Feeling a Little Burnt

I write this the day after, feeling sore, tired (going on 38 hours awake now), and very much sunburnt. But, oddly enough, I can tell you it was worth it!

This is the second year that we've competed in the Clam Harbour Beach Sandcastle/Scupture Competition. Or better known as Sandcastle Day to most. Each year, with a little help from HRM, the Lake Charlotte locals have hosted this event that has grown in popularity to an International level... Not only were there a lot of Haligonians there, but people from other provinces, the US and from abroad. The competition attracts professional sculptors, amateurs and people who just want to enjoy the beach.
Entering the competition is cheap enough, but you have to get there early to claim a good spot. For me, we headed to the beach soon as I got off work. My mother, wife and the kids were already there and setting up a spot by the time my dad and I joined them. This year, my daughter is over 12, so we entered as the whole family, instead of just the kids' division. Just as well, my Dad and I did most of the work. ;)
It took us 5 hours to carve out our impressive fort, and it wasn't easy! We hadn't quite packed the sand hard enough, it was a hot and dry day, we didn't add enough water, so we weren't able to add some of the details we had hoped - for fear of the whole thing crumbling. As it is I had to replace the 'lighthouse tower' as it collasped on me when I tried to add some detailing.

Now that all this confusion is over, I'm looking forward to our trip to Winnipeg tomorrow - where I'll be able to relax a little for a week.

Busy Summer...

Boy, what a week?! I think it was a week, okay I think it's more like two weeks..... I've done so much things and have had so little sleep, I have no idea how much time has passed... but here we are the first week of August already! Wow! Where did the summer go?!

I've divided the pictures up into the various events: Going to the beach, and making sandcastles; touring the Ovens and Lunenberg after visiting my grandmother on the south shore; going to Upper Clements Park... It was a lot of pictures to catch up on!

The kids have been having a blast! And I can't believe summer is almost over! In a couple of weeks we'll be flying back to Winnipeg - all together. Kart and I have some family issues we need to get resolved, and the kids are going back to their mother.

Kids and Sail Ships

From the "Kids can be so Cute" department: One of the COOL things about Nova Scotia is the fog we get... At least that was the unanimous statement from my older to kids - who spend most of the year living in the Prairies with their mother. You don't see fog like we get here in Manitoba... fog so thick, you can barely see 10 feet in front of you. The funny thing is... This isn't their first trip to the Maritimes, so why it's suddenly so cool.. well kids will be kids. :)

Summer's been relatively mild this year. Although more sunny days would generally be preferred by most.. coming from someone who sleeps during the daytime, I'm not going to complain too loudly. It's nice to be able to sleep comfortably. We haven't spent much time at the beach, and with the sea water averaging 14°C, it's not exactly warm to bathe in. The frigid waters don't seem to be affecting the surfers much, they can be seen in large numbers any day there's a decent surf.

The kids are making up for their lack of beach time at my mother's... where they're staying for some time while they take swimming at the Porter's Lake Aquatic Club. So I get a bit of a break from having so many feet around the house, and the kids get to swim in the lake's cool waters... Porter's Lake is a tidal body of water, meaning that a portion of the lake is salt water.. and nearly as cold as the ocean that's feeding it. Outside of beach time, my parents have a nice big yard so the kids can vent the extra energy that young bodies tend to have in excess - and I can get rest during the day on the nights I work.
This week's trip out to my parents' is going to be a solo run - provided it doesn't rain as the forecast is predicting. I was able to make the trip in 3 hours last year... lets see if I keep that up.

Monday was a blast! Without the kids underfoot, the wife and I had the opportunity to spend some much needed time together. Sure we do a fair bit as a family, but there's only so much one can do with munchkins in tow. The youngest is still in preschool, so we dropped him off, and spend the day in downtown Halifax. A nice quiet early lunch at a bistro, and then it was off to watch the Parade of Sails. Most of the tall ships left port this week, so all the ships paraded up and down the harbour. One doesn't get the chance to see so many sailing ships, small and large float by and give a show. Even more beautiful when seen from the deck of a boat only a stones throw off George's Island. It was beautiful, and revived my desire to get out at sea and experience it... maybe next year. This year my parents want to do a wale watching tour.

I know not everyone gets excited seeing a schooner under full sail. But for those who long for the Age of Sail, I have a load of pictures to add to Friday's collection.. now the challenge is to sort them down to only two photo albums.

Tall Ship Festival

The great sail ships are visiting the Halifax Harbour this week. While Halifax is home to a handful of sail ships, getting so many sailing ships in one harbour at a time is cause for celebration... there's not many of them left in the world.

While the media says that 50 ships are in the harbour this week, only about half of them were docked for viewing today as the family got together to climb on them and check them all out. Some great ships were with us today... The Bounty - of of the oldest sailing ships still in service - paid us a visit.

I'll try to get out Sunday for the Parade of Sail when the ships will set out in - hopefully - full sail.

I got a load of pictures, I'll load them on facebook soon as I sort them down to 1 album. Here's a teaser for starts.

Weekend Cycling Adventure

Having Saturday and Sunday off, I decided to take a shot at kicking our summer cycling into gear!
My two older munchkins and I headed out for my parents' place... it's a good 45km ride between where we live in Dartmouth and where my parents live in Porter's Lake. I did 6 such runs last summer.... this weekend was this summer's first.

