Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Animal days of August

Cats in relaxing mode
Dog days of August
A beautiful sunny, breezy afternoon at the beach house so the animals and this human are living in the moment. Cool tiles under foot in the veranda and the million dollar view. ahhh. But enough bragging from a semi retired soul. It's been a while since an update but that doesn't mean I have nothing to report, simply that I've been enjoying the brief maritime summer to the fullest. DId you know that I've been able to enjoy wild raspberries, blueberries and blackberries  as I walked down the driveway this week from retrieving the newspaper? 

Three of us enjoyed the Magic Winery Bus Tour and yes, it did live up to it's advertisements. We had an uneventful drive to Wolfville and caught the 10:30 departure and wandered our way back to the Blomidon Inn after 4 pm so a full and fun day. Certainly well worth the ticket and we were joined by some other semi retired local nurses with a connection to one of our party, making us five in total who managed to climb our way to the top of the double decker bus all day. Of the four wineries we visited, the consensus was that Gaspereau was the most fun, generous and had the best buys,  Grand Pre was the least to our taste and a bit uppity, we enjoyed the tour and staff at l'Acadie but only found one vintage drinkable and Lucketts was as one would expect from entrepreneur Pete Luckett. - a beautiful view of the valley, great restaurant for lunch, a phone booth in the vineyard and lots of fun staff. The bus tour provided more talks and perks than just arriving by yourself and it was a great way to spend the day. We were back at the inn and able to enjoy afternoon tea, shop at their very unique gift shop and settle in to our expansive suite before the rain began. Downtown Wolfville offers a number of culinary experiences and we chose The Naked Crepe, making it take out and settling in to our cozy suite to enjoy a donair and a chicken cordon bleu as main courses and fresh lemon curd and whipped cream dessert crepes. Yum. A great snooze and up in the morning for the full breakfast as provided by the inn and pleasant drive home. 

This same trio enjoyed a day trip to Lunenburg and visited the market on Thursday. No better spot than a German based community to source some homemade sausages which were delicious. Lots of peasant skirts, long hair and the left over hippies that go with them. Beautiful crafts and the opportunity to enjoy a tasty lunch - my companions enjoying curries as I opted for a sausage roll followed by lasagne. Yum. 

We have enjoyed a multitude of great meals these past few weeks and have considered entitling ourselves BBQs R Us as we hosted a yummy surf and turf (lobster rolls and ribs) and then a family get together which has become an annual celebration of my baby sister's August birthday. The menu is simple - potato salad, burgers and hotdogs with Dan's ice cream cake for dessert. It is an opportunity to visit not only with my sister and brother-in-law but with my nieces, their husbands and the great nieces and nephew (they line up in approximately the same ages as our own offspring and it's a trip down memory lane to our past as well as how much those two oldest great nieces resemble their mommas at the same age). Good times, good times. 

Did the his & hers eye exam / new glasses routine recently and picked out black rimmed frames and then tortoiseshell frames for my sunglasses - very retro and they are more comfortable and larger for the bifocals. Have finished both No Great Mischief (Alister MacLeod) which for some reason I'd never read and The Sentimentalist (Johanna Skibsrud) this past week and they were both wonderful but slightly disturbing reads. Starting Under this Unbroken Sky by Shandi Mitchell now. 

Was also disturbed to chat with a friend and discover that Moe (their lab who is the age of Pete the grand dog) had a traumatic experience. Apparently while out being walked in the morning with another (visiting) dog, the two disappeared through a path and….couldn't be located. Apparently they had been picked up by animal control and taken to the SPCA about an hour away which wasn't open until 11 am the next day. When retrieved poor Moe was dehydrated, had forgotten all his training and only wanted to sit on laps. Happy ending at least. 

And somehow not nearly as disturbing as this article about blind gunmen - yep, the kind with guide dogs:


Does anyone see a problem with this? I thought so. 

As well as an article (clearly written by a creative person from the sounds) about clutter and creativity:


Had some back and forth emails today with work as they attempted to slip by me a day earlier departure - no thanks, only a few days back from Europe - and have finally settled on the original date (I think as no final e-ticket has appeared yet) with the early leave I appreciate to give me time in Edmonton to enjoy daughter visits. The oldest is on the move to North Battleford and will be the downstairs neighbour to her baby sister. They will both get to hang out with their father who is travelling to Saskatchewan on his AirMiles the first week of October to see his girls and watch a Roughriders game, then hunt geese with his buddy in Prince Albert. Considering families, creativity and messiness I came across this table above describing birth order and I can assure you that the shore captain (oldest of five) is neither on time or organized but….the others all fit him perfectly, even he had to admit. 

So as I surfed the net researching ebola and other tropical afflictions I read an ad in the NEJM for a "nocturnist" which turns out to be a Dr who does 1 wk of nights (7 pm to 7 am) a week off and 1 week of evenings (4 pm to midnight) which allows for overlap on the busy evenings - then a week off and repeat. Never thought of myself as being described as a nocturnist but if the shoe fits….

On tomorrow's agenda is the intrepid trio's day trip to Le Village Historique Acadien de la Nouvelle Ecosse in Lower West Pubnico. Although it's only a half hour drive from us, I've never been. A number of my nursing school classmates were Acadien and the teacher daughter of course studied en francais so time to make a visit and travel back in time.  And yes, I'm having rappie pie for lunch in the cafeteria - it's an acquired test and I acquired it in the mid 70s when classmates would bring me back some on their weekend visits home to the Pubnicos - there's Pubnico Head, Upper East, East and Lower East Pubnico, Upper West, West and Lower West Pubnico , well you get the drift - there are 15 Pubnicos named. Rapure or rappie pie is grated potatoes with some meat in a broth, gluey base baked to a crusty top - as I said…an acquired taste so…I'm going to acquire some. A review of the village here:


Found a link from some travel writers about the town where the Nova Star ferry links Portand Maine to Nova Scotia, there has been a real resurgence in tourism in the area which is great to see:


Thinking of travel, I got as far as making a packing list this morning for Europe, have to ease into such things. Will be on the move a bit so keeping the bags to a minimum even with the cruise which requires some dress up - we won't look as classy as all those Europeans anyway so aren't going to try but…don't want to stick out too badly. Always dreaming of travel, here is a link to Greenland which is on the bucket list:


Gotta keep dreaming, but first the kitchen has cooled enough to make shredded wheat bread. Later
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