August 2016
Sunday August 28
The team eating cake at the party in Bedford
After all the activity during the first few weeks of August, this week has been mercifully quiet. We are continuing to recover from our reno, this week re-shelving most of the books in the guest bedroom and office, painting some of the trim and reinstating the clothes line.
It has been a beautiful weekend and we have tried to make some use of it. On Friday Ann took our Syrian family to Rainbow Haven Beach and today I took them to the end of season soccer party for Ibrahim's team. That was at the outside pool in Bedford which includes a small park on the shore of Bedford Basin with beautiful views toward Dartmouth and Halifax. Yesterday Ann and I went for a ride down the Trans-Canada Trail. It was remarkable how little water there was in the rivers and lakes. At the end, where the Shubenacadie River flows between Lake Charles and Lake Williams, the river was effectively dry. We have had a little rain recently but obviously not nearly enough.
Monday August 22
De Temps Antan playing on the wharf stage at the Lunenburg Folk Harbour festival
We have been busy bees over the past few weeks so it has been a while since I updated this page. It is gratifying to know that at least some of you actually noticed.
On the Thursday before the weekend before last (Aug. 4), Emily flew down from Ottawa for a visit. No sooner had she arived than we packed up the car and headed down to Lunenburg for the annual folk festival. Ingrid and Mike kindly allowed us to use the loft above their boat shed again this year. There is one bed there already and we took along a couple of air matresses and were able to make ourselves very comfortable. We didn't have enough time for a proper dinner before the evening concert, so we contented ourselves with sandwiches and poutine from the vendors just outside the concert tent.
On Friday morning, Ann, Emily and Ingrid went kayaking. While they were out, I rode my bicycle into Lunenburg, had a nice lunch at an outside table at the Sweet Indulgence Café, then went to see some of the acts at the Bandstand and Wharf stages. Ann, Emily and James caught up with me there. We had dinner at Magnolia's Grill before walking up to Blockhouse Hill for the evening concert.
On Saturday morning it was James and my turn to go kayaking while Ann, Ingrid and Mike went to see a workshop in town. James and I followed after lunch. There was a very good workshop that afternoon highlighting stringed instruments and featuring De Temps Antan, James Hill and Anne Janelle, Còig, and Kelli Trottier. We ate at Big Red's, which has become somehat of a family tradition, then went to the evening concert.
On Sunday, while Ann, Ingrid and Maiga went to the morning gospel concert, Mike, Emily, James and I went to the Lunenburg golf club for brunch. Ann, Ingrid and Maiga caught up with us there. We returned home after the concert that evening.
As always, there were several acts this year that I liked a lot but had never heard before: Hillsburn, a very tight local band with catchy songs; Còig, a Celtic band from Cape Breton; and De Temps Antan, who play traditional Québecois music.
Nicky and Steve with Linda and Simon
We were home for only two days before heading off again, this time for a whirlwind trip to Ontario to attend my niece Nicky's wedding (actually, an almost wedding; they decided to elope in late June, so we actually only attended reception). The original plan was to drive all the way to Ann's sister Martha's house in Brampton on Wednesday, recover on Thursday, then attend the wedding party on Friday. However, at the last minute Ann got an interview for a job on Wednesday afternoon, so we left at dinner time on Wednesday, drove as far as Grand Falls, New Brunswick, then drove the rest of the way on Thursday. We arrived at Martha and Thom's in time for a late dinner.
Emily, Katy and Ben arrived from Ottawa after lunch on Friday and in the late afternoon we borrowed Martha's van to make the short drive to the Captain's House in Kleinburg for the big party. Nicky looked radiant, of course, and a very good time was had by all. In was nice to have almost everyone together, though unfortunately my brother Nick and his wife Annette were not able to make it.
On Saturday afternoon I drove to King City to pick up Mum and bring her back to Martha and Thom's for dinner. Ann's Mum Edna was there as well as our nephew John who came down from Ottawa with Emily, Katy and Ben, so it was another large family gathering.
On Sunday we finally had a little time to relax before getting up bright and early on Monday morning for the long drive back home. We did it in one go this time: 22 hours of elapsed time with about 18 hours of driving split pretty equally between Ann, James and myself. I had taken Tuesday off so had a day to recover before going back to work on Wednesday.
For their honeymoon, Nicky and Steve rented an RV and drove it to Nova Scotia to do some sightseeing. They arrived here on Friday afternoon, got the RV set up in the Shubie Park campground, then dropped in on us. We all took the ferry over to Halifax, walked along the waterfront, then had dinner al fresco at the waterfront location of the Stubborn Goat, a local gastro-pub before riding the ferry back to Dartmouth.
The team gets a pep talk from the coach (mostly obscured) at half time.
This weekend was the final tournament for Ibrahim's soccer team. I was up early to give him and his mother Mahasen a ride to a 9 AM game. The team played very well and won handily.
