Eastern Shore Excursion

I recently took a trip part way down the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia. My trip started close to home when I stopped by to visit the Shearwater Aviation Museum (http://www.shearwateraviationmuseum.ns.ca/). An old friend, Curator, Christine Hines was on hand to greet me and we had a great look around. I have not been to Shearwater for a few years now and was impressed with all the changes - flight simulators and all. One of Christine's favourite projects was the installation of rolling storage for their framed materials - not glamorous but vitally necessary. On the glamorous side, volunteers are restoring a Fairey Firefly FR-I to flight status for next year's Centennial celebrations for the Canadian Navy and the return of the airshow to Shearwater.

Onwards & upwards.....

Leaving Shearwater, I wended my way up the shore towards Head of Jeddore where I was staying the night with friends. Next morning, I headed out to Memory Lane Village at Lake Charlotte(http://www.heritagevillage.ca/home/) It was a bustling spot as this was the day for the annual fall clean-up with lots of volunteers on hand to help out. Director, Thea Wilson-Hammond took time out from a busy day to show me around. Especially inspirational were the new fire supression system in the archives and new storage building. Site interpretation improvements include a new bell for the church with the help of CBC Radio's Information Morning and new roof tiles for the shed. The shed roof material is not made anymore and so in true Eastern Shore "can-do" tradition they made a template and hand cut the tiles.

My next stop was the Fisherman's Life Museum http://fishermanslife.museum.gov.ns.ca, as great a spot as ever there was. This was my first visit when it was open and I was treated to a wonderful tour of the house by Interpreters Linda Fahie and Janet Arnold. Like the vast majority of people who work in heritage, they are deeply passionate about their work and love to share the

stories of their site and community (also their tea & cookies made on the wood burning range). Lots of visitors were about taking advantage of the sunny fall day to roam the house and grounds and play with the two small cats on a mission to find a new home for the Fall (I nearly took them home....)

Road side trip.....

The Eastern Shore is one of several lesser travelled parts of the province. Great views, great people and lots of great things to see and do with a little exploration and investigation. I joined the volunteers at the cookhouse at Memory Lane for lunch. Its one of my favourite spots to eat on the shore, good inexpensive food just as it would have been served in the 1930's - how local and authentic can you get?