Random Saturday

Since yesterday's Friday funny was pretty lame, I thought I'd try to make it up with a better one.  Who doesn't love Maxine?  I aspire to be her someday...or a little more like her anyway.

We had a Bat Cave Day on Thursday at the office.  There are about 40 of us who are currently working in the lower level of the office.  The ceiling height isn't much more than 7 feet, the windows have been covered in film so that no one passing by can see the computer screens or paper work on the desks, and the old desks have 5 1/2 foot panels that are dark blue.  Hence the "Bat Cave" moniker.

Many people were dressed as heroes and villains from Bat Man - I stuck with basic black and said I was Super Mom, since I've had to rescue my children on more than one occasion.  :)

At lunch we had potluck and it always amazes me the variety of food.  There were meatballs and chicken wings, chili and stuffed peppers (pumpkin faces carved into the pepper), deviled eggs, vegetables, fruit, and OMG the desserts.

These are not mine, but the ones I made looked very similar.  They're basically deviled eggs with a bit of green food coloring, and a sliced olive on top - they are called Eye of Newts.  There were three batches of these, I'm assuming we all googled the same Halloween recipes.

We had lots of visitors from the other floors, to check out the decorations and costumes....and to grab a treat or two as well.

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I haven't been blogging much lately and commenting has been sporadic as well.  Work has been busy and I've been working on a project here at home as well so there hasn't been much computer time lately.

My cousin B's daughter will be having her first child in February.  When I started work on this sweater they hadn't learned the gender of the baby so I went with yellow....though I must admit I was happy to hear she's having a little girl since the pattern is so lacy.



When this photo was taken, I still had to finish the edging up the front sides and around the neck.  I'd put it aside to work on the first booty.  I've since finished the second booty, completed the edging, and ripped back and re-knit a sleeve as I discovered I'd dropped a stitch.  *Head slap*

I took up knitting again last January after many, many years.  My aunt Mae had taught me as a child but I'd given it up for crocheting because knitting takes more time. (at least for me).

This is the first lace pattern I've ever completed and I'll admit I found it difficult at times.  The sweater is knit from the neck down (no seams to sew!) and I probably restarted it five times before I finally got it started properly.  And then I got into to the lace pattern and that took some re-doing as well.  There is one mistake that I'm aware of, though I don't know I could find it, so I'm hopeful no one else will spot it.

I've making a cap as well; it's on the needles right now and I'm hoping to get the knitting done this weekend.  I need to find three small buttons to finish the sweater and then will mail it off to B.  I'm won't be sorry to see it complete, as I've gone ahead and purchased a bunch more yarn...socks for my children for Christmas, Christmas ornaments for my staff, and I found a pattern for a cat bed.  I'm not saying which Christmas I'd planning to have these done....

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While out in the Maritimes I picked up a print from a local artist at the Wolfville Farmers Market.  I had dropped it off at Michaels for framing a couple of weeks ago, and picked it up last weekend.  I've tried to get a decent photograph of it, but the light just isn't right.

I had it framed with three mats, including the red as there is bit of red in the church (too difficult to see here, you'll have to take my word for it.)  I'm really pleased with how it turned out and it's lovely reminder of a great trip.

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We had our first bit of snow last weekend though it didn't last.  Today the temperature is up around 9C (48F) which is lovely for the little trick or treaters.  There are lots of homes in the neighbourhood decorated with lights and blow-up critters, pumpkins and the like.  By comparison, my little plastic jack-o-lantern (it plugs in) looks rather cheap...but it will have to do.  I'm not sure how many children we'll get but with it being Saturday I've bought extra and will simply turn out the lights if I run out.

Today I called to make my appointment to have the winter tires put on the car.  They're booked solid until mid-November.  I've booked an appointment for November 20...so cross your fingers that we don't get a lot of snow (or sleet) before then.

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Have a wonderful rest of the weekend everyone!

Friday Funny

Friday Funny

I'm exercising my right...how about you?

Today is a day I've had circled on my calendar for more than a year.  It is the day that I, and my fellow Canadians exercise our right to vote to decide who will form the next government.

All signs are pointing to a minority government, where no one party will hold power, and which of the three major parties that might be is still a crap shoot.

