4 Years on and still Blogging

Maritimes Charm

Hard to believe I know,  but today is our 4 year anniversary of landing in Nova Scotia....And it is also our one week anniversary of being in our new home. It's been a frantic week work wise as well as at home, buying a few things we needed and adding finishing touches like hanging pictures etc.

I cannot tell you how nice it is to actually enjoy our first proper weekend in it. Last night we had our first official visitors Anne and Smiffy came round for the tour and a catch up. They kindly gave us a $50.00 voucher for Canadian Tire, which I think I plan on spending on a lamp. They definitely seemed to like the place and Anne paid us the best compliment ever by saying that it looks like a show home...That is a sentence I have never heard before about any place I have been living in! Now I just have to maintain the standard!! We also had a $200 voucher for HomeSense from Rob's boss which was extremely nice. I still have about $100 left on that one to spend.

Rachael popped round this afternoon, she too loved the new furniture and how the place looked with all our stuff in it. Rob and I have been cleaning our old place and getting in ready for inspection later this week in the hope we get our full deposit back. I have a gut feeling that no matter how well we have cleaned it the tight arses will find some way not to pay us back our money. It's a bit different over here to the UK where tenants seem to have all the rights. I know this as we had a dispute a while ago now over a deposit on our place in the UK which went to mediation and we have to give back all but £25 of the money even though the tenant was completely in the wrong and a complete scum-bag! I have to wonder what the heck we pay a property management company for really! They do nothing but cause us grief and keep us in the dark.

So anyway, at least for now we own two properties, one here and one in the UK. I don't know how long that we last, but if times get tough one will no doubt have to be sold to pay for the other one.

Next weekend I plan on getting out with my camera again, it's long overdue. The weather still isn't great hear, quite chilly and grey most days. The garden is waking up though the grass is growing like crazy and the tulips have finally bloomed in my back garden. The previous owners definitely left us some pretty plants and herbs, so not much maintenance needed, which is a good thing in my book.

In other news I am pleased to report that I won the shield trophy for digital prints at Wincanton Camera Club. This was unexpected and pretty amazing considering I am a long distance member now. I was thirlled when they told me, and they kindly photoshopped an old photo of me receiving this years shield which was very funny and not for publication.

I will leave you with some random shots taken a few weeks ago now at Stonehurst (below) and Mahone Bay (top)

The Red House - Stonehurst

View from the end of the peninsular at Stonehurst

Moved!!

So finally it's done! We have officially moved. It's been a long old slog, but I believe today will be the last load that Rob will bring over from the old place to here. The removal men arrived on Saturday morning as I exited the house with two rather disgruntled cats. I made sure they were tucked away in a quiet corner, while the stuff arrived. The whole move only took 2 hours as obviously Rob and I had moved so much of the smaller stuff already. We have been unpacking and finding homes for items non stop for 2 days solid and trust me when I say we are beyond tired. Thankfully it's a long weekend this weekend which has helped a lot.

Prior to the furniture arriving on Saturday, Friday the new sofa and chair was delivered and the cable, phone and Internet were installed...Very important for my sanity! Friday evening we headed out to the shops, as Rob's boss gave us a voucher for HomeSense. I haven't managed to spend it yet, but we did end up buying some bedroom furniture elsewhere, and then by fluke, we passed a furniture warehouse sale...One of those really good sales, where they are clearing out the warehouse of old stock for next to nothing. So we ended up buying a rather nice slate tile coffee and side table for...$150...Bargain!! I was in a bit of a shopping frenzy in there, my legs were working the warehouse like pistons, and with so many bargains in front of me, it was hard to stay even remotely focused. I already had two fat, male, middle aged twins, snatch 2 tables from under my nose, so there was no way I was losing out on the slate tables...I guarded, while Rob went for assistance. He started to wander when he didn't think he could get an assistant, I waved him back into position as if landing a jumbo jet at distance....It was indeed a sight to behold.

So by my reckoning, we should be all ready for visitors by next weekend. Now when are any of you coming from the UK??? I am sorely disappointed in the lack of effort from you!!
That's you all told!

Right, I am off to sort out more clutter.

How Much Crap?

Sorry, It's been a while, we have been crazy busy here.
Finally the house sale completed, and we got the keys late on Thursday...Not without a hitch of course as the keys we were given wouldn't open the door, so we spent another half an hour waiting for our realtor to drop off another set for us. Since then we...Rob has been loading up the van steadily, and we are slowly clearing the crawl space and basement. It's a slog for sure! It's surprising how much crap we have, even when we totally de-cluttered our lives 4 years ago to emigrate.We aim to get at least one or two loads a day until the 17th when the big stuff moves over with us.

We have started sanding down a few walls and plan on touching up a few areas that need doing. We met one of the neighbours today, very nice old gentleman who is heavily into his gardening and growing all sorts out the back...He tells me his wife is a dab hand in the garden too, so at least I know where to get advise from.

I found some forgotten treasures in the boxes we took over today, it's funny looking at stuff that hasn't seen the light of day since we moved over 4 years ago.

I took a quick time out this morning to pay a return visit to the old decommissioned Saw Mill with the Photo Club. You may remember we went last year and that was the field trip that got me out of my photo slump and into abandoned places. Unlike last year when it was bitterly cold and snowing, today was was one of the nicest Spring days we have had so far. Still no leaves on the trees yet, but I am hoping it won't be long now.

Okay, another day has passed since I started typing this post yesterday. Today we continued to take more stuff over to the house, and started painting. One kitchen wall is now complete (I must mention that we are using the existing colours and paints). The only room that we are covering in a new (bland colour) is the kids room which was blue and yellow. It has now had it's first coat of cream/magnolia. Rachael was our very first visitor, and kindly came over to help us paint...Well I don't think she knew that when she arrived so ended up turning her trousers inside out :o) If Rachael's first impression of the place is anything to go by, I think we did pretty well buying it. She really liked  it, especially the flow of the rooms and the kitchen. Robert also bought a fitted a new toilet, I have a thing about baby height loos here, they are so small and such a long way down. The new one is just a tad higher than the baby one without going to very high disabled size.

Prior to Rachael's arrival, I met the other next door neighbour, She's great, liked her a lot, met her daughter and little dog who's name is Lou...and apparently short for Lucifer....so adorable and not a devil at all. I also got a tour of her place and we chatted in her garden for quite a while. Sadly she and her husband have their place on the market and are looking to move into an apartment, so although they are neighbours now, I guess we we will have new ones in the future.

Right now I am completely knackered and my limbs are aching, this out of shape body is not used to all this hard work in one go, I need to have another bath and try and loosen things up a little before the work week starts again....Groan....I will leave you with a couple of photos from the Saw Mill....

In Control

Walter (the name on the hat)