Still Here...Just Been Busy!

Apologies for the lack of updates, life/home improvements seem to have been getting in the way of my cyber life! Robert has now finally finished painting the back deck and now has me constantly nagging him to get the front one done. I can safely say that deck painting is officially his most loathed task!

We have put up a shelf up in the laundry room, finished boxing in the bottom of the brick faux chimney wall in the family room, made and easy access panel for turning off the water and kept on top of the weeding and grass cutting...which in itself is quite an achievement. I seeded one of the bald patches out the back and thanks to all the rain we have had this week, it is coming on quite nicely. Now I just need some more for the other larger patch where the kiddies play swing used to be.

The cats are moulting like crazy right now which has heightened my OCD cleaning to insane levels. I feel like I am constantly on fluff patrol. If Robert puts any piece of clothing down for more than 5 minutes it gets washed, as does the kitchen floor randomly every few days.

I feel utterly exhausted. Things are pretty chaotic at work right now, and I feel this obsessive cleaning and tidying is definitely due in part to that and that I need to keep control somewhere.

The mixed weather has meant no photo outings, but next week things are looking up weather wise and socially, so hopefully I should have more to chunter on about.

Big Brother started in the UK...OMG I am loving it of course. I have always and will always be a Big Brother Uber Fan! They have certainly picked well again this year, there are some pretty nasty individuals in there and a couple of (genuine winners in my book). Lets hope good triumphs over evil.

Before I go I would like to wish my dad a Happy Fathers Day!!!!

And finally...I will leave you with a panoramic photo taken on my phone of the back garden...Deck was still in progress then, so things are a bit scattered on it. And some more flower pics taken at the Tangled Garden a couple of weeks ago.

Our Back Yard....Click to view Larger

Muscari...Love these photogenic flowers

Tulip Dream...Some of mine are still in bloom

Gifts and Finally Some Photography

What a week, so busy, mostly because I have now become OCD about keeping my house looking so clean and immaculate, I am actually driving myself slightly mad. Time was up until recently that work was my OCD place, but now that has switched over entirely. Every night I have been busy cleaning or tidying something that I have watched very little television...I know...Shocker! When Rob and I have finally sat down on our new comfy couch and chair, both of us have been so relaxed we have fallen asleep on them every night.
I think everyone who has been to the house now and tried the recliners are in awe of how damn comfy they are. Another note on house things, I didn't realise how much a dishwasher would change my life. Having never had one before, oh the joy of not washing up is just indescribable.

This week Pat our Realtor came round for a visit, she loved the way it looked with all our stuff in situ and also loved the sofa. She brought with her a huge gift basket of goodies, a very personal package, including a pouch and heavy duty tape measure for Rob, Cat treats, Various teas, a Coronation Street book, photo frame, an assortment of crackers and treats plus beer mugs and chocolates. I am pretty sure no Estate Agent in the UK would do that for a client! She also brought with her a handmade sign she had specially made for outside our front door, that says Welcome to the White's...How adorable. Here I think a Realtor is a friend for life not just a business transaction, assuming of course you get a good one.

The long Winter has taken a toll on both our front and back decks, Rob has been busy replacing damaged boards and has now started re staining the back, it looks so good, he is about half way across the back...and that's a lot of deck. We have also just started to put some grass seed down on some bald patches at the back to see if they will fill in. Other than the grass ad the deck, the garden is looking pretty amazing. The previous owners left a load of plants in the planters and borders that have all sprung up since we have finally had some sunny weather, our little herb garden is superb too, the chives and mint are looking and smelling fabulous. Our next door neighbour keeps chatting to Rob (the official gardener now) about things he should and  shouldn't be doing in the garden i.e when he should prune or not prune etc. Rob says he feels like he should have a note pad on him at all times now to take down notes. Anyway he (the neighbour) is going to give us some tomato plants for our vegetable patch and if we play our cards right we might be able to bag some seeds off Anne as well as she said she has some extras. Rob wants to grown corn on the cob...I think he is possibly running before walking, but we'll see.

This weekend Rachael and I headed off to Grand Pre to check out the latest art installation and wander round The Tangled Garden. It was beautifully hot and sunny that I even got a little burned. Below are some photos from that outing as well as a couple of shots from inside the house and our gifts.

Thank you to all of you that sent New Home cards, so sweet and appreciated, they are all displayed in the family room. My friend Lisa asked me if we left the deer behind, sadly we did, but we have inadvertently stumbled into the Raccoon Suburbs now. Rob and I were sat in the front room two nights ago it was dusk and we still had the curtains open, when the biggest, fattest Raccoon sauntered by the front window. He just looked like he was out for an evening stroll.

Apple Blossom Time in the Valley

'Off Key' This year's Art Installation by Nicole Evans
and Pat Farrell 

I am always blown away by the vivid Spring Greens at
 this time of year

Part of our 'Formal Living Room' - Sofa out of view,
double doors lead through to our
den/family room/other living room

Our bedroom, so big that I simply couldn't get it all in frame.
It has two full size windows, his and hers built-in
wardrobes, a door leads out to the deck at the back
and of course 50" of pure pleasure
in the form of my TV hanging on the wall

Our cute little sign and gift basket from Pat

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)

Happy Easter

Apologies I have been AWOL again. I seem to have been busy doing nothing apart from fretting.
I am finally getting over the never ending cold I had, it has taken forever to get rid of it.

