OMG...Too Lazy to do Anything

Well I wish I could say I had some more new this week, but I don't. At least the work week was only 2 days long thanks to the bank holiday on Monday! The weather has been a bit up and down, we even had a bit of thunderstorm on Friday which of course I really don't like one bit. Thankfully it didn't last long and waiting until I got home before it started.

I was due to go out on a photography field trip today to a Sunflower field, however having seen a photo that was taken just yesterday there, only a few of the flowers are showing. I think everything is a bit late this year, thanks to that terrible long winter.

I am shocked to have to mention that it is Rob's 50th Birthday later this week...I had no idea he was nearly 50 until I saw his mum's card come through the mail. The worse thing is that means I am not far behind him.
When you think of yourself, spouses, family and friends, they never age in your own minds. I suppose he can look at it as a positive...One year nearer retirement :o)

I will leave you with a montage of flowers from our garden. I have been trying to record some of the flowers as they have been emerging, so I remember what we have, the planting is great, each month something else appears. The previous owners did a great job with the garden, which means we can just sit back and enjoy it...Except for weeding and grass maintenance of course (Rob's domain). We did actually plant some stuff in our vegetable patch and have been enjoying cucumbers from the garden. Soon we will have tomatoes and Zuccchini too if they ever ripen off.

From the Garden

The Paw Project

As my news is pretty slim this week and what news I do have, is not for sharing via a blog, I will take this opportunity to talk about a cause that is close to my heart and if I can reach just just a few of you out there and spur you into passing on the word or donating to the cause then my mission will be accomplished.

If you have Netflix in the UK, USA or Canada, please watch the documentary film "The Paw Project". Whilst it is disturbing in parts, it is also something that every cat owner should be aware of. In 30 countries across Europe including UK cat de-clawing is banned and illegal, as it should be.

In Canada and the USA it is not! de-clawing a cat is the same as amputating off your fingers at the first knuckle. It is barbaric! If you love your sofa more than your cat, don't get a cat in the first place.

De-clawing a cat means it becomes defenceless, it cannot scratch in a litter box and the process of de-clawing, can lead to constant pain, disability and behavioural problems later on in life. If a cat cannot defend itself with it's claws, the next thing it will do is bite you. If it cannot scratch in a litter tray then naturally it will mess on your floors and furniture....Now ask yourself, does de-clawing make sense? The reason people choose to put their cat through this in the first place is a no damage, no mess result, when in actual fact they have now perpetuated the problem, which in turn leads owners to get rid of their cats or have them put down.

De-clawing is a cash cow for vets, they don't want this procedure to be outlawed. Vets are supposed to do no harm to animals, this procedure IS harmful and it needs to stop.

Check out the website for more information: http://www.pawproject.org/

Don't forget you can also follow me on Twitter @ajsnovascotia to find out what else I am talking/venting about on a weekly basis!

It's Natal Day weekend here. I have done absolutely nothing apart from edit a lot of photos and sleep...It;s been great! Below are a few more images from my week off:

Fort Anne, a different perspective

The Blacksmith at King's Landing

Lockeport

The Joslin Farm, King's Landing 

A Busy Week Off - Part 2

So, back to our little road trip. As you can imagine Anne and I were pretty shattered from Monday's adventures, but to our credit, motivation was high and we set off like a couple of corpses at around 8.45 am on Tuesday. This time Anne was in the driving seat, thank god, and we headed for Annapolis Royal.

(To keep this really simple for those of you that have no knowledge of Nova Scotia, day 1 we went almost all the way along the bottom coast and on day 2 we went almost all the way along the top coast). 

A smooth 3 hours later we arrived at our destination, with no weird detours.

Our first stop was to visit Fort Anne a star shaped fortress which is Canada's oldest Historic Site. The officers quarters date back to 1797 and were renovated in the 1930's and today house the history of the Fort and a museum exhibit. It have lovely views of the surrounding Annapolis Basin, and the officer quarters are very photogenic, but for me personally (unless you enjoy a lot of reading info boards) the inside was slightly dull.

After wandering around the grounds we were pretty peckish so we then had lunch in Annapolis Royal (which thankfully this time was much quicker at arriving than the day before). From there we headed across the causeway to Granville Ferry and on to another historical site called The Habitation at Port-Royal. This was the first successful settlement in North America established in 1605 by the French and essentially a trading post, for most furs and skins. Like Fort Anne it was renovated in the 1930's and is today a beautiful living history museum. Photographically I loved poking around this place, so many interesting rooms and little vignettes, all surrounding a very pretty little courtyards with a well. 

After a good few hours there we left and were on our way again, we decided to meander back through some of the mountain roads that Anne had not been along. We finally got home around 10 pm.

Wednesday I didn't do anything as I was expecting a delivery, my sofa developed a squeak a few weeks ago, they sent a tech out to look at it and he concurred there was something wrong with it. Leon's ordered me a new one (excellent customer service). If you ever get furniture, get it from them, they are great to deal with. So at about 2 pm my new, new sofa arrived. 

Thursday and Friday Rob and I went to New Brunswick. Thursday we left at stupid o'clock 5.30 am. It took us around 4 and a half hours to get to Fredericton and then on to Kings Landing, which was the whole reason for going. Kings Landing is the most beautiful (and massive) living history, historical village.

