Whenever we go out east, we have to stop at Peggy's Cove, one of our very favourite spots in the Maritimes. It's a bit of a side trip on the way to the Newfoundland ferry, but always worth it. The landscape there is like a little sneak peak at what lies ahead in Newfoundland... The village is so picturesque that it has become a major tourist attraction... The plan had been to take some doll photos there, but it was very hot, and ever so crowded, with a dozen tour buses with cruise ship passengers having come for lunch... So we left, and moved on....
It's a very long drive to the ferry to Newfoundland, so we make all sorts of stops along the way. Sometimes the dolls come out of the cupboard, and sometimes they don't. The kids would fit in anywhere, but Rex and Bianca could only work with either just scenery, or something manmade that dated from roughly two hundred years ago, or more. But I thought the spires of the church at St. Roche des Aulnais, in Quebec along the St. Lawrence River would work.... I did eventually come up with a story for Rex and Bianca, but have decided to present the trip photos in the order that I took them first, and put together a separate album with their story later.
First things first..... before I get into the doll photos, I want to share one of the highlights of our trip, one of the most amazing things I've ever seen......the whales of St. Vincent. St. Vincent is a small village in the middle of the southwest coast of the Avalon Peninsula. There's a wide gravel beach there, where the shore drops deep down into the ocean. The humpback whales like to come feed on the caplin when they roll in to spawn, and then rub themselves on the gravel bottom. Large groups of whales come, feeding, breaching, lunge-feeding, and just 'having fun', right off shore. We've always wanted to see them, but the first two times we went there, on previous trips, it was so foggy we couldn't even see the beach. But this time it was a clear sunny day, and when we arrived around dinner time, the whales were already putting on quite a show..... ...just fifty feet off shore.... There were about two dozen whales frolicking about.... This one seemed to like swimming on it's back.... Several, with mouths open, would come up at the same time.... We just sat on the beach and watched.......taking the occasional photos..... One of the biggest groups of whales was putting on a show at the far western end of the beach, directly backlit by the setting sun.... ..but the beach was over 3 km long, and the gravel was too hard for me to walk on..... So we decided to just stay over night, and watch the whole spectacle again the next day.... We had never seen anything like it before. Even with dozens of whales breaching, neither of us managed to catch a shot of one up out of the water, but then, that makes for a good reason to go again another time.....
Just got home this afternoon! It was some trip! One of our main goals was to see icebergs, and it was supposed to be a banner year for them this year. Key word being 'was'. They came early this year - in May - so we pretty much missed them. It was also very cold and wet. Lots of storms, with lots of rain. There were still pockets of snow everywhere... And when it wasn't raining, there was the fog.... Thankfully I prefer the cooler weather, and I love the rugged barren landscape. Just Jan and I, on the open road, mostly to ourselves, with the rocks, the trees, the ocean, the snow, the rain, the fog, and some occasional sunshine. No radio, no TV, no computer, no cellphones....just our cameras, some old iPads with sketchy reception once in awhile if we were someplace that actually had wifi, and an RV full of dolls and props. Rex and Bianca first came out of the cupboard in Quebec, at our favourite riverside park in St. Roche des Aulnais Then they booked passage on a schooner in Lunnenburg Nova Scotia. .... We arrived in Newfoundland the evening before a big four-day storm, so quickly managed a few sunset shots at Rose Blanche.... The kids had a grand old time whenever we stopped somewhere and let them out of the closet.... While Rex and Bianca travelled the coast on horseback.... One especially memorable part of the trip was the days we spent at St. Vincent, and watched the whales frolic just offshore. I've never seen anything like it...and just meters off shore.... We just sat on the beach and watched all day.... The kids loved Labrador.... ...and one town there still had an iceberg in the bay. A local took us out in his boat for a closer look.... Back in Nova Scotia, we spent an entire day in the Fortress of Louisbourg, on Cape Breton Island, where Rex and Bianca fit right in... Then last night before our final dash for home, we stopped in Quebec again.... All in all, I have some 2,000 photos to go through now, so it's going to take a while. Plus we have to get used to this ridiculous heat here at home, and take back control of our gardens. So lots to do.... And lastly, one of my favourite photos...a foggy morning at Cape Bonavista..... Lots more to come, so stay tuned.....
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AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
April 2024
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