Cape Breton Welcomes

Little Lorraine: "Proud in Spirit & Strong of Heart"

First it was Brenda, our mail lady."You must be Mr. Finch!"

"Oh, yeah, how did you know that?" "Well, I've not seen you before."

She was putting mail into the Little Lorraine community mailbox, and she was right, of course.

Next up came Darlene as we entered the Louisbourg Library and opened our mouths. "You must be Peter & Gundi!" "Yes, how did you know?" "I was told to listen out for your accents." Wayne and Lorlee, who we had bought our house from, had told her that we were coming from Ontario but hailed from further afield. It's a fair cop.

Sun going down over the fireweed

And then, the other evening, as I was loping languidly down the gravel road towards the wharf, looking for another of those dusk vistas to photograph, I heard a car crunching slowly towards me. I stepped aside and the driver rolled down his window. "You must be Peter!" "Yes, but how did you know?" "I've seen you on the Facebook." Guilty, as charged. Jackie MacDonald was heading down "to go mackereling" from his brother Burt's dock. A bumper lobster season now behind them, fishermen around here are turning to halibut and mackerel for their catch, sometimes just for supper.

These curious welcomes come on the heel of several acts of kindness from neighbours. Wayne and Lorlee left us the ultimate manual for the house. A mathematical engineer with attention to the minutest detail in unison with a hostess with a flair for writing combined to make moving into our new surroundings smooth and effortless. To an un-handyman like myself, this has been a true boon. Just consult 'Gundi and Peter's Guide Book.' At the tail-end of winter, as we faced a long wait for our furniture to arrive via movers from Ontario, Lisa and Derek drove around from across the cove with a table, two chairs, two glasses, and a bottle of wine. Sweet! When I delivered them back a few weeks later (minus the wine, of course), Derek joked that he would be able to drink again. Our close neighbours Terry and Natasha wouldn't take any money for our first feed of six lobsters and have been reliable suppliers ever since. On the last day of lobster season, Fraser, who, we are pleased, has just bought the 44-acre plot of land beside us, gifted us six lobsters, thanking us for putting up with the sound of the boats leaving the cove daily at 4 am.  (We actually loved this reassuring routine and miss it now that it has gone quiet).

A House with a View (not ours)

Four months into our new life adventure, summer is here, and it is the ocean that gets our mornings rolling by welcoming us into her fullsome fresh salty embrace.