A video from the CBC National News September 7, 2009, an amazing 14 year old boy.
The Reluctant Prodigy | CBC News:The National
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Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Beziers in February
As I said in an earlier post I'm making plans to do another Camino walk this time from Le Puy en Valey starting the first of March 2010. I hope to be able to average 20KM per day which will give me lots of time to walk the Chemin de Saint Jacques from Le Puy to the foot of the Pyrenees at Saint Jean Pied de Port , by the middle of April. I would like to do lots of practice walking before I start on the Chemin, as a matter of fact I started last week. The problem that I always have is our bitter cold winter weather in January and February some times for weeks on end it is just too cold and windy to get any serious walking done, so I started thinking about going over to France and renting a GÎTES or apartment for all or part of February to give me some time to get in a few practice walks. The criteria that I set for my location was snow free, reasonable temperature, in a small town or city, good transportation links by both train and bus, reasonably priced accommodations, walking trails in the area and in a good location for day or overnight trips to other areas of interest. After doing some research I have settled on Beziers in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southwest France. A small city of 69,000 very well served by both train and bus, you can take one of several TGV high speed trains daily leaving Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport direct to Beziers in under 5 hours. Once in Beziers there is good train and bus connections to other locations of interest in the area. I'm planning to stay at an Apart-Hotel which rents studio and one bedroom apartments called Le Fonserane I have been quoted a rate of 210 Euro a week for a studio in February so I will make reservations for the whole month. They won't accept reservations for 2010 until November. Beziers is only a few kilometers from the Mediterranean and short distances from Carcassonne to the west and Montpellier to the east. The Canal du Midi goes through this part of France connecting the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and there are walking trails that follow the canal both east and west of Beziers I'm not sure but I think the trails are the tow path along the canal. I hope to make this a two or three day walk at some point during my stay.
Monday, August 31, 2009
New Brunswick's New License Plate
Up to Memramcook to visit with Christina, Dany and Amelia. Christina was telling me about the new NB license plate and the silly slogan that is written across the bottom of the plate. We tried to find one but never did get close enough to one for me to read the thing. Well on the way home yesterday afternoon there was a car ahead of me with the new plate and I was almost in the guys trunk trying to read the slogan line and still couldn't see it clearly enough to read the slogan, in order to make the slogan bilingual and get it all on one line the font is too small to read on the highway. I think there is a good chance this thing will cause accidents from people tailgating trying to read the slogan on the highway. I took this photo in a parking lot in Dipper Harbour, NB. A beautiful little harbour and I hadn't been down there in years.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Planning my next big walk this time from Le Puy en Valey
Planning my next big walk this time from Le Puy en Valey in southern France, another Camino walk. Not sure yet if I will walk all the way to Santiago in western Spain a distance of 1521 KM or only as far as Saint Jean Pied de Port at the foot of the Pyrenees 736 KM. If I continue into Spain I plan to go up north and walk the Camino del Norte along the north coast, when I walked last time I walked the Camino Frances about 774 KM across Spain.
When my friend Pru came from Paris to spend the summer at her cottage in Lubec she brought me a copy of, Miam Miam Dodo Le Chemin de Saint Jacques de Compostelle La Voie du Puy. The widely considered best guide book for the Camino Le Puy-en-Valey to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port along the GR 65(Grande Randonnée 65). It is easy to see where it gets it's reputation excellent maps and detailed information on each village and town that you pass through as well as contact information and rates for all of the accommodations along the chemin.
Right now my plans are to start walking the first week in March. Le Puy and the surrounding area is in the Haute-Loire region and the first week of walking is at altitude ranging from 640 meters at Le Puy to 1400 meters at L'Aubrac so there is the possibility of Snow in these areas but I'm not worried I have lots of time I will either wait out the storm in a village or take a bus or train down out of the mountains.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Pathfinders visit to a yurt in theMachiasport area.
Machiasport area. Mill Pond stroll. With Yurts August 9, 2009, originally uploaded by Campobello Island.
Yesterday's Pathfinder walk was a two mile hike through private land to visit Bill Coperthwaite and his Yurts. Mr. Coperthwaite built the main Yurt 40 years ago and has lived in it ever since, completely off the grid no electricity, no running water or refrigeration. A beautiful location and a huge property the two mile hike through the forest to the yurts is all his property as well as all of the land in the surrounding bays down at the water a short walk from the yurt.
One of the links attached to Mr. Coperthwaite's website is for a BC company that makes and sells Yurt homes, so you never know when my house sells and I move to BC I just might live in a Yurt in the forest.
Follow this link to Mr. Coperthwaits website.
BC Yurt Company
Second BC Yurt Company
Link to my other photos from the yurt visit.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Campobello Public Library and Museum 3rd Annual Summer Gala, August 1st , 2009.
Campobello Public Library and Museum 3rd Annual Summer Gala, August 1st , 2009., originally uploaded by Campobello Island.
A great time was had by all at the third annual summer gala yesterday.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Dinner from the Grow Bag Garden
Being a vegetarian this little harvest was more than just a dinner to me, it was a feast. So wonderful to have vegetables so fresh they were just picked minutes ago from the garden. I've been amazed at how well my grow bag gardens have been doing considering the miserable summer we have had to date. Lots of rain, fog and cloud but very little sunshine. These particular crops seem to be thriving. The sun has been out for the past two days and it has been nice and warm so hopefully the weather has changed and my greenhouse full of green tomatoes will start to ripen.
Tall Ships Halifax July 2009
I went down to Halifax to visit my cousin Grace fro the weekend and see the tall ships, around 60 of them in Halifax Harbour for a four day festival. He ship in this photo is Russian and 319 feet long, by far the largest ship in the group, nothing else even came close.
