2011 Mahone Bay Pirate Festival & Regatta, Nova Scotia

When Reg and I heard about the Mahone Bay Pirate Festival & Regatta, we knew we were going to have to squeeze it into our insane long weekend. And we did!



After Saturday's miserable (and I mean MISERABLE) weather, today we got dressed up (Reg more than me), packed our car and took off with Petey the Parrot!



Now we love Mahone Bay and our favourite time to visit is for the Scarecrow Fest where the little town is decked out with spooky scarecrows. There was lots of signage for the pirate festival and there were some events but nobody was dressed up!



I finally got to the flea market though but found out that the vendors in Mahone Bay know exactly what they are selling so finding a bargain was not easy. I wanted to get a small cake plate only to find out that it was $75! We did almost get some pirate baarrgers (oh they smelled so good) but we held off spending money.



Reg made a lot of kids happy today! So many of them thought his parrot might be real and all loved him. How couldn't they?!



You will always find lots of Maritime folk art in Mahone Bay at any time of the year. The turnout was great but where were the other pirates?! I mean some kids were dressed up but seriously, where was the rogue pirate spirit??!!!



We walked down to the dock and the bay was full of boats and the weather could not have been more beautiful.



This was our favourite vendor by far, selling authentic sailor stuff!



The giant witches' balls were my favourite, so beautiful! I wanted to buy a carved whale to turn into a necklace but I couldn't find the vendor. Oh well!



When you come to Mahone Bay, no matter how many times you visit, you just have to take another photo of the three churches. It is just too picturesque not too. Even for this witchy woman!



We finally found some pirates though! They were obviously hired for the festival and the one on the left told us about a trial we just had to see so we followed him to the gazebo in the middle of town.



There we watched a short little play about about pirate justice which was fun, especially for the kids.



It was a pretty good festival but their scarecrow fest is so much better! We didn't stay too long, just enough to get out and have some summer fun together before life gets boring again.

As Reg says, "It is always fun to freak out the mundanes."

Here here! Or maybe I should say, "Hardy har!!!"

Thank you to all of you fabulous Wishcasters out there!

This is the first time I successfully photographed an osprey (a teen one by the looks of it) from the car on our way to Walmart. Yes, Walmart!

I was so excited the first time I discovered this eagle's nest within the urban landscape of where we live. It gave me hope. And then, change came. It came people!!!

I wanted to write and say thank you to all you Wishcasting wishers out there. Even though Reg had to cut our vacation short because of work, we finally have some momentum in our lives. Something actually happened! And we are one step closer to going home. A small step but not an insignificant one.

And before summer's end! Thank you all so much!

OMG, I can breathe again. Energy is starting to move. We have taken a bit of a step away from the giant black hole of unchangeability.

My body broke down over the last few days, the stress has been almost unbearable. Today I am having a little less pain and feel even a tad hopeful. Life is going to be extra challenging for me but it is worth it if it means big change will eventually be coming our way.

Melmerby Beach, Nova Scotia

Across from the beach you will find what looks like a perfectly still lake at this very popular beach

Reg and I had so many plans for our vacation but when we finally had time to go somewhere, we got stuck. Yarmouth was having a big festival which we were going to go to but when we calculated how much it was going to cost in gas to get there, we changed our minds. Instead, we drove in a totally different direction to Melmerby Beach. I wanted to go some place new and get some sun.

Oh and just so you know, when you take the highway past Truro you will have to decide to take the highway east or west (the directions said nothing about this) and you want to go EAST towards Cape Breton! Oh and Exit 27A is under construction and comes up very suddenly and you will need to turn left not right.



We managed to find a parking spot and saw that the "Run for the Lobster 20K" was apparently going on. There just happened to be no one there. Or, we joked, that it was a marathon of ghosts with an invisible audience whose cheering is undetectable to the human ears. It was kind of weird.

There are bathroom facilities but other than vending machines, no place to get food. It is a good thing we brought our own snacks because there are no gas stations or restaurants along the highway. You have to go into town which we wanted to avoid.



Apparently the grounds have poison ivy which may explain the lack of dogs we saw at the beach. We did see two when we were leaving but none frolicking in the water. Bummer!



Here we are! We made it to the beach.



Unlike in town, it was overcast and much, much cooler. At home it was sunny and hot! In the city the gay pride parade was happening in Halifax and they had fog, LOL. Yes, this is a weird, weird place. Oh and I am referring to the weather, not the parade! I am sure the parade was very cool despite the fogginess.



This was the view to the left. Lots of families were out and about.



It was a nice beach but kind of reminded me more of a lake that an ocean beach in some ways.



