Kelly Date December 28, 2009

HAPPY HOLIDAY ! ! !

I would have to admit that being away from my family at Christmas was very different and I missed everyone very much.

However, I made it through the holiday with the help of some very kind people in Wolfville who invited me for dinner on Christmas day. And, a fine dinner it was too.....lobster thermador, rissotto rice, salad, and plumb pudding with hard sauce.

It was actually amazing and I ate way too much. Good wine, good company, and good food made for a great day that went much more quickly than I thought it might. I think the 'hard sauce' was my favourite lol. I had never had it before and could have eaten a whole bowl all to myself. A happy thank you to Susan and John for sharing the holday with me!

Actually, most of the day was spent chatting with people on the phone, skype, or ichat. Chelsey, Celise, and Carissa also had a good Christmas and spent the day with friends and loved ones. They also liked the presents I had sent - pictures of my trip across Canada and the States. I received cards and pictures and letters from home, which were much appreciated. I didn't get many pictures as it has rained so much these past few days. In fact it is pouring right now and doesn't seem to be letting up at all.

I did get pictures of a snow storm a few days ago of several decorated homes in the area. Some of the homes

here are quite pretty and the snow storm made them look amazing. You can see the Christmas trees decorated outside and one fellow almost invisible in the snowy landscape.

I trust you all had a wonderful holiday as well and looking forward to an amazing new year. I know I am.......

Kelly Date December 20, 2009

HAPPY HOLIDAY TO YOU AND YOURS ! ! !

Hello, I have to finish up the blog yet, but waiting to get one more thing finished......I do have a picture though of Mr. Finnigan's new boots. I can assure you he was none too pleased by the addition to his feetware lol. It was so funny to watch him try and flap them off; wouldn't put one foot down or the other. Then we went for a walk and he kinda got it sorted around. He was doing quite well with the new equipment by the time we got home. The next night he did much better with his walk and seemed much happier with his warm feets. Ha, such a cutie.

This week will be taken up with work on my thesis proposal. I have been gathering journal articles that speak to Aboriginal and Indigenous tourism, community development, and related issues to ecotourism. It's actually quite interesting and there is a lot of discourse about the impact on social policy of tourism development. I've read a number of article on circumpolar tourism and related background material on Nunavut's history and present day development, or rather non-development in some instances, of their tourism industry.

Other than work I have been low key what with the snow and everything. Mr. Finnigan and I have been managing walks and still jogging, but the snow and ice has kept us somewhat homebound. I've watched some movies, a bit of television, but of course some reading. It will be a great Christmas week and I was happy to hear back that all of my presents had actually arrived and unbroken. Yes! I guess my extra care and effort to wrap the gifts really well paid off.

I will be having Christmas dinner with Susan and John Markham-Starr. They are serving lobster - wow - and I am to bring dessert wine, myself, and Mr. Finnigan to the festivities. This of course means that I have to get out and go shopping asap and pick up a few gifts. Should be fun! Bye for now....ho ho ho!

Kelly Date December 14, 2009

It's Sunday evening 12:04a.m. and I've just finished my last paper. Yea. However, given the lateness of the hour I plan on updating the blog in the morning. I'm too tired just now to give it a go with any umph at all. Until tomorrow.....

Considering I was up so late last night I surprised myself by being awake at exactly 8:18 and ready for the day. Slept like a baby. Yesterday, I had asked the English professor if he would edit my paper for grammar and technical errors, which he kindly agreed to do. I met him at the little coffee shop at the far end of town and had just settled in to work when about 10 carollers came around the front of the building and sang a Christmas song for us. That was the very first time I had ever seen anyone do this and it was so very nice.

There were two very young children at the front who stood quite close to the glass with big smiles. They were so cute, but since I didn't have my camera with me I decided to use the built-in camera in my laptop to snap a picture. As you can see they were adorable.

My other Christmas moment was when Doreen, my 86 year old landlady, put up the tree last night. Her son, Jim, brought it by for her that afternoon and called it a 'ditch' tree of little or no value whatsoever. I beg to differ. Doreen dragged out what few decorations she had and one string of small red lights and fancied it up all by herself.

I was huddled in my room working and didn't realize she was quite so busy. When she finished she was quite pleased with herself and came to get me so I could see for myself. So, I turned out the living room lights and after some fiddling around she succeeded in getting the tree lights working. Perfect! She had managed to get the ornaments placed all round the tree nicely but the lights were mostly on the bottom to the left. I love it and is quite possibly the best tree I've ever seen.

