The leaves - they are a'turnin'

Well it looks like Fall (Autumn) is rapidly approaching. The leaves are beginning to change colour and fall to the ground. There is a definite chill in the air at night and, horror of horrors, we had to put the heating on yesterday! Anyway, this is truly a spectacular time of year and I'll have to take loads of photos to prove that Nova Scotia is as good as New England at this time of year! I was driving to work the other morning and there wasn't a breath of wind. The sun was shining, the autumn colours were reflected off the lake on my to work, the lake was like a sheet of glass and there was a slight mist rising from the waters surface. Idyllic is the only word for it.
Anyway, back to our week - a busy one again, things are getting started up again for the new season.
Deborah has a new vocation - she is the new Welcome Wagon representative for Waverley/Fall River. Welcome Wagon is an organisation that visits new members to the community, with a basket of gifts and offers from local companies. It's a flexible job which means she can fit it around school hours. She has her first visit on Monday!
Emma had her fiddle lesson on Tuesday afternoon and appears to be doing well. She'd be so good if she practiced more, which she is getting better at. There's a big Celtic Music Festival coming up in Cape Breton, maybe she'll appear there one day!!
Cubs restarted on Wednesday evening. It was a bit chaotic with not a lot planned, but we had a planning meeting afterwards and decided on the things we'd like to do this year. Muggins here is one of the new leaders and I managed to persuade one of the other dads that he'd love to do it as well! We're supposed to be going on a training course on Tuesday and again next weekend (camping!) but we'll see if there are enough volunteers. They need 6 to run the course, so fingers crossed.
Thursday night is of course Toastmasters which went well. We had a committee meeting afterwards which dragged on a bit. Much discussion on the new website and who's going to host it. The current host is very cheap and a community site which needs support, but it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, so we're considering a domain name. Look out for the redesigned site in the next few weeks (there's a link to the club site to the right). I have put in loads of hours sorting it out and I think it looks excellent, but as they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder! I'm just keen to get it posted and in use!
Thursday night is also Emma's sewing class. Apparently she's making a Quillow....(no idea before you ask) and a pair of Pyjama bottoms. We suggested she make a pair for her brother's Christmas, but we'll see.
Saturday was the Women's Expo at Exhibition Park. Deborah took Emma along, I dropped them off and wandered around Bayers Lake for a while. Matthew stayed behind at Spencer's and played in the woods, watched a bit of TV and generally ran riot (as he and Spencer do). The Rolling Stones were in town last night playing a concert on the Commons. It actually rained for the entire time they were on stage, but I don't think this put anyone off. Needless to say it was all people were talking about today at the Annual 'Word on the Street' Festival.
It's an event totally devoted to anything literary. There were loads of book stalls, a timetable of local authors and poets doing readings, face painting and learn to draw sessions for the kids. Toastmasters were involved introducing the authors/poets and we also had an information booth. I volunteered to help, and was manning the info booth for most of the day. I've already said that next year I'll do one of the stages for them. It was a great event, and one of our Toastmasters members who is also an author, did a reading from one of her books. I bought a couple of her books and she kindly signed them for me. One is on tales of Pirates and Privateers in Atlantic Canada and the other is on the Halifax Explosion. Well worth a read, both of them.
Deborah would have taken Matthew & Emma, but they had a Cub event - the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. They were picking up litter along the banks of one of the local rivers. As you might've guessed, Matthew and his friend Riley both ended up in the river up to their chests in water - fully clothed of course! Sadly Deborah didn't have her camera. I'll see if Akela had hers and if so, get a couple of pics from her.
It was interesting driving back from the Word on the Street. The sea mist had rolled in, I'd stopped and picked up a 'Perks' coffee and I was driving back along the Bedford Highway and it just came over me how much I love this City. There is so much going on, the people are so welcoming and there is so much to see. Strange that I should feel like that after only 9 months here....Have a great week.

