Kelly Date August 30, 2009

Hi! I am having some computer difficulties and was not able to post to the blog last night.

You have to hate technology sometimes - tis great when it works but just try and sort out the wiring lol. I am trying to set up the new wireless router at the new apartment and having no luck at all. So, once I have that sorted around I'll get back to getting the blog finished.

I don't have too much to report or share this week, but a few amusing stories you might enjoy. Most of the week I spent working on the journal article or moving to the new digs.

Funny Story: Last night I took Finnigan for a walk and he was very enthusiastic with the new trail we had found - the botanical gardens at Acadia! They are quite awesome and there any number of paths and trails to explore and wander along.

So, as there was no one around I decided to let the pooch off his leash and enjoy himself. And, he did just that - tearing up and down the trails and bounding back to make sure his human was in tow. All well and fine until we got to the formal gardens and he went ripping down a hedged pathway toward the grand central fountain. So, did he go around the fountain no no no - he made straight for the fountain which I realized afterward he couldn't see from his low vantage point and took a flying leap straight up and over the edge and into the fountain ...... imagine his surprise when there was no land yonder lol.

In slow-mo it would have sound more like Ya ya ya ya ya, huh huh??? - Noooooooo! I killed myself laughing as I dragged my wet and soggy puppy out of the drink ha. He absolutely hates the water! He looked so dejected I took him home to a good towel rub and the hair dryer - none the worse for the experience. Of course I didn't have the camera with me but included another shot of him at the beach at Blomidon provincial park.

If I manage to sort out my computer problems quickly I will add to this post, but if not this is it until Sunday. I wanted to mention that I included the deadwood photo above because I loved the color and sculpting of the branches. It was taken on a hiking trail in the Cape Breton National Park.

You have a great day! :)

Kelly Date August 23, 2009

HELLO FROM HURRICANE KELLY !

I was out and about a bit this past week and caught a few great pictures of some of the colourful scenes at a local farmer's market. The flowers are incredible and they heap them up in huge, glorious piles of yellows, browns,

blues, reds, oranges, and violets. A quick side note to let you know the tiny white bunny from two weeks ago is alive and well and venturing out of his hide away. He’s about five inches long now and adorable as only little critters can be.

This has been a very interesting week Sunday finds me sitting in a coffee shop in the Bay of St. Lawrence, Cape Breton. Since last Sunday I spent a considerable amount of timeworking but come Friday afternoon around 4:00 p.m. I decided to get out of town as this will likely be my last chance to do any 'adventuring' before starting school.

I have included a lot of pictures this time as I will make the assumption that most of you have not been to Cape Breton and will enjoy getting a sense of the place. Last night I stayed at the Cranberry Campground about an hour south west of the Canso Causeway. The Canso Causeway is a bridge/road type system that connects Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. There are so many great places to stop and the scene to the left is typical of the area.

My first stop was the nearest information centre as I wanted to know where the Cabot Tail was. I knew it was a scenic drive, but was unsure of where it started from.

That done, I headed out soon enough and was on my way. The scenery along the Cabot Trail is incredible and I stopped at several points to take pictures or hike some of the many trails along the way. The 'Old Le Buttereau trail is amazing and not too long. Finnigan enjoyed a break from the car and a little bit of 'foot' time on the ground.

The weather was fabulous, but quite humid so we didn't do any long hikes. Next up we saw the Butlach Falls, but the water level was quite low. However, that did allow me to get up close and personal for some of the shots. I took one of the skitter bugs on the shoreline as there were so many.

After that, I pretty much drove straight to the Bay of St. Lawrence and took up residence at the Jumping Mouse campground. This is an amazing eco-friendly place with not too many camping sites and the hosts, Margarit and Fred couldn't have been more gracious. They took time out of their day to chat with myself and others, but of course they fell in love with Mr. Finnigan!

A wealth of information about Cape Breton and their home of Bay St. Lawrence. I spent two nights with them and felt I had made two more great friends. I'm sure I will be in touch with them again. I was even invited (along with all the other campers present) to join them for a birthday celebration that evening in their home. Chocolate cake, champagne, smiles and laughter were the main course. The picture to the right was the view from my campsite and I've included a couple others including a coastline sunset, which is incredibly beautiful.

After the cake and celebration, a couple of us went for a walk down to the docks to get a sense of the storm.... did I mention all this took place in the 'tail end' of Hurricane Joe? It was amazing! I stood at the end of the docks being blasted by the wind and just when the next wave was about to hit, I turned my back to it and got a good dousing.