These things have decidedly put me in the Christmas spirit and suddenly it actually feels like that time of year. I will spend the remainder of this week doing some marking and getting busy with my thesis proposal. In addition, I plan on getting out with the camera to get some photos of the snow when it gets here. Ha, I hadn't anticipated a green Christmas here in Nova Scotia, but it is a possibility seeing as it rained last night.

Have a fabtastic day and merry ho ho ho.

Kelly Date December 6, 2009

Hi again. It's been a fairly hectic week for me, but I was able to get out and have a little fun over the weekend. The best thing was that it snowed finally. On Saturday evening the 5th of December it actually rained until very late at night and Mr. Finnigan and I woke up to a blanket of white outside on Sunday morning. Mr. Finnigan was none too impressed and his usual lazy wandering and sniffing lasted mere seconds by comparison.

With Christmas just weeks away I managed to get most of my cards written and even a few gifts wrapped and ready to post. It's funny, but I started getting things together rather early this year and here I am again scrambling to get everything in the mail on time. I had good intentions, but somehow they escaped me again. Oh well, by the time I'm completely done I will be no doubt be vowing to do a better job next year lol.

This week will prove a bit quieter for me as far as my assignments and classes are concerned. I've almost completed everything and I'm hoping to turn my attention to some photography. It's a changing scene outside with the snow and I want to make sure to capture it. I would really like to catch a sunset over the little swimming hole at some point. I think it would

be very pretty this time of year. However, I plan on getting a lot accomplished over the break as well and get a head start on some of the work for next semester.

Sorry for being a bit late getting the blog finished. I got caught up messing around on the computer with Randy last night.

Have a great week.

Kelly Date November 29, 2009

Hello from Wolfville, Nova Scotia. This week was a bit slower for me as I've started finishing up a few of my projects. It's nice to have some of the work done with, but the down side is that I'm getting a bit bored. I like staying busy and suddenly find myself with a bit too much time on my hands. However, I still have a couple weeks of school left and have to get through that before I have to time to brainstorm any new adventures.

I did get some great news though as I was awarded the SSHRK scholarship that I applied for about a month back. It's worth $17,500.00 so it will go a long way to covering my school expenses next year and help with the cost of my research project. I figure it took me about 20 hours to put the application together so it works out to about $875.00 an hour. I'd stay that's a pretty decent return for time invested lol. I was thrilled to get the award actually and it is a huge relief financially as well. My thanks again to all those who helped out in any way. I appreciated the support and encouragement.

The only funny thing to happen this week was a story on the local radio station. Some of the cultural differences here in Nova Scotia can be quite entertaining. A news story on Thursday had me in stitches. A lady had centre stage telling about a run in she and her husband had with the police. So you have to picture a heavy Cape Breton accent her, long winded details, and a slow paced sharing of events. I'll do my best to convey the tone etc.

Apparently she and her husband had gone down to the grocery store to pick upa few things ya know, we did't need much. My husband went to the smoke shop. Well I tell ya, I come out an da polece were alroun our truck - pears da polece hear'd about a boy gone missen and taught my husband had gone and done it. "Well, holy dinah....you should a hear'd em all. They took my husband an me to the polece stations...and asked us lots of questions bout where'd we'd been an all...even made him empty his pockets lord sakes. Now everyone round here is gonna tink we did it...and we did't. Holy dinah, they pologized though for all the troubles."

Ha, I could barely contain myself I was laughing so hard. She relayed these details in a most serious manner and all I could do was giggle. Funniest thing I'd heard in a while. God, you simply have to love the accents around here. Absolutely priceless. It was so Cape Breton in every way. In all fairness, I realize that I too have an accent but somehow I don't think it is nearly as charming heh!

I've continued to work at my jogging and seem to be getting a little better at it. I seem to jog more than I walk now and Mr. Finnigan is loving it. He gets to be out a bit longer than we would normally during school days and he gets a good run out of it as well.

Until next week then. You have an absolutely fabulous week!

Kelly Date November 22, 2009

Greetings! I have accomplished much this week. I have two of my courses almost completed and working on finishing up the third here shortly. On top of that I even managed to attend a couple of presentations this week on Aboriginal studies. They were both quite interesting. The first addressed issues of violence against Aboriginal women and the second was on the killing of sled dogs in Nunavut by the RCMP back in the 50's and 60's. I won't go into the details but I learned a lot from the speakers and it sure broadens your outlook on things.

