Vacation Day One

Last week, I went on vacation.  This was, in and of itself, a sort of milestone.  The last time I went on a proper vacation was in 2008.  What do I mean by a "proper vacation?"  Well, I had gone on a couple of trips in the past 10 years to the US to visit friends, but I also took my computer with me and worked, regularly, on those trips.  I also took a few long weekends for spinning or knitting events.  I don't count that as a "vacation" because (a) it's just a long weekend and (b) I sometimes took work on those events and (c) I was often there to do workshops and learn things, which can be a lot of fun, but it isn't the same as a do-what-you-want-when-you-want vacation.  Last week was one of those weeks, and it was marvellous!

I went to Prince Edward Island, which is the province next to mine, to spend the week in a lovely seaside cottage which I shared with my parents.  Marc also came for the first day and a half of the vacation, which was good because he doesn't usually go on vacation either, but he also wanted to use some of his time off for his own projects in the garage, so he only stayed for a short time.

I have all sorts of things I want to blog about, but I'll just blog today about the first day of our vacation.  On Monday morning of last week, we headed off under sunny skies to the Confederation Bridge.  That's a bridge that goes from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island.  I was driving the car and Marc was on his motorcycle, so I couldn't take pictures of the bridge, but here's one from Wikipedia for you.


The bridge is 12.9 kilometres long (that's 8 miles!) and is a multi-span balanced cantilever bridge that ranges from 40 to 60 metres (131 to 197 feet) above the water.  It's the longest bridge in the world that crosses ice-covered water (obviously not at this time of year).  It takes over 10 minutes to drive across it.

We didn't have to be at the cottage until 4 pm, so we decided to visit a historical site called Roma at Three Rivers.  It's the site of a French trading post that was established in 1732 and which was unfortunately burned down by the British in 1745.  Not my ancestors I hope!  We enjoyed lunch there and toured around the buildings and the heritage garden site.  The building where we had lunch is built in the style of the original main building which would have been the original sleeping quarters for about 70 settlers.

There is a replica of an Acadian "chaloupe" - a type of fishing boat used in the original settlement.

I enjoyed looking at all the plants in the garden, and I liked the sturdy fence. The restaurant had a lovely herbal iced tea made with bergamot (bee balm), lemon balm and something else from the garden...I think it was rosemary but I'm not sure.

Marc enjoyed investigating the huge clay oven that is in daily operation at the site.

Since we had almost 2 hours to spare, we decided to go on one of the walking trails at the site.  We chose a 3 km trail that we thought would be easy to complete with time to spare to get us to the cottage.  Unfortunately, vandals had broken and obliterated many of the interpretive signs along the trail. However, the trail itself was a beautiful, peaceful walk through a forested headland.

There was a remarkable array of mushrooms through the woods, including some that were obviously boletes (which are edible).  I was captivated by their massive size.  Here's a picture of some of them with my lens cap for scale.

 I loved the massive tree trunks and couldn't help but embrace my tree hugger personality on the trail.


After a while though, we ran into a lot of trail obstacles - downed trees from various storms, areas of difficult walking, and a few other issues, so we decided to take a shortcut.  On the map below, we were on the white line trail "B" on the right hand side, expecting to do the full loop.  Instead, we crossed at the orange marked trail that cuts the northern portion of white trail "B" out, and leads back to the start.

Well, we crossed that orange trail expecting to see the white tree markers that indicated the other side of trail "B" but unfortunately, they were nowhere to be found.  We wandered around in circles desperately seeking the trail to no avail.  There wasn't any signage to be found.  I tried to use my cell phone to find the trails on the map, but no dice.  Growing increasingly concerned, we had no choice but to double back, taking the orange trail back across the middle and returning to the start via the same part of trail B that we started on.  It was quite a long delay and involved me losing a shoe several times in the boggy area at the bottom of the orange trail, and both of us getting quite flustered.

This resulted in us being more than an hour later than expected for our arrival at the cottage, which no doubt caused some concern to my parents who were expecting us at 4 pm, but at least we didn't get entirely lost and spend the night in a bog.  And I got a lot of really great pictures of interesting fungi.

More about the rest of the holiday soon!

Fabulous Fleecy Fun

This past weekend, Marc and I had a wonderful trip to Prince Edward Island.  My in-laws treated us to a night at a lovely little cottage in a place called Point Prim.  It was a wonderful night away - quiet and comfortable - and I think we might go back to the same place next year.  Of course, since I am a fibre fanatic, I was thrilled to notice that we were going to be quite close to the Belfast Mini Mills location in PEI, and then I saw that on the same road, there was a new fibre destination called "Fleece and Harmony" (clever name!) that of course warranted a visit.