I know who I don't want in power.  Being a cog in the wheel of the federal government during the "Harper"* government regime, I've seen services to Canadians erode as budgets for departmental and agency spending were cut or frozen, and thousands of civil servants lost their jobs.  I know that for many, this sounded like a good thing.  Smaller government meant less government spending.  But we no longer have the same level of protection in our food inspection agency, scientists have been muzzled, and services to seniors and veterans have been reduced or eliminated.  At the same time, the size of the Prime Minister's office grew.  

Pensions for public servants have been targeted as "gold-plated" and ordinary citizens saw the age for old age security benefits increased from 65 to 67.  In the meantime, MP's and ministers are eligible for a full pension after only 6 years in government.  And don't get me started on the Senate scandal!

In any event, I'll be voting tomorrow as I have in every election since I reached the age of eighteen, Tomorrow will be the first time for my son, who will be 28 in less than a week.  This is the first time he's paid any attention to a campaign.  It seems this time around more Canadians than ever are engaged...if advance polling numbers are any indication.

To all my fellow Canadians, please vote!  Whatever your choice, it is the most important exercise you'll do today.

*How arrogant is that, to insist that the leader's name be used?  I'm hopeful that by the end of the day I'll be proudly working, once again for Canadians and their choice of government.

Friday Funny

Happy Thanksgiving

I may be late posting, but I still want to wish all my Canadian readers a Happy Thanksgiving!

However you chose to spend the day I hope it was a good one.   

Homeward bound - Day 16 and the week that was

It's taken me nearly 5 full days to even think about this post.  I'll blame it on a little jet lag, a cold that is still hanging on, and getting back to work.  I've been going to be by 8 p.m. most nights and waking up at 4 a.m. but instead of getting up I've been staying in bed trying to get a bit more sleep.  Last night was the best...I slept through until 5:20 a.m., ten minutes before my alarm went off.

We arrived in Toronto about 11 p.m., and just 15 minutes after our previous flight to Regina had left.  Sigh...just 30 minutes earlier and we probably would have made it home.  We, along with about 20-30 other people headed to the customer care desk to get our vouchers for the hotels.  Oops, someone somewhere forgot to let them know we would be coming in so while one individual called the hotels to get blocks of rooms, the other staff (about 4 of them) busily assigned us to the various hotels and rescheduled flights.  Since I'd called, the fellow helping us only had to print our boarding passes, and vouchers, and send us off to the shuttle area.  There we waited for our hotel shuttle, arriving at the hotel just after midnight.

Both K and I had our own rooms, and I know I slept well for the five hours we had before we caught the shuttle at 6 a.m. back to the airport. This flight went off without at hitch, and in fact we arrived home 25 minutes early!  K's partner J was there at the airport and drove me home, which was very kind of him.

I was quite concerned about K as she was not feeling well, her breathing was quite shallow and I had noted that her nail beds were turning purple.  I felt she wasn't getting sufficient oxygen and suggested to J that he needed to take her to the hospital.  She's a stubborn woman though and refused.  On Monday evening, one of our co-workers called the house and J told her K was sleeping, had been the doctor and was home on oxygen and heavy meds.

Today, the same co-worker learned that she is in the hospital and went to visit.  G says K sounds much better and even checked her nail beds for the color.  I suspect, and I'm sure K will deny it, she should be on oxygen all the time.  She's been diagnosed with an immune issue and because her lungs are "crappy" (her term) she tends to catch every bug, and even when not sick she coughs continuously.  When she's on oxygen the coughing stops.  But I'm not a doctor and I certainly don't play one on television so hopefully this time the doctors will convince her to stay home until she is completely over this latest illness.

I hit the ground running at work on Monday and I feel like I haven't stopped yet.  Maybe tomorrow as a lot of people will be taking the day off so they have a four day long weekend (Thanksgiving is on Monday for we Canadians).   Few people in the office which should mean fewer interruptions!   This past week went something like this:  Monday was interview day, Tuesday I tried to catch up on e-mails and messages, Wednesday and today were meetings and conference calls.  It's also the start of our charitable campaign and while my involvement this year is significantly reduced, I am still the treasurer so met with the chairperson three times over the past few days to collect funds that were raised from various events.

I'm looking forward to the weekend!  I did manage to get some housework done last Sunday (laundry, dishes, bought groceries, unpacking, etc.) but the upstairs hasn't been vacuumed since I left, and with the three cats, there is a teeny tiny ...okay a lot of cat hair floating around.  I'm having my daughter, her boyfriend and his buddy over either Sunday or Monday for Thanksgiving.  I really don't have to clean much because I know how they live, but will make a bit of an effort. :)

That pretty much catches you up with the goings on of the week.  I've yet to read many blogs but I'm not going to worry about it.  Please know I do try to drop by, but may not leave a comment.