The winds were estimated at 50 knots, which apparently isn't too bad. I loved it and spent the night car camping with the winds howling around me for much of the time. It was so noisy I actually woke up at one point and sat there looking out the window - much to my delight the skies cleared and I saw four shooting stars in the course of an hour. Wow, I love Cape Breton.

So, today I get to head back to Wolfville, but I would like to come back here again sometime soon. This is the kind of place you can truly get away from it all. The Jumping Mouse has a suite you can rent as well and it would be a wonderful retreat in the winter. But for now, its back to the books and life in Wolfville which ain't too bad - not too bad at all.

Have a fabulous day!

Kelly Date August 16, 2009

What a wonderful week I've had....

Nothing spectacular or particularly noteworthy, just a fine week to me - loven life and my circumstance and ever so thankful for my many blessings.

I spent the week working on my research projects which took up a considerable amount of time, but the rest of the week I was out bike riding or enjoying the sights. I didn't take too many pictures as the heat has made it almost impossible to take the camera along. It's too hot to leave it in the car and packing it on my bike is a bit laborious to say the least.

However, I did spend quite a lot of time working on my pictures - cropping them to improve their composition and and appearance. This is actually quite time consuming but I can't think of a better way to pass the time.

I've included a few here as examples. From what I've read the idea is SEX - as in 'Simplify' and 'EXclude'. The idea being that you focus only on the most important component of the picture, which should ideally happen when the picture is taken to begin with. I have been getting better at it though and some of my more recent photographs don't seem to need as much work as they did. At least I hope so lol. The picture of me in the red coat isn't a great example....I just wanted to say 'Hi'. :) It was taken in Quebec when I was visiting with Ann-Marie and Arnold.

The pictures below are better examples of where I was able to cut out some of the unnecessary bits and focus in on the subject more closely. The painting of the angel is from a church in Montreal and the other was scaled down to a much narrower view of the rock formations at the foot of the bluffs at Cape Blomidon.

Today was particularly nice. I worked this morning and went for a bike ride in the afternoon, although not for too long as it so wretchedly hot. But, I spent the whole evening hanging out at the office listening to good music and writing letters to a few dear souls that were on my mind. I'm not sure why it was so enjoyable, I guess it made me feel connected to those far from me. I even managed to put together a collage of sorts for my door - something that reflects me and my life. Of course I couldn't possibly fit everything in but did include a few snap shots of my daughters, friends, Randy and the ever present Mr. Finnigan.

I hope your week was as enjoyable as mine. Kelly

Kelly Date August 9, 2009to

I had a fantastic week - even a few adventures.....

I guess first up is that I had a very busy week getting some work done. The projects I'm working on are coming along nicely and I was able to meet with John and get a few decisions made as well. It looks as though this week I will be getting friendly with the phone and spending most of my time collecting phone numbers and email addresses for the online survey we're doing. Should be fun, but I have feeling I'm going to be tired of playing phone tag in the end lol.

As for adventures, I have several tall tales to tell.... I spent a lot of time this week riding my bike 'adventuring'. I took the first picture out on the 'flats' - at least that's what I call them. You get out there on the dikes and its cool because you can ride for long distances and loop back around and come back home another way. I've been having a lot of fun with that and tonight I did 18k which for me is most excellent. Finnigan ran part of the way and is currently passed out on the couch snoring ha ha. I did stop and get ice cream for him though in Canning. Vanilla is his favorite. Mine too.

On Friday, I headed over to Lunenburg for the Music Festival. Lunenburg is right on the east coast and south of Halifax by about two hours but you can drive there in an hour direct from Wolfville. The first little community you get to though is Mahone Bay. A very picturesque place with quaint shops and this old mill just on the edge of town. I didn't spent much time there but did wander around a few antique stores just for the fun of it.

I made Lunenburg a while later and headed straight for the waterfront. This small town, right on the coast is pretty much open to the Atlantic Ocean and is a designated Unesco WorldHeritage Site due to the fact that the streets of the "Old Towne' are still laid out just as they were in 1753. Many of the original buildings are still standing and painted in vibrant hues of red, purple, green, and blue. There are some really nice market areas as well, with small cafes and many of the restaurants look right out over the bay so you can enjoy a spectacular view while you eat.

The picture to the left is of two of the many heritage buildings in the Old Towne. The nice thing is that they are, for the most part, contained in this one are so it is easy to wander along the waterfront and see any number of them. Mr. Finnigan and I decided to go for dinner at this wonderful little wharf side restaurant. I partook of lobster for the first time which was wonderful and Finnigan seemed quite thrilled to get a side order of bacon. I took several pictures while sitting there enjoying the scenery, but we were rained out half way through and about six of us forced to dash inside. Much to my surprise they allowed Finnigan right in and we sat at one of their finest tables and finished our dinner.

