Rustico lighthouse

Wooden lighthouses are a feature of the Canadian and US east coast. They're very picturesque. This one is in Rustico Harbour, on Prince Edward Island, just over from the Blue Mussel Café (blimmin' great place to eat, by the way, lobster suppers oh yes). The photo was taken pretty late in the evening, when most of the light had gone. I set my tripod up in the middle of the dirt track leading to the beach and snapped a couple of quick shots. The sky had gone salmon pink and the evening was just gorgeous.

Prince Edward Island (or PEI as people call it) is Canada's smallest province, it's an island about the size of the Isle of Wight tucked away in the Gulf of St Lawrence between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. It's very sleepy and rural, its chief claims to fame being potatoes and Anne of Green Gables (see this earlier post). Rustico was first settled by the French colonists who arrived in the region in the early 17th century, displacing the Mi'kmaq Indians. The early French colonists were known as Acadians, and their colony 'Acadie' or Acadia. During the colonial wars of the eighteenth century the British sent an army up from New England, settled Halifax, and threw the French out of the maritimes. The Acadians were turfed off the land and resettled in other parts of North America - many of them in Louisiana (then still French). So now you know where the word 'Cajun' originated.

Many of them returned to the region a generation or so later, and French is still widely spoken throughout PEI, Nova Scotia and especially New Brunswick. Despite the elapsed time, people still get pretty emotional about the "ethnic cleansing" that took place - in marked contrast to the inclusive policies adopted towards the francophone citizens of Lower Canada, or Quebec, after the capture of Quebec City by Wolfe's forces.

Details: Nikon D70, 75-240mm lens @ 180mm, f/9, 1.6s, ISO 200, 15 August 2005, 6.45pm. Placemark.