Why, were there were so many homes painted in such bright colours?
The question had plagued me since our first day in Nova Scotia.
Among the colours there were routine whites and greys, even some
pastels - but now and then a bright apple green, an electric blue, a hot red, even a
vibrant orange.
Was it a reaction to what we assumed was the bleak and terrible
winters? Was there a fashion-conscious paint salesman loose on the peninsula?
Not at all, I was informed that in the past it was actually boat
paint. A fisherman would have some paint left over after, so he put it on his house.
You will find some houses in two or three of these colours,
representing several boats.
Red Windows Shelburne
Nova Scotia is as unpretentious as its fishermen's homes, with their
occasional one-story-high mock lighthouses and huge butterfly replicas out front as well
as the bright paint.
Best Time to Visit
The peninsula is a welcome place to visit year round but especially
throughout the summer; from apple blossom time in late May through a surprisingly mild
September and October.
Nova Scotia was called Acadia by 17th-century French settlers, who
were later expelled by the British. Americans will find much that is familiar there,
though, because it became the home of thousands of loyalists from New England fleeing the
Revolution.
Most of the cities and towns are along the coast and, like driving
through Ireland, touring seems to be circumferential. The province's information offices
provide a wealth of material, divided into seven easily absorbed segments, most of them
coastal, for the visitor.
Nova Scotia East Coast
One segment, the 'Evangeline
Trail' is named for the heroine of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, the literary
memorial to the Acadians.
The trail stretches 150 miles east beyond Yarmouth - where the Cat Ferry from Maine used to dock - through an area
once known as the apple orchard of the British Empire.
The coastal highway touches fishing villages and the highest tides in
the world.
To the south, the 'Lighthouse
Route' follows a jagged shoreline through coves and bays that were once havens for
privateers and pirates.
Travellers can walk the decks of an idled rum runner (The Bluenose II)
at the Fisheries Museum at
Lunenburg or try the sandy white beaches that link picturesque villages.
Another of the seven segments is Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island, which offers one of the most
scenic drives in North America.
Digby
Digby, is a setting of beauty, a
small town famous for its smoked herring and representative in its own way for the links
to the American Revolution that constantly loom. It was named in honour of Robert Digby, a
British admiral who brought 1,500 loyalist refugees from New England in 1783.
The generally un-crowded coastal route follows the Fundy shore,
touching stark and rocky beaches at some points and ducking inland through a lumbering
district or open fields elsewhere.
A huge stone church in St. Bernard seated 1,000
persons in a district where the entire populations of nearby towns number in the hundreds;
it was built over a 30-year period by local labour using local materials. The cemetery was
a symphony of French names; everyone seemed related to everyone else.
Meteghan Wharf
In Meteghan,
fishing vessels leaned against pilings and docks in one of Canada's oldest shipyards;
evidence of the dramatic tide changes.
The Coast
The coast is ringed by modern highways but you can avoid them,
especially in the south, to get closer to the beaches and visit the communities on the
sea.
Eating is always a great experience in Nova Scotia, and there is much
in the way of variety when it comes to restaurants and pubs.
Parks, forts, museums and historic houses also are plentiful. The Halifax Citadel, complete
with fortifications and a 19th-century detention cell, provides a splendid view of the
harbour.
Inland and to the north, the Springhill Miners Museum offers
an underground tour through the mines that claimed 140 lives before the pits were closed
in the 1950's.
The Nova Scotia peninsula is dotted with hotels and motels as well as
farmhouse accommodations and campgrounds.
High Tides - Bay of Fundy
Many visitors go to Truro to watch the tide come in, a phenomenon that
attracts thousands of tourists each year.
The town sits at the mouth of the Salmon River, where it empties into
the Bay of Fundy, and twice a day
the gravitational pull of the moon sends the Atlantic Ocean rushing into the bay, raising
the water in some places more than 50 feet.
Ocean-going vessels can be left sitting on mud and some fishermen,
using nets, can harvest their catch by hand.
The tidal bore, as the leading edge of the new tide is called, can be
seen as it fills the river basin. It is an eerie experience, especially at night, with the
first wave audible beyond the lights that illuminate the 100-yard-wide river mouth, and
then seen as a foot-high white capped crest moving rapidly past.
Nova Scotia's provincial license plates read: Nova Scotia,
Canada's Ocean Playground.
I couldn't agree more with that statement.
By Ariane Anderson.
About The Author
Ariane Anderson is the Creative Director for Scotia Pages - Travel Guide and HD TV Travel
Channel for Nova Scotia.
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