Dec 25 2010-

Wishing everyone a Happy and Safe Holiday!


Bright sunny cool Christmas Morning.. Snow has come and gone two or three times already this year! We went to Portsmouth NH for a couple of nights this week. There was snow here when we left but it was raining. Snow was gone by the time we got back, BUT.... Portsmouth got it's first snow of the winter that stuck while we were there! Portsmouth is a very pretty 'little' city! Of course we had to visit the outlet malls in Kittery ME just across the river while we were there... Not sure about the location of that mall as NH is a tax free state.... think the outlet malls should be on the tax free side of the river!
I bought myself a top whirl drop spindle on Etsy a couple of weeks ago... it came while we were in NH, so I spent yesterday trying to teach myself how to spin with a spindle. First off I read some instructions on line... those made limited or no sense as it was 7 pages of text with NO PICTURES!!! Next I hit U-tube amazing how many people took videos that didn't show the spindle at all... or they did the critical step so fast there was no hope of seeing it! Anyway I persevered and got two small balls which I attempted to ply... think I should have watched the video on playing too!
Headed off to try some more spinning, my scarf is only 2 inches long after yesterday 3 hours of spinning! I think that's a somewhat useful way to spend the time waiting for Stuart to come home... if he misses the 11:30 ferry there isn't another one until 5:30!
The power is back on at the St George curling rink... the basement has been gutted we will find out if the ice will be put back in sometime next week!
Dec 16 2010-

Weather here... schools have been closed since Monday noon... Tuesday it was +9 and sunny... not sure what the little darlings were being threatened by then... today it is -6 C and sunny... none of the schools are being endangered by the flood waters... yes there are still some roads that are closed... but just because a few kids can't be picked up .... should not shut down the entire school system!
The Magaguadavic River in ST George has overflowed it's banks big time and our curling ring is under water
January 1 2011-
(Since I decided not to curl this year, I guess it's just Gord's club!) The parking lot (the lake in the picture) is entirely under water, the road beside it which is a highway access is also under water. Yesterday the water was flowing across Highway 1, but since then I think the water has gone down 8 or 10 inches. During the day on Tuesday the water was going up 3 inches an hour. On Wednesday afternoon the gazebo next to the curling rink was just poking out of the water, today you can see 6-8 inches of supports.... (That round thing in the picture is a gazebo... hope the fish are enjoying it!)



those weren't visible yesterday!
We had about 4.5 inches of rain on Monday St Stephen our border town had way more! The brand new liquor store there is still closed as they got a couple of feet of water in the store, bet they wish they hadn't moved! We also had about 4 inches of snow yesterday! This is today's view from the 2nd bridge in St George... way more water than normal.



This is what it normally looks like
click here for wikipedia's tourist version of the Power plant!
Bonnie River which is just north of St George had some house float away.... one young couple was escaping after they lost their house and tried to go round a barricade and ended up in the river... they were rescued off the roof of their car! As for us our babbling brook along the west side of our property line....it was extremely impressive as was the creek in our basement, our power flickered but never went out, my satellite dish quit part way through Hawaii Five O though... what a nerve!

Dec 14 2010-

Doesn't seem much like December since we got 4.5 inches of rain yesterday and thunder and lightning. At least the rain got rid of all the ice, just in time for more snow tomorrow! The 10 days in FL may have been just what I needed but it certainly got me totally our of synch with the Christmas Rythm. I suddenly realized on Saturday that it was exactly 2 weeks til Christmas and my parcel for AB was still missing pieces. Well it got shipped yesterday still missing those pieces!
I entered a raffle for a free portrait of one of my cats at the Craft Sale in St Andrew's last weekend...and WON!!! Now Emm will be immortalized! This is the picture I was thinking of sending to Simone to use as a 'model'. Not sure if I should get her to paint in the Christmas collar? Yes? No?. He sits up much straighter when he's wearing it! He's slouching in all the pictures I took when he wasn't wearing it! G thinks he looks ridiculous I think he looks sophisticated!





November 20 2010-

OK I had my sun fix.... 10 days of sun in Florida was just what I needed, and the sun is shining here today even if it is colder than I think it should be! We flew to Florida on Nov 8, I signed up for a workshop at R4 glass in Cocoa FL back in June before I knew that I was going to be spending 2 weeks in Edmonton cleaning out my parents house. The first week was holiday! We flew from Bangor Maine to the Sanford Orlando Airport (It's North East of Orlando). First night we headed South and stayed in an old beach Motel, I could get used to motels with living rooms, kitchens and separate bedrooms! Day 2 we headed South towards Everglades City... after lunch we cut across the Big Cypress National Preserve... we stopped at a photography gallery and walked on their raised trail through the everglades... 5 minutes of mosquitoes was more than enough to persuade me that I wanted no part of a hike through the everglades... recommended gear is old cloth runners and jeans... and clean clothes to change into when you get back... Paying to hike through Snakes and bugs... NO THANK YOU!!!!



Don't you want to go for a walk in there????

