Day 13 of 49

  
Internet is not all that great here, so I will work to get it done.  That said no time to proof read so you get what you get, and yes  I try to proof all the blogs.  LOL
Today was a travel day.  We traveled from Hilden, Nova Scotia to Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, about 140 miles. 
Site of the church and cemetery of the 17th/18th century Acadian village that became the scenic setting for Longfellow’s narrative poem Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie. Commemorates the Acadian Deportation. 

 We saw sweeping gardens; memorial church with paintings, stained glass and more.
   Memorial church.

 
Statue of Evangeline an epic poem written by Longfellow. 
This is a very interesting story.
 
Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, is an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published in 1847. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians..
The idea for the poem came from Longfellow's friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne.  It was published in 1847 and became Longfellow's most famous work in his lifetime. It remains one of his most popular and enduring works.
The poem had a powerful effect in defining both Acadian history and identity in the nineteenth and twentieth century. More recent scholarship has revealed the historical errors in the poem and the complexity of the Expulsion and those involved, which the poem ignores.

 Evangeline describes the betrothal of a fictional Acadian girl named Evangeline Bellefontaine to her beloved, Gabriel Lajeunesse, and their separation as the British deport the Acadians from Acadie in the  Great Upheaval. The poem then follows Evangeline across the landscapes of America as she spends years in a search for him, at some times being near to Gabriel without realizing he was near. Finally she settles in Philadelphia and, as an old woman, works as a Sister of Mercy among the poor. While tending the dying during an epidemic she finds Gabriel among the sick, and he dies in her arms.

Longfellow was introduced to the true story of the Acadians in Nova Scotia by his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne. Years later, in 1837^.
Longfellow, who had never visited the setting of the true story, relied heavily on  An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia and other books for further background information. Evangeline was published in book form on November 1, 1847, and by 1857 it had sold nearly 36,000 copies. During this time, Longfellow's literary payment was at its peak; for Evangeline, he received "a net of twenty-five and sixteenths per cent" royalties, believed to be an all-time high for a poet.
Longfellow said of his poem: "I had the fever a long time burning in my own brain before I let my hero take it. 'Evangeline' is so easy for you to read, because it was so hard for me to write"
   






There were gardens some depicting the life and times of the Acadian people.  Here you see apples in the trees.






Different settings in the park.

This is the look of the countryside along our route.  There were many diary farms and fields of corn and hay.  

 


 We toured the only tidal turbine electrical generating plant in the world.  They use the tides on the Bay of Fundy.  They have tried to repeat this other places here but the tide it just to strong and it tears up everything in the turbine in a matter of hours.  

Each day, 100 billion tonnes of seawater flows in and out of the Bay of Fundy - more than the combined flow of the world's freshwater rivers. 

 Research from US-based Electric Power Research Institute identifies the Bay of Fundy as perhaps the most potent site for tidal power generation in North America.
When fully developed, new in-stream tidal technology has the potential to generate 300 megawatts of green, emission free energy from only two locations in the Bay of Fundy - enough energy to power close to 100,000 homes.

Unlike a barrage or dam system, in-stream tidal devices are placed in the flowing tidal stream to harness its kinetic energy.
The technology is brand new - many devices exist only as a concept. It will take time to test and refine these devices to create a commercially viable technology appropriate to the Fundy environment.

We then went to the Fort Anne Cemetery for a ghost walk at 9:30 pm.  There were about 50 of us.  Our guide was really great and we learned a bit about the people buried there and their importance or not so much to the history of the area.  We also learned about the designs on the headstones and what they meant and how the people thought of death through time.  The Cemetery is  the oldest in Nova Scotia.  It was a very interesting walk and talk.