Last weekend Rob and I went for eye tests (my first one since leaving the UK). I was absolutely convinced that I would need glasses after 4 years of no testing, but actually no I don't Apparently my eyesight is pretty damn good. My focusing is.....and I quote...Extremely sharp. She did say however, that my left eye is weaker than my right, and that I may need glasses in a couple of years. Rob on the other hand needs a new prescription for his glasses, and was dumb founded as to how my eyes are so good.

Sunday Rachael and I decided to finally get out and take some photos, well sort off. It was quite grey and colder than we thought it was going to be, so we only ventured as far as Halifax Waterfront. I don't know quite what happened to us, I think it was largely due to the fact we had been hibernating all Winter, but neither of us could muster any enthusiasm or creativity, we did however whinge quite a bit, so after a short 3 hours we went home again.

Although this week has only been a 4 day work week, it's been long and arduous in my book. There seem to be major changes going on at work, and these types of scenarios always play on my mind and drain me mentally. That coupled with the fact 5 days of work were crammed in 4, it was pretty hectic too.

The people doing our mortgage kept hassling our broker for more endless information from us.
It's not enough that you have the down payment, they want to see it on a statement and when it was deposited, and that you have had it 3 months...OMG...really...Then they wanted more pay slips, and they called my work place this week to check up on me. We have been assured it is all completed now and they are just following up with due diligence. Our sofa arrived at Leon's so Rob paid the tax on that this week and then will arrange for it to be delivered once we are in the house. We are off to the lawyers office on Monday 28th to sign a billion documents and sign over the money. We take possession on May 1st and I have that day and the 2nd of May off...Hooray! The movers are booked for May 17th and prior to that we will moving all smaller stuff across ourselves during weekends and evenings and if Rob is not working all the time, during the day as well.

On the up side of things we did our taxes and it looks like for the first time in 3 years we will actually be getting money back, this is due to the fact that we put some of our down payment money for the house in an RSP (retirement savings plan) which means we get the tax back on that as we are first time home buyers here.

Our house in the UK is causing us some grief right now just to pile on the pressure further. We have been waiting for months now to get the roof fixed. The scaffolding was put up ages ago, but no work has been done yet, so now we have both the tenant and the neighbours complaining. And if that's not enough we also have to have the the fireplace removed, a new one put in and the chimney lined, plus a new heating system of some sort...and this is all because people are apparently to stupid to use the existing wood/coal burning/back boiler heating without creating mess and damage.

Back to here...Yesterday the weather was pretty nice, I think we have finally turned a corner now and are feeling more Spring-like. Crocuses are out in force all over the place. Nancy and I took a drive out to Mahone Bay, Blue Rocks and Stonehurst yesterday. It's been a long time since she and I went out. It was a good day and I managed to get a few decent shots.

In other news this week, the re-branding of Halifax was unveiled. $300,000 of tax payers money was spent on this this venture and here's what they came up with:

There are all kinds of buzz words to accompany it, and a slogan 'Be Bold'...Which I personally find hilarious.
At least the old logo had some character, it might be more 1975 that 2014, but I think that in itself represents Halifax HRM more than this new faceless corporate look. Being bold and progressive is NOT what this place is all about. This town, not City, runs on an old boy network system, where it's not what you know it's who you know. They don't really want progress, as they won't even commit to building anything above a certain height, let's face it, it's a small town in a small Province who likes things just the way they are, without the fear of outside competition creeping in. Now I might sound cynical about all this, but I am simply stating facts and this Province is 20 years behind the times.This re-branding is nothing more than a sound bite. I like living here, I get what this place is all about and this branding misses the mark completely. It is generic and as such is reminiscent of this Generic branding video:


So on that gripe, I will leave you with a couple of shots taken at the weekend and wish you all a Happy Easter!!

Spring at Stonehurst

Blue Rocks - On the Rocks

Sick!

I have been a little under the weather for the past week, I thought I had got away without having a cold this Winter but apparently not. I started to go down with the most awful cold last weekend, and since then I have been struggling on with it. I worked Monday and Tuesday, well the morning anyway, I got sent home as I was a sniffing, coughing mess, I was back to work on Wednesday as I had to man the place as all the staff were out at our trade show. Feeling utterly awful, I did manage to attend a women in business do I had been invited to after work. I didn't stay long, but passed out a few of my cards for photography and design.
Friday was inventory day at work and for me a ton of data entry. That brings us to the weekend where I have largely been in bed the whole time.

I don't want to appear overly optimistic, but I think we might be turning a corner weather wise. The sun is shining outside and there is no sign of snow. I have stopped looking at the weather forecasts altogether now as last week they irritated me so badly. I actually thought that Weather Bomb was going to be the last term that annoyed the hell out of me but last week the word Sprinkles crept in, I believe the sprinkles they referred to actually meant flurries. God only knows what they will have to talk about when the weather is actually good.

Birthday wishes go out this week to my brother Clive! And I will leave you with another Rick Mercer video.