We managed to get as far as Key Largo where we once again found an old Beach Motel... This place was gorgeous, it was on the gulf side, they had a pool blasted out of the coral, Orchids growing from trees scattered through out the property,



and all the rooms had private screened porches. I think the unit was bigger than some of the apartments I've rented!
.... but we had a reservation for the next 3 nights on Big Pine Key... so we headed South across the bridges! The first night there we ate at a pub called No Name Pub... ( named after the No Name Key which is right next door!) It's famous for it's decor... It has somewhere between 60,000 and 70,000 one dollar bills stuck to the walls roof and rafters... it's a bit like sitting in a cave with short moss hanging all around you!
Since breakfast wasn't until 8:30 we went for short bike rides before breakfast all three mornings, there was one good bike and 3 rattle traps... G got the good one, I switched after the first morning but the handle bars on the second one were so high and so far apart that after 20 minutes my arms felt like they were being ripped off... so I switched back to the one that clunked with every down stroke!
The Blue Hole is on Big Pine Key... It's the largest fresh water lake on the Keys and is home to any number of large fish both fresh and salt water, and two alligators. The female hangs around the viewing platform hoping for marshmallows...



even though there are signs saying that feeding her could cost you $10,000! A lot of the fish are from dumped aquariums... the salt water fish survive because the bottom of the lake is actually below sea level so is salt water, the Salt Water Fish got washed in during hurricane Wilma! Big Pine Key is home to the Key deer,



of course even though the area around the Blue Hole is suppose to be their preserve, they have all moved onto the beaches near the B&B's on Long Beach, I had one lick my toe thinking my green nail polish was some new delicacy...
We spent half a day at Bahia State Park... There are no waves at all on the Atlantic side of the Keys.. the water is so shallow so far out that there are no inshore waves! We also walked out on the railway bridge and watched nurse sharks and manta rays playing between the pilings.... Not sure if the kayakers that were paddling around would have been happy to know about the sharks!



Beach at Key West ... Don't you like these chairs?




On the Friday we drove down to Key West for the day, Our first stop was the Southern most point on the US mainland !! Not sure how you can call the Southern most end of the keys the US mainland....the World finals for the Offshore Power Boats were on then... so we watched one race... Very loud!



There was also a race on while we were eating lunch ... and even though we couldn't see the water it felt and sounded like the boats were coming right though the restaurant!



Aren't they Pretty!

Saturday we headed north again as my workshop was Mon - Wed. Driving North through the Miami area took forever... If we do that trip again we'll swing inland! Bumpers aren't my favorite view! Stopped at Deerfield Beach, The beach there is covered with large rocks, wonder how many surfers end up on the rocks not the beach!
The waves on the Atlantic side once you got off the keys were so strong the beaches were all closed to swimmers....



Monday morning, the holiday is over time to learn something new. Gord spent the days playing on the beach flying kites, looking at planes, and looking for alligators. The workshop was a lot of fun, most days we went from 10 am to 7 pm, the last morning G said to me why don't they Start at a normal time so they can end at a decent time... I asked what a decent start time was he figured 8 am... He's not even out of bed at 8 am at HOME!
Thursday was suppose to be my beach day, but it was cloudy and windy... Did spend an hour playing in the water a shivering on the beach... before we gave up...
G had seen a notice that there was suppose to be a rocket launch on Thursday night at 6:01 pm we managed to get a restaurant with the appropriate view but never did see the rocket....
Friday was a 4:40 am start to get to the airport... Got back to Bangor about noon to a windy 40 degree day brrrr!

November 2 2010-

Total count for Hallowe'en was 9 usually we are around 30.... not sure if I should blame the lack of kids on the snow or the fact it was Sunday!
Yesterday I went into Saint John to buy some fabric to recover my couch... some SWINE bought my bolt of rust covered fabric... now I have to start all over again. When we saw it originally I hadn't measured the couch.... Oh well it's taken me over 10 years of thinking it should be recovered so another 5 or 6 months is no big deal!
Snow is gone but it's still cold and gloomy.... need SUN!!!!

October 31 2010-

Happy Hallowe'en


Today is Hallowe'en.... it's trying to snow... and at the moment it actually looks like it's succeeding! I got snowed on in Edmonton on Monday too! Enough with the snow! It's still October....
I was in Edmonton for 2 weeks helping to move my parents from the house that they have been living in for 60 years. I'd forgotten how much work it is to move... Think I may stay here for another 40 do I hear 50 years. I had a borrowed truck to haul stuff in, it's amazing how many people will let a rusty truck butt into a solid line of cars... Oh did I mention that the freeway between the old house and the condo was under construction, I can't remember when it hasn't been under construction!
While I was away, we had an un-forecast storm that broke the chain on Money-pits mooring, so the boat ended up up the creek, but other than loosing the mooring escaped any major damage, just a few scratches & gouges!

October 1 2010-

Another month... we've been 'enjoying' the effects of Tropical Storm Nicole for the last couple of days... temperatures are way above average ... but it's overcast with frequent downpours. Yesterday our power kept going out... not sure if that was due to the storm or due to the fact that this constituency voted an opposition member into the legislature during the provincial election last Monday... actually we returned a sitting member.
When we got our voting cards in the mail they had changed Gord's middle name from Denis to Denise... I'm not sure that he makes a very good Denise!
Last week after having the gallery open for 96 days straight
(actually it was really only 88 as we spent Sunday Sept 12 on Pendelton Island having a picnic... my token hot dog for the year!)
We went to Acadia National Park for two nights...
(if you are following the rant go to the summer 2010 archives and read June 22)
After our last stay they gave us a free night ...
The first morning we went back with some groceries and Gord couldn't unlock the door... Not only could we not unlock it, we couldn't get the key out... So we went in through the bedroom window, deposited out groceries and went to the office, they put on a temporary lockable knob that only had one key ... so we returned the key to the office any time we left the cabin. Aren't the cabins cute? This was ours this time.




The full day we were there was another warm overcast day... we spent it hiking on a couple of the coastal trails. The first trail was the copper mine trail... It went up first... then came down... that's the right way for a trail to run... Second trail went down first... which meant after 150 minutes of wandering up and down along the coast we had to crawl the half mile back up the mountain.... Due to the clouds the views weren't terribly spectacular!
(Guess that we should be I... I'm the one that doesn't like hills!)
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