Nova Scotia Cottage available on eBay

I am just today starting to feel halfway normal. The virus I got must have been a BIG Alberta bug.
I spent a lot of time with kleenex stuffed up my nose. My head felt the size of a watermelon:)

Anyway..................... while I was feeling yucky, I settled in to read the Twilight series that everyone has been raving about.My daughter read them ages ago and of course just finished the latest book.  So, I am now reading that book.  Book #4. It has been a week of Vampires, Werewolves, passion, romance and the dripping forests of Washington State. Good distracting stuff. Schmaltzy and full of teenage lust.  I read it and listened to the pouring rain.

Speaking of rain, I feel bad for the people doing the Weekend to End Breast Cancer Walk. What crappy weather they've had. 60 km  soaking wet. I am sure spirits are high but sunshine would have been a help.Maybe it will come out later this morning.

I have also been trying to work. This week I have to get back up to warp speed. When you are self employed, no work no pay.Taking time off always puts me back, but I enjoyed every minute of it:)) I've got a few ideas of some different things I'd like to try. I also have a lot of computer work to do. Update my portfolio at Trunkt, redo my pathetic website, etc, etc. There's always something :)

I have yet to even open my Alberta pictures! Now that will be a large task.
Could not help myself, it was so beautiful I was a snapping fool.

Here is another picture from Northport, Nova Scotia. I took some lovely  pictures of the sunrise and turning  back to the cottage was struck by how soft and pretty  the mist made everything look. Totally different from the beach.

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I love this picture. It was dark and I could only see my daughter and Jennifer reflected in the tidal pool so I flipped it. It was taken at our weekend away before our trip to Alberta. I still had a few pictures from that trip I hadn't looked at yet so I finished those up and have yet to start in on the "wild west" ones. You can click on it and it will take you to my flickr stream where you can see more if you want.

I have been battling a cold and it has put me behind on all the things I need to get done. Ugh. I am sure I caught it while in transit. Just enough incubation days to make me suspicious. Today it has evolved into a headache and stuffed nose. So it is on it's way out!

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I'm back!

We had a wonderful vacation. I took a bazillion pictures.
This one is actually from our weekend away before we left. I still have a few pictures to go through from that trip!
That is the problem with digital photography, it is so easy to take pictures, that you do, and then wading through them becomes a big task!

The Rockies were everything and MORE than I imagined. They took my breath away!  We stayed in Canmore, just outside Banff and Jasper. We saw black bears, elk, a wolf, deer  and coyotes. Had picnics in the mountains. Travelled by gondola to the top of a peak in Jasper. (That made my knees wobble!) H and I built an inukshuk way up there, that as I write.... is still overlooking the valleys and mountaintops.

Spent time in Red Deer where my brother and his wife live. Lots of trucks, trailers, bikes. Oil money.

Stayed at the West Edmonton Mall in the Fantasy Hotel. I will be happy if I never set foot in a mall for the next year. I am not a shopper. H was in seventh heaven:) It was quite fascinating though. Largest mall in the world? Open skating rink, theme park,  water park, Large pirate galleon in the centre of a lagoon surrounded by shops, seal shows. It was really bizarre.

We went to see  Body Worlds ( the videos are quite graphic, so beware, but they  give an idea of the scope of the show) at the Telus Science Centre in Edmonton. It was REMARKABLE. I had to put my mind somewhere else while exploring it. It took about an hour and a half. Absolutely FASCINATING and certainly gives one lots to think about. Over 8000 people have donated their bodies and continue to do so. It is a real eye opener. You leave wanting to take better care of yourself.  Any smokers will stop smoking. They have various comparisons of blackened lungs vs healthy lungs. In Europe where people could could smoke as they wandered through the exhibition, workers kept finding unfinished cigarettes near the  lung exhibits. They soon decided to create a "quit smoking" program within the exhibit specifically for tobacco users. It is very successful.  The exhibit is a combination of art ,in the way that the bodies are displayed and education. One of the displays was of a man standing with his arm outstretched and hanging over it was his skin, like an overcoat just recently taken off. Sounds gruesome I know, but once you are there and surrounded, it is almost mystical. The mystery beneath our skin. The miracles that are our bodies.

Alberta was a really interesting place to visit. Coming from a "poor" province to a "prosperous" one was an  eye opener. Help wanted posters in practically every shop, restaurant, business establishment I saw. One of the fast food places was even offering an ipod and mountain bike to new employees!!! The downside of that is that service can be spotty. Businesses are desperate for workers so will take almost anyone who walks through the door. No one gets fired because there are few to take their place. I had a few encounters with people who really could care less about what it was they were doing, and it showed in their attitudes and helpfulness.

Well, this is a longer entry than I intended.

Today is also the 1 year anniversary  of my joining Etsy!
As a bit of a celebration, I am participating in a giveaway . Yay!
PurplePinkandOrange  has put together a prize giveaway with thirty independent sellers!

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This was taken at Northport beach at around 6 pm. We are looking towards Prince Edward Island on the Northumberland Strait. It is one of those beaches that is shallow and full of sand bars so you can walk out for ages at high tide and still just be in up to your waist. These were a group of kids looking for wee crabs and starfish.
I also have a horizontal version of this pic and cannot decide between the two. You can click on the picture to go to my Flickr and see the horizonal one. Which do you prefer?

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We stopped in this really great place called Chatterbox Cafe to have some lunch. I adore the two sentries on either side of the door.It is in Pugwash. Delicious food, books and free internet....what more could a traveler ask for?

