March 11, 2009. Western Head, N.S. Observations.

I knew they do it because the broken shells are everywhere, but yesterday, when looking out to sea from the Carriage House, I saw it with my own eyes. A sea gull flew up from the rocks down by the water, then seemed to hover over the large rocks at the edge of the grass. From a height of about six feet, the gull dropped something from it's mouth, right on the big rocks. The gull descended right where the sea urchin landed. I could not see what happened, but I have read that the rocks smash the sea urchin, where upon the sea gull eats it. Clever gull. Almost immediately, two large crows, either fish crows or ravens flew right down to the gull. I feel sure they were all fighting for the poor little sea urchin. When we walk the shore, these sea urchin shells are all over the place and now I know how they got there, and I saw it happen right before my eyes.

Snow crabs are new to us, but I want you to know, they are delicious. They are sweet and juicy and easy to get out of the shells. Last night, Betty and Vinal cooked these snow crabs and brought them over for dinner. I supplied the salad and rolls and Betty brought the special utensils. We ate the whole big bowl. It is just fairly recently that these crabs came for sale. Now the fishermen have a whole new product to sell. They are called snow crabs because they can only be caught in the Winter. Now they are even fishing for these crabs out in deep water. I wonder how long it will take before the crabs will become scarce? Very little is known about their life cycle. I tell you, those snow crabs were delicious, although messy.

David Nickerson does such beautiful work. Yesterday we saw our coffee table, almost completed. It is made of tiger maple and cherry wood, and is a replica of an eighteen century table from Nova Scotia. Of course, he takes a long time to complete a project, but if you are patient and if the task is challenging to him, eventually, the project will be completed. I spent many hours pouring over books of antique furniture and finally selected three pieces. Last March, I asked David to build these three tables, one to use as a coffee table and two as end tables, all taken from the same book. He has to figure out how the put the table together, all put together just as it was built long ago. Next time we are here, my table will be ready. He is such a clever careful carpenter.