Back to Normal

Well all our visitors have now departed. Mum & Dad had a wonderful week with us and arrived home safe but tired on Thursday. The flight home was horrendous. The leg room on their return Air Transat flight was minimal...However, they made it and now vow to upgrade next time they come out!
Anyway we had a lovely time with them, taking them to a few places. We went to Peggy's Cove on Monday which was lovely though VERY busy. We arrived after lunch and got clobbered by 4 coachloads of old people (mainly Americans). However, we managed to get a seat and had a nice lunch in the Sou'Wester restaurant, then a pleasant drive home via Prospect. They loved Peggy's Cove, and it was the first time I'd been there this summer, so it was nice for me too!
On Wednesday we drove out to Mount Uniacke Estate. Owned by Nova Scotia Museums, it is a country mansion complete with original fittings and furnishings. It was beautiful, not only the house and grounds, but the weather as well. It was very quiet, and so the guide actually took us around and spent a lot of time explaining a lot of features and things that had gone on in the house. Highly recommended, especially at $3 a head to get in (we were free with our Museum Card) or $2 for Seniors. Then it was a final lunch at Tim Hortons, before home to finish packing. I then discovered it was registration night at Cubs. I thought I should be there as I'm going to be a leader this year (assuming I get the security clearance!). I didn't stay long as I had to get home to take Mum & Dad to the Airport for their 00:55 flight. Very sad to see them go and wish they had been here longer. However, they can now visualise everything we talk about, know what we mean when we say we've been to Tim Hortons and hopefully understand our reasons for moving here in the first place.
Thursday saw me back at work and catching up with emails - nowhere near as many as I used to get at Lyneham! And then before I knew it, it was the weekend again. The weather was fantastic, glorious sunshine and warm. We got woken at 7.30am by Spencer (next door's little boy) talking on the walkie-talkie - the partner of which happened to be in Matthew's bedroom! - so much for a Matthew having a lie-in. We then spent most of the day in the garden, walked the dog to next door's new house lot and then had a BBQ in the evening. Sunday again dawned warm and sunny, I decided to go out on my bike and cycled up to Enfield and back - about 20km - and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then in the afternoon, Deborah took the children to see Drum! - a show in town, and I wandered along the waterfront and went to the Museum of the Atlantic, which has a couple of excellent exhibits on the Titanic and the Halifax Explosion.
It was a TV night last night - new series called Studio 60 on Sunset Strip which was very good. Then it was followed by the final of Canadian Idol, which saw Eva Avila win. Well deserved in my opinion. We'll be seeing a lot more of her in the years ahead. Finally it was Season Premier of Amazing Race. 12 couples race around the world to win a prize of $1,000,000. Two couples got eliminated on the first show, which was unexpected. Sunday night looks like it might be a good telly night, so I'll have to make sure the blog gets written beforehand!
I've also spent a lot of time creating the new website for our Toastmasters club. We're hoping to go live in the next couple of weeks. You'll see the new site linked to the right of this page. You might like to check out the old site and then compare....