Pugwash is an interesting little place. It has a bright spot in the history books. Home to the Thinker's Lodge. Where the first of the Pugwash Conferences was held

The first meeting, was held in 1957, here at the birthplace of the American philanthropist Cyrus Eaton, who hosted and financed the meeting. 22 scientists from around the world attended. (seven from the United States, three each from the Soviet Union and Japan, two each from the United Kingdom and Canada, and one each from Australia, Austria, China, France, and Poland).The stimulus for that gathering was a manifesto issued in 1955 by Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein -- and signed also by Max Born, Percy Bridgman, Leopold Infeld, Frederic Joliot-Curie, Herman Muller, Linus Pauling, Cecil Powell, Joseph Rotblat, and Hideki Yukawa -- which called upon scientists of all political persuasions to assemble to discuss the threat posed to civilization by the advent of nuclear weapons . These meetings still go on today. A basic rule is that participation is always by individuals in their private capacity (not as representatives of governments or organizations).

In 1995, fifty years after the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and fifty years after the signing of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, the Pugwash Conferences and Joseph Rotblat were award ed the Nobel Peace Prize jointly. "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms".
The Norwegian Nobel committee hoped that awarding the prize to Rotblat and Pugwash would"encourage world leaders to intensify their efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons".

In his acceptance speech, Rotblat quoted a key phrase from the Manifesto:

"Remember your humanity".

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H and I went to Port Howe for a couple of nights. It was great to be out of the city. A friend of mine rented a cottage for a few weeks and invited us to stay a bit. People who have a cottage to go to are so fortunate, a place to recharge and shed the stress of regular life. Ahhh.
This was taken in Oxford through the window of a fascinating store. That's H waiting for me to finish poking around.
We got to talking to the owner who was from Newfoundland and she told some great tales about the hauntings and goings on in that place.

It used to be a hardware store, the oldest in Cumberland County, built sometime in early 1800. When they were renovating, a paint can flew off the ladder and shot down the counter. Another time she had the door shut and was alone, dancing away to the old Wurlitzer juke box, when a small mirror that they had on the door, shot off the door and across to the the counter again. It did it twice. She figured maybe the ghost of old Mr. Dunstead(?) didn't like change. She then took crazy glue and stuck it to the door, it dropped to the floor later.

They live in the apartment upstairs and that is a busy spot too:) Who knows, fun to hear tales like that tho....
I took a picture of her just after her stories and when I  tried to upload it, it was a corrupted file. Did not work.

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I got tickets to see Elton John in September!  Yay! Very exciting. Very EXPENSIVE, but he is one of my big faves. An icon. We will be on the floor, I wanted lower bowl but clicked on "the best available seats" and this is what we got. I love his music. Benny and the Jets! I used to work at a pizza/pub place in Toronto when I was 19 . They had a juke box full of great music and every night after closing, I would blast that song while putting the chairs up on the tables and sweeping the floors. Brings me right back every time I hear it.

In other news, my vinyl painting sold! I went down to the gallery yesterday to get a picture of it in daylight and couldn't find it anywhere. Gone! Someone on vacation from the US purchased it. I am happy but sad that it is not there for anyone to see anymore.

I have ten small flower paintings for sale at Love, Me Boutique. That was a fun project. Something bright and cheerful for summer.

My last bit of Friday catchup is a bit odd. H and I have sponsored a girl from Nicaragua for several years. I just got a message from them this week saying my sponsorship of her has stopped, she is out of the program.  Said it doesn't happen very often but this is the case here. My  Virmania has gotten MARRIED. She is 13!  Turning 14 in November. I was VERY surprised. The letter did address that and said although it is uncommon, early marriages do take place still . They have partnered us with a new wee girl named Darling.

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This is where I was on Sunday. We had a family gathering at my brother's house, quite a crowd. Lots of kids:) Isn't the pool lovely. They have a terrific place about a twenty minute drive from us.
I had a great time taking pictures.....don't we all!

Yee Haw! Love the thumbs.

This is A, she's a sweetie.

A's older sister and a friend

The newest member

More pool!

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July 14th. Bastille Day. This is a national holiday in France. It was the day the Bastille was stormed and the new French Nation was born. Always lots of fanfare and celebration.

I was in Paris one year on Bastille day and the Champs Elysees was shut down for a parade at dusk. It was a military parade in honour of some anniversary I can't remember. Possibly the liberation of Paris. Jeeps and soldiers and then tanks rumbled along the street. You could feel the earth shake. Quite oppressive and very daunting. People were very quiet. There was an old man next to me who started to get very emotional. It had brought flashbacks of the war to him. The last time he had witnessed tanks, and felt that ominous rumbling was during the occupation of Paris by the Nazi regime and then the liberation. Jets flew very low down the length of the boulevard and then fireworks erupted from the Arc de Triomphe and continued for thirty minutes!. Quite a spectacle.There were thousands of people in the crowds that night.

Another Bastille Day was spent on the tiny Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. Quite different. These salty wee islands are part of France  and are situated just off Newfoundland. The day started with a thick grey  fog that rolled in off the sea and later, in the town square, everyone was invited to share a small glass of wine with the Mayor and then  a feast of mussels for anyone who was inclined. Red, white and blue ribbons decorated lapels and small flags were draped gaily across windows and  door ways.

Two very different Bastille Days but interesting nevertheless.

Today's festivities  will include some painting, housekeeping and fitness activities!

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