Friendship Garden

Three of my pieces of art will be displayed at the upcoming fundraising art show for the Second Story Women's Centre. Here is my first creation, called Friendship Garden:The window is from a century old home in Mahone Bay. A very nice woman gave me 8 windows from her home renovation and this is the first piece I created using one of her windows. Here are the details from the right side of the window:It's the first time I've displayed any of my art for sale, so I'm a little nervous. The art show runs from September 10th through October 4th. The location is the Old Post Office Centre, 22 King Street, 2nd floor, Lunenburg. Thirty percent from each piece sold is donated to the Second Story Women's Centre.

Here is some info from their website:
Mission Statement
Second Story Women’s Centre works to enhance women’s lives by providing services and education designed to promote personal growth, community awareness, and social change. We work towards equality and respect within a women-centred environment and support women’s rights to make their own decisions.
SSWC is proud to be serving the women of Lunenburg County for over twenty years.
What We Do
You can stop in for advice, information, our library resources or even sit down with a cup of tea.
Accompaniment: If you are a woman who needs emotional and physical support when dealing with issues, Centre staff may accompany you to court or to appointments with other agencies.
Community Development: SSWC is involved within the social and economic support of our community. SSWC staff members work with women in their community to identify problems and mobilize skills and resources to develop a response to an issue.
Community Education Presentations and Workshops: A key goal for SSWC is prevention, education and public awareness. One way we achieve this is by making presentations and conducting workshops for schools, community colleges, service clubs, professional associations, industry and private business and church groups.
Crisis Intervention: SSWC works with women in crisis to help solve immediate problems. SSWC can also provide follow-up support after the crisis to assist women in putting their lives back together again.
Outreach: As much as is feasible, SSWC provides services and programs to women and their families who are isolated by travel distance and travel costs. Programs will come to you.

Title: Friendship Garden
Medium: salvaged window (from Mahone Bay, NS), coloured glass, grout
Price: $275 Size: 28 inches x 28 inches
For Sale at: 117 Pelham St, Lunenburg

(cash or cheque accepted)
Dates: September 10 - October 4

(Thurs,Fri, Sun 12 - 4, Saturdays 10 -4)
Fundraiser: 30% donated to Second Story Women's Centre

Aspotogan

After we dropped Cassie off to get her hair done in Mahone Bay on Tuesday, we drove down to Hubbards and lunched at Sheilas Too (a fish and chip truck). Then we did a little tour around the Aspotogan Penninsula. One of my favourite spots along this drive is Northwest Cove:Love the yellow of the building, and all the colourful fishing boats. Here is the view from around the bend in the road:

A little further down the road, we jogged off to explore a "new" road for us. This gravel road led us to a new (?) development called The Pointe at Aspotogan. All the roads in this development are quite narrow...a little larger than the width of one vehicle. Most of the lots are undeveloped, but all the roads are paved. (quite an unusual occurance around here....our road is a provincial road and is yet to be paved!) Lots of bends and curves in the road, and you can't see any of the few houses that are there. Then we arrived at this behemoth:We took a drive down, and the building is finished on the outside, but the inside is completely bare and unfinished. The lights around the circular drive and parking lot are rusty. We were wondering what the plans were and why it was stopped? Likely a developer that ran out of money. I couldn't find any information about the building on the website for the development. But I do know that you can purchase a 3 acre lot here for $60,000! (ocean front will run you $95,000)

The views are absolutely breathtaking! I swear, you can see the whole coastline of Nova Scotia...northeast and southwest...from the top of the hills here. If I had a few hundred thousand to throw around, I'd be buying me some of that view and building a hilltop getaway place!

Before & After

This is our Cassie...before and after her hair cut yesterday. Poor Mulligan...she is a shedder, so she doesn't get to go to the spa for special treatment. She did get her nails done yesterday, which is a big stressor for her and also for the woman who cuts her nails.

We took Cassie's Schnauzer face away, and are currently undecided about whether to keep her this way, or let her grow her beard and eyebrows back.

Not only did Cassie get a wash and cut, but she got lunch too. She stole a piece of pizza from one of the employee's bags when her stylist left her alone for a moment!

Sunny days are here again

Hurricane Bill passed through here on Sunday, and things are back to normal around here once again. We haven't actually seen the sun since Bill visited, but at least the rain and wind are gone. I must say that Bill didn't pack much of a punch. This photo was taken on Saturday, the day before Bill paid us a visit.We thought we might lose our flowers during the storm, so I went around and snapped a few photos. We also put all the "flyable objects" in the shed or Purgatory (our screened in porch). We removed my glass window creations from the trees, put the deck chairs away, and generally removed anything we thought might become a flying object.

It got windy and rainy, but we've had stronger winds and heavier rains before...maybe not for quite as long. The above photo was snapped through one of our living room windows, so it is blurry with rain. The sunflowers are bending a bit, but really it was a non event around here.

Some foolish people went to the shore to watch the raging ocean, which Bill had whipped into a frenzy. One of the people in this house wanted to join in, but one of the other people in this house said they would be making the trip by themselves. Now you'll just have to guess who is the foolish person in this house. Foolish or not, we stayed put. No damage done around here, and now all our flyables are back in their summer places and things are back to normal.

