For an update on what a Mise Tale is then please see Mise Tales One.
Well, this page started out as a normal MiscTale page, but ended up more as a Christmas 2014 Shopping List! I am posting this earlier rather than later just in case someone wants to buy that special gift.
PS – I have no association with any of these companies, nor do I receive any awards for advertising their merchandise.
Facebook (FB) is a great place for finding lighthouse photos, and many marine related sites such as West Coast Fisherman are also a big help. Yesterday a man I had never met before posted the photos above and below. Please give many thanks to Gordon Tolman for the photos of the MV Uchuck III with a background of the Nootka lighthouse. Continue reading Nootka Island→
Amphitrite Lighthouse is located on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It is automated and closed to the public, but one can get close enough for photos. The photos above (all 80 of them) were taken by my friend Ghislain Bonneau, a west coast painter and photographer. Continue reading Amphitrite Lighthouse→
For an update on what a Mise Tale is then please see Mise Tales One.
As mentioned earlier on the front page of my website, any photos or cartoons, or short bits of information, when it is removed from the front page, will also be included again later in the next next Misc Tales posting. That way you can keep track of it, search for it, or copy it.
***********************
What do you think of this? Someone shared this photo in Facebook. The artist Richard Honan said . . .
. . . this particular piece was done with colored pencils. The other medium that i typically work with is oil pastels . . .
No information was give if he sells the artwork. I have written him for more information.
*********************************
A very cute story from Patagonia, South America entitled Penguins at the Lighthouse (that is very far south). The lighthouse is on Isla Magdalena, Patagonia.
Many of the British Columbia lighthouses, manned and unmanned, are along BC’s world-famous Inside Passage.
Today I came across a new story on the Internet about this fabulous trip and it is onboard the new BC Ferries vessel vessel MV Northern Expedition (aka NorEx).
Image credit Mike – Voyager on West Coast ferries Forum
Machias Seal Island is located on the East coast of Canada between New Brunswick and Maine. It is best known for its bird populations – especially puffins – and also for its ongoing border dispute between Canada and the USA. Thi taken s morning I was notified of a lovely photo album taken this month at the island. It is quite a lovely place, but the light tower does need repainting, especially as it is symbolically representing Canada!
To navigate, click on a thumbnail photo and then when it opens, click on the arrows at upper right of page.
More photos of the light and island here on a Google Image Search. Historical information here in Wikipedia. Enjoy!
For an update on what a Mise Tale is then please see Mise Tales One. As mentioned earlier on the front page of my website, any photos or cartoons, or short bits of information, when it is removed from the front page, will also be included again later in the next Misc Tales. That way you can keep track of it, search for it, or copy it.
See Canada from the sea just as the explorers did and discover some of the country’s vast but relatively untouched wilderness.
Maple Leaf Adventures, a boutique expedition cruise company, explores Haida Gwaii (Islands of the People), formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands. . . . more
For an update on what a Mise Tale is then please see Mise Tales One. As mentioned earlier on the front page of my website, any photos or cartoons, or short bits of information, when it is removed from the front page, will also be included again later in the next Misc Tales. That way you can keep track of it, search for it, or copy it.
Having grown up in Nova Scotia, I have fond memories of scrambling over the curved granite whaleback rocks below my aunt’s cottage near the community of Peggy’s Cove.
Even though that’s the home of Nova Scotia’s most famous landmark, Peggy’s Point Lighthouse, I didn’t pay much attention to the lighthouse in those days. The tide pools and shallow caves of the whalebacks were more enticing. As an adult, however, I’ve grown to appreciate and cherish these beautiful beacons and the maritime tradition they represent. . . . more
Editor’s Note: Find additional information on Quebec, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island lighthouses, along with ideas for exploring the surrounding towns, right here on our blog!
And be sure to read John Sylvester’s new eBook: A Photographer’s Guide to Prince Edward Island, a downloadable PDF for mobile devices, available at: www.photographersguidetopei.com.
