Slow News Week

Definitely not much to report this week!
Last Sunday Rob and I took a drive out (finally) to Peggy's and Prospect. I have definitely been getting withdrawal symptoms as I hadn't been there this year.
We left around 4.30 pm and headed to Prospect first. This place never disappoints! I always come back with shots that are different, even though the location is always the same. We met a nice woman there also taken a few photos, she walked up to me and said jokingly, "Just look at it, another ugly part of Nova Scotia", I replied, "yes I know, such a blot on the landscape, I don't know how people can live here". After that funny icebreaker, we got chatting for quite sometime, she had recently moved to Quebec and was here helping her sister move into a new place, neither of them had seen much of the Province, and I was more than happy to fill her in on a few places she should definitely see.

Afterwards we headed on to Peggy's and what a beautiful evening, we spent a long time there, having tea on the deck of the coffee shop and enjoying the relaxed feel of the place, most of the tourist buses had gone for the day and it's definitely the best time to enjoy this spot. When we did eventually wander out onto the rocks, I bumped into the lady from Prospect again, and also got chatting with a nice man from the States. There's something quite surreal about mooching around that lighthouse and chatting with folk, like you have bumped into an old friend at the supermarket :o)

This weekend is a Bank Holiday (Natal Day). There is much going on around the city, but so far I have done nothing! Yesterday was a washout, we had rain and more thunder storms all day, many of the events were cancelled sadly. As soon as Rob gets home from work today we are off out (the sun is shining again...hooray) and we are going down to Alderney Landing where there is a free concert. The best part about that is, Steven Page is headlining...If you don't know who he is, he was one of the lead singers of my all time favourite band, The Barenaked Ladies...So I am excited.
The fireworks have been postponed until tonight, so I shall be off to my usual spot to try and capture those.

Hoping to get out somewhere tomorrow, not sure yet, but the weather is again supposed to be hot and sunny, I almost feel a beach day beckoning.

Prospect Colours


A Postcard from (Foggy) Stonehurst

Ahh Peggy's


Foggy Fishing Day at Blue Rocks

Critters and a Sporty Ride

So the sun almost shined all week here, we had a thunderstorm mid week, which of course I found terrifying! But' let's begin with last Sunday.

Robert and I took a drive out late afternoon to Hubbards...My new place for wanting a holiday home! There are some really cute cottages on the waterfront there and a really pretty little beach, lovely evening, but my photos weren't panning out the way I had hoped. We drove round the inlet back onto the main road so I could try my luck from the other side. I found a neat little path in the grass down to the waters edge, I got ready to take my first shot and heard a rustling in the reads in front of me...instantly I thought snake, but no, out popped this beaver-like looking critter, I shrieked, it looked worried and we both hopped it in different directions. Anyone watching this would have found it hilarious to say the least. I later found out that the critter was a Muskrat. So much new wildlife roaming around to contend with here. Our neighbours accidentally hacked up a snake in the grass last week with the trimmer...but you will be pleased to hear there are no poisonous snakes around these parts, they are mostly harmless Garter snakes (my dad could tell you a tale about one of those!)

Didn't really do anything else all week, Rob worked Saturday and Nancy and I decided to take a trip out, we headed for all the great spots along the South Shore. The weather was super sunny and we had the top down on her sporty BMW, needless to say it was a tad tricky getting in and out of it and my hair looked like a ball of fuzz with the wind blowing through it :o)

Nancy and I have a thing for photographing Muskoka Chairs. They are so typical of this area and so colourful. We found this incredible jetty with the perfect chairs, we got chatting to the owner of the jetty and the house opposite, her name is Cheryl and she was so nice. As you will see from the images below the light and weather was superb...however, by the time we had left Cheryl, her mum, the neighbour Hal and Schooner the dog and got to Stonehurst Cove, the fog had come in big time and our images took a different turn.

Nancy hadn't been to Stonehurst before so it was fun showing her one of my favoutire haunts.
After Stonehurst we headed around to Blue Rocks, the fog was now a real 'pea souper' and it started to rain. So we headed back into Lunenburg for a spot of lunch and a few more photos.

Saturday evening Rob and I finally got to the cinema, it was again massively busy, but having booked online we went straight in. Horrible Bosses was the film and I thought it was great, Kevin Spacey was pretty horrible in it, but I still love him! It really made me laugh in quite a few places.

