Sunday October 15th
It was rather sunny in the morning, and I got up and had a bit of a walk around the farm. The top of the hill behind the house was one of the higher spots in the island, with a view of the sea in the distance. I had a look at an old barn, the workshop, and the big collection of number plates inside, as well as many, many tools and bits and pieces, some stored up against the ceiling. There was a blue jay feeding at the bird feeder, and I got a good look at it.
Later in the morning I went to their church with them, a Presbyterian church. The one in Caledonia had closed down, I think due to lack of people, as had another three or so. It was in poor repair, and sad to see it run down. Apparently another church had met there for a while, but weren’t meeting there any more. The Presbyterian Church built a new church building for all the churches that had closed down, incorporating something from each of the old church buildings. It was at Alliston, about 5km from Caledonia.
It was nice to meet some of the family’s friends there. In the pew ahead of me was someone who had been friends with Mum, and had got in contact with me also a few years back, and we’d corresponded a bit. It was great to meet him in person and chat briefly, and we spoke of meeting up later in the week before I went.
We went back home to get some lunch, then set off for Panmure Island, not far from Caledonia. On the way, as we were getting close to the island we found a little harbour, Graham Pond, one of many small picturesque harbours dotted around the island. We stopped and had a bit of a walk around, looking at the colourful sheds, and the reflections in the water.
It was pretty deserted, but I expect it would be much busier during lobster season. One of the sheds had quite a few things nailed to the outside front wall, which looked a bit like pairs of wings, but I think they may have been fish tails. If so, they were from very big fish. They were each probably over half a metre wide.
I’m not sure that Panmure Island was actually an island. There was a narrow strip of land joining it to the mainland, and the road crossed that as a kind of causeway. One one side was the ocean, and on the other a bay, formed from the shelter of the island. We stopped at Panmure Island Provincial Park, and walked along the ocean side beach for quite a while.
It was a fairly sunny afternoon, warm enough that we could go barefoot and paddle in the water a bit. In the distance was a picturesque lighthouse and small house, in a green field, with a very large house nearby.
We walked there for about two hours, then had a look on the other side. Along the narrow causeway was a long grassy hump, probably covering sand dunes. The water on the other side was very still, almost like a lake, and the sun, now low in the sky, was reflecting on it. We drove to the lighthouse to have a proper look, and it was pretty in the evening light.
There were some horses in a field nearby, which were also quite photogenic. From the low hill where the lighthouse was, we looked back over a field of reaped corn, to the causeway and the sea on both sides.
We found a nice spot on the bay side of the causeway, near the lighthouse, to watch (and photograph!) the sunset. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful sunset, and we enjoyed it for about half an hour until it died down.
A day or two before I had booked a ferry for the morning, which would leave from Wood Islands about 10 minutes from Caledonia, and get me across to Nova Scotia where I was to spend the next couple of days. But I got notification that it had been cancelled due to “technical reasons”, as had all ferries until about 3pm the next day. This was not good news, as it meant I would have to drive over the bridge and back, adding about 300km to my journey. I found out later from someone in the know that it was probably because it was very windy.
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