Happy Halloween

It was a fairly quiet week.  On Monday evening we attended a family home evening group for the first time.  I made individual cheesecakes to take for desert.  We went to our district meeting on Tuesday morning and to Tara's in the afternoon and stayed with the boys while she ran errands.  Wednesday, besides the regular morning temple sessions there was an extra session in the evening (not very well attended).  Thursday, Friday and Saturday temple sessions were very small except for one Friday evening one.  Saturday they cancelled the last two sessions. 

Friday Nathan's family all came to our house for lunch.  Bob had been to Costco with them and they had picked up the food to bring here.

Saturday we left the temple early and went to Truro with Tara so we could see Orson and Liam receive their Champion Supreme Awards and play solos.

Last night it started to rain and the wind howled.  It rained most of today and the wind is still blowing.  We even got a bit of slush in with the rain.  We were glad to get home from church and stay inside.

Pumpkin Country

Last Thursday we had steady rain which lasted 24 hours and dropped 4 inches of rain on us.  It cleared up on Friday and we had lovely sunshine for several days in a row.  Today it has started to rain again.

Saturday was a very busy day at the Temple.  A busload of people came from P.E.I.  Several vans brought people from New Brunswick.

The fall trees were pretty when the sun shone on them.

Tomatoes don't grow well in Nova Scotia, but I think pumpkins must.  There are pumpkins everywhere here - in the stores, piled in front of Farmer Clems greenhouse, sitting on the steps of houses and lining the sidewalks.

 Even a White Pumpkin

Even the Baines House has Pumpkins

Thanksgiving and Beyond

Last Monday was Thanksgiving day here in Canada.  We celebrated at Nathan and Tara's with good food, good company and a good walk after dinner.  Here is the group after the walk.

When I lived in my parents home in Brooks we always had our Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday.  That was because pheasant season opened on the Monday.  When we are at home in Lethbridge we usually have our turkey dinner on Saturday because it doesn't interfere with our children's in-laws. They usually have their dinner on Sunday or Monday.  (This is in response to Amber's comment on the Baines Blog.)

On Tuesday Bob got snow tires put on his Honda.  Hopefully we will do better on the roads this winter.

We had our usual four days at the Temple - Wednesday to Saturday.  We also did some home teaching.

Saturday evening the boys came and stayed a couple of hours with us while Nathan and Tara went out for supper.

It is Tuesday again and we had district meeting this morning and finished our Home Teaching tonight.

The maritimes are known for their beautiful fall leaves, but this year left something to be desired.  As soon as the leaves turned colour they were blown away.  We have had wind and heavy rains lately.  However this afternoon was fairly nice.  Bob and Keaton went out walking this afternoon.

Fall Colours

When we look off our back deck we can see a bit of colour in the trees.

The colour reflects in the lake.

Joan and Earl left on Wednesday evening and I was very sad to see them go.  The wind started howling and it poured rain and the temperature dropped.  We Bob had to turn the furnace on.  When the furnace is turned on the hot water heater gets changed to using fuel oil instead of electricity.  Some handle on the hot water heater quit working and water began to leak.  We had to call in a plumber to get it fixed (a new handle). 

It was very quiet at the temple this week.

It quit raining after over 4 inches has fallen.  By Saturday afternoon it was beautiful again and Tara and the boys came for a weiner roast in the back yard.

It gets dark here by 7:30 p.m. now.  I am not looking forward to another winter here, but only one year from last Saturday until our release date.

Aviation Museum at Shearwater

It began to rain on Tuesday afternoon.  Joan, Earl and Bob went to visit the Aviation Museum at Shearwater.  Most of the planes were navy planes.

The blades on the helicopter retract so they don't take up so much room on the ship.  The wings on some of the planes fold up as well.

 Model of the Ship Shearwater

It poured rain all night and was still raining Wednesday morning when Bob and I went to the Temple.  We were at the temple until 2:00 p.m. and it was still raining when we came out.  We came home, had dinner and then took Joan and Earl to the airport so they could return home.  It quit raining but the wind howled all night long and the temperature dropped to 4 degrees C.  Bob turned the furnace on.

Salt Marsh Trail

On Tuesday morning it was cloudy but quite warm so we decided to hike the Salt Marsh Trail.  It is a 6.5 k trail along an old railway bed and at one time connected Cole Harbour and Dartmouth.  Joan and I went for
2 k and then decided to turn back.  Bob and Earl went on for a while before turning back.  It is  supposedly a bird sanctuary, but most of the birds we saw were gulls and ducks.  Bob saw a few others - a blue Heron and some sandpipers.

There were a few flowers in bloom along the trail.  There were also warnings about poison ivy.

We kept thinking there was some kind of bird on the rock but I guess it was a piece of wood.

Sheet Harbour and Back

Monday morning we left Dartmouth about 8:30 a.m.  There was mist and fog.  We drove out along the Eastern Shore and near Lawrencetown and Seaforth we stopped at a couple of beaches to look at the waves from Tropical Storm Ophelia which were up to five meters high.  We saw a few surfers as well.

 

Our next stop was Musquodoboit Harbour.  We stopped to see the Train Museum there.

There was another train car that used to have exhibits in it but vandals cut holes in the leather seats and made the roof leak.

We went to beautiful Martinique Beach and watched the waves again.

This would be a beautiful beach to visit in nice weather.

Our next stop was Jeddor Oyster Pond (that is the name of the place) and visited Fisherman Life Museum.  This home was originally build in the late 1800's and the two end parts were added later.  The son of the fisherman who built the house lived in it and raised a family of thirteen daughters there starting in 1901.  His wife lived there until the 1960's and then it was kept by the daughters to use when they came back to visit.  Later it was made into a museum.  The fisherman rowed his dory ten miles to the mouth of the harbour and stayed on an island during the week while he fished.  The family stayed home and raised a garden and apple trees and looked after the chickens and other animals.

View from the Fisherman's Boat House

Our next stop was at Prince Alfred's Arch at Mason's Cove, near Tangier.  There once was a gold rush here and Queen Victoria's teenage son came to visit.

View from the Arch

By the time we made it to Sheet Harbour the sun was shining and it was beautiful.  We had lunch and visited one grave yard before we left to go back to Dartmouth.  Although the waves were high on the ocean, in the harbour there were no waves at all.

View from the Restaurant 

We went inland to go back to Dartmouth and went through some farming country, which we don't see much of in Nova Scotia.  We arrived back in Dartmouth at 5:30 p.m.

A Wet Day at Peggy's Cove

Although it was raining we decided to visit Peggy's Cove.  It was surprising that there were so many people there; I thought we would have it all to ourselves.  However even though it was raining it was warm.

Joan and Earl wanted to visit the information centre but when we were going in there was a fire truck and ambulance.  Later on the police came and they had the entrance blocked off.  I don't know what kind of calamity had happened and we will probably never find out.

We got back to the house just in time to watch the first session of conference and we watched all four sessions.  Bob and Earl went to church for the Priesthood Session.

A Beautiful Day at Halifax Harbour

It was rainy and foggy on Friday morning but it cleared off and we caught the ferry from Alderney Crossing to Halifax.  It was a very warm sunny day.  We watched the glass blowing demonstration and wandered along the boardwalk and checked out some of the shops.