What else did I do this week.....oh yeah, I won a photo contest! One of my photos was selected for the school art magazine which was exciting. I've included it here in the blog today at the top. It was a photo I took while in Cape Breton - I stopped to take in the view at one of the many lookout points and noticed the graffiti on the guard rail as well as the little Inukshuk. I thought it was cool and apparently so did the judges lol. I was a bit surprised by their choice actually as I had submitted several other very nice photos but this was the one they liked. Oh well, I was still please to have even one selected.

Next up was the Olympic Torch Parade through Wolfville. I had never been to one, but was able to sneak away from a meeting early to get a few pictures. The one I've included here is of the designated runner headed down main street and after that there was a huge celebration in the commons area. I also got a great picture of an elderly man who came out to see the festivities. He was quite happy to have me snap his picture. I was amazed at how many people show up for the event. The crowd in front of the pavilion was quite large actually with music and entertainment and everyone seemed to be having a great time.

Oh, one not so great bit of news.....I have to move tomorrow....again. Yuk! I'm am tired of moving and even though it is only one flight of stairs down it seems like work lol. I've been shuffling things off and on for the past few days to make things go a bit quicker tomorrow which should help somewhat. I don't even have to move the heavy stuff and I'm still complaining lol. Did I mention I hate moving......

I have nothing further of any consequence whatsoever to report but will wish you a great week and sunny weather. Until next week then......

Kelly Date November 15, 2009

Hello! This has been a fabulous week. I've managed to get so much done and out of the way - permanently. The semester is close to over and it feels great! It's been a lot of work and I have put so much time into it, but its paid off and I can actually start putting some of the work behind me. Next semester of course is a whole new deal, but at least I'll get a bit of a break over Christmas.

However, I've not been able to get much done except homework. I did manage to start taking Mr. Finnigan for some long walks though. I take along some good music and go

all over the place chugging along to some good old songs. Fin loves it of course and it takes about an hour to get all the way down past the Blomidon Inn and back again. He is busy sniffing everything along the way and peeing on every available post, pillar, and beam lol.

The only other interesting thing to report was that the weather was weird today. I spent most of yesterday and today doing homework, but when I went to go for our walk today it was warm outside - but not just warm it was also wet out. Not raining or terribly overcast or even foggy but the air itself was wet. It was the strangest thing - I'd never experienced a

nything like it. It must be an east coast thing. Wet, but not wet lol.

I'll be back next week with hopefully a better update, but for now that's all folks. I uploaded a couple of older pictures. They from the presentation I did in October on Aboriginal ecotourism. They were my favourites; Namibia, Africa, Alert Bay, BC, and Kaikura, New Zealand. I thought they were beautiful pictures. Enjoy.

Kelly Date November 8, 2009

Hello again, this week's blog, out of necessity, is going to be a rather short entry as I'm so very tired today. I managed to get much done this past week, but I really pushed it today. I spent approximately 12 hours studying, working to get a particular project done on theoretical frameworks. It might sound boring, but it isn't lol and for the most part I very much enjoyed the challenge of just trying just how to figure it all out.

However, I am so completely done in I can't seem to think of the least little clever thing to say. It's funny, but it one of the projects I've been procrastinating on, but once I overcame my worry that I wouldn't be able to do it, things worked out quite well. At least I hope so. In the end, I guess my prof will tell me if I made sufficient effort or not.

I did take Mr. Finnigan for a good long walk and took a few pictures of the ducks to include on the blog. The mushrooms are from a field near where I live and it's one of our favorite places to walk. I love the shapes, colours and texture, which makes a good picture. I'm not sure about the faming on this

one, but I'm took pooped to hunt for a better one lol.

I hope you have a great week and I am sure to have a lot more to say next week!

Kelly Date November 1, 2009

'Skitter Bugs on Ice'

Hi, I totally forgot to finish my blog yesterday. I had started a draft earlier in the week and then totally forgot to finish. I got a little carried away doing homework yesterday and I think it was around 10:00 when I was chatting with Randy that he asked if I'd gotten it done. Oops. Oh well, now is as good a time as any and considering the fact that I haven't really done anything earth shatteringly interesting this week, probably just as well.

The one thing I did do this week was to 'start thinking backwards'. Yes, that's right - a process whereby one attempts to look at everything in their life from a different or 'backwards' perspective. Here's an example, "No matter where you go, there you are." Often said to stop one from venturing out and trying something new. You hear this and say to yourself, what is the point of doing or trying something if nothing is going to change. That may be but you'll never know unless you try so I decided to 'turn it around' and it suites me much better....

"No matter where I am, there I go." Love it. Makes me smile every time!