Just heard about Amy Winehouse dying. Bit of a shocker, but then not altogether surprising given her drug issues. Such a waste of talent and only 27. The other shocking news was the terrible events in Norway this weekend, how utterly awful! Not a place one thinks of where things like that happen.


Fox Point (Near Hubbards)

A beautiful morning with the wind in my hair


Cheryl's Jetty at Madders Cove...How pretty!!!!


Getting Foggy...yes about an hour after the photo above


And the fog got thicker...

Retail Therapy & Rural Charm

Another week and another update.
The weather has been somewhat mixed this week with some rain and some really hot weather. Today is really lovely, so I shall make this entry brief as I want to be outside and not stuck on the computer.

Tried to go to the cinema this week on cheap Tuesday, but even though we all got there early, the film was sold out on both showings and it was heaving with people...A very strange sight, so many people in one place, not very common here especially at Dartmouth Crossing. Whenever we have been there before there is never anyone around, but Tuesday there were cars everywhere.

With that plan scuppered, Rob, myself, Cheryl and Deb went to Tim's instead...I bet you knew I was going to say that!

Thursday Rob and I went up to Canadian Tire to check out some Cheap plastic Muskoka Chairs for the back yard, they were on special at £15 each, however, once inside the Aladdin's Cave of Patio Furniture I ended up being drawn to a small table and chairs that were much better quality and still at a good price. The table was $35 and the chairs $25 each. I am very pleased with them. You can actually blame Hamish for this purchase as he goes outside for walkies everyday now on his new retractable lead, and we got fed up with standing out there!

Hamish has almost turned into a dog now, he waits for his lead to be put on and has a little routine going, sometimes he gets adventurous and walks the length of the back alley, and sometimes he ventures out and around the back into the wooded area...but never without one of us in tow.

I have my first appointment next Friday with the physio people to get my back sorted, I can't say I am looking forward to it, but it needs to be sorted out as the pain is really bad every day now.

I ventured out yesterday with Cheryl, Suzanne, and Deb on a little outing, the intention was to take some photos at New Ross Farm, but sadly the weather let us down in the morning, so we ended up driving around a lot, and snapping a few rural scenes when the weather perked up, having some lunch and shopping in Frenchy's (a second hand clothing store) for some more dresses for our next outing in August with our models. It was a nice day and the girls are such fun to be around. Most of the day was spent around Berwick and New Minas, where I discovered there is a Drive-In movie theatre, something I definitely want to re-visit in the future.

Last night was a late one as we went over to Melissa's for her birthday bash, great company and a fire pit, I have a bit of a thick head this morning!


An old image from New Ross Farm...Last time I was there it rained too


Two trucks, one back yard!

Old Barn and truck that's seen better days!

The view from where we had lunch yesterday

Rustic Charm

Just Chillin'

A relaxed week this week not only at work but at home too. Now the end of the month billing is over and Summer seems to be in full swing, the pace has slowed. The weather has been reaching the 90's this past week (thank god for the new air con at work). In our house it's been like a ruddy sauna! Sleeping has been difficult to say the least. If the temperature outside is 90 I swear it must be around 120 uptairs in our bedroom.

Wednesday night I met up with some of the girls, Nancy, Cheryl and Suzanne at Second Cup in Bedford, a very chilled evening, lovely in the eveing sun outside. I picked the loaction, not only for the outside seating but because they do the best Mango Chillers. I am hoping to get to the cinema next week with a couple of them to see the film Bad Bosses. I quite fancy it from the trailers.

I have pretty much been camera free this weekend. I spent most of the day yesterday still editing the endless shots from the last model shoot and last night Rob and I went out with Darrel, Melissa and some others to a place called The Shore Club in Hubbards which is about 40 minutes out of town heading towards Peggy's Cove.

I have been through and past Hubbards before, but didn't realise there was more to it. It has a beach I have not seen yet, some great holiday lets and of course The Shore Club...Which, it says on the door has been serving fresh Lobster dinners since 1936. Not that I would be remotely interested in that as I don't eat seafood. But what a pretty spot right on the water. We were there to see a band called Shameless. They were pretty good, plenty of songs from the past, Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Garth Brooks and more. The dance floor was pretty packed and the place was very hot with all the bodies in there, but the beer was way cheaper than in the city!

