Wine - Gaspereau, Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia

Lucketts Vineyard, Gaspereau in the Annapolis Valley

Took some time out and a treat one Sunday and visited Lucketts vineyard for views of Gaspereau valley in the sunshine and a fancy styled 'bistro style' light lunch on the outdoor patio. Gaspereau and the surrounding area is a local wine growing region as part of the Annapolis Valley. It and it's an increasingly popular industry with Lucketts being the newest kid on the block. Pete Luckett, originally from Nottingham UK, is an entrepreneur made good, often seen on various Canadian TV foodie shows, at the local Wolfville farmer's market and owns the Fruitique chain of up market produce stores.

His logo is a British red telephone box. There's an actual box located on the vineyard slopes where For our lunch Mark had a cheese board (real cheese now not the crap processed Macdonalds style stuff). Each cheese was 1 mouthful presented on a wooden board decorated with a mini fig, mini tomatoes, olives and seeded biscuits. Linzi's lunch was Mediterranean couscous and a fancy coleslaw. Our accompanying pleasant red wine was, to quote Mark, 'the smallest amount of wine I've ever seen served to a fully grown person'.

Photos: background is the Bay of Fundy (biggest tidal wave change in the world)

If you visit this area most of the vineyards have tours with tastings. Lucketts is in a beautiful location, recommended visit even if only for tea/coffee or slimmers lunch!

Mark photo, happy smilie one

So here's a smilie pic of Mark on the pier at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

Send us your Captions. 

Djembe drumming, Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia

We met this lovely Djembe drum teacher Kadijah who holds a drum circle in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. She invited us to a Friday night drum by the beach at Sandy Cove, overlooking the Bay of Fundy (north west Nova Scotia). It was lovely to hear the djembe beat, albeit a very quiet drum circle compared to what we're used to!

Kadijah brought along a selection of musical shakers and a drum so Mark had a play. She also had a Hung. If you ever get to hear this modern Swiss metal percussion instrument being played, it's a real joy, such a soft, caressing, polite and clean tones. [Storm, I now appreciate your playing even more]

  

The rich orange sun setting over the shore, shedding rays across the fish weirs (native traditional way of fishing, seen in the background photos). The wooden drill deck is taken out to the circular fish weir and used to replace the long wooden stakes. In the photo the drill deck is tied just off the beach in the water but when the tide retreats it's at beach height.

I was told that a fishing boat goes into the weir and collects the fish (mackerel) so it's definitely not large scale nor harmful to the environment. Unfortunately the government have stopped local funding to help maintain the docks/harbour and storage sheds so it's all looking  a bit run down now. Along this part of the coast the main income is from fishing and whale watching and the odd artist or two.

Beer

Those that know Mark know that he delights in tasting and exploring the virtues of how hops and water can be combined. This is Mark at the micro brewery next to the Farmer's Market, Pier side, Halifax.

  

The pier/docks has an historic connection in that it was the initial port for immigrants to Canada, especially 1945 - 1955 post war for immigrants coming from the detention camps in Europe. Nowadays the cruise liners, P&O and Cunard, dock here so there's still quite a vibe especially with the daily Farmer's Market.