Unfortunately my two days in Halifax were not blessed with great weather Friday was cloudy and cool and Saturday was heavy fog and rain. I think the fog made great conditions for photos of the ships and the rigging though, it gives them a real feeling of the sea. I had to come back home on Sunday and it cleared in the afternoon and Monday for the Parade of Sail when they leave the harbour for the start of their race across the Atlantic it is a beautiful clear sunny day, so I hope to watch that on TV.
Follow this link to my Tall Ships Photos.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Grow Bag Gardens
I'm so pleased with my first ever attempt at Grow Bag Gardening. I've been eating meals from the Garden for over a month now. So far I've had the oriental vegetable Joi Choi, Swiss Chard, Kale, Lettuce, Radish, and Zucchini . The Broccoli should be ready later this week. Everything in the Grow Bags seems to grow vigorously. The two outside areas where I have Grow Bags were meant to be temporary for this year only while the ground under them covered with black plastic composted in preparation for turning those areas into garden beds next year, now I'm not so sure. I certainly will continue to use them in the greenhouse. Both the greenhouse cucumbers and tomatoes are doing very well in there. I should have my first greenhouse cucumbers next week and there are lots of green tomatoes already.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
St. Thomas University, Fredericton, N.B. 2009
Proof that time does not stand still. The transformation of the St. Thomas University campus from the little University with four buildings that I attended in the early 70's to the large modern campus of today is almost unbelievable. They even managed to change the lay of the land. In the 1970's when you came out the front door of the main administration building, now named after Monsignor Martin, you faced a very steep U shaped drive and parking area. This is all gone now and the area in front of the building is a level park like are with no vehicular access. To the left of this area is Edmund Casey Hall in the 70's you went up at least ten steps to get to the front door which is now level with the walkway. Many huge new buildings have been added obviously at a cost of millions of dollars. A truly beautiful campus.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Campobello Killer Rose
Campobello's killer rose is in full bloom. This is a rambler type rose which some seasonal residents brought to the Island a few years back. It is an amazing thing the hips in the fall are small and very plentiful and the birds love them so it has been spread all over the Island. Birds tend to drop the seeds when they are roosting in trees for the night and this provides this lovely rose with just the environment that it has been looking for, it loves to climb trees and can be found in several locations 50 to 60 feet up a tall spruce tree. I have one in my garden that I started from seed that I collected several years ago and it is going to bloom for the first time this year, it's all budded out but the blooms haven't opened yet. I'm just back from picking this bouquet on the North Road where it is in full bloom. I just noticed for the first time that it comes to two colours pink and white. Now I have to wait for mine to bloom to see what colour I have.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Endeavour
My friend Pru's brother in law works at NASA in Florida and sent her this beautiful photo. Part of his job is stocking the shuttle and space station with supplies that the Astronauts will need.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Grow Bag Garden
Very please with my grow bag gardens. Everything seems to be doing very well. Tomatoes in the Greenhouse and the small Grow Bag Greenhouse are in bloom. I've already had several meals from the Joi Choi, Swiss Chard, Kale and Lettuce. The Greenhouse Cucumbers, F1 Hybrid Carmen, are growing fast with blossom buds but no flowers yet and the Purple Star Peppers in shopping bag are almost in bloom, one more sunny day should do it. So good to have my own fresh produce this early in the season.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
East Quoddy - Head Harbour Light
Beautiful sunny cool spring day and I decided to take a walk to the Light House and back. Early training for next years Camino walk from Le Puy to Santiago. My time wasn't half bad 3 hours 45 minutes and it is something like 18 KM. I am however exhausted tonight.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Camino de Santiago
Plans are under way for the fall meeting of the Maritime Friends of the Camino and Peter Coffman has agreed to attend and give a presentation of his Camino Photographs. Peter gave his presentation in Halifax last fall but most of us from New Brunswick didn't do the long drive so it will be great to see his exhibit and presentation at our fall meeting. Peter walked the Camino with the late Oliver Schroer, the Canadian musician who composed and recorded the music for his CD “Camino” as they walk in May and June of 2004. I used Oliver's music as background for my DVD slide show and shorter YouTube video of my 2008 Camino.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Joi Choi Chinese Cabbage - Italian Parsley
Not sure if you are supposed to wait and harvest this when it is a whole head or cut it a leaf at at a time. A whole head would be too much for me so I've started using it a few leaves at a time and it is very good. A lovely dark green must be full of antioxidants and other good things.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The last of the grow bag garden areas, June 2, 2009.
The last of the grow bag garden areas, June 2, 2009., originally uploaded by Campobello Island.
A short walk out the path to the hidden garden. This area has been many things over the years, it started out as a large vegetable garden and right now it is a perennial garden and lawn. Earlier this spring I dug up a 12 foot square area and covered it with black plastic mulch so I could garden on top of the mulch this year with grow bags. My plan right now is to divide it next year with a two foot wide cross shaped path creating four 5 foot square raised beds to grow vegetables in.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Continuing the tour of grow bag gardens June 1, 2009
Continuing the tour of grow bag gardens June 1, 2009, originally uploaded by Campobello Island.
Continuing the tour of my grow bag gardens starting at the greenhouse where the last video clip left off and visiting the former herb garden that I turned over and covered with black plastic mulch for this year. I have grow bags on top of the mulch and this fall I will remove the plastic and add the soil from the grow bags to the bed and prepare it for it's new life as some sort of garden next year. Right now my thoughts are an Alberta Spruce in the center surrounded by a circle of English Lavender with the rest of the bed covered with a dark mulch. Hard to say how many times I will change my mind before next year though. There is one more short video clip to do leaving this garden and walking out a path through the trees to the hidden where I have another area of grow bags to show you. Hopefully I will get that done in the next few days.
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