July 10 Ocean Falls

We're back in Ocean Falls. This year, as we tied up at the dock, we were greeted by the new Canada Coast Guard rescue boat - aptly named "About Time." That gave us a laugh. We visited here last year and were fascinated with the abandoned business buildings and homes. This year we went farther into the empty buildings. A large, poured-concrete apartment building, despite its collapsing ceilings and gutted appliances, revealed details about the lives of its last inhabitants. Though the place had been stripped of most items of value, we could make educated guesses about the families it once housed. A master bedroom that had last been occupied in the '70s had wallpaper featuring large, harvest gold flowers. It was easy to identify a little girl's room from its pink walls. Another building that must have housed the school had lab stations that reminded me of the ones in the science classroom in my junior high school. One room still had library books, published in the 1960s. Broken windows, moss growing on linoleum floors, falling sheetrock and insulation -- after a little while, we both felt the need to get out. It wasn't that there were ghosts, but somehow, the spaces still felt haunted.

Out in the sun again, we pedaled our fold-up bikes through town and followed the road to Martin Valley, a couple of miles away, to buy fresh-grown lettuce from a lovely woman whose greenhouse is in her back yard. Along the way we spotted the hot colors of ripe salmon berries growing wild, and we risked clothing and skin to pick a hatful from the prickly bushes. Sweet and warm from the sun, it was tempting to just eat them as we found them (and I must admit, there were berries that followed just that fate) but Patrick had a better idea ... His salmon berry strudel was beyond delicious!