Day 84 - 24th March 2012 - Back to the Homestead

A little cooler this morning, with the temperature at -1.0. It appears that our double digits of summer are over for a few days. Looks like a bit of snow [I'm in total denial and will think rain] later in the week. Of course you know anything that comes this time of year is not staying. Those Irish Ancestors might just be right when they say that Sheila's Brush comes after St. Paddy's day!
I'm not sure yet what today has planned, I know after being away for a couple of days, laundry, groceries etc. are among the top ten fun things to do. Have a few other projects that should be cleaned up before I go back to work next month, but think I'll postpone them to another day. And I know that's not the smart thing to do but I'm doing it.
Yesterday was nicer in the city except windy, the temperatures were a little lower but the sun was out and shining. Meeting all morning, then home on the shuttle, Kim came too so we had lots of good laughs. May will be my last regular trip to the city as my term on the Board will be up. Kind of sad, as I'll miss the people and especially the Waverley Inn, although I'm sure I'll get there once in a while. It's been a great experience to sit on the CNSA Board but after four years it's someone elses turn. Time for me to find new experiences.  I waited until I was home after supper to take photos. I did have some of my new crocus' in bloom when I came home, but they had closed up for the evening so will capture those later today.

Just a reminder that winter has left us and colors will soon return.

I was losing the light at the lake, last evening and yes I know there are ways to compensate that but sometimes I like a little darkness. The water was very blue but choppy from the wind.

A lonely grape hyacinth adds some color to an otherwise dull foundation.

The Lungworts are no longer just one or two little blooms, there are lots more in bloom now.

Sorry I don't have much to contribute today, but some days are like that. It's the weekend, so spend some time with family and friends. Enjoy the day!

Day 83 - 23rd March 2012 - Halifax Harbourwalk

Not sure what the temperature is this morning, but it still feels pretty mild  - I don't have a thermometer in my room! Need another cup of coffee to jolt my eyelids in place. Like home my favourite time of the day in the city is morning, it's quiet and peaceful with only a few vehicles going by. Even the city sleeps!
Well I don't even want to know what the temperature was yesterday - all I can say it was hot, hot, hot in the city and I don't have my summer wear out! Good trip in, had lunch with Kim, Archives in the afternoon, supper with Catherine and then I walked on the waterfront. Wow there were lots of people out - glad the city folks are not just holed up in apartments! It's a great place to stroll and includes the new Farmer's Market and Pier 21, I had walked these two spots last time so cut back through a side street to the Inn.

I don't think you can call these two graffiti, they are just way too cool.

The waterfront was bustling with people and someone was getting ready to set sail.

And they are away from the wharf!

The sail is up and they are moving along. In the background is Dartmouth. What a beautiful night to be on the water.

And this is where I went.

They looked really busy here! Guess everyone must have been thirsty after their walk!

The Canada Flag against an evening sky, what a beautiful sight.

And I'm back in my wonderful room at the .........

I will soon head down and see what a marvelous breakfast Todd has cooked up this morning. Then it will be off to a meeting; this afternoon home on the shuttle. It's Friday once again, and the weekend is right around the corner. Enjoy your day!

Day 82 - 22nd March 2012 - Off to Halifax!

Another very warm morning +7.8. Am off to Halifax this morning on Bernie's Shuttle  and a night at the Waverley Inn. My princess bed awaits me. I'm looking forward to a night away, perhaps a walk on Spring Garden Road, some time at the Archives this afternoon and will meet up with my friend Kim for a natter. Larry and Lexi, of course get to stay home and tend the house. All in all a dream day. It doesn't always take much to make me happy.

Well yesterday was even hotter than Tues, can't believe it's March and not July! Beatti said it was 33 on her deck in the afternoon. I suggest that we start promoting ourselves as the "place in the sun" for March - why would anyone need to go to Florida, Cuba, etc. when we have these temperatures. Mix yourself some nice tall drinks, take along a good book and spend the afternoon on the deck! Now that's relaxing!

A little something growing on a wood stump. They almost look like shells rather than fungi.

More bulbs budding up, can't wait to see these.

This is Mitten, another neighbourhood kitty. She's enjoying a stretch on the boat. I bet the boat is nice and warm after being in the sun all afternoon. I couldn't resist this one with her mouth wide open!

I think she's getting ready to pounce, but I'm not sure at what!

And this is Tutti, all she wanted to do was rub against my legs so it was hard to get a good pic of her. I sometimes babysit these two little cuties when there parents are away.

A perfect day for hanging homemade quilts on the line [there is another one further up the line]. The smell of that quilt when you take it in the house after hanging out all day would bring back warm and fuzzy childhood memories I'm sure.

