AJ's Nova Scotia: A Busy Week Off

Yay, I finally had some time off for good behaviour this week. I certainly couldn't have been luckier with the weather, it has been gloriously hot all week and the tan is coming on a treat.

The week started last Friday evening with Anne and Smiffy coming over for drinks on the deck, it was the first time we have sat out on our deck in the evening with company, with the lights in the tree and the t-lights in mason jars, it was quite relaxing.

Saturday Anne, Smiffy, myself and Rob headed off to sun and swim at Bell Lake, (officially my newly discovered, favourite swimming place). 9 mins from our house and about 5 mins from Anne's and ironically they had never been there before either. We spent all afternoon there snacking in between swimming, very nice. After the lake we headed back to Anne's for an impromptu BBQ. Anne booked off Monday and Tuesday so that we could go out and do some photography together around the Province, so bleary eyed and bushy tailed we headed out at 8am Monday Morning and drove to the South Shore. I had a couple of places in mind to visit, and the total drive was going to be around 3 hours to the furthest point without stopping. My fault entirely, I deviated and lets just say plans went to crap a bit after that.

We ended up having lunch in Lockeport, a lovely little town which is essentially an island (all but, anyway).
I digress, the serving of lunch was painstakingly slow, I have never seen 3 people in a kitchen take that long to put together what was, in essence, two toasted sandwiches. While I was quietly simmering and watching the clock, Anne discovered she had misplaced/lost her phone, so after the aforementioned sandwiches we re-traced our steps around Lockeport to see if we could find it...Nothing. I rung it several times, but we couldn't hear it. Just when we were on the verge of giving up, Anne had a brainwave and thought perhaps it had fallen into my bag which had been down by her feet in the car the whole time, hey presto, there it was.

After the delays we were on the road again and looking for Barrington Woolen Mill, a museum which I was very keen to find as photographically it ticked a lot of boxes. What an absolute nightmare of a place to find.
The sat-nav on my phone went literally ape-shit as we turned one corner, and bombarded us with at least 7 names all beginning with PORT and separated by the word SLASH..It was more than we could take and made us literally curl with laughter at the stupidity of it. Having finally composed ourselves, the sat-nav told us miles down the road that we had reached our destination...Hmmmm, in the middle of pretty much nowhere with nothing to see. We tried and failed approximately 3 times to find this place, we even ended up at some shabby showground that look like it had been deserted long ago, but bore the sign of the place we seeking. I was left scratching my head and repeating the same mantra, over and over...this can't be right.

Finally we saw a rare sight...A human, and asked her where the sodding place was, she pointed us in the right direction and had we carried on past the showground in the first place we would have found it slap bang in the middle of Barrington (a teeny, tiny place). As it was now 4 pm and they shut at 5.30 pm, we took a hasty and talkative tour from the girls there (I think they were excited as I don't think they had seen anyone all day...I suspect because of the piss poor signage). We took our photos, they closed up and we headed off again, this time just around the bend to see a replica of Seal Island Lighthouse. From there we were heading back, stopping at Shelburne on route, always a favourite of mine, and due to our schedule being scuppered, we actually got there when the light was lower and much nicer to photograph in. Finally pretty knackered we headed home (I was driving), that's always pretty scary, but even more so when dense sea fog rolls in and descends in patches across the highway. It was pretty hard going in places, but we eventually got back around 11 pm.

I was going to tell you about the rest of my week in this one entry, but having seen the length of this piece, I think I will continue this tomorrow. Click to view photos large.