Travels by CAML

Sunday morning I took a long walk around  Chesopeian Colony where Jeanie and Dan live. In the past I've gone out and walked Virginia Beach Boulevard - it's quite commercial. Today I stayed in the subdivision - lots of tall pine trees, older houses, some waterfront, and little to no traffic. Back at the house Melanie and her sibs had a business meeting - I get to sit in as bookkeeper - after which, around 12:30, we had lox and bagels for 'breakfast.' Later, Melanie and I repacked the truck, relaxed, read, and took a nap. No TV. A pleasant cool cloudy autumnal afternoon. And crab cakes for dinner. Monday we hitched up the trailer and got away around 7:00. It was a longish day, mostly in the rain, mostly on I-95 South. We had been in contact with Karen Woolhouse and she invited us to stay with her Tuesday night so we extended our drive Monday to 385 miles, staying in the Santee State Park, just 'South of the border' in South Carolina. Tuesday we got away around 7:0...

Good morning. Here's our post for this week past. After leaving Bob & Judy's Sunday afternoon we had an easy drive, about three hours on interstate highways, to Ridgefield (CT), Melanie's brother's home. Two things seemed apparent: traffic flow on Sunday afternoon was greater than it was five years ago - my imagination? - and autumn comes about two weeks later, in central Connecticut, than it does at Amherst Shore. We arrived in good shape and had time to catch up on family doings before being offered two Sauvignon Blancs to compare, one from France, the other from New Zealand. I prefered the French variety which we then had with salmon, baked with a Paul Prudhomme seafood seasoning. In case you were wondering, this is not a foodie's blog, though you are quite right if you've noticed I spend a fair amount of time commenting on and commemorating meals and recipes.  It was nice to have a hot shower this evening, something not readily available in the Casita, ...

  The tamarack, common in Nova Scotia -  AKA  hackmatack,  American larch, or eastern larch - is deciduous. It is  one of the very few conifers that are not evergreen. Just now, the needles are turning a beautiful golden yellow and will fall off soon. 11/7 Sunday we arose to a clear one degree morning, setting all clocks back an hour. Started packing my office. What to do with all those wires, cables, connectors, drives (thumb and disc), and paper files. Each year half the stuff I lug around North America never gets used, yet I keep lugging, just in case. I hate to rush out to buy a new dongle and find out later that I have two at home, or at one of our homes. And then there is the semi-annual clothes packing. This year I'm going to take stuff out of my closet, and dresser, and either throw it out or move it to Arizona - maybe I'll throw it out there. It doesn't feel as if we spend much on clothes, certainly much much less than average (5% of annual income), but...

  Last Saturday, early to bed, and Sunday morning, up early - still dark at seven. The weather forecast was for rain all afternoon but there was time for a walk in the morning, before it began. The Park is divided in half by the Tyndal Road. To the west, the inland side, are the campgrounds with roads for RVs. The ocean side is the site of an old farm. There are no longer any signs of the farmhouse, barns and outbuildings though a variety of apple trees gone wild still survive along the paths through the woods - their apples are very nice to munch of a morning walk. A few drops of rain but nothing serious. Signs of bear and deer though none presented themselves, a lone eagle soared above the beach heading toward the lighthouse on a southerly breeze. What a fine way to spend the better part of two hours - quiet except for wind in the trees and soft waves breaking on the beach. No foot traffic  on the woodland trails, no traffic on the road. Thank you Annabel.   The na...

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 ...