I spent last night at Clark’s Harbour on Cape Sable Island off the very southwest corner of Nova Scotia.

If you look along the bottom of the map the town is about 1/3 of the way over from the left.  That dot and the island it is on is just about as far south in Canada as you can go outside of the Province of Ontario.

I don’t know why other than that I have always loved maps  but the name “Cape Sable” is one of those I recall from my childhood that made the world seem like such a mysterious and inviting place.  The reality, going  on 60 years later, is a little more mundane-  a place of small weatherbeaten saltbox cottages along quiet lanes and the curve of deserted beaches with the open Atlantic just beyond.

But it’s all wonderful nonetheless.  I’m glad I’m here.

As I noted at the start of the post I’ll be leaving Nova Scotia in four days, catching the ferry across the Bay of Fundy- another childhood name- for St. John, New Brunswick at Digby.  Then in a couple more days I’ll be back in the United States in Maine.  It will be sad to leave the Maritimes behind, but I’m excited by what lies ahead.