Bug Bites and Blessings

 So here we are back at my favourite campground - Scotia Pines just south of Truro.  We are here for a week or so before heading back up to Cumberland County and the Bragg family so we're taking advantage of the sights and sounds between here and Halifax.  It's overcast this morning and misty but we're hoping for some clearing this afternoon so we can go and visit the Robie Street Cemetery and find all my Johnson ancestors.

Yesterday we toured the majestic Stewiacke Valley, home of Stewiacke, Middle Stewiacke, East Stewiacke and Upper Stewiacke.  It was here that the Johnsons settled after a short time in New Hampshire.  They were originally from Londonderry, Northern Ireland and arrived here in 1761 - 250 years ago.  They were called the Cobequid Planters and were encouraged to settle on the lands where, just a few years before, the French Acadiens were evicted by the British.  Today it is rich farmland with incredible views, amass with wild lupins and fat and happy cows.

Our cemetery prowlings have produced one little problem, though.  We have encountered several too many Biting Midges or NoSeeEms as we've strolled the rows of tombstones and have been bitten severely.  You don't feel the bite, but several hours later you develop a lump that becomes extremely itchy.  I've had them other years and the itching can last for up to two weeks.  We're using all our home remedies and store bought - itch creams - not really helpful.  This morning I woke up with one eye almost swollen shut from a bite on my temple - very glamourous.  There is an app on the ipod that is a mosquitoe repellant.  It gives off a high frequency squeal - and seems to work pretty well on the little stingers, but it's Deep Woods Off for the Midges from here on out.

As for blessings today - all I can say is "There but for the grace....." Our neighbours last night were two adults and three teenagers in a tent trailer.  While we  got up to a nice hot shower, our temperature controlled furnace and all our electrical appliances, they were shivering in their open-sided beds with rain dripping through the mesh and reading by a Coleman lamp



Here's a quote from one of my favourite authors which pretty much sums up my reason for these annual trips:

In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage - to know who we are and where we came from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.

- Alex Haley