[private]
As long as humans have sailed the oceans, we’ve needed navigational aids to warn of hidden shoals and dangerous headlands. The earliest warning lights were coastal bonfires. The first known lighthouse was built at Alexandria, Egypt, around 280 B.C. The British built North America’s first one at the entrance to Boston Harbor in 1716. The French followed 15 years later with Canada’s first lighthouse near their fortress at Louisbourg on what is now Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island.
Peggy’s Point Lighthouse (Photo: John Sylvester)
In sailing’s golden age, from the 1700s to the mid-19th century, lighthouses proliferated along the Atlantic coast. In Atlantic Canada alone, nearly 500 still stand along 33,000 miles of mainland and island coastline. A few miles up the coast from Peggy’s Cove, North America’s oldest continuously operating light, Sambro Island Lighthouse, stands on a tiny granite outcrop at the entrance to Halifax Harbor. Built in 1758, its eye-catching 80-foot red-and-white tower has been the first sign of land seen by countless sailors, immigrants and ocean liner passengers—including the Titanic survivors—as they approached the safety of landfall.
During the heyday of maritime activity, lighthouse keepers and their families lived in homes either attached to or close by the lighthouse. They often had to fend for themselves in isolated circumstances, growing a garden and raising livestock in addition to their full-time duties tending the light. Every evening, in fair weather or foul, the light keeper climbed a narrow, winding staircase to the top of the tower to light the lamp, located behind a powerful Fresnel lens that magnified and transmitted the beam far out to sea.
Light keepers eventually lost their jobs to automation, and in recent years sophisticated GPS navigation systems have rendered lighthouses redundant. Some have fallen into disrepair, but many have been rescued by local preservation or historical societies and converted into museums or tourist attractions.
Thanks to broad grassroots support, the federal government passed an act encouraging lighthouse preservation. But Natalie Bull, executive director of Heritage Canada The National Trust, notes that the legislation ultimately says it’s up to communities to protect their lighthouses.
Bay of Fundy Lighthouse (Photo: John Sylvester)
“It’s very challenging, but residents of the Maritime Provinces are resourceful,” she adds. “Community groups have long been willing to take on these preservation projects, even before the act passed. New Brunswick’s Cape Enrage Lighthouse is a great example.”
The Cape Enrage keepers house was slated to be torn down when, in 1993, a group of local high school kids and their physics teacher started renovating it. Two years later the Coast Guard transfered ownership to the province, and the site is now the hub of a thriving adventure tourism destination that includes kayaking, rock climbing and horseback riding.
The wonderful thing about lighthouses, of course, is that they’re invariably built on beautiful coastal stretches. Some have been converted into inns where you can rent a room overlooking the ocean, listen to the waves lapping the shore and imagine life in a bygone era. You can now find lighthouse inns in all five of the provinces on Canada’s Atlantic Coast.
Quirpon Island Lighthouse (Photo: John Sylvester)
A few years ago I clambered into a small fishing boat that transported me to remote Quirpon Island off the north coast of Newfoundland, where I stayed in a cozy inn that was a former light keeper’s cottage. I spent two glorious days exploring the island, watching whales and sculpted icebergs drift by, and being pampered with Newfoundland’s renowned hospitality.
But even when I can’t spend the night, I rarely pass up a chance to visit one of these inviting beacons. On a recent trip to Nova Scotia, my wife and I drove out to Peggy’s Point Lighthouse on a beautiful autumn day. We joined tourists from all over the world wandering among the same whaleback rocks that fascinated me as a child.
We lingered through the afternoon, enjoying the timeless wonder of waves breaking on the rocks and sunlight sparkling off the ocean while one of Canada’s most beloved symbols of a proud seafaring tradition stood watch. And this time, I knew enough to appreciate it.
John Sylvester is an author and photographer based in Prince Edward Island, Canada. He specializes in photographing the people and places of Canada, and has published extensively on the Atlantic region, including the great lighthouses.
Cape d’Or Lighthouse (Photo: John Sylvester)
An ice flow off Newfoundland (Photo: John Sylvester)
Sunset at Fortune Head Lighthouse (Photo: John Sylvester)