Rob and I had been there before as tourists in 2005, and I have wanted to go back ever since. It didn't disappoint...Stunning! The costumed characters don't bother you unless you want them to talk to you.They literally carry on with every day tasks of the time, which in itself makes for great photos. I would highly recommend this place if you are ever in the area, but you should allow at least 6 hours to explore it.

Friday we spent most of the day winding our way back home stopping at couple of little scenic spots along the way and since returning I have spent the weekend editing images and doing very little, knowing I am back to dreaded work on Monday.

I have included photos from each stop here, there will be many more to come!! Click to view larger!

Fort Anne

Looking across to Granville Ferry From Annapolis Royal

Inside the Dining Room at Port-Royal

Wagons Roll at Kings Landing

Lovely Heritage Home at Kings Landing

Everywhere you turn, a photo op at Kings Landing

A Busy Week Off - Part 1

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.

Lockeport

Lockeport Harbour

River Boys...You can just see two boys in red rafting
up the river

The Illusive Barrington Woolen Mill

Turning Wool to Yarn inside the Mill

Replica of Seal Island Lighthouse

Along Dock Street in Shelburne

It's Been a Hot One!

Yes indeed, this week has been pretty hot and humid, not that I am complaining after all the crappy weather of late. The work week seemed never ending as we only had the 4 days last week.

Wednesday night I went out with a few people from work to play pool...Something I haven't done in a long time now, but it was good fun, even if my game needs some work!

Apart form that it's been a pretty lazy week, the heat has had Rob and I dropping off to sleep in our chairs in the evenings.

Saturday Rachael and I decided to go out to take some photos, the original plan was to take a massively long drive to find some more abandoned places, but it was so damn hot and we were late getting started we decided to scrap the idea and headed to Shubenacadie Wildlife Park instead. I personally haven't visited the park since 2010 so it was nice wandering around there again, but I do so hate the non photo friendly fences and cages. After a few hours we were back home having a nice cup of tea and after Rachael left I promptly fell asleep on the sofa for 4 hours!

Today Robert and I went swimming...at a new place! Bell Lake is only 4 km from our house, and is home to the Abenaki Aquatic Club. Membership is required but you can buy a day pass for $10, the fee allows you to swim all day and borrow canoes and kayaks to take out on the lake. Beautiful place so relaxing, spent the entire afternoon there. Will definitely be going back there again!

A Beautiful afternoon at Bell Lake

Blue Eared Pheasant

In the Long Grass

The Dreamer...Gotta love that little tongue hanging out

Hurricane Arthur

No surprise that this entry is called Hurricane Arthur as that is pretty much all anyone has talked about before his arrival on Saturday. We gathered everything up off the deck and anything else that might fly around and stayed in all day and all night yesterday. The wind was amazingly strong, pretty scary at some points especially with so many trees everywhere. I believe the highest recorded wind gusts in our area was around 116 km's an hour but further west at Yarmouth the gusts reached 140 km an hour. All in all the damage here was pretty minimal considering. There were and still are plenty of power outages across the Maritimes, thankfully we weren't on the receiving end of those in our road. From what I have seen Fredericton in New Brunswick bore the biggest brunt of the storm as they were pelted with the high winds and rain.

Getting up today the sun was shining again, it's a tropical 24 degrees with a warm wind blowing, we had a few plants to sort out that had been battered and plenty of leaves and to rake up. Other than the weather I don't have a whole hell of a lot to talk about, it's been a quiet and uneventful week, Robert and I did make the effort to go for the first swim of the Summer at the lake after work on Wednesday. We must have been very hot as the water felt so cold, but once in (after we had stopped fannying about), it felt great.

Leaves & Lines - Along the Waterfront last Weekend

Harbour Reflections

Happy Canada Day!

Yes it's Canada Day here and a Bank Holiday Tuesday! Can't say I am thrilled about going to work Monday having Tuesday off and back to work Wednesday....Completely buggers up my mojo.
I personally think the day should be moveable to the first Monday in July...But I doubt other Canadians would agree with me.

The weather is pretty darn hot right now, which is great. Rachael and I went on a camera club field trip to a dog training place/farm at the weekend. The dogs were fun and I got a few half decent animal shots. We spent a long time down by a lake watching dog after dog jump in of the end of a dock after their toys, this was the absolute definition of doggy heaven.

Robert has almost finished painting the front deck and we have added a couple more plants to our vegetable plot, a tomato plant from a friend at work plus some pepper plants from our neighbours.

Today we got up early and took the ferry over to Halifax for a walk along the front, it was rather peaceful as most people weren't up and out there yet. I should mention we got up early to head down to Alderney Landing to get the free pancake breakfast, however we decided to skip that event as the queue was half way round the block and across the massive car park...And NO pancakes are worth that amount of queuing. After our walk we headed back and had plans to do other stuff, but just ran out of steam in the heat, so a bit of weeding and painting later. Note to self, make more of an effort next year. I know deep down it's because it's a Tuesday and not the end of a long weekend!

Belated happy birthday to my friend Kim. I know she too is moving house this month, so I hope it's a bit cooler for you!

Here's some photos from today and the weekend. Plus a super cute bonus image of my Shakespeare during our bed remaking...This occurs every time we have washed the sheets and are trying to re-make the bed, he loves getting in amongst the layers of sheets while we try to carry on around him...This photo op was too good to miss (taken with my phone cam). Click on any of these to view larger!!!

Undercover Cat!

I am not a Alpaca

Dartmouth Bound

Along the Waterfront

The Bum Deal :o)