tall ships halifax 2017

As you can tell it was a bit of a foggy overcast day here yesterday when we walked down to the harbour to see the forty or so tall ships that came to town on Friday. We'd spent an extra half hour on the park beach in hopes of seeing a few of them sail in that day but were disappointed.

Despite hundreds of people crowding the boardwalks who made my chances of getting decent photographs of the docked ships more difficult, I did my best - and came up with just four.

It appeared that just about everyone there was lined up at each and every ship to go aboard for a tour, an understandable urge when the ships we usually see are unromantic giant cruise liners or container ships.

Of course, none of these tall ships are very old and, for the most part, very few have wooden hulls - they simply bring to mind the sheer magnificence of the Age of Sail when the forests of Europe and then the New World were felled en masse to build the magnificent fleets of yesteryear. They leaked, yes, and those that didn't sink on the high seas in battles or storms were dismantled long ago.

Nevertheless, I look forward to seeing them under full sail on Tuesday when they leave our harbour in Parade. I'll try to get more and better pictures then. It's a rare and lovely sight.

****

A magician was working on a cruise ship.

Since the audience was different each week, the magician did the same tricks over and over again. There was only one problem: The captain's parrot saw the shows each week and began to understand how the Magician did every trick.

Once he understood, he started shouting in the middle of the show, "Look, it's not the same hat!" or, "Look, he's hiding the flowers under the table!" Or "Hey, why are all the cards the ace of spades?"

The magician was furious but couldn't do anything. It was, after all, the Captain's parrot.

Then one stormy night on the Pacific, the ship sank. Too bad but these things can happen.

Hours later the magician found himself on a piece of wood floating in the middle of the sea and, as fate would have it, sharing the board with the parrot.

They stared at each other with hatred, but neither of them uttered a word.

This went on for a day... And then 2 days. And then 3 days. Finally on the 4th day, the parrot could not hold back any longer and said...

"Okay, I give up. Where's the freaking ship??

♡

life as a walk in the park

One fine morning a few days ago I remembered to take my camera with me when we went for one of our regular walks through the park. Although Point Pleasant isn't the biggest city park I've ever known well, it's certainly big enough, and wild enough, to give the impression you have much of it to yourself. In fact, that's often pretty close to true. Even though every path will eventually take you to the shore, it's quite possible to wander for hours and never see the sea. Anyway, the ones above are a few of the pictures I took as we walked along a meandering uphill path between granite outcrops and a watery marsh where the frogs were making rude noises.

When you're far away from city sounds it's easy to imagine other places and different times. Of course, it goes without saying that most of us would be hard pressed to get by in the world as it was a century or more ago; we've become very used to our conveniences even when they aren't as convenient as we might prefer. Still, there are a few out of the way places where people continue to live in much the way they did long ago. One of those places is also in India, in the northeast where a rainfall that can often be measured in yards rather than inches, requires sturdy bridges.

In a place like Cherrapunji, India, living bridges are made from the roots of the Ficus elastica tree. Long ago the people who lived there saw the possibility of growing bridges across the valley's many rivers by guiding the fast growing roots in the right direction through hollowed out betel nut trunks. Once a root reached the opposite side it was allowed to establish itself in the ground. The root bridges, some of which are more than 100 ft long, take 10 to 15 years to be fully functional, but they're very strong - strong enough to support the weight of 50 or more people. Better still, because they grow stronger as the years go by many of these bridges are more than 500 years old.

I'd love to walk across one of these but since getting there would provide serious difficulties, I'll just have to content myself with imagining one next time I'm on a very narrow path on a sunny day. There are more excellent pictures by Timothy Allen and a story about his journey there on Human Planet.

♡

the squirrel whisperer

We call him the Squirrel Whisperer.

Most days (weather permitting, of course) we like to spend an hour or two walking around the forested paths of Point Pleasant Park. No matter the route it's inevitable we eventually make our way along the broad beach path where the ocean waves provide the kind of wild entertainment the North Atlantic is famous for. About half way we're given a choice to cut across the now icy snowfields around the remains of a decrepit wwII fort to the ploughed road or to follow the path as it narrows between the fort and the old gun emplacements. Yes, they did have concerns Halifax might be invaded by Nazi u-boats in 1942  but it seems they needn't have worried.