Mixed Emotions

Well it's been an eventful week and as the title says, one of mixed emotions. We were very sad to say farewell to Patrick, Andrea & Mitchell. We had a great 10 days with them, and I hope they enjoyed themselves as much as we did having them. They departed Thursday evening and Mum & Dad arrived Thursday lunchtime. It was such a relief seeing them appear through the international arrivals door! The flight was nowhere near as bad as they were expecting, the worst aspect being Gatwick! (no surprise there!). Work have given me a few days off while they are here, so we'll be able to go places and see things! We had a drive around a few neighbourhoods on Friday morning, followed by lunch at Tim Hortons (where else!). Then in the afternoon, we collected Matthew and headed downtown to see the flypasts which were taking place over the harbour as a taster of the Nova Scotia International Airshow which is on this weekend. Deborah & Emma didn't come as Emma had to be taken to a birthday party at 6pm. Anyway, we had a nice walk along the harbourfront boardwalk, stopped for Fish & Chips in the Harbour Marketplace and of course had to stop off for a beavertail....We saw a few flypasts, but the most impressive was the C17 Globemaster.
Wednesday saw the children back at school with a new teacher - Miss Crowell. Strict but fair I think is a good way to describe her! Matthew & Emma both like her, so that's a result. However, neither of them have been set any homework yet, so we'll see if their opinion changes.
Saturday was a glorious day, 25 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We decided to have a quiet day at home and spent most of it in the garden. Patrick had helped me finish lifting the turf from the boomerang shaped flowerbed at the front of the house. We decided to finish the bed by laying the edging stones, digging it over and putting in the extra topsoil. As it happens the digging over turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. The amount of stones was unbelievable. As you can see from the picture, it's looking pretty good, but all those large stones were dug up in the process! We had a couple of barrowloads of smaller ones that ended up lining the stormdrain...We also split the day lilies and transplanted a few of them. I think it's looking great, now if only Bella would stay off it....This is a photo I took of Bella last week. Isn't she looking great? We then had planked salmon eaten outside on the deck (I suspect days for doing this are drawing to a close) and rounded off the day with a walk down to the Ice Cream shop.
Today was a bit overcast, but we felt we should do something. As it happens, it was the 16th Annual 50 Miles of Yard Sales taking place in the Musquodoboit valley. Why not we thought. So we set off and stopped at a fair few stalls selling what amounted to unwanted tat, but we did get a couple of bargains. One stall was selling costumes in aid of the Scout Jamboree. The stallholders brother used to own a costume hire shop, had closed down, and donated all the costumes to be sold. We got a great costume of a werewolf for Matthew and a rabbit for Emma. Not sure about the mask on Matthew's costume, but the black hairy suit is excellent! Must get some black hairy gloves to cover his hands! He's therefore sorted for halloween, but we're not sure about Emma. Though it has to be said, meeting that white rabbit in the middle of the night is enough to give anyone nightmares! Curse of the wererabbit comes to mind!
At $5 per suit, it was an absolute bargain, especially as she threw in a double headed axe (made of foam) with Matthew's costume. Mum & Dad bought a hanmade wooden kitchen roll holder, brand new and again only $5, we had a nice lunch at Reids Bakery in Middle Musquodoboit and drove home via Lawrencetown, where we stopped briefly to watch a surfing competition in progress.
As for me I had my first Toastmasters meeting of the season on Thursday evening which was a great success. The new Executive had to be sworn in and of course that includes me as Vice President Education. Quite an important position and one that I feel is going to demand my full attention until i get into the swing of things. I'm also redoing the club website which i will link to once it is complete and I'm happy with it! Apparently there is an award for best website, which I think would be great to win! Fingers crossed. Just need to learn Javascript....
We're planning to do the Harbour Hopper tour , Peggy's Cove and maybe the South Shore this week, but we'll see. Mum & Dad leave Wednesday evening, so we can't do everything this visit. There's always next year....

Visitors

Our latest visitors (Patrick, Andrea & Mitchell) are here and having a great time (I hope!). Another excuse to go visit the many attractions within Nova Scotia. Deborah went with them up to the Annapolis Valley to visit Kentville and Wolfville. Both very attractive places. Mitchell, their little boy was made up when they passed a fire station and were invited in to look at all the engines! They also took a drive along to Lunenburg and Mahone Bay (as you do), spent a day downtown where Pat had an inteview with a recruitment firm and then they all went on the Harbour Hopper - a guided tour of Halifax in a DUKW amphibious vehicle. One day this week they will drive along to Peggy's Cove (as you do!). The weather since they've been here has been good except for today (Labour Day Holiday) which is typical. I had one of my rare days off! Bit like Bank Holidays in the UK - hasn't stopped raining. Luckily the rest of the weekend was lovely. Saturday was spent downtown where we had Beavertail pastries and Cows Ice Cream - both a must have when in town. We then returned home and Patrick helped me finish digging out the rest of the turf from the new flowerbed. (Thanks Pat!!). Just need to edge it and fill in with soil.
The yesterday we went to Ross Farm Museum which had a family participation day. Matthew helped out in the Blacksmiths shop, they both made spinning tops and we watched a cooper at work making barrels. Very interesting. The photos were taken there.
We then took a long drive home via some rural areas that have cheap waterfront lots for sale, stopped for some lunch (medicinal chips) and then home. As I said, today was pretty dreary so spent at home pottering. Our lodger (who moved out last weekend) came by this afternoon with his family. They arrived safely on Thursday and they move into their house tomorrow, so exciting times for them.
Tuesday sees Matthew & Emma finding out who their new teacher and classmates are and then Wednesday sees the end of the 10 week school holiday and them both back at school for the new term. To be honest the holiday has gone much faster than anticipated, though I think Deborah might disagree! It'll be back to the old routine of getting them up and breakfasted and out the door to the bus by 8am. Oh joy....
Excitingly, my Mum & Dad arrive on Thursday lunchtime and I have a few days off work while they are here. Really looking forward to it. However that is also the day that Patrick, Andrea and Mitchell leave, so definitely a day of mixed emotions. Oh and it's my first Toastmasters meeting of the year as well....Busy week....