We left New Brunswick on Saturday morning and wanted to pack as much fun as we could into our one night holiday.  I'll do another blog soon about the places we visited on our way back on Sunday. Saturday afternoon was fibre day though, so we'll start with that!

We set off to the Belfast area to visit the two fibre destinations I'd identified as worth a visit.  I was really excited to see what new treats awaited me at Fleece and Harmony, and I was not disappointed. The owners are sisters who gave up life in the big city to start a sheep farming and fibre milling operation on the island, and now they have a wonderful shop that sells an array of their own yarns, as well as a well-curated selection of yarns from other Canadian sources.  I had a great time chatting about all things wool, and of course couldn't resist some new yarns for my stash.  For example, I had to have a couple of skeins of this stunning tonal spruce green wool - I love the depth to the colour and the bounce in this yarn is pure energy.  It was hard to choose from all their beautiful  colourways.

I grabbed a couple of skeins of their "fiddlehead" variegated wool, and another skein that made me think of our holiday - sea and sky and fields and sand.  The shop had some lovely knitted socks made from the fiddlehead colourway.  Maybe that's what these skeins will become!

Several unexpected bonuses arose from our visit to Fleece and Harmony (do check out the lovely sheep pictured on their website)! First, they have the most unusual cat named Smokey.  This cat (I apologize, I didn't take a picture of him) is one of the longest cats I have ever seen.  He also has a rather unusual face that is very endearing.  He's a Persian cat, but he has a different look.  Anyway, the best thing about Smokey is that when you pick him up, he puts his front paws around the back of your neck and shoulder area and starts massaging with his paws. Yes, his little claws are a bit prickly, but seriously, this cat gives you little kisses while he is massaging you, licking your neck and ear while he's at it.  It's the most adorable habit I have ever seen in a cat.  I seriously wanted to kidnap him! A picture next time, I promise.

Second, we were able to visit with the sheep!  They have a beautiful flock that is mostly white, but there are a few other colours in the mix including a deep chocolate brown and a silvery grey.  The sheep are well fed and happy on their pasture.  Look at all those cute little sheep bums!

One of the sheep was clearly on vacation on shearing day, or was hiding really well in the long grass when the shearer was there, because it still has a lot of fleece in comparison to the others. (turns out this sheep is actually just a champion at growing fleece!  Wow!)

Such beautiful natural colours in those fleeces!

Third, they also sell fresh eggs!  I had to go back on our way home to buy a dozen, and they are very good eggs.  I've already enjoyed several of them.  Fleece and Harmony also sells lamb meat, if you eat lamb, which I don't, because I don't eat animals that I also have as pets, but a lot of people like it, so now you know.  Anyway, when I went back to get the eggs, by happy accident, they had some freshly-dyed yarn that was not quite the right colour for a custom order they were making.  Naturally, it was in my favourite colour family, so even though it wasn't quite dry yet, having just come out of its rinse, I had to grab a few skeins to take with me.  Score!

I highly recommend a visit to Fleece and Harmony if you're in PEI for a visit - well worth it!  They also sell products from their website if you can't make it to the island!

Next, we drove a few minutes down the road to Belfast Mini Mills.  Their primary business is the manufacture and sales of small-scale mill equipment.  No, I am not going to start a mill.  They do have a shop there with some lovely yarns and fibres, as well as a delightful collection of farm critters, including goats, silkie chickens, guinea fowl, donkeys, sheep and more!  This goat was one of my favourites.

They also have a pair of enormous Flemish Giant rabbits - just look at them next to Marc's feet. They're huge!

I had hoped to see the daughter of my Cotswold cross ewe, Twilight.  Unfortunately, the owners were away so the employee tending the shop didn't know which one was Twilight's girl.  Maybe next time.  Here's Twilight though - I am sure her daughter is just as lovely.

I was delighted with the felt sheets they had for sale that have a thin but vibrant coloured layer applied to the white background felt.  The sheets are 18 inches long - a great size for some needle-felted landscape work.  I have some ideas already!  I also bought some matching coloured wrapped yarn that is just beautiful.

Going outside my usual colour range, I couldn't help but pick up a couple of skeins of this scrumptious mohair blend.  Will I knit it, crochet it, or weave it?  Not sure yet...

I also picked up a couple of skeins of a silk blend made with silk that is produced without harming the silkworms.  It's a soft and supple yarn - I am looking forward to using it in a special project.

All in all we had a fabulous vacation, even though it was only one night away.  I'll write another blog soon about where we stayed and show some pictures from our time by the water.