Anyway, as often as not when we walk along that confined space, we'll pause to watch the Squirrel Whisperer. Sometimes we see him in other areas of the park but most often we'll find him standing near a tree stump in that defile patiently holding out one unshelled peanut in his bare hand. Usually there's a dubious looking squirrel wondering if it should take a chance. It's kind of fascinating to watch the two of them as they measure each other's intentions. Hunger nearly always wins.

Once the weather gets cold I always carry my little bag of shelled peanuts and raw sunflower seeds but I tend to scatter them at the spot where we like to sit, the place where our crow friends expect us. The rest of the contents get deposited in an open feeder a few hundred yards further along. I like wild animals but I don't need to have them eat from my hand. When it comes down to it I'm probably as wary of them as they should be of us.

The Squirrel Whisperer has another point of view.. or maybe he likes being out there all day.
♡
ps: Right now the temperature is noted as 8˚ feels like -20˚ with 30mph winds. Yes, we went for a walk but not to the park. I wonder if he did.

local events

Here we are having Victoria Day around here with Memorial Day in the US coming along next and how did I spend some time last week? You'd think I'd already have had enough of winter to last me for a while but I guess not. The two holidays announce the beginning of summer in North America but I was curious about some blues and blacks in my watercolor paint supply and decided to see how this drawing from last autumn would look in color. Just in case it's already a bit warmer than usual where you are perhaps it will bring some memories of frosty evenings. I know I have at least one friend among you who prefers the long dark.

There are a few things I'll definitely miss about living in this place if we ever do find a better one. That's not entirely certain since every building we've looked at is still in Halifax rather than Paris or Rome but we do what we can. Yesterday the city held a Victoria Day 42 km marathon race in honor of everybody who suffered shin splints, twisted ankles, and chest pain in last year's run. I thought it was very nice the more experienced athletes allowed Queen Victoria to win - then again, this is Canada and there is protocol to consider. She looked so sweet as she puffed along at the head of the crowd outside our windows. Her little diamond tiara was a bit askew but her young pages had managed to keep the train of her gown out of the dust and it was a treat to see the courtiers running backwards as they fanned her Majesty's glowing* royal brow.

The next thing to look forward to will be the annual parade of the Stanley Cup. Last year we saw three open trucks led by six mounties, all followed by a man in a hockey puck suit and a bagpiper. Big doings.

Have you seen any strange things either passing by or in passing recently?

* Men perspire but ladies glow.

♡

sitting still

Sometimes the best thing to do is to sit down in front of a large body of water and stay there for a while. This is a picture I took in our park just a few days ago on a breezy sunny day but I wish I could let you hear the waves and the rattling sound the rocks make as the water breaks and pulls away from the shore. On really good days the waves are even bigger than these but since I hardly ever carry my camera all I can do is sit and watch.

Do you have a favorite place?

♡

moving pains

I was glad to get a card from Crow today showing him in apparently fine spirits and enjoying a lovely landscape in good company. Hopefully, I'll be able to provide him with a colored version of this nice scene on his return.

In the meanwhile, we're in search of a new and different place to live, a quest that's proving all the more complicated because of computerized listings. Do you remember the days when an apartment search simply involved buying the daily newspaper and reading the classifieds? Back then people used to put signs on the front lawn too. It's not like that any more. Now you must look online under 'apartments for rent (in the city of your choice)' where you will likely find several hundred companies that provide listings of places available.

Listings are abundant on major sites like Kijiji, Craigslist, and Padmapper (!) but many, many more are only posted on the sites of the large companies that own the buildings which will lead you to jotting down a potentially interesting address and googling the place when you get home - often to discover you've been looking hopefully at a condo. No, buying isn't an option.

Halifax has very strict fixed lease laws most of which are signed for a year. Since it's a university town we've run into a lot of places being advertised right now as summer sublets for students who intend to return in September. Even though we're not interested in a 3 month rental, it's impossible to filter these ads out of our searches and some of them are very sly. We saw pictures of one apartment that had the Eiffel Tower outside the window. Another was an apartment in the building where we live that showed photographs of and described what could only have been a multi-million dollar place in NYC. I am certain there are no apartments in this building that have a marble pool in the bathroom nor a landscaped terrace garden filled with roses and fruited vines.

