Our Message Archive

Sunday August 16

We spent all of last weekend at the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival. Once again, Ingrid and Mike kindly let us use the loft above the boat shed at their cottage on Heckman's Island. We drove down on Thursday afternoon, arriving in time to get set up in the loft, then went into town for the Thursday evening concert on Blockhouse Hill. We got there early enough to get good seats, then had sushi for dinner from one of the food vendors at the tent.

This year I only went to one workshop, Fiddling Around, and Ann didn't go to any, but we did go to the concert in the tent each evening. This year the acts that I liked that I had not seen before were Youngtree and Carole Bee, Les Diable à Cinq, and Grace Petrie.

On the Saturday morning, we joined the Ramblers for a ride from Lunenburg to Corkum's Island then out to Blue Rocks. As I am the Ride Scheduler for the club, I had conveniently scheduled this one to be close by while we were at the festival. It was supposed to be a bit longer, going further along Mason's Beach Rd. and all the way past Blue Rocks to Stonehurst East, but it was very hot so the Ride Coordinator, Susan, decided to shorten it a bit. After the ride, we went to Mahone Bay so that Ann could have her bike checked out at Sweet Ride Cycling; we had a coffee at The Barn while we waited. Back in Lunenburg, we met Ingrid and Mike for an early dinner at Smoke Pitt BBQ before going to the concert.

On Sunday morning, Ann, Ingrid and Mike went to the gospel concert while I took the opportunity to ride out to Stonehurst East to take a few photos. I then biked into Lunenburg and met them, along with Jackie, Robert, Judy, Deb, Jocelyn and Lokman, for lunch at the Bluenose Golf Course. After lunch, I dropped Ann off at the bandstand while I went back to Heckman's Island to shower. When I returned, we went for dinner at Scotia Curry Lunenburg, a new restaurant for us, then to the evening concert. We stayed over on Sunday night, so we wouldn't have to drive home late and returned home early on Monday.

Yesterday I led the Ramblers on a ride up and down the Shubenacadie River with a stop at the Fundy Tidal Interpretive Center to see the tidal bore. Although I have lived in Nova Scotia for 46 years and have a keen interest in the flow of water, I had never been to see the tidal bore. Ann and I rode the route on Wednesday to check that there would be no surprises, then again yesterday with the group, so we saw the bore twice in one week; it was impressive both times.

This morning we left home and drove to Rivière du Loup where I am writing this. We met our friends Dave and Donna, and Dave and Manon for dinner at the St. Hubert close to our hotel. Tomorrow we will all take the ferry to San Simeon and drive to Alma so that we can bike around Lac Saint-Jean over the following five days. On our way home, we will be stopping in Caraquet for another week of biking with the Ramblers.

Monday August 3

As advertised last time, Katy, Ben, Andrew and Alex stayed with us all last week. The boys slept in the upstairs bedroom where they could easily bother Nana and Grandad when they woke up, usually around 6 am. Katy and Ben slept two storeys below in the downstairs guest bedroom.

On Monday morning, I went with Katy, Ben and the boys to play disc golf on Dartmouth Common where there is a nine-basket course. We had a spirited game with no-one keeping score. After lunch, Ann, Katy and the boys went to Rainbow Haven beach for a while then came home via Fisherman's Cove in Eastern Passage where they acquired lobsters for dinner. That evening I harvested this year's garlic crop with Alex's help.

On Tuesday, we all returned to Rainbow Haven to spend the afternoon making sandcastles. We returned via the Cow Bay moose with a stop at Fisherman's Cove for ice cream.

On Wednesday, Katy dropped Ben off at his mum's place then took the boys to the Waegwoltic Club to meet Ingrid and play in the swimming pools. Ann and I took the opportunity to go for a bike ride. We followed the Roadents from the 5k Café to the Bike & Bean but, since we didn't start until half and hour after them, we were riding on our own though we did cross paths with them close to the Bike & Bean. The BLT trail has recently been widened to accommodate larger ATVs so we were interested to see the result: not an enhancement in our opinions. We had a coffee before returning.

Thursday was a wet day so we all stayed at home and played quietly.

Friday was a lovely day, so we all went to the Citadel in Halifax where we watched the noon gun being fired, then walked down to the waterfront where we got pizza for lunch at the Boston Pizza kiosk. We then went for a tour around the harbour on the JFarwell II, a 45-foot sailing yacht. After a break so that the boys could play on the submarine playground and the rest of us could take in a performance at the Buskers Festival, we went to Cows to get ice cream so that we had the energy to climb the hill back up to the Citadel. When we got home, Mark, Shirley and Margaret, and Jim and Valerie came for a visit on our back deck.

On Saturday, I rode my bike to Bissett Lake Park in Cole Harbour to join the Ramblers on the ride around the Cow Bay Loop. On the way home again, I met Ann, Katy and Alex at Graham's Grove for ice cream cones. They had been playing at the playground by the Banook Canoe Club. When we returned, Katy & co. packed up and decamped to Mona's where they will spend this week.

Since the forecast for today was rain (correct), we took advantage of the nice weather yesterday to go for a ride. We dropped David off at Will and Anneke's where he'll spend this week looking after their pets, then drove to the Bike & Bean to ride the trail to Cleveland Beach and back. As we approached the beach we could see the fog rolling up the bay and, when we arrived, we found all the beach-goers sitting in deck chairs as the fog swirled around them. However, it stayed along the water so the trail was clear on the way back. We tried our friend Norm's favourite ice cream flavour, Coyote Canyon, at Cavicchi's before driving home.

My garden is now producing well. As well as the garlic mentioned above, I've harvested three types of lettuce, beets, peas (just about done), green beans, onions, spring onions, dill, tarragon, chives, parsley, oregano, basil and today I noticed that there are zucchinis ready for picking. The tomatoes are coming along but none is ripe enough yet, as are the eggplants, cucumbers, carrots and parsnips.

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