Time to get some things done before heading out today. It's Thursday, your weekend is just around the corner. If you have thoughts of burning grass or brush, etc. please be careful, the forest is dry.

Enjoy your day.

Day 81 - 21st March 2012 - Has Summer Arrived?

It promises to be another nice day, the temperature this morning is +5.5. Had a good sleep last night so feel much better. A couple more nights like that and I'll be back to normal. It's Wednesday, once again so I'm off to town for the day. The people who built our house about 150 years ago would have thought differently about going to town. Hitch up the horse and wagon and trudge  over a very rough, mucky road the 20 miles to town in March. Guess they wouldn't have done it too often.

Yesterday turned out to be a summer day not a spring day! The sky was blue, you could hear birds chirping, the temperature reached +21.9 this afternoon. Even though I had an early morning, I managed to get some stuff done - three things off my list, some baking and a nice walk, although my camera batteries died on the trip so not a lot of photos.

This little fellow was running back and forth across the road. After a few times he picked a side, much better for his health, I'm sure.

The Mayflower buds are getting bigger, soon they will be in bloom.

And I saw wildlife....... well it was creeping and crawling. Of course you know if I wasn't creeping and crawling along the side of the road I wouldn't have seen him either. 

Well time to get ready, lots to do, hopefully I will acomplish half of what is on my list. Enjoy your day!

Day 80 - 20th March 2012 - It's Spring!

The temperature is +1.5 this morning, and it promises to be another warm day. My sleeping is getting worse instead of better, [3:30am]. This just sucks! I hate not getting 7-8 hours of sleep. My days of burning the candle at both ends and surviving on 2-3 hours of sleep were long over 30 years ago.

Yesterday was another beautiful day, it was +14 here in the afternoon. Larry spent all day working on his wood shed - 4 walls, 2 doorways and part of the floor are now done. Needless to say fine days keep him outside instead of my kitchen but......... sure we will get a day or two yet that he can finish that up for me. I spent most of the day inside doing paper work - yuk! Did get out for a walk, had tea and chatter with Lois. Today is not looking any better, need to do some catch up from the time I lost last week, but this morning I'm planning a few hours in the pantry to do some baking.

The Old Farmer's Almanac says the following about the 1st day of Spring:

The Vernal Equinox  -  Ah, spring! This season brings increasing daylight, warming temperatures, and the rebirth of flora and fauna. 

The word equinox is derived from the Latin words meaning “equal night.” The spring and fall equinoxes are the only dates with equal daylight and dark as the Sun crosses the celestial equator. At the equinoxes, the tilt of Earth relative to the Sun is zero, which means that Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun. (However, the tilt of Earth relative to its plane of orbit, called the ecliptic plane, is always about 23.5 degrees.)

On the first day of spring—the vernal equinox—day and night are each approximately 12 hours long (with the actual time of equal day and night, in the Northern Hemisphere, occurring a few days before the vernal equinox). The Sun crosses the celestial equator going northward; it rises exactly due east and sets exactly due west.

Some of my crocus' are finally coming through, they are rather small but I've had them for a long time.

 

I think these are some of the ones I planted last fall, truthfully I'm not sure where I planted them all but I see lots coming here and there - daffodils, tulips, etc. Now Mr & Mrs Deer please leave them alone, you have lots of apples that I let you eat from the trees all fall long! I know they aren't fond of daffodils, but I think tulips are quite tasty so.......

After the appearance of blooms on my Daphne in January I was worried whether it would bloom as it should, but voila .......buds and flowers are awakening in the warm spring sun!

Must get some stuff underway before I burn and crash. Have promised Karen some Water St. reading this morning, so will start that now.

Enjoy your day!

Day 79 - 19th March 2012 - Monday and Random shots on Sunday

The temperature has remained high overnight at +3.3. It will probably be another nice day. I had another night of not so great sleep, which is beginning to become tiresome [sorry for the pun], but I'm sure I'll survive another day. 4:30am is an awful time to get up, but it's a half hour later than yesterday morning so......Have lots to do and the week is busy.

Found a few things in Yarmouth yesterday, but not necessarily what I was looking for and we were back shortly after 1pm. Did make a trip to my favourite store - the Bulk Barn - love that place and all they offer - ummmmmm more baking! It was cold in Yarmouth, and started to rain before we left but stopped as we headed through the back country home. We always travel on the back road through Carleton, Kempt. Looking yesterday I came to the conclusion it's a beautiful fall drive but not necessarily pretty in the spring. After putting everything away I went for a walk. Just some random shots today.

The lake was picture perfect. I like this little "rock island", it's close to the shore and when the water is low in the summer you can pretty well walk out to it.