Saturday started out foggy, but soon before noon, the fog burned off and the day was spectacular. It took us about 6 1/2 hours to do the trip there.. the kids were exhausted and we were gratefully to take showers to cool off and wash the sweat, dirt and salt from our bodies. The whole family got together for supper, but we stayed the night while my wife and the younger boys got a drive home.

This morning we set out at 9:45 and finally showed up home at 3:30.... all told a bit better time coming home. I think We have to owe it to the fact that it was cool and cloudy most of the day, so heat wasn't as much of an issue.. we even got drizzled on after leaving the trail and hitting Caldwell Road. The rain was brief, so we it did well to cool us off while not being a problem.

I took about 30 odd pictures which I'll load onto Facebook.. and maybe my Yahoo 360 if I can muster getting to that tonight.

Feeling the Sizzle.

Summer feels like its finally here... the mercury today climbed to 25°C, but with the humidity it feels a lot warmer. We've had weather hovering around this level for the past few days. Though a bit stuffy it's nice to actually FEEL summer, and not the cold miserable season we had last year.

I've been biking to work for about a month now, still a bit hard on the legs, and I need to take the time soon to get my bike re-tuned as it seems a bit 'off'. Some days are more enjoyable to cycle than others, and I always have my camera with me - just in case I can find something nice.

My youngest had his pre-school graduation on Friday. In September, he officially starts Kindergarten.. though they call it 'Primary' in this province for some reason. It never surprises me how fast kids grow up... My youngest starting Kindergarten, my oldest is starting High-School, the other two are nearing their years at their current levels: Last year of elementary for Chip, and so forth... Makes one feel old some days....

Here's an image of summer... a lilac bush outside of the back the college where my son's pre-school is... isn't it beautiful? And it smells so nice in the morning as we pass it!

Happy Easter! ... At least I think it's Easter..

I woke up for work this evening to greet a winter wonderland... I thought this was suppose to be Spring!? Well I'll be bringing my camera with me tonight to take a few pictures. I took a few pictures from my living room window, a couple on the way to work (sorry for the fuzziness) and some this morning on the way home.

I still can't believe it's Easter Sunday with all this wet white stuff on the ground. Once you get out of the wind, it's actually quite mild - if the weather continues - the snow won't last long... typical to what it's been like all winter here

The one advantage is that this is wonderful snowman building weather, so I'll probably have a few more pictures to add once we get back from my parent's place...

Nature is a Basketball.

This is my thought for the day: Nature is a basketball... at least that's what it seems like here in the Maritimes.
I got out of work this morning to find it snowing.. and everything was being dusted by wet snowflakes and being covered in sticky white powder. I took a few pictures on my walk up the street to home, and one downtown after dropping the munchkin off at pre-school.
What was to be a beautiful ending of winter (as 9pm tonight signals the first day of Spring), turned wet and mushy. The snow slowly turned to freezing rain, now I look out my living room window as cold drizzle slowly melts away what little (4 cm) snow fell last night and early this morning. It's not suppose to stop drizzling till sometime tomorrow when nature is fully satisfied that it has - yet again - blasted most traces of winter from the ground. While most people out here have been whining and complaining of what little of the white stuff we have received... I have been lamenting the lack of proper snowfall - mainly cause my poor small strawberry patch may not have survived the winter. Anyway, I did take a few pictures while as mementos of what little of winter we've had so far.. for soon the flowers will be budding and we'll be into April and it's dismal wet weather.

Don't Forget Your Cleats

That was the topic this morning as I got off of work... 1/4" of ice from freezing rain after a small snowfall covered every surface it could find! Icicles dangled from signs, people had to chip an ice shield surrounding their cars, and - outside of major roads - the streets were sheets of ice that would make any rink proud!

I wish I had some sort of spikes on my shoes as I tried to first half walk, half skate down to the bus from work. Then struggle to get up the hill to get home. In the end I beat the bus by less than 10 minutes walking from the mall - which was nearly a half hour from when I left the terminal. I've added a few pictures which I took when I got home... wish I would have had the camera with me on my walk though.. with the warm weather we had today, the ice is all melted now...

This winter has been strange: It'll be warm, it'll get cold, it might snow.. but it warms up again and it all melts. The result has left many with never-ending series of colds, flus, and such... myself I've lost a lot of time from work this season.

Brrr.. I take it back! Honest!

Here I was, not a few days ago boasting that it was warm and green here in the Maritimes...
Well, Jack Frost decided that he had heard enough it seems.. this week we got hit with wet snow followed by the mercury dropping down to 30 below with the windchill. It's been a very chilly week for all those who had settled in with the expectation of a mild winter.

I would say that it is nice to finally enjoy some winter sports only what snow fell is little more than a layer of hard ice - thanks to the sudden drop in temperature.

Tomorow the temperatures are suppose to climb back up to near the freezing point, so they promise it's going to get better... in the mean time, it's good to be able to curl up with a hot cup of coffee.

Winter wonderland?

Well, here we are in the middle of January, and there's NO SNOW! I can't get over it!... I don't know whether to be overjoyed at the balmy weather (being able to wear sweaters and sneakers outside) or worried that this is a sign of other things.... As it is I'm sure some farmers, who depend on at least a moderate snow coverage, are worried about some of their crops.
As it is, we've had maybe 3 days so far with some snow on the ground, and we get the occasional flury.. but then the temperature rises 10 degrees above freezing and it all goes away again.

Monday, when I get the Christmas pictures online, I do have some small memoirs of what little snow we've had... as it stands the ground is bare with still some green grass.. I've even seen confused insects flitter by on days when the temperatures reach temperatures we normally only see in April or May.