Whisky Galore

Whisky Galore

It was our first tasting evening and what fun! Over a lovely themed five course meal and an evening amongst serious enthusiasts, and great company, we tasted Old Pulteney, Ben Raich, Sheep Dip and Glen Parker single malts and a mystery whisky that turned out to be oriental in origin rather than from the glens. Known as Yamazaki from Japan it nearly turned the seasoned Scots tasters Kamikaze! This was the Sixth Tasters of Tatamagouche single malt tasting experience and there will be many more but perhaps none so surprising. I can’t wait!

Last November the group tasted a whisky from the only single malt whisky producer in North America , which just happens to be right here in Nova Scotia. Glenora Distillery at Glenville, Inverness County, Nova Scotia was established in 1990 on a 300 acre site. It produces over 250,000 litres of whisky using the traditional copper pot stills and only three ingredients: Barley, Yeast and Water to make their rare single malt whisky. It cannot be called 'Scotch' unless it is produced in Scotland, hence here in New Scotland it can only be called Canadian Single Malt Whisky.

It was our first tasting evening and what fun! Over a lo

A Taste of the Caribbean

A Taste of the Caribbean

Who would have thought there was an island as good as any in the Caribbean right on my doorstep? Pictou Island sounded as far from Tortola as the North Pole to me but their website (www.pictouisland.com) photos persuaded us to take the short boat ride and we are so glad we did. We arrived at the Ferry port in Caribou and were able to park next to the small boat that would take us on the 45 minute trip. We climbed aboard the Pictou Island Ferry with an assortment of visitors, tourists and residents and we soon learned much about the island. No stores for shopping, no restaurants, no transport – what were we doing! The unspoilt beauty is what makes the island a real treasure with nature everywhere – butterflies, birds, wild-flowers, shellfish and sea glass, shells and sea-dollars to collect. The beaches are wide with pure white clean sand and the air clear and fresh. There is no power so the residents live completely off-grid and in a great degree of luxury. What a great example of being able to live an eco-friendly life in a true island paradise!

Jacob Wawatie

An evening with a visiting Algonquin North American Native at The Glooscap Heritage Centre.It was not very difficult to find our venue for this evenings talk at the Glooscap Heritage Centre in Truro. You can see the large Indian Glooscap statue for miles around and in the evening he looks especially good with his torch lit and facing into the setting sun.

We were in for a special treat and looking forward to meeting Jacob Wawatie visiting from the Kokomville Academy, within the Wild life Reserve of La Verendrye in the Province of Quebec, Canada. He was traveling the country spreading the word about his school and had just traveled up from Yarmouth, were he held a talk the day before.

It was fascinating to see his medicine bag and an animal skin laid out with his sacred objects. His medicine bag was made from a turtle shell and unfortunately had been slightly damaged by a heavy handed customs officer at one of the airports on his travels. Even though in a slightly delicate state it was still a treasure to him having been handed down from his great grandmother, who had died at the very old age of 125 years old. She was the one who had instilled in him the importance of learning the old traditions of his people and not allowing them to be lost forever. Since then he devoted his time to learning all he could and spending months deep in the forests. He then set up the school to carry on these teachings. The talk was very interesting and informative and I found some similarities to Traditional Chinese Feng Shui in the descriptions and elements used. I am sure that all the original peoples around the world have similar threads running through their philosophy. We all had a chance to ask questions and after the talk we were able to speak to Jacob, take photos and examine some of his fascinating objects a little closer.

Mush Mush! Dogsledding at Ski Wentworth

We were all looking forward to our Dogsledding rides the following afternoon at Ski Wentworth, when the phone rang. The rides would have to be bought forward because the unusually hot weather was causing problems for the huskies. Whew! A sigh of relief, we still get a chance to have a rare dogsledding ride.

Rob Cooke and his wife Louise moved to Nova Scotia from the UK five years ago to pursue their passion for dogsledding. Rob got involved with dogsledding 12 years ago in the UK and now races in events across the country and the United States. They now run Shaytaan Siberian Huskies in Edmunston NB and this is the second year they have bought over 20 huskies to Ski Wentworth to offer dogsledding rides.

The girls could hardly contain their excitement on our arrival at the slopes. Because neither of them could ski well enough to ski back down the slopes after the rides they were taken up the hill to the dogsledding trail on snow mobiles. Snow mobiling is something the girls love to do, so this added to the days excitement.excitement.They were very lucky, because most people taking these trips were going up the ski lift and then skiing back down after the 30 minute dogsledding ride along the mountain trail. Off they went up the mountain for a trip of a lifetime and some great fun. The sun was shining down so brightly making it quite a hot day for mid March. When they arrived back down the mountain both their faces were glowing from all that fun and fresh air. All they wanted to do now was to do it all over again. Maybe next year.