Today, Cassie gets her hair shaved. She's always had a schnauzer cut on her face, but we may just go poodle this time. (she's half Giant Schnauzer and half Standard Poodle) And if we get her hair all shaved off, mine might just follow. The ever present debate...should I grow it out, or cut it off? Heavy decisions indeed.

Violets Are Blue

Thanks to our friends E and Di, a second window creation made it from Nova Scotia to Ontario. This window was created for John's daughter A, and our new SIL (son in law). A likes blue, so this window is predominately blue. Love that deep blue colour.

My original goal this year was to create one window per month. I'm behind my goal, and currently working on my 4th window. Two of my windows will be displayed in the upcoming fund raising art sale for Lunenburg's Second Story Women's Centre. I'm madly working on one of the windows now. I think it will be my best yet. I'll post photos soon.

This afternoon we're off to Chester to take a break from the sweltering heat here on the "farm". We'll be lunching on the deck...oceanside...heavenly.

Weekend On The Deck

Since this past weekend was the hottest weekend of the year, you might be picturing us having a lazy weekend sitting on the deck with drinks in our hands. But...we had no deck.So John's son G, daughter in law (DIL), and Miss M joined us for a deck building weekend. I feel it necessary to repeat that it was the hottest weekend of the year. Not a cloud in the sky. But we Harleys are troopers. I also should mention that the last time we did this, we were all 11 years younger. That fact did not seem significant to some of us at first, but as the weekend went on, it became evident that age does matter! Start of Day One:It was decided that the deck would be 10 feet wide by 40 feet long. There was some debate about making an L shape, but in the end I stuck with my original plan. We built it in 4 sections of 10 feet by 10 feet. Speaking of feet, here is what DIL considers protective footwear:We hung 28 joists, which meant we had to hammer in 56 joist hangers. There are 14 nail holes in each joist hanger. That means....DIL and I hammered in 784 nails!!End of Day One:It doesn't look like much progress, but all the holes were dug for the cement blocks holding the 4x4s, the existing laundry deck was removed from the house and a support post put in, 3 of the 10 x 10 boxes were made, and joists were hung in two of the boxes. Day Two was hotter than Day One, and we were drinking gallons of water. Here is the completion of the first 10 x 10 square:Yes, we broke child labour laws. Miss M wanted to help, and here she is pulling staples from the end of the deck boards. We had 90 deck boards, with 18 screws in each board. You know what that means? That means we screwed in 1620 screws!! The last screw nail goes in. But wait! We're short one deck board.So, we're not officially finished but close enough for celebrations. G collapses in the wheelbarrow (he did twice the work the rest of us did!)And "Baba" (aka John) jumps in the pool with Miss M:And what did I do to celebrate? I hit the shower and then sat on my new deck with a drink in my hand! Thank you, thank you to G and DIL (and Miss M too!) for their blood (DIL stepping on a rebar in her thongs), sweat (all of us sweating buckets) and tears (me lapsing into mild hysteria at pizza break on Day 2). We love you guys, and we love our new deck!

Autograph Hounds

We had fun getting our newly purchased CDs signed at the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival last weekend. This is one CD that we've had for several years, but brought it with us to the Festival on the last day to see if we could get Suzie to sign it.She did a rowsing rendition of "Oreo Cookie Blues" on Saturday (one of the songs on this CD)...just fantastic. Love her bluesie voice. Here I am with Suzie Vinnick:All of you Canadians might have heard Suzie's voice. At the end of most Tim Horton's commercials, there is a voice that sings "Always Tim Hortons"...that is Suzie!

We just had to buy the CD "New Canada Road" by Notre Dame de Grass...a bluegrass band. We live just off New Canada Road!Apparently Matt Large (the lead singer) has connections to the Lunenburg area. They have taken a bit of artistic license with the New Canada Road shot, but still....it seems it was meant to be that we have this cd! Here is John getting Matt to sign the cd:Notre Dame de Grass performing on the Wharf Stage:Last, but definitely not our least favourite is "porterdavis"......a Texas blues band. Mike Meadows (percussion, backup vocals) and Daniel Barrett (guitar and lead vocals) played together in Boston's subway system in their early days. They moved to Texas and named their band porterdavis after two of the subway stops so they would always remember where they came from.

Daniel Barrett signing the cd for John.

I am always a little reluctant to ask for signatures (but if you read the last post about Lennie Gallant, you'll know I have no problems hanging on to my Sharpie!), however the artists seem to like it and were all very friendly. Lots of fun!

Lennie Gallant, a Sharpie, and me

John caught me with my arm around another man at the festival. Not to worry, I did it with John's encouragement, and he caught me in a photo.

My absolute favourite performer from last weekend's Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival was Lennie Gallant. Lennie is one of Canada's top singer/songwriters and has been nominated for and won many Juno's (Canada's Grammies) and East Coast Music awards. His songs tells wonderful stories, and it's evident that he is socially conscious. Canadian astronaut Julie Payette took Lennie's cd "When We Get There" on the recent Mission STS-127 aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour .

And he's just a nice, down to earth guy. We purchased his newest CD "If We Had A Fire" (he has released 8 cds), at the festival and he signed it for us.Then he graciously posed for a couple of photos.Gosh, is my hair really that white?

So, here's the Sharpie story. We brought a Sharpie with us to the Festival, because we knew we'd be buying a few cd's, and we wanted to try to get them all signed (mission accomplished). It was a black Sharpie, and shows up rather nice on the cd insert, don't you think?

Lennie signed our cd cover, and then asked me where I got the Sharpie. I told him we brought it with us, and he said he was looking for a black one. So what did I say in response? No, I didn't say "Thanks so much for signing our cd and posing for our photos...why don't you have our Sharpie?". No, I didn't say "why don't you take our black Sharpie, and we'll take your blue Sharpie?". What did I say? "Sorry...we need to keep it because we're trying to get more signatures".

Duh. How stupid and ungracious I am. I cannot believe I said that. I'm very, very embarrassed and will never, ever live this story down. I'm sorry Lennie!

Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival

John and I spent 3 1/2 days in Lunenburg at the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival. We did return home for a quick sleep each night, and then back to Lunenburg for more fabulous music and sunshine by the ocean. This is just a brief overview of the venues...a couple more blogs coming this week about specific artists.There were many stages set up across the town of Lunenburg. Above is the Bandstand, with a natural amphitheatre and looking down towards the harbour. Below, my favourite location...the Wharf Stage. Suzie Vinnick was performing when I took this photo.And here is the view from the wharf up to the town....such a spectacular setting.The weather was cooperating for a change. Most of my visits to Lunenburg include rain or snow or fog. But the festival weekend was full of heat and sunshine. Here is the Mainstage, where the evening performances and the Sunday Gospel Concert are held:The Gospel Concert is one of the most popular events of the Festival. Here, Matt Large from Notre Dame de Grass leads the crowd. The Lunenburg crowd loves to participate, and the sound is amazing under the big tent. All the performers gathered on the stage with Lennie Gallant for the final Gospel performance.

I really don't have the words to describe how much we enjoyed our Festival passes. We had such a great time, and I was awestruck at all the talent we heard and saw. The Festival is going on my "must attend" list for next year!

Tomorrow: a story about Lennie Gallant, a sharpie, and me.

Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival

Balcony, Lunenburg

Last night was the start of the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival. We have festival passes, which means we'll be spending the next 3 days enjoying music and festivities in Lunenburg. The nightime program is the Mainstage Tent, high on the hill of Blockhouse Hill Road. The sunset was spectacular, the view to the harbour was lovely, and the music was hand clappin', foot stompin' good.

Favourites from last night:

Smokin' Contra Band, who describe themselves as "A Halifax-based lively traditional band playing an entertaining and foot-stomping assortment of old-timey fiddle tunes, jigs and reels with a whisper of bluegrass."

And... Notre Dame de Grass, a blue grass band. John still can't believe I love bluegrass. He thinks that people from hoity toity London, Ontario would fall over if they knew I was a blue grass fan.

Take a walk with me

We have approximately 15 acres of hay that we don't use. We don't have any farm animals, or any haying equipment. We can't even give the hay away because we can't find anyone who wants to cut it and take it away. This year, we're having some fun with our hayfields. John has been cutting some paths through the fields. This photo is down one of the paths, looking up towards our house: We have a bench sitting beside the island of trees that runs about half way through the hay field.

The view from the bench on a cloudy day. The trees are to the right, and behind is lots more hay field. Around the bend,Walking along the path, the trees and rock pile are to your right. The rock pile is about 10 feet high, 30 feet wide and very, very long.Imagine the original homesteaders picking all those thousands of rocks from the fields. Our 78 year old neighbour remembers being a boy and seeing the "oldtimers" using oxen to pull the rocks from the field.Back up to the house...we've finished the loop of one of our paths!

Touring the Lighthouse Route

It was a long weekend in Canada. In Ontario, the holiday Monday is the Civic Holiday. Here in Nova Scotia it's called Natal Day. Regardless, a long weekend is pretty much the same as any other day when you're "retired". Saturday we went to the South Shore Exhibition and enjoyed all the sights and sounds. George Canyon was performing and put on a great show.

Yesterday we headed out to explore some of the Lighthouse Route between Petite Riviere and Voglers Cove. We turned left on just about every road and headed towards the ocean to see what we found. One of our stops was at Broad Cove. I'm not sure how we missed this beach before, but we found it this time. No swimming for Cassie (her wounds have not fully healed yet) but we'll visit again.This photo is looking from the beach towards some fishing stages that are being converted into cottages. Along the road in Cherry Hill there is a large pond with thousands of pink waterlilies. They are spectacular, but not captured very well in my photo. Believe me, they are beautiful.It was much colder at the Cherry Hill Beach and I put on my sweatshirt when I got out of the car.The black spot in the water at the left of the photo below is a wader. Her partner was swimming a little further out. Brrr.We've made several visits to Voglers Cove over the past 12 months and it's interesting to see the changes. Funny, every time I blog about Voglers Cove I receive an email from someone who grew up there and is longing to move back. I can understand why. I love my new home province.