Hope you all had a great week thus far!

Middleton to Halifax - Day 15

Today (which will be yesterday by the time this posts) was to be our last day.  We got up late and went for breakfast before clearing out our motel rooms and heading down the road.  Since our flight was not scheduled until 6:30 p.m., we took the scenic route for most of our trip into Halifax.

Along the way we stopped in Kentville, which apparently is known as the home of the pumpkin people.

We found several, including these ones by a huge Adirondack chair outside a motel.  They seemed to be pointing us down the street where we found several more.

This was rather inventive, the pirate ships and pirates.  I wanted the photo from a different angle but a car was in the way.

From Kentville, we drove on a few kilometers to Wolfville, where I'd read they were holding a pumpkin palooza at the farmer's market.  The trip to Kentville was spur of the moment but the farmer's market was on our list of things to do on our way into the airport.

It did not disappoint.

 These are just a few of the pumpkins that were creatively carved or decorated.  I didn't bother to vote, as I couldn't decide which one I liked best.

We left Wolfville in heavy rain and drove into Windsor where we stopped at Lisa's Cafe for lunch.  Then it was on Halifax to drop off the rental car and check in at the airport.  We arrived just around 3 p.m.

So far, so good...should have know it couldn't last.  We were through security and waiting for our flight to be called when it was announced we would delayed by half an hour.  Not a problem as we had a three hour layover in Toronto.  A half hour later, we were told it would be at least an hour, and then we were offered food vouchers.  Not a good sign.

Shortly thereafter we were told we would be transferred to two flights leaving at 9:45 and 9:50 p.m. both of which will arrive in Toronto after our flight to Regina leaves.  Thus we'll be guests in Toronto of Air Canada and will pick up our baggage and hotel vouchers there.  I've since spoken with customer care and we're re-booked onto the 8 a.m. flight out of Toronto to Regina tomorrow morning.

J's flight to London departs Halifax at midnight this evening.  It's a 6 hour flight, say an hour to get her luggage and through customs, then a two hour drive home.  At this rate, she'll be home before we are.  But at least it is the going home and not the getting here that is causing the problems.

Have a great day everyone!

Hopewell Rocks to Middleton, Annnapolis Royal - Day 13 & 14

We left Hopewell Rocks on Thursday morning, shortly after breakfast.  It rained off and off throughout our travels which took us near but not into Moncton, then over to Nova Scotia.  We didn't see any of the flooding in the Moncton area - I think we were rather fortunate as we missed the really heavy rain they received (and Halifax too).

I'm posting both Thursday and Friday as one day because we only had one photo opportunity on our drive.  It was just too wet and miserable to make any roadside stops.  We did grab a bite to eat in Windsor, at the Spitfire Pub.

Unfortunately, we've been a week or two too early for the really beautiful fall colors.  Even so there were spots where the colors were definitely starting.  I guess it is a reason to come back again someday.

On Friday, it was raining again so J and I left K back at the hotel while we drove from Middleton to Annapolis Royal.  She's not been feeling well either, and called home to have her partner make a doctor's appointment for her on our return.  Oh, that reminds me, I heard from C's husband and she has a serious ear infection, lots of fluid in her ears, so much that the doctor has suggested it could take up to 3 months to clear!  I'm not certain she could have gotten so ill in just a few days with us, so suspect it's been building over the last few weeks as she's been dealing with the sale of her father's home and effects, while settling him in the nursing home.  In addition, there was  a wedding, and all the requisite events to attend so I'm guessing she was run down, tired, and susceptible.  Poor girl!

The draw in Annapolis Royal is the historic gardens.  They are absolutely worth the drive for the visit...we stayed on the secondary/scenic highway so it took us a little longer.  The gardens were created in the late 70's/early 80's when the federal government gave the town $720,000 for development after the failure of the fishing industry shut down much of the economy.

We arrived just fifteen minutes before a guided tour was to start.  We learned the gardens have plants spanning 400 years of gardening, as well as some exotics and current experiments.  One of my favorite are the purple peppers.

I asked the guide what they tasted like and he said he hadn't tried them yet, thought they might be sweet peppers.  They are definitely pretty.

I could not recall what this was, but thankfully J is still here and has told me it is an Amaranthus (Love lies bleeding plant)  Apparently the seeds are quite edible and it is a source of food in India and South America.