Unfortunately the second my feet touched the sand (before I had a chance to sit down) I was attacked by bugs. They gored the back of my legs where I couldn't see them and now I have big purple welts that will be there for weeks because my skin takes forever to heal. Nice...



Still, I love being by the ocean even when I am bleeding from bug bites. I refused to let them bully me away. We got out our beach chairs and I realized I forgot to bring reading material, I had rushed out of the door!



I just closed my eyes and relaxed. Something Reg and I never do. We are always so active and it was beautiful to have one day to just be, together.



It is a good thing we did because our vacation was suddenly cut in half. This was the only real adventure we would get to do. Reg had to go back to work.



We had about 15 minutes of sunshine. Enough time for me to coat myself in sunscreen only to discover that once you do, sand will stick to you forever. When these extra-dark and heavy clouds started to roll in, the beach became a ghost town and we packed up our stuff and went home.

As great as Melmerby Beach was, I think I prefer Crystal Crescent and Conrad's Beach much more. Oh and I can tell you that the "warm water" of Melmerby Beach wasn't warm. Felt pretty darn freezing to us! As always, I am glad to go and see something new but I doubt I will be back to Melmerby Beach anytime soon.

Our Little Holiday

Reg and I have a beautiful front deck that we never use. Ever! When it is sunny, you just bake on it so we have been looking everywhere for an inexpensive umbrella and we finally found one at Canadian Tire. The hard part wasn't finding an umbrella, it was finding one with also a base.

We got both for $50 and now we might actually sit on our front deck here and there. The only issue is it appears to tip over in the wind so we have to bring it inside when we aren't using it, LOL.



When you want some cheap cool stuff, go to Princess Auto. They have everything! For dirt cheap.



There were so many things I wanted to buy including a cast iron frying pan but nope, I stuck to my list and bought only one thing:



Cyber-punk eye protectors! For only $6!

Why? Well when Shannon and I were discussing the Steam Punk episode of Fanboy Confessional for Hexed, I really started to miss jewellery making. I haven't wanted to make jewellery for so long but with these eye protectors, I could get out my Dremel tool and have some creative fun. Hopefully I will actually do it one day but it is nice knowing that for now, I am covered!

So we did get out of the house and do some stuff on a budget. Nothing super exciting yet but we did have one little adventure. More to come!

Letting Go of Stuff this Staycation

First movies and then we got practical. We wanted to get rid of a lot of stuff this staycation and help prepare for our hopefully eventual move back out west. First we took out very old computer to the electronics recycling centre which was very hard for Reg to do. So proud of you honey!



We had inherited a ton of books and had our own library to scale down as well as lots of clothes and other stuff I no longer wanted. OMG, now we can actually walk into our little library which was covered in junk we did not want. Feels so good to let stuff go!



Our new bedroom set (and bed) are working out perfectly so we no longer needed this piece from IKEA. My sister-in-law happily inherited it and one day when we can afford to replace Reg's monster desk with a more practical smaller one, she will inherit that too. It is so nice to help others out with the stuff you no longer need.

I often feel that way. Like it is selfish to hold on to something I am not using when someone else would like to. The money ends up going to charity and our future move gets that much more doable because we have less stuff. I know that when we get back home we will be living in a much smaller space and I am more than ready to do what I have to do to make that happen.

I wonder what we will end up doing next on our staycation?! Maybe actually go somewhere?! That would be nice!

Going to the movies this summer? May I recommend...

Reg and I have been going to see movies a lot this staycation. A cheap way to get transported to another world and do we ever love movies!

We started off with the last Harry Potter movie which meant we probably started off with the best which was just fine with us. It was fantastic! I have only read four of the books so the last couple of movies have been a total surprise to me. The second last movie I found very confusing but not this one. So exciting, dramatic and revealing... Top notch! If you love Harry Potter, you will love it.

We adore superhero movies so we just had to go see Green Lantern before that light went out in the theatre. I adore Ryan Reynolds and he was quite good in it. The story was interesting, the world fascinating and my goodness, some of it was downright scary. Not for kids if you ask me but then their tolerance for scary stuff these days is higher than when I was growing up. Not an award-winner at all but for those who love superhero stories I say, why not?!



Last and so far, absolutely least was Transformers 3. I had not seen the first two movies because of the rampant sexism and sadly, it was in the third movie as well in spades. The main female lead was downright useless. A waste of screen space. Reg told me the premise of the movie on our walk to the theatre which was very basic and on the way home at dusk he ranted about how scientifically ridiculous it was. Which was fun to listen to.

You see we went on Tuesday night which is cheap at our theatre and even though the movie was in 3D we paid half of what we would have paid at one of the big theatres. I wanted at least one cheesy movie for our staycation that we could rag on and did we ever choose well.

