden. The black planters where she grows her herbs and vegetables are lobster bins which are easily found all over the island, and make perfect planters. Driftwood was an nice added touch (see top photo).

 There is that flower again! The owner of the garden has no idea either what it is.

 These are butterfly bushes. They are stunning. She had white flowered ones and purple flowered ones, and she said they attracted butterflies like crazy. However, they are very big so I am not sure I want to try this at home.

 You can see the lobster bins up close here. The artist's studio is behind the red framed screens, looking out over the garden.

 The next few photos are from a café on the main road of the island. The building was built in 1832, and is decorated inside with local artists' work. I loved the use of buoys and shells as part of the decor, as well as sea stones and driftwood.

We learned at the local history museum that each fisherman had his own personalized colours on his buoys marking his lobster traps. A few houses and shops on the island were decorated with buoys.

I love how the café owner used the driftwood as a centrepiece for their little garden.

I also love their use of sea stones to make footprints on the stairs.









 This house was decorated on 3 sides with buoys, and had these gorgeous black-eyed susans with layers of petals. My close ups didn't turn out too well, unfortunately.

I will post more focusing on the wildflowers, plants, lichens, with a few of my best animal photos tossed in for good measure in my next post.