Although it's no surprise that students eager to avoid extra rent payments are less than honest, it's also a fact that landlords have a tendency to do the same. Walking in the park is preferable but the only real way to know whether or not the place you've found on the internet is worth considering is to go there. It's a good thing we enjoy exercise because finding the right place may take a while.

Do you have any special projects this spring? Personally, I'd rather be hanging out with Crow, wherever he is.

♡

new city ramble

Halifax is a very walkable city and we've been having a good time doing just that. I'd love to have you join me for a stroll, but pictures are the best I can do for now so I'll just have to hope you enjoy them. This one is a photo taken of the restaurant we first noticed from our hotel window which quickly became our favorite so far - the Wooden Monkey. It was still closed when we went past this morning so I wasn't able to go inside to take pictures of the big carved monkeys and all the other neat things inside but you get the idea.

Although I mentioned all the little shops in another post I figured that was a bit too vague so here are the first pictures that describe what I meant. The Black Market was a very cool surprise both outside and even more so inside. There was an amazing collection of silk saris, beaded and mirrored cushion covers, clothes, lampshades, jewelry, carved figures.. oh what the heck, I'll just put up some more pictures.

(btw: You can look at any of these pics full-size by clicking on them. I've never had so many images to post before and I'm having a hard time deciding how to size them.)

We walked past this place again on our way home and saw some kids had snagged part of the street across from the Market by laying out grass rolls for a parking space picnic. They were having fun with chalk writing 'Free This Space' and 'No Car Zone' on the road. Nobody appeared bothered because nobody who needed a parking space came by while we sat.

 We saw a policeman stroll by who paused to smile at the group before he kept going. Have I mentioned before that cops walk a beat around here? We thought we were hallucinating the first time we noticed them.


Speaking of hallucinating, this is the entrance to the first 'head shop' I've seen in about 20 years. (Randal, take note.) Yes, they do stock pipes and bongs and whatever peripherals might be required for your enjoyment of a product that's been decriminalized but not sold openly. That's okay, we're not quite that relaxed yet..

but we may get there :-)

♡

hi teching it

This is as far as we've got so far with our furnishings. As you can see we're cableized and have an honest to goodness chair which numb carried home from the consignment antique store yesterday. I had my eye on a lovely wing-backed armchair with a footstool, a Jacobean side table, and a stained glass table lamp but he'd neglected to bring his backstrap harness. That meant I had to put the plum colored Victorian sofa back on the shelf for another day too.

I'd like to tell you we've comfortably settled into this place or this one but that would be telling a fib, something I try hard not to do. They're both houses not too far down the block from where we actually do live in a neighborhood of equally magnificent places interspersed with apartment buildings much like ours.

We've been going for long walks every morning and finding many places and views worthy of photos. We're both thinking Halifax is a very well kept secret among connoisseurs of North American cities. Today we walked all around Point Pleasant Park at the southern tip of the peninsula but it was so early the sunrise killed any attempt at picture taking of the seaside panorama.

This prospect of Victoria Park Gardens is what greets us every day and weekend mornings are especially quiet. Further up the street is the much larger area of the Public Gardens with the lake, bandstand and all the associated things you'd expect. Of course, if you live in many cities you're glad enough to see a patch of dirt and a tree now and then so I shouldn't generalize.

The photo isn't very clear because the building is having facing work done and the balconies repaired so cement dust has accumulated on the windows. Still, you can see we overlook a cool park with a fountain just beyond and below us and an old church across the way.

We were very lucky to find this place and the fact we can easily walk downtown, to the waterfront, to tons of little cafes and odd shops all around us makes it well worth the wait for these guys not to be showing up at our windows first thing on weekday mornings. In a way I'm just as glad our stuff isn't here quite yet because I'll have enough to vacuum once they take their jackhammers away. In the meantime, numb is prepared to hold a towel up at the bedroom window so I can make it safely to the bathroom for a shower and my clothes at 7:30am.

The adventure continues.