I love the color and this is the photo that is set up as my screen saver.







This was another experiment at the gardens, a rice paddy!  Our guide explained that one of the local farmers had successfully grown rice in paddies nearby so the gardens were giving it a try.



More photos from the gardens....

 There were several varieties of dahlia growing in the knot garden.  This yellow one, was nearly the size of a dinner plate.

 Throughout the garden there were interesting pieces of sculpture.  This was my favorite.  I'd love to tuck something like this in my front flower bed.

 I've heard of, but never seen four o'clocks before.  These were in annuals garden.

The guide explained that in the spring the gardeners, of which there are seven full-time, create the plans for the garden, then use wooden templates that are placed over the flower beds and allow elementary children (ages 9-11 or so) to plant to the beds.

What a great opportunity to encourage children to garden!

Also on the grounds of the garden is a replica Acadian house.  The French inhabited this area in the mid 1700's, and began farming by using dike lands.  This was apparently a quicker way to make the land ready for farming.

Off the side of the house was a clay oven for baking bread, and behind the house was the garden.





After leaving the gardens we continued down to the street to the German bakery.  OMG, the smell was totally amazing; I don't know how anyone could live nearby without stopping to eat there.  I had the best sandwich I've had the entire trip; a homemade salami on a multi-grain kaiser with lettuce, tomato, onion, and mayo.  And of course, after lunch we had to buy a treat from the bakery, a ginger snap for J, a coconut cookie for K, and a jam filled cookie for me dipped in chocolate.  Yummy!

On the way out of Annapolis Royal, we took a drive down the wharf.  This is the view across the river...the rain was coming in and fast.

We headed back to the motel in Middleton arriving in time for a short rest before dinner.  K was feeling a little better after having rested most of the day.




We had a great dinner at the Restaurant Pasta Jax, then called it a night.  I watched a bit of football on television before heading for bed.

Today, is the last day of our vacation and a travel day. It's getting longer by the minute, but I'll share that in the next post.

Hope you all had a wonderful day!

Day 12 - Hopewell Rocks

Today I'll let the pictures tell most of the story....

Taken upon our arrival at the park, around 9:15 a.m.

11:40 a.m. shortly after our guided tour and a refreshing cup of tea

Approximately 11;55 a.m.

About 12:10  p.m. - just a few people still down on the beach

Just about 12:25 - there was still a sliver of beach left in Stair Cove

It was being watched by the sweeper (our guide Fran).  She didn't stay there long.

12:40 p.m. - no beach left!

12:55 p.m. the rise wasn't quite as noticeable since the beach was filled.

At around 1:10 p.m. it was quite different so perhaps my timing on the photos was off.

Definitely less daylight at 1:25 p.m.

Still less at 1:40 p.m.

Just a sliver of daylight showing at 1:55 p.m.

But apparently still enough room for the kayakers to come through shortly after 2 p.m.

The water was to reach a peak of 46.8 or 47.6 meters (depending on the guide you spoke with).  Just to give you some perspective, the height of the arch is approximately 18 feet, and it was nearly filled up in approximately 2.5 hours.  We were told it would rise approximately 8 feet every hour and it was pretty close.  The tides come in, and out twice daily, about every 6.5 hours.  This is the highest tides in 18 years (which I think I mentioned yesterday) so we were thrilled to be there at just the right time.

Please note the times are approximate, I meant to take a photo every 15 minutes but I got distracted (as I often do) and either shot too early or too late.  I also tried to take them from a similar perspective but there were lots of people on the viewing platform and I occasionally had to give way to someone else to get a picture. :)   Even so, I think you get the idea...it was an awesome sight to see in person.  

Just a couple more posts remaining before we head home.  Today we had a great drive down to Annapolis Royal, and tomorrow we'll be stopping in Wolfville on our way to Halifax for our flights later in the day.  This province is so full of things to do I'm sure we could stay another two weeks and still miss out on some things.  

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Hopewell Rocks - Day 12

I plan to set this up to post while I'm still sleeping, so perhaps I'll finally get caught up on the blog posting.  As for reading, I'm so far behind I doubt I'll ever truly catch up but should have some time this evening.  It was a full day, we had an early dinner and K is wiped out and sleeping already so I have some time to myself.

This was our view of the sunrise this morning from the back yard of the hotel.  Gorgeous!  Although it was cloudy, the rain held off all day.