After the game, we met up with Nicky and Steve and drove to Crescent Beach, on the South Shore past Lunenburg. From there we drove back via the La Have ferry to Lunenburg where Nicky, Steve and James went for a ride on the Eastern Star, a 48 foot ketch that gives tours from the Lunenburg wharf. Ann and I stayed behind to look after Kayla, Nicky and Steve's dog. Kayla is a lovely dog but is very single-minded if she decides she wants to go somewhere. For a while she let me lead her around the town, then she decided that she wanted to find Nicky and Steve. If I did not go in the direction she wanted she would simply lie down and refuse to budge; unfortunately she is large enough that all attempts to move her failed. After she led me around the town a bit more, we ended up back at the car where it was clear that she got a whiff of Nicky and Steve and decided she would simply wait until they returned. Luckily they did arrive back after only 15 minutes or so. We had a quick dinner outside at the South Shore Fish Shack, then drove back along the coast to Peggy's Cove. However, by that time it was nearly dark so the view was less than ideal. On the other hand, we did see the Bluenose anchored off French Village as we drove along the road down the eastern shore of St. Margaret's Bay.
On Sunday there were another couple of soccer games: one in the morning which they again won handily, and another at dinner time which they lost narrowly after being ahead. That was the end of soccer for the summer so we took Ibrahim and his sister and mother out for ice cream to celebrate.
While I was at the morning game, Ann, Nicky and Steve went to Lawrencetown Beach to check out the surfers. When they returned, we cooked a quick salmon lunch on the barbecue which we ate outside on the deck before Nicky and Steve had to leave to begin their trip home via Fundy National Park and Montreal.
I had an unexpected holiday today; when I arrived at work, the street outside had a massive hole in it. Apparently a water main had burst and there was no water in our building, so we were sent home. I actually stayed for a couple of hours to get some computer calculations started but came home before lunch. I have used the time to get most of our house back into some semblance of order. Because of all the time spent away, the living room was still filled with book shelves and books that belong elsewhere. The shelves are now all reinstalled and the dining room table is back in its proper place, but there are still books littering the living room, office and guest bedroom that need to be replaced on shelves.
Tuesday August 2
Ann, Erica, Donna and Karen enjoying "tea" at the chocolate store in Victoria-by-the-Sea
Last week Ann, myself and our friend Karen went on a bicycling holiday in PEI with the Nova Scotia Ramblers. We drove to Summerside on Tuesday afternoon, got checked into our hotel, then joined a bunch of the Ramblers for dinner. As often seems to happen, the restaurant was overwhelmed with the bounty of 20 or so diners all at once, so the service was very slow. Ann, Karen and I walked back along the Confederation Trail which passes just behind the hotel.
On Wednesday we drove to Miscouche, then biked up along the western shore of Malpeque Bay to Green Park for lunch, a very pretty route. It was a beautiful day but quite hot and humid. We returned by a more inland road: about 60 kms in all. While many of the Ramblers went to a lobster supper in New Glasgow, Ann and I went with Ingrid and Mike to the Culinary Institute in Charlottetown. It is a branch of Holland College and provides a restaurant run by students and recent graduates. There is a very nice view over Charlottetown harbour and the food and service are very good.
Thursday was a relaxing day: just a short morning ride through Summerside to look at the old houses, followed by breakfast at the Starlite Diner. In the afternoon, Ann and Karen went to Brackley Beach with some of the others, but I stayed at the hotel and watched one of the major American bridge tournaments on the Internet. For dinner we drove to a pub in Kensington only to find that they were full inside but that we were welcome to sit outside if we didn't mind risking the impending rain storm. We chose to take our chances and had a pleasant dinner; when it did begin to rain, we were able to find room inside anyway.
On Friday we drove to Borden-Carleton, the PEI end of the Confederation Bridge, left the car there and rode along the coast to Victoria-by-the-Sea for lunch returning by mostly the same route. We then drove home again arriving in time for dinner.
This weekend our friend Nancy has been in town. On Saturday morning, she and Ann went for brunch with Ingrid and Marg at the Waegwoltec Club where Ingrid is a member. Nancy was planning to stay with Jocelyn, but she (Jocelyn) has been ill all weekend, so Nancy came to our place for fish chowder and stayed over in our newly renovated guest bedroom on Saturday night. Ann and Nancy went to Rainbow Haven Beach this afternoon and this evening were out with the girls one again, congregating at Bishop's Landing for dinner.
Ann making dinner in our new kitchen
Our kitchen renovation is nearing the end though there are still a few small things left to be done. The kitchen is now functional, equipped with a working fridge, gas stove, sink, microwave and dishwasher. As can be seen in the picture, there are a couple of doors missing from cabinets above the stove, the trim beneath the window and along the floor needs to be painted, and we need to acquire stools for sitting at the island.
The hardwood floors are also all refinished but most of the furniture is still cluttering up the living room and the TV room upstairs. James and I spent much of the weekend painting the office while it was empty. Now that is done, we can begin moving the furniture back in. We could have moved the furniture back into our bedroom, but we found a flaw in the floor, so we left it empty until that was fixed (which happened today).
As most of you know, David was supposed to be coming home for three weeks, partly so he could attend the wedding of one of his Victoria friends. He was also planning to attend the Lunenburg Folk festival next weekend and, we assumed, come with us to attend his cousin Nicky's wedding. Ann and James were up very early yesterday to pick him up at the airport. After waiting for a while they realized that he wasn't going to arrive, then figured out that when he said that his flight was on August 1, arriving at 6:30 AM, that meant arriving at 6:30 AM on August 2. By the time Ann got back to the house, David had texted her to say that he had cancelled his flight and wasn't coming at all; apparently Alesia's grandmother is not well and he wants to stay there and support her. As much as we feel sorry for Alesia and her grandmother, the manner in which he has left us in the lurch has us both fuming.