Now what I did want from the movie was big robots. I have always been fascinated at things that are larger than life and the visuals, I have to say, were mind blowing. It was all robotic eye candy and that is what I wanted. I do have issues with the fact that there appear to be no female robots and no female military warriors at all, just one woman in charge who comes across as incompetent. I think whoever wrote this movie has some serious issues when it comes to women. Well I didn't like any of the human race in this movie (especially the main kid who has major anger issues and is super annoying) but the robots kicked ass.

Magic, superheroes and robots are not a bad way to begin our staycation! We were very behind in our movie-going and have almost caught up. Next we will be working our way toward real-life fun, coming soon...

Summer Night in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia

On Saturday night we went downtown to have a birthday celebration for Jen with dinner at The Bicycle Thief. After we left the restaurant I saw the lighthouse on George's Island lit up and realized I had never seen that before. That I am never downtown by the water at night.

When we moved here it was winter and yes, we stayed in a hotel downtown but it wasn't by the water and we certainly were not going for long walks on the boardwalk through the snow. Today I do not live in Halifax and we rarely get downtown at all and when we do, it is usually during the day.



We absolutely love walking along the water. Where I live, there is no ocean which is a rare thing in Nova Scotia but it is the truth. Being down there together is always so much fun and makes me feel better. I need to be by the ocean.



The USCGC Eagle was in port and you could see her from all the way on the other side of the boardwalk.



Can you imagine climbing to the top?! Amazing!



The Lower Deck always has live musical performances but last Saturday night they had one outside the pub!



It was wonderful to see so many people out and about enjoying the summer evening. It wasn't very warm but it wasn't raining and that goes a long way on the east coast.



The moon was full in Aquarius and was nice and bright by the time we got home. A great beginning to our staycation!

We are on holidays!

Strawberries from my own garden warm my heart

Yes, we are on holidays and our staycation has begun. It will be on a budget but we will definitely still have fun and it will be just so nice to spend time together.

I think our focus will be on the simple things like going to matinees (bringing our own treats), short little trips around us and more purging of "stuff" to local thrift stores. Oh to have something to write about would be nice!

I am so just so happy Reg is home!

Dreamboard: Financial Prosperity & Good Luck

I know, this isn't the traditional collage dreamboard but I just do not have the money to go out and get magazines and put one together. I really don't.

When I went to buy this 6/49 ticket I also had to get my husband's bus tickets at the same time. When I asked how much it would be to get both, I had to get out my change purse and count my loonies and toonies to make it work. When I was done, my change purse was empty and I told the lady (who is usually quite grumpy) that I guess I just have to win because it took my last two bucks. She actually laughed.

The Universe didn't agree, however. I didn't win a dime.

We are getting by right now. We made it to payday but it was close. We still have so much of the roof to pay off before the enormous winter heating bills come in. The weather has turned downright cold (15C yesterday) and wet but I refuse to turn on the heat in July. I mean, seriously!

So on my altar I put the ticket with some nutmeg in hopes of financial food luck coming our way. Considering it is a Capricorn Full Moon, I am hoping my timing is impeccable.

My Electronic Scrapbook: Westwood Plateau, Vancouver, Halloween & Snow, October & November 2002

Yes, our neighbourhood seemed to love Halloween! But as I was going through my photographs I totally forgot that we spent Halloween that year in Vancouver! Which is why I am making this scrapbook, to keep our story clear and true.

Our ties to Vancouver were still super strong and we had no idea just how much more popular Halloween was in our new neighbourhood yet.

Reg makes a Drop Dead Fred every year since this Halloween just like this creepy little guy!



On my walks I start to collect natural heart-shaped photographs like this one. It is my sacred shape and it just kept showing up everywhere!



Reg spent so much time designing his warlock costume for Halloween. Researching sacred symbols and adding them to his warlock outfit. I got dressed up as a witch and we drove in to Vancouver to go trick or treating with Cathy and her daughters.



There were some people in Vancouver who had decorated jack-o-lanterns and their front lawns but as usual, not very many.



Well we were dressed up! Reg with his group of witches! I tried to do mini readings for people as we walked through the hood but I think I just creeped people out.


I seem to have very few photographs between Halloween and late November. On my dad's birthday and Reg's mom's birthday we woke up to... snow! But it was mountain snow. I just had to investigate.



Wow, it was already so hard to go hiking in Ridge Park, doing so on top of snow? Not easy!



The world was encased in snow and ice and made beautiful photographs.



Of course the snow did not last long. We definitely got more than the Lower Mainland because we were on a mountain but it went away very fast.



Our street would soon be clear again but what I did not know is the world was about to become oh so very dark!