A fox and a sunset at Saint Fabian-sur-Mer

Our last day on the Gaspe Peninsula for summer 2018 is today. So, yesterday evening we headed out to one of our favorite spots - the seaway at Saint Fabian-sur-Mer. It did not disappoint.

A red fox watching us as intently as we watched him at dusk

Enjoying the sunset

Chickens on summer loan

Much to our surprise, six chickens (a rooster and 5 hens) came with the house we bought in Le Bic this past June. We've enjoyed watching the chickens wonder around the garden, seek us out at feeding time, and collecting their eggs. A well equipped coop makes tending them quite easy. After feeding them in the early morning, I open up the coop, and off they go into the garden. About 5, they get 'dinner'. By sunset, they wonder back into the coop. Sometime later, I close and lock the door. I occasionally encounter a red fox in the nearby National Park, but I've yet to see one in the neighborhood, nor any other potential predator.
Because we head back to Asheville this week, the chicken guy came by the house to collect his chickens -  turns out, we had them on loan for the summer. In addition to having a couple hundred chickens, he has what the locals call a 'sugar shack', a place where sap from sugar maple trees is boiled down to make maple syrup and other sugary products. Perhaps he also has a sugar maple orchard to go with the sugar shack.
After packing up the chickens, he had a surprise gift, a can of maple syrup from his sugar shack and a small bag of raw maple sugar. He assured us we could "borrow" chickens again next summer. He's one of the many friendly Canadians we've met this summer.

Chickens feeding on grain in front of their chicken coup.

When the chicken guy picked up his chickens at the end of the season,
he surprised us with a gift of pure maple syrup and maple sugar

Edible fruits in the Garden

Our landscape in Le Bic is about an acre with a mix of native and ornamental plants, including a number of plants with edible fruits. Among the edibles are sour cherry, plum, apple, serviceberry, gooseberry, and raspberry. Next spring, we plan to add some blueberry bushes.
Currently, we're picking and eating ripe raspberries (yum! wish there were more), serviceberry (like in Asheville but ripe in late July rather than in early June), and sour cherries (tasty, some a bit sour, others not).

Raspberry (Rubus)

Serviceberry (Amelanchier)

Apple (Malus)

Plum

Sour cherry 

Gooseberry

Sour cherries mixed with serviceberries

Sunsets at Saint Fabien-sur-Mer

The coastal village of Saint Fabien-sur-Mer, just west of Le Bic, along the Gaspe Peninsula, is a great place to watch the sun set. We've done it more than a dozen times over the past two months....and it never gets old. Woody, our golden retriever, isn't noticeably entranced by the setting sun, but he does enjoy the cool air, chance to get wet, and best of all, the scent of other dogs. We stroll along the beach, some stretches sandy, others rocky. I'm always on the lookout for interesting driftwood. We also like to walk along the beach road, admiring the quant homes, the gardens, and greeting other walkers, while waiting for the sun to set, which isn't until about 8:30. Sunrise is about 4:30 so here summer days are quite long. A morning person, I'm up by 5:30 and in bed by 10 this time of year.

Bears in our Asheville neighborhood

For an urban area, Asheville, North Carolina,  has an unusually large number of bears. This reflects its proximity to good bear habitat in the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains and the availability of food (mainly in trash cans) in city neighborhoods.  Black bear sightings in the city of Asheville are especially common in early spring and late fall when food availability in their natural habitat may be sparse. The attached photo was taken by a neighbor of ours in mid-July within about 100 yards of our house in Montford.

Momma bear and 3 cubs near our house in Asheville, North Carolina

Gardening for Nature Presentation

My partner gave a talk - Attracting Wildlife to Your Garden - at the Heritage Center in Rimouski this week. She spoke in English but the colorful poster announcing her talk was in both French and English. Very cool!

Craft beer on the Gaspe Peninsula

These days you can buy craft beer most anywhere and many cities large and small - and even some towns -  have one or more craft beer breweries. The Gaspe Peninsula is no exception. Pit Caribou is one of my favorite breweries of the region. I also like their labels. Tete d'Allumette is another good brewery. It's located in St-Andre de Kamouraska.

Selected craft beers from the Gaspe Peninsula

Love this label

This wonderful porter has a hint of chocolate and coffee

Summer view scapes from our Le Bic house

Our cottage in Le Bic is surrounded by hayfields with scattered houses, barns, and patches of forest. From our north-facing windows, we can see a nearby ridge in Bic National Park that is part of the northern Appalachian mountains. Below are selected  summer view scapes either from or near our house.

View east towards Saint Fabien

Nearby fields with Appalachian Mountains in background

One of our neighbors cuts and sells firewood, among other things

Looking up our street at fields and barns

An interesting old barn

Hayfields in early summer prior to planting

Early summer hayfield with barn in distance

Hayfield with barns in summer

Neighbors horses and barn

Eastern end of our yard with dandelions in bloom
with Le Bic National Park in background

Neighboring farm through a white birch in our yard

Neighbors across the street. Very helpful. Bilingual.

View along our yard with stop sign and train crossing in distance

View of train from backyard

Train below house carrying blade of wind turbine

Gathering cut hay in neighbors field

One of our outbuildings with barn in distance

Home Exchange Guest

Wolf, from Freiburg, Germany, is staying with us at our home in Le Bic for a couple of days. He's currently on a Home Exchange, staying in Montreal for 6 weeks. Wanting to explore Quebec Province, he headed east, visiting Quebec City and then the Gaspe Peninsula, stopping to visit us in Le Bic. We had never met Wolf, but beginning in mid-August, we'll do a home exchange with him --- he'll be staying at our house in Asheville and we'll be in his house in Freiburg for 4 weeks. When Wolf told us via email that he was going to be in Montreal, only 6 hours from Le Bic, we invited him to visit. Wolf turns out to be a great traveller, having seen much of the world. An avid Home Exchanger, Wolf has done 44 exchangers since retiring about 10 years ago. Sharing travel adventures with Wolf was great fun.

Wolf at our house

Lisa, Wolf, and myself at a local restaurant

A hike through a maritime forest in Rimouski, Quebec Province

This past Saturday, after a pleasant dinner at the house, Lisa, Woody, and I headed to a little beach community in Rimouski, a small city about 15 minutes away. We'd been here before, enjoying a walk along the beach. This time we took the hiking trail from the beach parking lot. Starting out in a field, with lots of weedy species, our expectations were relatively low. Much to our surprise, the trail soon transitioned into a walk through the woods, an interesting maritime forest on the edge of an urban environment. As the trail narrowed, and got rockier, the vegetation got more interesting. At a fork in the trail, we looped to the left and found ourselves on the headlands above the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Here, the spruce and fir trees were stunted, reflecting the thin rocky soils and periodic high winds blowing onshore. Several viewing platforms along the trail provided fabulous views of the Seaway through the evergreen trees. Particularly stunning, was the last vista, looking south along the coastline, towards Bic National Park in the far distance.

Trail map signage

Maritime forest on thin rocky soil

Ground-hugging plants on rock outcrop

Stunted spruce and fir trees with Woody on the trail

Wind battered trees on bluff above the Saint Lawrence River (Seaway)

Looking south with Bic National Park in the far distance

Signage indicating view scape in above photo

Sunset from beach in Rimouski near the trailhead