Nancy and I are comtemplating heading to the beach later, we have held off so far as there is a fair amount of breeze today, so we are waiting to see if it hots up some more. In the meantime I think I shall get outside and do some gardening and catch a few rays!

On the down side this week, my earwigs are back! There don't seem to be quite as many of them so far, but I am none to happy about it.

In the meantime untill I dust off the camera again, here are some more images of the girls. I quite fancy trying to make some money doing natural outside portraits now...Do you think I'd be any good?

April, looking alluring and demure


Jessica having fun with bubbles...Not MJ's Chimp


Whistful shots of Happy and Rebecca

Variety is the Spice of Life!

It's been a shot, long week this week. It was a Bank Holiday on Friday (for Canada Day) so only the 4 days of work to contend with thankfully as last weekend left me pretty knackered. I think I left off in my last post telling you that we were going out for another 'Trash the Dress' photo shoot on the Sunday, the weather looked highly suspect and none of us had high hopes that we would be going anywhere, but as luck would have it the sun broke through around 10 am and my god was it hot! We have 4 models this time, two of which were hell bent on partying all day with a box of wine which made for some interesting photos later in the day.

We started off downtown and then ended up at Rainbow Haven Beach which is beautiful and only half an hour away from our house). Yet another reason you should come to Nova Scotia, there's plenty of beaches and when the weather is like it is now, I think it could rival any beach holiday desination). There was a lovely breeze on the beach and I didn't realise how burnt I was getting, so come Monday I looked like a lobster.

The weather has continued to be great all week and all weekend, blazingly hot!
On Friday Rob and I checked out the annual Pow Wow on the Commons. It's an event celebrating our Native American culture and people. There's food, entertainment and stalls selling native art. When we arrived there wasn't much going on and the dancing didn't start until the evening, so we decided to head off and go to Grand Pre in the valley. I had been wanting to go and see this year's art installation by Nicole Evans and Patrick Farrell (remember Door 17 from last year?) Nicole got in touch with me recently and requested some prints of the image I took last year. So I took them with us, but sadly she was out. She loved the prints and wants to meet up in the near future. I loved this year's doors, and cannot wait to see what she comes up with next year.

In the evening we headed back to the Dartmouth waterfront to watch the fireworks, although not arranged a few of the usual camera club suspects we there doing the same thing.

Saturday, I didn't do a whole lot as Rob was working, but in the evening we headed back to the Pow Wow to watch the dancing. It was a a sea of colour and quite the spectacle. I would definitely go again. After that I had the urge for a Chinese take away (it's been a long time since I had one), so we got one from a place near us, and let me tell you it tasted sooooo good! It's hot again today, so as soon as I have finished this I am off outside.

Belated birthday wishes to my friend Kim. Hope you had a wonderful day.
And also belated Canada Day wishes to all my Canadian friends!

Lots of images today...apologies!


Jessica Left, April jumping on the right (very Riverdance)
Click on any of these to view larger

Postcard Girl


Happy and Rebecca


Perfect model pose!


Door Steps


A whole lot of feathers!

Definitely a colourful spectacle!

Memory Lane

So last week I mentioned I was off to Memory Lane with the camera club to photograph some Vintage cars. The cars were indeed fabulous as were the surroundings, just a shame about the weather, it absolutely pee'd down with rain on and off throughout the day and worst of all the rain was accompanied by thunder and lightening. I have a huge phobia of storms, so I was not best pleased! Thankfully though I remembered to cover myself from head to foot in bug spray so at least I didn't get bitten to death as well.

The mosquito's are well and truly in season now and having spent a couple of hours outside with our neighbours the weekend before I had some horrific bites up my legs. There's something about the biting insects here that just love me, and I seem to have no tolerance to them at all.

The week has flown by as work has been hectic! The weather has been shifting between really hot and sunny to windy and rainy (which is is today). We are supposed to be heading out tomorrow on another model shoot, but so far the weather forecast is not looking good.

It's a sad week this week as Peter Falk died on Thursday aged 83. I was a massive fan of his and all the Columbo series. At least his memory will live on as somewhere on TV there is always a Columbo to watch!

The talent competition 'The Voice' reached the semi final point this week and the right 4 contestants have made it to the final for next week. I am eagerly looking forward to seeing who wins. I am routing for Vicci or Beverly to win! (Videos below)

The nice thing about 'The Voice' is the fact that all the mentors really did care about their artists and they get up and sing with them on the show. The show does knock spots off The X Factor!