Tiger Takes Fox Harb'r

One of the highlights for me last year was watching Tiger Woods play at Fox Harb'r.
Bob Weeks also enjoyed the day and descibes it here.

Last week, I had a chance to spend some time with Tiger Woods at the Nike Golf Invitational out at Fox Harb’r. The event was a fundraiser for the Tiger Woods Foundation and the Canadian Junior Golf Association, and included Tiger’s coach, Hank Haney and good buddy Charles Barkley.

Tiger came in from New York on the Thursday evening, flying in to Halifax and then making the two-hour trek to Wallace, N.S., via bus. His pilots, apparently, were a little hesitant to land his plane on the Fox Harb’r runway in the dark (wonder if Ron Joyce’s crash there last year had anything to do with it? The plane did come to pick him up the next day).

Tiger stayed in a private house on the property that came complete with his own chef. His diet is obviously precise; one person with the resort told me that he required three heads of steamed broccoli at precisely 3 p.m. the next day.

Tiger’s first appearance before the gathering came at breakfast where he walked in, welcomed everyone and then slipped off to the range to warm up. I had a chance to chat with him briefly there but he seemed more interested in checking out Barkley’s swing, to see if there were any improvements. It looked rather smooth, without that stutter he normally shows. Tiger whispered to me to wait, that the old swing would show up on the course.

The day consisted of nine holes of a Barkley-Haney scramble ball vs. Tiger. As Rod Black announced, that meant it would be almost like Haney vs. Tiger.
True to Tiger’s word, when Sir Charles got up to swing, the hitch returned, although he hit a decent shot. And he followed it up by hitting the green about 12 feet from the pin. That was good for a half.

A couple of holes later, Tiger told me that Barkley’s swing would get worse as the round went on. He said it reminded him a lot of a hockey slapshot going to a wrist shot. “How strong is he,” Tiger asked me rhetorically, “to be able to hit the ball like that.” He shook his head in amazement.

As the round went on, Tiger asked me a number of questions. He wanted to know how Ron Joyce made all his money. I explained that he co-founded Tim Hortons (which I described as like Dunkin’ Donuts only better) and sold it to Wendy’s for about $1 billion. Tiger had no idea that Tim Horton was a hockey player, but he didn’t seem surprised when I told him. “Everything’s about hockey up here isn’t it?” He laughed at his own joke.

He wanted to know about Joyce’s boat, which was out in the waters off the course, and about his plane. Mostly, though, Tiger just wanted to have some fun. He really interacted with the fans a great deal, asking them to read putts and tell him about the hole he was about to play.

Glenn Greenspan, who worked as the media honcho at Augusta National for years, has taken over as Tiger’s media guy and was walking around Fox Harb’r. He said he didn’t think Tiger had played before this small a gallery in a long, long time. It was intimate, maybe 100 people or so.

After the nine holes, Tiger had lunch then visited out set for a lengthy interview with Rod who got a lot out of him, most of it having nothing to do with golf.

He then ventured back on to the course to play nine holes with two different foursomes, both of which paid handsomely for the opportunity. Tiger fired the course record 63, no surprise there, came in to chat with the guests, went back to his house to get cleaned up and then jetted off for his next adventure.

Overall, this was a great opportunity for folks to see another side of Tiger, the laughing, smiling, joking Tiger. That side doesn’t reveal itself much when he’s on Tour, but he’s really an engaging, likeable fellow.

This event went off seamlessly, too, in no small part to the folks from Nike and Fox Harb’r. A remarkable day with a remarkable guy.

Peter Mansbridge CBC News Anchor talks about meeting Obama

Peter Mansbridge talks about meeting Obama and Margaret Thatcher at the FCC Forum in Moncton. Also at the Forum was Chantal Petitclerc who gave a very inspirational talk. The most medalled track and field athlete in history with 21 medals. Chantal was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2009.

Chantal Petitclerc (1969-)Athlete

Her website can be found here

Whirligigs holds fundraiser for Haitian relief

Whirligigs holds fundraiser for Haitian relief
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Residents of Pugwash, Wallace, Malagash and Tatamagouche came together for a roast beef meal at Whirligigs cafe the evening of Sunday, Jan. 24 in support of Haitian earthquake relief efforts. (Saieva photo)