I hope things will soon be turning green, am tired of the brown grass and weeds leftover from last year.

A neighbour took the opportunity to clean up some wind falls on this beautiful day. I caught him having a break.

Nature lives in such harmony, moss growing on the tree, spills falling from other trees. It's too bad people can't live this way.

You will have to live with my obsession with the ducks for a little while longer.

This two seem to be very unconcerned about the progress I was making toward them. Tried a different route, scurried along rocks on the shore and didn't even fall in!

It would have been nice to  have had a digital camera a number of years ago when I used to paint Dad's duck carvings. The mallard with all of his various colors was difficult at first to paint from memory and sketches. I remember mixing paint and putting swabs on cards for the next time to make things easier.

Time to start some work and get a few things crossed off my list.

Enjoy your day!

Day 78 - 18th March 2012 - Sheila's Brush, Cats and Ducks

A little cooler this morning, temperature is -0.6 when I got up this morning, which by the way was way too early. Am guessing many of you will be recuperating from the celebrations of St. Patrick's Day. Hope you enjoyed your green beer!
Since the weather has been favourable, Larry has been outside working on his new woodshed and my kitchen is being ignored. However, he does have the stuff for the tiles so am hoping they will get put down in the next few days. We are going to take a few hours today and head out to use some of our Christmas gift certificates. Probably won't spend them all at once, but have a few things I want to pick up.
Evelyn planted a little thought in my mind a few days ago with two simple words - Sheila's Brush. I've heard of it but thought I would check it out on google to see what the story was behind these words. If you are Irish or a Newfoundlander you probably already know, but for those of you who aren't, here goes - from the heritage newfoundland website - "Dictionary of Newfoundland English" [actually dictionary has lots of fun stuff] :

.......   Sheila's day is the day after St Patrick's Day, the eighteenth of March. C 73-98 Patty walks the shores around and Sheila follows in a long white gown... Sheila's gown apparently is a blanket of snow.

2 Comb sheila's blush*, ~ brush; also sheila: fierce storm and heavy snowfall about the eighteenth of March; LINER; see also PATRICK'S BATCH, ~ BROOM, ~ BRUSH. 1923 CHAFE 21 About St Patrick's Day [the sealers] start, most of them waiting until after Sheilah's brush or the equinoxial gale has passed. 1924 ENGLAND 124 Perhaps the most memorable of those occasions was on the night of 'Sheila's Brush,' which is to say the 18th of March. Newfoundland has two 'brushes,' Patrick's and Sheila's; that is to say, storms supposed to be connected with the birthday of St Patrick and that of his wife... The word 'brush' is not always used, however; you will hear Newfoundlanders say: 'We have our Sheila dis time o' year.' 1957 Evening Telegram 20 Oct In the days when 600 fishing vessel crews put out their gear around the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador and when 400 of them went to the ice, the sailors, fishermen and sealers all looked for. . .'Sheila's brush' about the time the sun crossed the Equator coming towards us. 1966 FARIS 48 These storms are termed 'St Patrick's Storms' until St Patrick's Day in March. The much less violent storms after that are called 'Sheila's Blush.' 1969 Daily News 12 Mar, p. 1 Don't worry, it's only Sheilagh's Brush. Nothing to worry about, that is. It doesn't mean another long extension of winter. C 69-2 When I was growing up and we didn't have a storm on or before Paddy's Day (called around home 'Patrick and Sheila') someone was sure to say 'Ha boy, we got it coming yet.' 1982 Evening Telegram 3 Apr, p. 33 You seem glad to be alive even if you have to wait for Sheila's Brush before we can safely say summer is just around the corner.

Sorry that was so long, but I enjoy a little folklore and hope you do too. Well I think we had Sheila's Brush on Thursday unless she's going to arrive later. We've had several beautiful days with more to come.

This is Charlotte, she lives up the road. She was eyeballing Lexi and none to pleased with her.

Charlotte is quite new to the hood but seems to be settling in well and enjoying her new home.

This is Lester, he's been around for a couple of year, joined the neighbourhood as a kitten.

Now, Lester is just bad or demonic, I'm not sure which. He gets in to trouble, wakes his owner up in the middle of the night to watch him eat.... And he has wonderful big double paws and usually eyes as big as saucers!

Had to sneak a few more duck photos in that I took this afternoon.  I spent about 20 mins walking 6 feet carefully along/through bushes and got closer to them. Patience!

The lake was a beautiful color blue yesterday afternoon. This fellow was right at the end of the dock and I was just sitting near the top of it.

Better camera settings, made a big difference in the colors.

So, enjoy your day, sounds like a great day to be outside again!