We spent most of October in Nova Scotia this year. Neither of us had ever been there and it was a wonderful experience.

We spent a week on Cape Breton being immersed in Celtic and Acadian music. The range of accents was amazing - everything from French to the thickest Scottish with some Gaelic thrown in for good measure. We stayed in Baddeck - a beautiful little town almost in the middle of the island and right on the edge of the Bras d’Or Lakes. The coffee shot in Baddeck makes the best cappuccinos we’ve ever had - they can steam milk beautifully and consistently - it was such a treat.


The countryside is amazing beautiful and everywhere you go there are cute old buildings and live stock. We drove about a third of the way around the Cabot Trail to Cheticamp where the road and the houses have very little relation to each other except for the long winding driveways connecting the latter to the former.

We took a day to drive out to Louisburg and see the fortress. It was a cold, rather wet day but we still enjoyed it. There are animators in costume to interpret history for you and explain all the details of their spaces (the cook in the Engineer’s house was particularly fun). Every room with a fire felt warm and cozy and every one that didn’t felt very chilly. There was hot tea and period goodies for warming up. We saw livestock in Louisburg too but these were an older variety of sheep than the ones we’d seen while driving along the highways.


We spent the rest of our time in Halifax which boasts an amazing number of excellent pubs and restaurants downtown (in fact sometimes it was difficult to find something to do that didn’t involve eating). We toured the Alexander Keith’s Brewery (they are all in costume and pretending it’s 1863) and visited the Citadel and the Maritime Museum. It was very strange to be somewhere where so much of the history of the place was related to war (oddly this included the brewery)


The Public Gardens in Halifax are beautiful and a lovely place to walk or sit. We spent some time doing both. There were lots of ducks playing around in the water and a couple of swans that had been a special gift to the gardens a few years ago. Many of the flowers were past but some remained and were lovely to see. My favourite were the cabbages.


We saw cabbages again when we went to the Farmer’s Market. It’s held every Saturday in the old brewery buildings and outside if the weather is good (which it wasn’t on the day we went). We fought against both wind and rain to get to the market and home again (eventually giving up on the umbrella) but it was well worth the trip. It was the first time I’d ever been to a farmer’s market and it was amazing to see all the produce and handicrafts for sale. The market area was full of people and very convoluted but we went through the whole thing. We eventually got some fudge and some apples and pears for our lunch.


I’ve set up a gallery with many more pictures in it.

P.S. There were oatcakes everywhere!