Once the rain stopped we were able to get going again and I spent some time wandering around some of the art shops in the area. There are some really nice pieces representative of Nova Scotia to be found, such as pottery, photography, paintings, and I was surprised to see that quilting was such a huge thing. Amazing quilts actually that depict scenes from days gone by of fisherman, events, and historic settings.

At the far end of town there was a pile of old boats piled up by the old dory building. They don't seem to be of much use to anyone and I don't think they see a lot of care, but the colors, shapes, and sizes make a beautiful picture.

It's hard to think of people out fishing in these small boats. I can't imagine it was very safe and even though there are others at the docks much larger, there is a monument just up the street of all the names of men who 'died on the high seas'. The sheer number of names is incredible and there is group I noticed where six men from the same family vanished.

Next I went to the far side of the bay to the Bluenose Golf Club to take some shots of the Old Towne from a higher vantage point. I had a great time at the pub/restaurant and people seemed very curious about what I was doing and several came up to chat and ask questions. A really nice group of people and I enjoyed myself very much. I took some incredible pictures of the Old Towne at sunset. It truly is a beautiful little town and I'm so glad I had a chance to spend some time there. The music festival was great but in the end I spent more time wandering around than sitting on the stands. It was far too nice a day to spend it being still lol even if the music was great. You could pretty much hear the music from all over anyway.

We spent a bit more time in Lunenburg, but headed out around 1:00 to go to Peggy's Cove. However, I was delayed at a little town called Cassidy because of a local parade they hold each year. No particular reason I was told, they just like to hold parades lol. I had a great time watching the fun and you could tell many of the locals joined in to make it special. There was one little girl in particular you couldn't help but notice. Her Daddy had obviously made a small float just for her, filled with her favorite things including wooden cut outs of all seven dwarves from the classic tale. She herself was dressed as Snow White and as she went by she looked right at me, smiled and waved. God she was cutest little girl. She was obviously loving every minute of it. What a special time for her and especially since it was her father who had obviously made the float. I'm thinking the outfit was Mom's department.

I didn't get to Peggy's Cove after all, but that is just a great excuse to go back. For now, I'm back to work and oh yes, I have to put in some serious phone time this week. Bye for now........

Kelly Date August 2, 2009

Here we are again, another week has blazed past us in a heart beat.....

The week has gone by quickly but I'm feeling quite good that I managed to get as much accomplished as I did. I spent the majority of my free time working on the two research projects and getting the last of my paperwork transferred over to Nova Scotia but I did get some fun time in as well.

The picture to the right was taken from Look Off Point where you can see the entire valley and get some ice cream if you are so inclined lol. It's to the left of this scene that Mr. Finnigan and I spent our day.

As you can see, I did manage to fit in some time for explorations and had a great time hanging out at Blomidon Provincial Park. This is an amazing place with red sand beaches and towering cliffs and the bluest of blue water. I've attached several pictures as the scenery is so spectacular. I had an absolutely wonderful time, but Mr. Finnigan was particularly thrilled to tag along as he spent the entire time running around the beach sniffing everything in sight.

It was so funny to watch him tear around the place lol. We must have walked a couple of miles down the beach to see different parts of the

cliffs as they too were especially beautiful.

Actually, parts of it reminded me of a moonscape...well what I would imagine a moonscape to look like anyway. Some of the pictures are so cool! I would like to get some of them printed and framed.

...

Cape Scott at Sunset.. Cottage Sunset

Next up we went over the mountain to Cape Scott to watch the sunset. This is a small community on the west shore of the Cape. Very small and not much there, but that of course is its charm. I parked myself at what is probably someone's get-a-way cottage and waited with Mr. Finnigan for the day's crowing glory and were not dissappointed.

One of the best pictures was of some foot prints in the sand of a little girl that was spending a day at the beach with her Mom and Dad. Very cute. You could tell she was having a magical day. I really enjoyed taking pictures this week and I've included one other I thought was particularly nice. It's a tiny bunny that was born about a week ago. He is about three inches long and seriously the cutest thing ever. There was a pile of them in the bunny cage and I wanted to take them home with me.

Okay, that's it. No more pictures lol. It was a good week, but I would have to admit to missing home at this point. I'm staying busy though and trekking about taking pictures is such a fun task. Regardless, I will continue to 'kick at the can' as they say and I'll be busy with school in no time.

In the meantime I get to enjoy the east coast and all the coastline one could possibly imagine. Next weekend I'm headed to Lunnenberg to see a celtic folk festival which should be fun. The city itself is also special and I think its a world heritage site because of all the architecture. Apparently, the ship's craftsmen were kept busy during the long winter months building fancy homes for the Captains.