So see if you can come up with one that suites you better and I'll post it on the blog. Give it a whirl and start thinking backwards! You have a great week. Kelly

Kelly Date October 25, 2009

Hello! This week has been a little less crazy than last week, but this is good as I was able to get a couple of projects started and some others inched along just a bit further. It’s almost the end of October and I’m managing to keep up with my assignments reasonably well.

Pretty much five more weeks and I’ll be finished the semester. I have yet to start writing my research proposal, but I’ll be starting on that this week. I have to think about what and where I want to study and start pulling together some of the logistics so we can contact the communities where I might work.

My favorite picks so far would be Nunavut, Greenland, Iceland, or quite possibly the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia. I did some research on each of these places today and all of them are incredible.

John wants to limit me to only two places where I’ll do case studies on Aboriginal ecotourism and community development. Two - only two lol. It’s hard to pick given the incredible choice available. I guess in the end it will also come down to there being an opportunity to go into one of these communities. I can’t exactly just show up and starting asking questions. It will take a considerable amount of time to just make contact and be asked into the community etc. Regardless, it is exciting to just consider the possibilities.

About the only marginally exciting thing to happen this week, was to take some photos of a community event here in Wolfville. It was an event aimed at creating awareness of global warming and the impact of melting ice caps and how this will affect tidal levels here on the east coast. Okay, it wasn’t really that exciting lol. Besides we pretty much got rained out and not too many people were even able to show up as a result. I did get some nice photos though and I included one for you, too right. You can see the town clock which seems to be a major meeting place hereabouts.

I do plan on entering two photo contents here at the school. The one is for submission to a school online art magazine and the second is through the international education department. So I went through my best photos and came up with a selection of top pics. I can submit about seven pictures in total and have included a few of them for you to see. I have to admit to cheating a bit as I asked one of the local professionals to tell me which ones he felt were the best, which he kindly did for me. I’ll keep you posted as to the results.

......

Montana USA and Moraine Mountain, Banff

Other than that, I have absolutely nothing particularly grand to share. Oh, I guess the fact that ts was a wonderful week, the sun was shining at just the right moments, and I managed to fit in several nice walks with the Finmyster does count as quite grand in the scheme of things.

You have a faabu week dahlings......

PS: The system is acting up a bit so the layout for this week's blog may appear a bit off.

Kelly Date October 18, 2009

Hello Again!

As predicted this past week was crazy busy, but enjoyable nonetheless! I left Wolfville very early Tuesday morning to catch a 7:00 flight to Toronto. And, I do mean early! I had to be up by 3:00a.m. but was so excited about the trip I'm pretty sure I didn't get to sleep until 2:00a.m. Oh well, I did manage to get some sleep en route and felt up to a full day on arriving in Toronto.

Chelsey and Trevor were there to pick me up as

planned and we spent the day wandering around downtown Toronto enjoying the sights and sounds. I took my camera along so I was even able to get some good photographs. The funniest thing was a large group of people dancing for a Cadbury chocolate bar promotional gig they had going on right in the centre of the business district.

People had to dance on a large purple mat in order to win a 'purple goodie bag'! Of course Chelsey wanted one but there was no talking her into participating so I decided to take up the cause and danced my way across the mat in exchange for the prize. Too funny...Chelsey is now the proud owner of all things purple... t-shirt, chocolate, bag, etc. I took the pictures on either side as an example of some of the contestants, but I thought I out jigged them all lol. Well, maybe not but it certainly got some smiles from Chelsey and Trevor.

Next morning, we were up and on our way to Geulph for my conference,

actually arriving a bit early as the traffic was better than anticipated. I spent the rest of the morning hanging out with Rob who I knew from some work I did with him in central BC this past spring. It's always nice to know someone when you go to new places.

Late in the afternoon, I joined a tour group to take in several points of interest in and around Guelph including, the Wellington micro brewery, a potato research station, a small rural tourist town, and a local food market. They were all interesting stops and it was especially nice to get out and see a bit more of Ontario other than the urban centers. I was pleasantly surprised at how lovely the fall colors were and had a great time exploring. Oh yes, I ate some of the best cheese ever at the local food market. Tis a very good thing I don't live anywhere near the place or I'd be my own best/worst customer lol.

The rest of the week was spent taking part in the conference and of course my first attempt to present at this type of venue. It went well, or so I felt, but it was just as stressful as I had imagined it might be. But I had worked very hard to have the information flow and make sense and thought I accomplished that in spades.

One night I went out with a group of delegates and had a great time and the next I wandered around taking photographs of downtown Guelph. They have some amazing architecture there and beautiful old churches and bridges as you can see from the photographs.

