What's It All About, eh?

Cape Breton evokes deep memories and strong emotions for me as well as a deep appreciation for the beauty of my adopted island. My hopes are that you too might find the photos evocative - maybe a view you've not enjoyed before, or an 'Oh I've been there', or if from away that you may be encouraged to visit this fair isle so that you might come to love and breathe Cape Breton as I do. One word about place names that I use - some are completely local usage while others are from maps of Cape Breton that I've purchased over the years. I frequently post travel and other photos that are of interest to me - and hopefully you.

On the right hand side bar find my take on Single Malt whiskey - from how to best enjoy this noble drink to reviews (in a most non-professional manner) of ones that I have tried and liked - or not. Also musings, mine and others, on life in general.

Photographs are roughly 98%+ my own and copy-righted. For the occasional photo that is borrowed, credit is given where possible - recently I have started posting unusual net photographs that seem unique. Feel free to borrow any of my photos for non-commercial use, otherwise contact me. Starting late in 2013 I have tried to be consistent in identifying my photographs using ©smck on all out of camera photos I personally captured - (I often do minor computer changes such as 'crop' or 'shadow' etc but usually nothing major), and using
©norvellhimself on all photos that I have played around with in case it might not be obvious. Lately I have dropped the ©smck and have watermarked them with the blog name.

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Cutting Ice

This is a recent - 05Ma4'14 - photo of a river that has been running into the Chesapeake Bay for a long long time.  So in a blink of time ago geologically speaking, but some few years before I was born, a man by the name of Harry Harvey owned a fish-landing building just past where the present day Upper Bay Museum now stands (large building upper left) which played a part in a story told to several twelve to thirteen year-old boys, myself included, by Virginia Shepperd our Sunday school teacher at the Methodist church.  She was a gorgeous young lady at the time probably late twenties or so and we all adored her and her patrician manner.  At this time of my life the river looked very similar to the above photo but was probably fifteen to twenty feet narrower - before numerous dredging ventures had widened and deepened the waterway to about the location from which I took this photograph.  In shortened form her story was about when she was in high school and on a full moon wintery evening the boys and girls had gathered here at the 'wharf' to ice-skate down the river for a mile or so and then return.  The boys being like all boys of all ages immediately took off down river in grand display of speed and form intended to impress the young ladies that more decorously skated slowly after.  Unknown to the skaters Harry, owner of the fish-landing, had been cutting ice just below his building that very afternoon.  Ice of at least a foot or more in thickness that would be stored in his Ice-House with layers of saw-dust covering each layer so that he would have enough ice to keep his fish cold and fresh throughout the summer ahead.  As Virginia and the girls came round the bend they could see and hear the boys yelling in icy voices as they scrambled frantically to come icy-wet back from the open waters onto the ice.  Very luckily indeed nobody was lost under the ice and all had a story that has lasted at least two generations in the then little town of North East. 

North East River Becoming North East Creek

Up-river side of 'Twin Bridges' - still tidal for about another 1/4 mile (@0.4km) - no Mergansers in sight today.

Colour - III


The Morning News

Clear - you can tell we're on flyway between Baltimore and Philadelphia, eh?
22°F  <>  5.6°C


Wary Hoodies

Mergansers in general, and the Hooded Mergansers in particular, are among the most wary birds that I have tried to photograph.  These guys were at an unapproachable bend in the North East Creek (private property) and not showing any signs of alarm at all BUT they were perhaps three hundred feet or more away.  The photo was taken with full 24x zoom assisted to 48x by the 'intelligent' setting of the camera and then cropped to get ever closer - sorry it is not more sharply defined.