October 2015
Sunday October 18
Petite Rivière
Ann and I both took this week off so that we could get some stuff done around the house and go on some local excursions to take advantage of the fall colours which are now at their height (a little earlier this year, I think, than the past couple). On Tuesday we drove James back to Acadia taking the opportunity to have a gelato at the Foxhill Cheese House near Port Williams.
On Thursday, we drove past Bridgewater intending to take the La Have ferry across the river to the South Shore. Unfortunately the ferry was out of service for the week, so we had to drive up the river into Bridgewater to get across before heading south again to have lunch at the La Have Bakery. From there we went to Crescent Beach then on to the Petite Rivière Vineyards to sample and buy a few bottles of wine. We then followed the route of our bicycle trip back in August, through Cherry Hill and Vogler's Cove to Mill Village. After a brief stop for coffee at the Riverbank General Store we drove home along the highway.
On Friday, we drove down the eastern shore of St. Margaret's Bay for a late lunch at Rhubarb, a restaurant in Indian Harbour. From there it was only a skip and a jump to Peggy's Cove for a quick look at the surf pounding the rocks before heading home again.
Saturday was the night of Nocturne, the annual festival of art at night throughout downtown Halifax and Dartmouth. I decided to take a miss due to my decreased mobility but Ann and Edna went to the ThatWas exhibit at the Dart Gallery.
This afternoon we headed east along the Lawrencetown Road then down the western shore of Chezzetcook Bay to Long Beach. We crossed to the eastern side of the peninsula on a very rough back road, then up the western shore and down the eastern shore of Petpeswick Bay to Martinique Beach. We took the highway back to Dartmouth and dinner at Ela! the Greek restaurant in Dartmouth Crossing.
Monday October 12
Happy Thanksgiving!!
Thanksgiving dinner
On Tuesday, I went back to work for the first time since my accident. Ann drops me off at one of the back doors which allows me to use the elevator and avoid all the stairs. So far it has been fine; as far as my hip goes, there's not much difference between sitting in a chair at home and sitting at my desk at work.
On Wednesday, Ann's mum Edna arrived to stay with us for a couple of weeks, then on Friday Emily arrived from Ottawa for Thanksgiving weekend and Ann picked up James from Acadia, so our house has become considerably busier for at least a few days. Emily flew back to Ottawa this evening and Ann will take James back to Wolfville tomorrow.
Last night, as is our custom, we had a full house for Thanksgiving dinner. This year we were joined by Jim and Valerie, Nancy and Josey (who were passing through on their way to a wedding in Cape Breton), Ron, Jenny and Cora and Maiga. I, as usual, cooked the turkey, some bread and some pumpkin pies but, due to my decreased mobility, I enlisted some help with popping things in and out of the oven. Ann made potatoes and brussels sprouts, and salads, vegetables and an apple pie were brought by our guests. Of course we will be eating the leftovers for the rest of the week.
Sunday October 4
The lunar eclipse
Last week I finished with the possibility of a picture of the lunar eclipse: here it is. The successive images were taken 10 minutes apart except for the last one which was only a couple of minutes after its predecessor as well as having a much longer exposure time. I didn't stay up long enough to see the moon re-emerge from the Earth's shadow.
Last night I made another foray into the outside world to see Great Expectations at Neptune. I finished reading the book on-line on Friday, so was well-equipped to judge the adaptation to the stage. It was pretty true to the book, with a few characters and sub-plots left out to reduce it to a reasonable length. Instead of going out to dinner beforehand, we invited everyone to come to our place for some take-out Thai food.
The Bermuda Bowl, the world bridge championship, is currently taking place in Chennai, India. I have been getting up at 6 AM each morning to watch the last two of the three daily sessions. As usual, Canada headed straight to the bottom (22nd out of 22 teams after two rounds) but managed to drag themselves up to 15th by the end of the round robin phase. That was not nearly good enough to get into the knock-out phase (the top 8 teams) so I've transferred my loyalties to the two US teams who are both in tight matches half-way through the first knock-out round.
I am going to try going back to work tomorrow with the understanding that, if things don't go as well as I expect, I'll take some work home and do it from there. I've made arrangements to get to my office without having to negotiate any stairs, so I don't anticpate any major difficulties.