Burr!!! It has been cold and rainy all day. I wore my winter coat while we were gone today and now I have my winter garb on here in the house. We left early this morning and had breakfast at Sharon’s Restaurant in Pictou, N.S.. This restaurant was recommended by the locals in the park as being the best breakfast in Pictou. It was very good and it was the busiest place filled with locals and a few tourists. Everyone knew everyone. This area is Scottish and they have voices which are loud and dynamic. It was fun just listening to the chatter while we drank our coffee and tea. Yes, I am drinking hot tea. I tried all over PEI to get cold unsweet tea and I failed miserably, so I have finally joined the crowd and have ordered hot tea. I am really starting to enjoy it with some sweetner. When we were in PEI I picked up some tablets which have honey and lemon in them to put in your. I bought some so I must give that a try.
Sharon’s was a short distance from our camp. The locals say it is 8 minutes to Pictou. Everyone on PEI and Nova Scotia give directions by minutes not kilometers or miles. They say they have so many curvy roads that the minutes are more accurate. Our goal for the day was to drive the Northumberland Drive. We each had a spot we wanted to stop at. My spot of interest was a quilt shop in or near River John, and Walt wanted to stop at a winery near Malagash.
But as we left the restaurant we asked a man on the corner where the Farmers Market was located in the town. He pointed towards the harbor and said (Its over there). Not real directions but we went were he pointed and finally found it a few blocks from where he had pointed. It was not a typical farmers market—it was a craft show. Some local craftsmen bought their products in the local Curling Club for the market. Their was a man by the door on the outside who had some plants like hostas, Autumn Joy Sedium, and other perennials. Then just in the door was a young man who made small wood turnings for key chains, whistles, pens and letter openers. All done very well. Some of the other booths had homemade bread, jewelry, handmade beads, natural lotions and soap, beautiful wood benches and stools with inlay, sewn objects and prints from and artists paintings. It was very nice.
As we left Pictou our GPS started us on a beautiful smooth road but after we went a few miles she sent us on a shorter back road. Well, needless to say it was not smooth and it shook us and rattled our brains. I have come to the conclusion that Nova Scotia repairs the main tourist roads and forgets about the other roads.
After many miles on the rough road we finally turned off onto another road (just as bad) and found the quilt shop which was a blue house in the country. When I left the truck I told Walt to come and find me in a little while in case I got lost. When I walked in the door I was on a little porch with some fabric leaning against the wall and a sign above the fabric saying it was $3.95 per yard. Needless to say, I was not impressed. When I opened the door I was in a room cluttered with fabric, books, notions and patterns. There was another lady in the room talking to the owner and when I came in they stopped talking even though I said “Good Morning”. I certainly did not have a good impression of the shop. You can walk in a quilt shop and immediately know if you want to be there or not. Well, I spent some time in the shop and Walt came in to find me. We picked out some fat quarters (a quilt term for a piece of fabric 22 x 18 inches) for my stash and left the shop.
We got to the truck and quickly turned it in the direction of the scenic road and finally gave a cheer when we hit the tourist road—it was SMOOTH. We were again on the way to the winery. The road hugged the shoreline of the Northumberland Strait and some of the views would have been awesome if it had not been for the wind and pounding rain. They also had intermittent farm areas, some were small farms with hay as their main crop and in another area we saw dairy farm which extended right to the shore line.
We drove many miles before we arrived at the winery on another back road. This road was not quite as bad and we saw the winery we were immediately impressed. They had the vineyards and the buildings looked like pictures of vineyards in magazines. When we went inside we saw a very interesting room before us with little tables set up displaying their different wines. I went up to the loft and looked thru the many accessories for home and woman. They had very nice and unusual gifts for everyone. When we left Walt had bottles of wine and vowed to bring one bottle home to the Gehret wine parties. They have an open house each week for conversation wine tasting and drinking.
It is now 1 pm and it is 57 degrees with rain and high wind off the strait. Our next order of business was to find a spot for lunch and then onto Amherst to find a Hook Rug shop. I have become interested in the hook rug hobby done by women in this area. It is more popular than quilting. They take strips of wool and hook it in a canvas that has a pattern printed on it. These are not like the hook rugs you do with yarn. The top side of the rug is smooth. They are a piece of art when they are finished. Walt said I should get a kit and then we could use it at the entrance of our home. I immediately said it would be a piece of art on the wall and not something for him to wipe his feet on.
Well, we found lunch at a little café along the highway near Pugwash . Their décor was bright, clean and with a lot of window. They had glass mosaics on the wall with 3 large round mirrors with a 6 inch band of mosaic around the mirror. Very impressive!!! They have long winters in this area so everyone must have a hobby to keep the winter months interesting.
When we left the café and looked at our time schedule and we noted it was too late to make it to Amherst before the stores closed so we turned back to Pictou. As we approached Tatamaguiche we spotted signs for a grist mill so we turned off of our prized smooth road to go to the grist mill. Well, before we arrived at the grist mill we saw a sign for a Southerland Steam Mill. Well, by this time, I had lost all of my energy so Walt did the tour. He had a one on one tour with the guide.
Alexander Sutherland, founder of the mill, learned his trade as a carriage maker in West Branch, Pictou County at the McKenzie Carriage Factory. In 1891 he purchased a parcel of land beside the newly completed Oxfort to Pictou railroad. Here he set up his first saw mill which housed a portable steam power mill. By this time steam mills were replacing the conventional water powered mill. A steam mil could turn out 10 to 20 times the footage of the older types of mills.
While a larger mill was under construction, a fire broke out destroying the new building and the portable steam mill a new mill was started almost immediately, it is the present structure, and was completed in 1894. Alexander Sutherland managed the mill for a few years and then his brother, John Thomas joined him and they formed a partnership. Alexander specialized in the manufactured carriages, sleighs and sleds while Thomas looked after the house construction part of the business.
During the winter months, local residents would bring their supply of logs to the mill to be sawn. As many as sixty piles of logs would be piled behind the mill with each owner’s name attached awaiting to be cut into lumber in the spring.
In 1910, Thomas moved from the area leaving Alexander to manage the mill alone. In 1912 Alexander married and in 1914 a son, Wilfred, was born. Wilfred entered his father’s business when he was 16 years old. In 1940, Alexander retired and the business was continued by his son.
The war years brought about an increase in the demand for lumber in domestic and foreign markets. Wilfred expanded the operations to meet the export demand for lumber. The lumber for the export trade was cut in the mill, loaded onto railway cars next to the mill and shipped to Pictou or Pugwash to loaded onto ships for England. Although business slowed down somewhat after the war, it was still good and in 1952 Wilfred extended the roof over the saw mill to make room for a separate assembly room for windows and doors.
Alexander died in 1953 and Wilfred retire in 1958 and closed the mill.
As we got on the road again, the weather got very blustery but Walt wanted to go to the grist mill. The Barmoral Grist Mill Museum is a three-storey mill tucked away in a wooded gorge on Matheson’s Brook. The mill operates as it did when it was opened in 1874. They grind buck wheat and oats.
Our final drive back to our home went well and we spent the evening in front of the fireplace.
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