Back to reality and Rob started his new job this week. He seems really happy with it. The side of the business he will be working on is just getting up and running, so the hours are not full time as yet, he has done 3 days so far this week and supplemented some hours at UHaul. The good thing about UHaul is he only has to do a shift once in 3 months to stay on the books there, so it's a helpful back up when hours are short.


Fordomatic


Feel the Shine (Best car in show in my opinion)


Friends for Dinner...1950's stylee

RBC and a Royal Request

Wow, what a busy week!

Robert and I have been on the hunt for a second car as I mentioned in an earlier post. After much searching and looking at plenty of rusty vehicles, Rob found a small dealer about 10 minutes away from our place who was selling a 10 year old Honda Civic, which was really tidy, with good tires, hardly any rust, air con that still works with 2 years MVI on it (MOT equivalent)...So we bought it.

The whole process of buying this second car has left us really annoyed with our current bank RBC. We went to them for a loan which we didn't get. We have had a credit card with them for a year now. That credit card is what they call a secured credit card, it's for people with a bad credit rating, or in our case no credit rating at all as we were new to the country. With the secured card, the bank retains $1000 of your money as a deposit against the card and the limit on the card is $1000. We were told initially that we would get that money back after one year. Not so! They carry on holding on to it. So the irony is, they wouldn't give us a loan, but they offered us another credit card, all the while half the money we needed for the car was in their clutches!

Well as you can imagine, we were not best pleased, having discussed this with our neighbours, they suggested trying Scotia Bank, and made us an appointment with their branch to see how they could help us. They were great. We now have a new bank account there, which is 'charge free' for the first year as it's what they call a welcome account, for people who have been in the country less than 3 years. We also get a credit card with an unsecured limit of $5000 instead of RBC's poxy $1000 and in 3 months we can most likely pop in a set up a credit line, which is a cross between a credit card, a loan and an overdraft at a very cheap rate of 5%. Nearly every one I know has one here, once we have that we won't really need to use the credit card, but even the interest rate on the credit card is lower than RBC!!!

So a lesson learned! We took the advice of UK 2 Nova Scotia on banking and I wish we hadn't! We will now start slowly moving our money across to the new account, starting with Rob's new job wages. If you are left scratching your heads as to how we paid for the car in the end, we put half of it on an English credit card and Rob managed to scrape together a few last shackles from the UK to pay the other half.

Wednesday night was a big night at the camera club. It was the last meeting of the season and awards night. With so many talented members in the club and me being a relative newbie, I didn't expect get anywhere with it, but was thrilled to be placed in 4 of the 12 categories (Trucks and Cars, Food, In the Garden and Reflections). I was presented with little engraved tags to put under my images in a frame (not that that will ever happen!) I won a $10.00 gift card for Henry's (Canadian version of Jessops), a magazine subscription and $5.00 off our next membership to the club.

In other photo news, thanks to those who have supported my entry into the Canada Post Contest. I haven't won anything as yet, BUT I was contacted by them today and this is what they wrote:

Thanks for entering Canada Post’s “My Canada” Photo Contest.

We’re so impressed by your entry "Stonehurst Cove" that we’d like to include it in a photo book for the Royal Couple, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge! We’ll be delivering the book to them during their upcoming Canadian tour. A few days after the official delivery, we’ll also create an album on our Facebook page (facebook.com/canadapostpromo) to share the photos with fellow Canadians!

You will be given full credit for your work, which will be featured in the book alongside the photo title and your first and last name.

So now one of my images will feature on Wills and Kate's coffee table :o)))

I am updating the blog early this week as I shall be gone all day on Sunday, there is a photography field trip at to a Vintage Car show at Memory Lane plus various other locations, just hope the sun comes out. We have actually seen the sun a couple of times this week which makes a change. When it does come out it is so hot, but the temperature is up and down so much right now and ranging from 12 degrees right up to 21 degrees.

Finally, Happy Fathers Day Dad!!

Our New Old Car :o)


Left: 3rd place Gherkin Reflections Right: 2nd Place Two Ton


3rd place: A Bowlful of Colour


3rd place: Frosty Morning at Stourhead


A right royal image of Stonehurst