Nothing But Smooth Sailing for SS Bigadore

Only my sworn enemies, whoever they might be, will be chagrined to hear that Cabin Commencement 2013 proceeded without a hitch. We found the shack pretty much as we’d left it back in October, uninvaded by anything more menacing than an unlucky trio of deer mice that had a last meal of peanut butter before springing the lethal trap that served it.

Air Canada delivered us from the west coast at the hideous hour of 0130 hours, Tuesday morning. That seemed too ungodly an hour to demand that a loved one retrieve us from the airport so we’d arranged a sleepover at the splashy new Hampton Inn in Sydney. Cousin Lynn generously collected us at 10:30 the same morning and shared in the long sequence of afternoon opening chores. Serendipity ruled the day: both fridges started readily, the solar batteries registered a deliciously healthy 14 volts-plus. Even Leo, the 15-year-old stallion truck, started up despite having endured eight months of idleness and a Cape Breton winter.

We relished our first sleep in the porch, the only auditory disturbance being the lapping of waves and an occasional chorus of singing coyotes. In the early morning I birded the lazy way: by ear, in bed, waiting for my consort to wake. A pretty good list I accumulated too: five species of warblers, alder flycatcher, purple finch, ravens, a kingfisher and a pair of loons crooning to each other. All from the comfort of the world's best bed.

We walked the land to find that Jan's rhubarb is flourishing and the garlic she planted last fall is already nearly four feet tall. The red astrachan tree, our earliest-fruiting apple looks set to produce a bumper crop. No apple jelly surpasses the red-astrachan variety my better half will produce later in the summer.

June 25 is too late an arrival date to see the flowering plants that were blooming in late May but we have a pretty good selection right now: high-bush cranberry, alternate-leaved dogwood, blue-eyed grass among the most glamorous.

The first day was fortuitously sunny and blithe; since then we’ve had enough drizzle and showers to half-fill the main rain barrel. More is in the forecast. But that’s okay, we won’t start complaining until all three are overflowing.

Though we’re barely settled in another trip is on the near horizon. In a few days we’ll head to the Nova Scotia mainland, initially to see My Dear Old Mum at Truro and sponge off sister Nancy for a couple of days. Then it will be off to Amherst Shore to see pals Garth and Carole before we abandon them in favour of a bike ride to Prince Edward Island via the southeast corner of New Brunswick, returning via the Wood Island ferry and along NS Highway 6 back to Amherst Shore. We haven’t had a bike adventure as ambitious as a few hundred kilometres in length for some time so we were keen to reassure ourselves we’re still at least marginally viable.

We’ll let you know that goes.