Rock gardens of Grand Manan

 I mentioned in my last post that we camped on the edge of a cliff. This is what the view looked like from our tent. The campground has the unlikely name of The Hole in the Wall Campground, named for a huge natural stone arch nicknamed the Hole in the Wall. The views along the edges of the cliffs were breathtaking. We took a long hike down a trail that follows the cliffs around the edge of the campgrounds.



 


Below you can see in the water a weir, which is a fish trap. You can see them all around the island, and the seals and gulls like to gather around the weirs for easy meals.

These are some of the wildflowers growing on the edge of the forest at the top of the cliffs. I am not sure what the ones on the right are, but below is a thistle. We had thistles around our campsite, and there were wild roses down the path too (I did not have my camera on me when I saw the roses, and when I returned there were people camping close to them so I did not want to invade their space).

 As we rock hopped along the boulders jutting off the cliff, we saw all kinds of plants and wildflowers growing off of the rocks.

 There were some fantastic, brilliantly coloured lichens on the rocks. The humidity is high, between the fog and the ocean spray.

 

 I was initially surprised that the trees were small, but as we hiked through the woods I noticed many larger trees uprooted and knocked to the ground. We had only one rainstorm while we were there, where the winds blew the rain at our tent horizontally, but I suspect that it was mild compared to how bad storms must get in the winter. Along the edge of the cliff, you see trees like the one below and pines with half their branches dead and dry.

 This is from the edge of the forest on the interior of the island, away from the cliff.

In the forest there were paths where the moss on the sides was the most thick and luxuriant moss I have ever seen.

 

 This is a photo along the side of a sandy beach further down the island. I believe that this is borrage growing wild. It has pretty pink and purple flowers.

 I know this is not a garden photo. I want to share just a few of the other wildlife photos we took.

 

 The photo above and to the right were taken on White Head island, a short ferry ride from Grand Manan. Above is a field of fire weed. The the right, a beach facing out into the bay of Fundy with gorgeous beach rocks of all colours. The tide in the Bay is the highest in the world. When we were there it was rising 7 meters and some at high tide. This means that it drags rocks and sea glass and driftwood onto the beaches that come from all over the world.

 A flock of Canada geese.

Blackbacked gull flying below us. They are very large, and beautiful to watch as they fly and fish in the waves along the shore.

This was the best of many photos of the seals at the base of the cliff where we were camping.

 The beach at Dark Harbour covered in sea weed and beach plants.

This is called samphire, or sea asparagus. Josh was introduced to it by his mother, and has bought it on occasion in Montreal. He found them growing in the rocks at Dark Harbour. They are salty and taste a bit like seaweed, but are very crunchy.

Below is another plant growing on the beach among the rocks. At high tide, the sea covers this whole strand.

                                                                                                                                                                                                      

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.

Anyone know what this is?

My mystery flower bloomed again, and Josh took some photos. I spent a long time trying to match it on the internet, and found nothing that helped me identify it. There are some cool online sites that have you check off a bunch of options of identifying features (colour of flower, arrangement and shape of leaves, number of petals) but I drew blanks. The flower looks a bit like a morning glory but it is on a stem not a vine, and the leaves are spear shaped, longer and thinner than morning glory leaves.

Ironically, on our recent vacation to Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick, we saw the most beautiful garden (see my next post) and the owner had a row of these flowers in her garden. I asked her what they were called, and she did not know.

If you recognize this flower, please let me know!!