Fall Colours

There are many great rewards from living in Nova Scotia: you were always within “smelling distance” of salty or fresh water, you can choose without penalty to follow a slower pace of life, and you have those beautiful Fall Colours all around you.

The Cabot Trail in Northern Cape Breton is legendary around the world for showing spectacular colours at this time of year; friends have assured us that the vistas along the Trail were just as spectacular this year.
My wife and I have just returned from our “33rd Anniversary Tour” around Western Nova Scotia (Well, rock bands can name their tours, why can't we?), and we can claim that the Fall Colors were beautiful, although slightly more muted along the South Shore. Reports from New England also tell of this phenomenon.
Across Cape Breton, the “International Celtic Colours Festival" has been in full swing. It featured not only nightly “kitchen concerts” (usually held in local halls, because of the crowds who buy tickets!), with visual arts and other cultural events, from local groups: Scottish, Acadian and Mi'kmaq First Nations. Some of the musical performances were tinged with sadness this year, following the recent death of Raylene Rankin, member of the musical Rankin Family.
(She was what we call a “bright lady,” graduate of St. FX University and Dalhousie Law School, and Member of the Nova Scotia Bar.)
Many other events are going on at this time: the baseball playoffs are underway (lots of exciting games each day on TV), along with pro and college football season games on the weekends. But the sports jigsaw puzzle is missing an important piece this year: there is no N.H.L. hockey, the league owners having locked out the players.
Getting back to the Fall Colours, our favourite viewing experience takes place during our annual drive along the Musquodoboit Valley, about 30 km east of Metro Halifax, on the Eastern Shore.
(You KNOW, of course -- Dear Reader -- how to pronounce “Musquodoboit”. The third "o" is silent!)
At many points beside the River, from M. Harbour to "Middle" M., along with the road bed of the abandoned railway, now a hiking trail, you are surrounded by foliage of spectacular colour!
A few years ago, we made this drive with two friends from New England, both well-versed in viewing Fall Colours on both sides of the border. One was and is a medical nurse; not your daily practicing nurse in a clinic, but one who writes nursing textbooks for many University-level programs, and currently acts as a consultant on state-wide medical program and hospital accreditation! On the side, she teaches nursing courses via the Internet.
When we arrived at “Middle” at 3:30 p.m., she suddenly announced that it was time for her to join a conference call.
And so, the picture that remains in our minds is this: our lady friend, sitting on the front steps of a church in “Middle,” laptop on knees, cradling her cell phone (while trying to compete with the noises of fleets of school buses driving by), speaking calmly with a group of people in New Jersey, who -- we speculate -- had no idea where Nova Scotia is!
Our advice to you, wherever you may be: go out there and enjoy the Fall Colours.