In May 2011, after four years of life on McNutt's Island, we moved to Montreal. This blog remains, though, as a (sort of) daily record of our time on the island, and a winding path for anyone who would like to meander about among its magical places. For additional perspectives and insights I recommend Greg's book, Island Year: Finding Nova Scotia (2010), and my Bowl of Light (2012). I'll continue to post once in a while. If you do want to read this blog, one option would be to begin at the beginning of it (which is, as we all know, in blog-world, at the end), and read forward, concluding with the most recent entry. It's a journal, really, so it does makes more sense if you read it that way. But, you know, read it any way you like.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Water world

McNutt's Island is watery almost all the time. But right now, after countless days of rain, the island is saturated. A small stream that is quite well-behaved during most of the year is all out of bounds today, pooling upwards along the main road and cascading down into the cove by Indian Point.  Its water is red because of the high mineral content in this acidic soil. 

This is about the time when shad and juvenile eels, called glass eels because you can see right through them, swim upstream from the ocean water into local rivers. Last May we watched some young men setting a net for glass eels on the Roseway River where it runs into Shelburne Harbour. 

This island stream is not big enough to entice the shad or the glass eels. But it does create a commotion as it bubbles into waves of the cove, and shows off the wildness of spring.   

There are a few low places along the island's roads where water converges naturally. Even though the main road has drainage pipes beneath it at those places, it's not enough to keep the road from flooding.  But everybody wears their rubber boots all the time anyway. So if you come to a pool in the road you can just splash your way through it.







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