Travels by CAML

When we got home from the dinner party at the Morley's last Saturday night we stayed up 'til around eleven, held up by Rusty Nails. As a result, Sunday was a day of rest - and recovery. Maybe that's why this morning I'm inserting Melanie's perspective on life along The Shore from a recent email - "Guess I should add my comments to the weekend -  My Chromebook is having aging issues -  it gets finicky, unhappy, and decides to rest a lot these days (hope its just the computer) -  but, it's not been easy to sit down and do what I want, when I want. Charlie is great at trouble shooting and getting things to work, most of the time, but...  Now that we know we'll be meeting in Va. Beach on the 18th-19th, an early Thanksgiving, we can finalize our stops along the way and send out another revision to our tentative travels plans - We're targeting our ETD for Veterans Day (Remembrance Day). Four couples (friends) are leaving this week for Green Valley and Flo...

Sunday morning, before I awoke, Melanie was up and about - she'd baked a pan of muffins with craisins and put on the coffee. I got up around seven and took the muffins, along with several letters going to the States, to Don & Joan's where I hung them by the side door on their RV. They make it a practice to sleep in their rig the night before they leave; we may consider doing the same since it would allow us to shut off and drain the water system in the house the day before we go rather than making it the last thing to do before closing up. Later we took a walk down the lane to the Tyndal Road, then north to the Park ( Amherst Shore Provincial Park ), turned into the Park, walked down to Annabel's, and followed the path beside the creek running deeper into the park. The sky was cloudy with a bit of wind and rain in the forecast but deep in the forest the air was still and all was very quiet though we could see the treetops swaying, slowly shedding red, yellow and orange ...

Sunday morning - another beautiful day in Nova Scotia. Late to bed and up early for our drive to Halifax where we had lunch with Barb Stailing and Frank Burke. Barb used to have a cottage here at Cold Spring Head and we have stayed in touch over the years. Frank is quite the cook, always surprising us with tasty dishes, usually of a southeast Asian bent. Today we had a curried squash soup with shiitake mushrooms, a salad, and an excellent baguette, all topped off with blueberry and apple tarts from a nearby bakery. They now have two young kittens to brighten their days, and nights; the training process is ongoing. Mid afternoon we drove over to Mike and Sally's (more Christies), just off the Armdale rotary, not far from the Armdale Yacht Club where I kept a sailboat during my time on the math faculty at Dalhousie University ('68 - '70). Mike and Sally have been most kind, making their home available to us during our annual Thanksgiving visits to Jeanne in Halifax while they...

My apologies for not getting this post out 'til Monday (October 11). The past weekend was a bit of a whirl with two Thanksgiving dinners and a trip to Halifax, but more about that next week. We started off this week by washing the pile of dishes left over from the Saturday night dinner while suffering a few low level after effects. Then Melanie and I went out to the shed to find out how our bisque firing turned out. It was fine - no shattered pieces - so now we'll do some glazing and then fire again. Craig and Andrea stopped by, with their kids, on the way back to Halifax - good to see them, first time since summer of '19 - the kids are bigger, surprise. Also, I've heard, via the grapevine which has very long tendrils, that cousin Bob is back on the golf course now with the assistance of a special cart and his strong left arm. Sounds good Bob.  Took a nap and then we were off to Johnston Point (NB) to see Phil and Suzanne; it was good to catch up on all their doings bot...

Man with shovel attempts to rob New Glasgow, N.S. gas station  - social unrest in the maritimes - from the online edition of SaltWire Sunday morning, and I've not yet opened the NY Times. Cloudy, rainy - quiet day at home; finally got out to the 'clay studio' i.e. cleaned up the shed, and threw a few bowls, first time in quite a while. I'll try to throw a few more tomorrow so we have a full kiln to bisque.  Marney Simmons came for dinner this evening. Marney used to have a cottage out on the beach behind us. She is now living in Linden but will be moving to Northport in October. Marnie is the current manager of the Pugwash Market which keeps her busy, at least during the summer and early autumn. Speaking of which, autumn has arrived - today we'll see a high around 65. The remainder of the week promises to be cloudy with a bit of rain and temps in the 50's by day, 40's by night. Given the beautiful weather Monday I took a walk - out to the beach, then up to t...