Fly over the Bay of Fundy

This stunning video by Nova Scotia’s tourism folks features flyovers of the Bay of Fundy coastline, especially dramatic Cape Split. The Bay of Fundy, including its inner Minas Basin is a fascinating place to spend time watching the world’s highest tides. The video gives you the high speed flyover, but if you can spend a few days along this coast, taking in the changing landscape at a slower pace, you won’t regret it.

Red sky at morning, sailors take warning

Sunrise this morning. Taken with a Fujifilm FinePix F1800 on a tripod.

Another storm is on its way.  This one is the kind of blizzard you’d expect in January, with 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) of snow.

Atlantic Canada has been in the news lately with a series of storms in December, one week after another.  If you just watched the weather channel you might think that we’re living in a disaster area and maybe that’s why I haven’t been posting frequently.

But where we live, we haven’t lost power for more than a minute, and we’ve escaped the brunt of the storms. The worst damage tends to be localized, and even though Nova Scotia is small, one side of the province often has very different weather than the other. Some weather systems track up the Bay of Fundy, for example, while others are phenomena of the Atlantic Ocean.  And the Margaree Valley has received a lot of rain which seems to get trapped by the surrounding mountains.

The Annapolis Valley was hard hit by one storm which downed many trees, knocking out so many power lines that it took days to restore full service.  Berwick United Church Camp, with its 500-year-old towering hemlocks, was badly hit, as was the Kentville Ravine which also has a stand of old growth hemlock.  I’ve seen photos of damage in both places on Facebook.  It is evident that some of the trees that came down were hollow and perhaps were near the end of their natural life.  Thus the storm did what storms do:  fell trees so that they can return to the soil and nurture new growth that will flourish in the sunlit openings they leave in their wake.  Much as it feels tragic to those who love those trees – and I speak as one who grew up attending Berwick Camp every summer and loved its cool, shaded grounds and majestic trees – this is Nature’s way of renewing itself.

So we’ll take what comes – what else can we do? – and hope the power stays on.

Halls Harbour Webcam

This has got to be one of the coolest webcam locations in the world. It’s in Halls Harbour, where you can see the fishing boats go up and down with the world’s highest tides on the Bay of Fundy. Here’s how it looked today, Sunday March 14, at high tide. Go to www.novascotiawebcams.ca/hallsharbour/ (will open in new window or tab on your browser) and compare what you see with this.

Halls Harbour high tide
Halls Harbour this morning at high tide. Some days the tide is even higher. Click the picture to go to the webcam and see what Halls Harbour looks like right now.

Here’s a link that will give you the current tide times for Halls Harbour (actually for nearby Baxters Harbour, but close enough).

New Panoramas in the Photo Album

I’ve just added 5 new Nova Scotia panoramas to the Photo Album, as well as a few pictures in the Mahone Bay, South Shore, Fundy Shore and Blomidon sections.  More pictures are on their way. I think I’ll break out a new section on the LaHave River and Islands, and create another just for islands, mostly from a boater’s perspective.  Could be useful to someone trying to figure out where they are!

This project, the Nova Scotia Photo Album, is still very much alive and growing.  It predates Flickr, Picasa and the rest.  Photo sharing has become an easy and common thing for anyone to do, so I hope I’m offer something of value.  Is it just because this site has been around for a long time and gets found in the search engines?  What do you think?  Click on COMMENTS below and leave a comment.