I ended up in a nearby pub to get some food and a brew and ended up chatting with a local by the name of Burl Levine who is an amazing poet. He quoted some of his best work and actually honored me with a copy of his published book entitled 'Inklings About Relationships'. It was a real treat and great fun.

The next morning I was up early again and off to catch a ride into Toronto with some newfound friends from the Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia; Harold and Cindy. We managed to get lost but did make it on time in the end.

I am now back at home in Wolfville and I cannot tell you how excited Mr. Finnigan was to see me! Wow, he was over the top wiggly lol. What a wonderful pooch. It's good to be home - it was a great week and a wonderful experience, but as I say...."Home is a good place to be."

Chat next week.....

Kelly Date October 12, 2009t

Well I had good intentions of doing the blog last night, but between a wonderful Thanksgiving meal at Susan and John's place and the lateness of the evening I decided to put it off until today. Isn't it funny how you can go through a whole week of getting up, eating, doing things, and the general chaos of it all, but when you sit down to write about it you can't seem to remember much of anything at all.

In attempting to recollect my week it was a busy one. I did

manage to get out for a couple of nice bike rides to enjoy the fall colors, finished up a huge data project for one the profs, and shuffled several of my projects along as well. The fall colours are amazing and I've included a couple of pictures. I went for a walk with John (supervisor) at one point and he took several nice photos. One in particular (right) of the leaves on the ground

that is a perfect as a fall screensaver.

I did take Mr. Finnigan out for a long walk late one afternoon and found a new trail to wander along very near to where I'm staying. Such a nice day and the sun was shining and there

was even an agreeable little squirrel who allowed me to get close enough to get some nice pictures of him eating his lunch. This

trail ends up in another of the schools gardens with a charming little bridge and huge trees draped along the creek.

Today I am busy getting ready to leave tomorrow morning. I seriously cannot think why I booked the flight for 7:00 in the morning which means I have to be up at 3:30 tomorrow. I mean I did this to myself on purpose with no ill intent whatsoever and for no particular reason. The one good thing is that I can sleep on the plane and I can spend the whole day with Chelsey and Trevor in Toronto which I know will be fun. I am so looking forward to spending time with her. I hadn't really thought I'd be able to see anyone for at least a year while I was here so this is a major treat.

Mr. Finnigan will be vacationing at Susan and John's while I am away. I'll drop him off this evening and I'm sure he will have a great time, but I will miss him terribly. Chelsey wanted me to bring him with me, but I can't take him on the plane easily. I really don't like putting him in cargo as it is so stressful for him. He'll be better off here and I know he'll be safe and won't have to worry about him. He even has a playmate, Barnaby, for the week at his vacation spot.

I'm looking forward to a busy week in Guelph and will report in on how it all goes. I'm taking the camera with me so I can get some pictures as well. I've never been there before so quite keen on getting out and taking it all in. Apparently there is an agro-tour planned for Wednesday so I want to get some pictures of the countryside.

You have a great week! I'm off on another adventure very very early tomorrow morning and will report back next week to let you know how it went.

Kelly Date October 4, 2009

Okay, I admit it.....I forgot to do the blog last night. In my defense I did homework until 12:00p.m. and while I would have welcomed a break I was so engrossed in what I was doing I totally forgot. So now I am scrambling to put it together quickly as I have a meeting to prepare for this afternoon.

I did manage to get some fun in this week and enjoyed a day trip to Halifax to attend a workshop at Dalhousie University. I had never been there before and I had some difficulty finding it, but it is very beautiful and very old. The workshop was great and afterwards I was able to wander around and get some photos of the main buildings.

Fall is well in swing now here in Wolfville and the pumpkin patch has expanded to include critters of the two legged variety all

in search of the perfect, big old phat pumpkin. The kids were so cute and people were lined up on the highway taking pictures, myself included.

Better yet, they have something here called pumpkin fudge - ooooh yeah....that is some wonderful stuff. I confess to having a rather large piece - I did share a bit with Mr. Finnigan, but I got the pumpkin's share so to speak. Sorry, but it disappeared way to quickly to get a picture lol.

I did get around to taking some nice garden pictures in our backyard as well and have included one to show

you. There is also a new picture of the front of my building on campus. The deep purple reds are gorgeous.

I hate to blast off, but I have much to do and feel I'm behind enough already. Enjoy the fall weather and get out and take a walk. The air seems so fresh and crisp this time of year. Wonderful stuff!

You have a great day!