Cape Breton's Magazine

that when you came here, you were just going to have a look at it so you'd never have to come back again! And instead, it became your home, and has been for 20 years.) And there's a philosophy be? hind it. Hildegarde and I, we both love nature. More than anything else. Nature means-- that's it, to us. Right? We can live with nature, no mat? ter how--cold. warm. rain, snow, doesn't matter. The next thing is. I wanted abso? lutely to change what I did during my professional life. Sitting at a drawing board figuring out mechanics. i Right? I need something en? tirely different. And I started carpentry and I built the furniture and all this stuff. (You had never done any of this before you came here.) No. I'm a mechanic, you know--metal. (And do you know why it was Cape Breton? Why you didn't stop on the mainland? Why you didn't decide to go back to Cape Cod?) All fa? mous places are not good for retirement. Be? cause they are swarmed with tourists and swarmed with people. So you should never take, let's say. any one of these famous mountains, to retire. That's the wrong place. You would not go in any place where there is extraordi? nary beauty, because there are too many peo? ple. We couldn't have a better place than what we have. Take your own place, right? You can sit and relax just by staring at the ocean. Don't think anything. Empty yourself of all this garbage that's surrounding us. right?... (Now. the cabin--you didn't choose to live there all year round.) That was difficult to decide. The cabin, we built it with absolutely intention to have it primitive. We did not want there to have running water. We did not want to have conveniences--toilet and all this. So we are forced to go to the brook every morning-- every day. so often--to wash, to clean. Because the brook was close by. And we stayed there from when there was still snowing in May till November when there was ice. And we loved it. As a matter of fact, it is odd that we lived here for the first 10 or more years, and did not have ever a thought to go on a trip. And we love to travel. But there was no need. We Above: near the tip of White Point. Below left: on the road to Meat Cove. Below right: top, French Mountain; bottom, a view of Aspy Bay. didn't make this up. We could have afforded easily (to travel). But there was no desire be? cause we had everything that we wanted. We nev? er had the idea to go anyplace. Now. Hildegarde said, "We should have gone there, we should have seen this." It's too late. But it was so wonderful for us to live the whole summer in the cabin, and move the winter in the house. If we would have the house there, we would have lost the change. And the ocean in winter is terrific. You know, snow? storms coming over the ocean. In Sugarloaf, spring is coming four weeks later, because we have the ice on the ocean. So the valley (Grey's Hollow, where we built the house) is ' *?'