We arrived at Hopewell Rocks shortly after 9 a.m., just an hour and a half after low tide.

K and I headed down the stairs to join the guided tours.  J chose to stay at the top, stairs are not her friend but she had a great time chatting with other tourists and watching the tour buses disgorge their passengers.
When we got back after the tour she regaled us with several funny stories.

 This photo and the next are the rocks above from the bay side.  We were able to walk several meters past the rocks and get quite a different perspective.

From the other side, you can see the lovers arch, and the bear rock, but from this view point, they appear more like sentinels on the beach.

 I've got the next two photos out of order but I'm tired of fighting with blogger.

This is the final cove called Diamond Cove.  The rocks to the right have fallen from the cliffs above.  You may be able to see a blue rope or cable in the lower right hand.  We were warned not to go past this section due to the dangerous conditions.

This is Castle cove, though the castle no longer exists..it it the pile of rocks beyond the blue cable.  In 2008, a tourist from Baton Rouge caught the fall on video and provided it to the park.  Our guide showed us the video on her IPad.  The rock to the left is called the apple rock, though as a Canadian and a curling fan I think it looks more like a curling rock/stone.

This is another view of Diamond Cove (I think).  It is at the end of the trail and there is rock between it and Castle cove called 6 minute rock.  It has that name because when the rock is surrounding by water, those visiting have 6 minutes to make their way to the the next cover.

The photos below were taken about 5-10 minutes apart.






K and I took no chances and headed back (since the tour was finished and headed back to the starting point of our tour.

We continued past the lover's arch around the bend to the original flower pots.  These rocks were so named by Robert Ripley of Ripley's Believe it or Not in 1936.

We headed up to the top of the path, back to the Lower Tide Cafe to meet J for a cup of tea.  Then it was time to go watch the tide waters come in.  I will do a separate post for the time lapse photos I took about every fifteen minutes from 12:40 to 2:20 p.m.  It's just too awesome and deserves to be seen in order...so I need time and patience to put that together (as well as edit the photos).

I will though share the last photo I took at high tide.  For perspective, compare it to the second photo in this post which was taken shortly after 9 a.m.

Amazing isn't it!

We left Hopewell Rocks then and went searching for a couple of covered bridges nearby.  I'd checked the covered bridge map the night before and written out the directions...all went well.

The first bridge we visited is the Sawmill Creek bridge located just past the small community of Shepody.  We'd passed it the night before on our way to dinner so knew it wouldn't be hard to find.

It was rebuilt in 1905 after a massive storm took out the old bridge in 1896.  For a 110 year old bridge it was in great shape, though it hasn't been used in the late 1990's when the new highway was built.

From there we headed back past our hotel towards the small community of Hillsborough.  We had talked to someone at the Rocks who told us to take the highway 910, which was great because my directions didn't include this information!

A short 4 kilometer drive down this secondary highway we came to the Hartley-Steeves bridge and were thrilled to discover we could actually drive through it.

It was a busy road, we saw at least four vehicles come through in the five or ten minutes we were there.  Luckily we found a spot to pull off on the side of the road, and I expect the locals are used to finding silly tourists taking photos of the bridge and the vehicles on it quite regularly.

On the same highway we came across this tree.  As you've likely noted, we seem to be a bit early for the full fall colors  We're told the best time would have been early October....so perhaps we'll see more as the week progresses.  But this tree/these trees were simply stunning!








We drove back into Hillsborough for an early supper at the Apple Blossom Cafe.  What a fun experience!  Run by three sisters, two retired school teachers, the third a part-time worker at a seniors care home, the place was homey, full of laughter and stories, and good food to boot!  I'd found it by researching places to eat near Hopewell Rocks on Trip Advisor.  It's only open Weds. through Sun. until 6 p.m. so was the timing was right.  I had Kelli's club panini (named after the cook who wasn't working this evening), J had the triple decker club sandwich, and K had the lobster roll.  She said it was even better than the one she'd had last week in Lunenberg.

It was a wonderful day, I think the best one of the trip!  J says I say that every day and she's probably right.  I never forget how lucky I am to be able to travel and today is one of those days I'll be forever grateful to have experienced.

Tomorrow we're heading back into Nova Scotia to the Annapolis Valley.  We're staying in Middleton and plan to relax some while we're there. Though we do have plans to visit Annapolis Royal, we're wait until the rain has passed through.  Tonight we should get the majority of it here in New Brunswick but it likely will continue until Friday.

Have a wonderful day everyone!