sorry cats

So whose bed is this anyway? The cats are sulking because I took away their food this morning. I'm driving home with them for Labour Day. I don't like car sick cats. So we are off in a few minutes and I'll be back at the end of the week.

gym

So I have no opportunity to get exercise here, except walking. I relented and joined the gym. I hate exercise. It's boring. They insist that I turn up three times a week. They'll phone me if I miss - and then they want me to make appointments - but in my job, this is really difficult, Nevertheless here I am with muscles to tone and pounds to lose.

cemetery

I had this funeral where the grandchildren were the pall bearers - young people in their twenties - who, perhaps were a little unsure of the concept. There were three young men and four ladies, very stylishly dressed with this season's dress mules with very high heels. During the service there was a torrential downpour, but the casket emerged from the church to soft sunshine. Some of the pallbearers had difficulty on the steps. Those would be the ones in heels. At the cemetery shoes were piled by the hearse and some of grandmother's pall bearers had bare feet.

walking

I walk to work. I walk to the shops. I walk all over town. It is so good to be back in a place where everything is within walking distance. This is the corner of Broad and Main.

The Merchants of Sussex

I snapped this on my way back from Timmy's this morning. I had had an hour and a half cup of coffee with a parishioner. This mural is down a lane, so I couldn't stand back far enough to get it all in one shot. Sussex grew from a small village to being the service centre for the county. On Wednesday afternoons the shops closed and many went to the Sussex race track. These were, of course, the same folks that went to church on Sunday. Why not?

saleslady

A couple of weeks ago I asked a sister what she wanted for her birthday. She wanted an alarm clock. I put it in the back of my mind to find one that was just right for her. I found it in a giftshop. I reached for it. The saleslady spoke quite brusquely to me that she would get it down so I wouldn't break anything. She reached for it and knocked down a cow cup and spoon. "Now it's broken", she said. I replied that it looked fine to me as I picked it the cow. "This clock will be just wonderful for my sister", I said, as I tried to lighten the leaden atmosphere. "It's for a child." she said. "I think that it is just right for my sister." "But it's for a child." "But if sisters can't be playful with each other, who can? That's what sisters are for". I was thinking of my sister who has a black cat on her kitchen wall with eyes that move and I think the tail does, also. She didn't crack a smile as she rung it through the cash. It must be so sad for people who grow up.
The alarm is a meow, of course. I tested it on my cats when I got home. They certainly took notice. So happy birthday and I'll get it to you whenever someone is going your direction.

birthday at McDonald's

So coffee for seniors is, I think, $.73.s. at McDonald's. So the retired fellows congregate there every morning. I needed to speak to one of them so I tracked him down. My timing was impeccable. One of the regulars was turning 80, so there was cake for the gang. So here's to cheap coffee at the hamburger emporium, it is the stuff that glues friendships.

heath garden

These are the last of my Kingsbrae photos. I always love a heath garden and I wonder if it isn't my ancestral memories of moors. Do these memories come coded in our DNA? I also love the waterlilies in a Rodin type of way, but it is the expanses of heath and heathers that stir me. Here in the Maritimes hills of blueberries move me in a similar kind of way. I suppose the converse is that I am not a forest person.

garden room

The garden at High Hopes in Nova Scotia is flat and open. Someday I want to make garden rooms similar to what they have done here at Kingsbrae Gardens. It will be a lot of work. I shall ahve to sharpen my spade.

Kingsbrae Gardens

I drove to Saint Andrews. Yes, it's a long haul, but it's closer than when I return to Nova Scotia. I went to see the gardens - loved them! Here are a couple of pictures and there will be more to come.

squash

When I arrived in Nova Scotia last May the potager had been abandoned for several years. I spent considerable time just trying to get it back into shape and get out the weeds. Then I had bare ground, but I had to go to New Brunswick to work, so I couldn't really seriously plant it. Before I left Northern Onario a friend gave me an envelope with "squash" written in pencil. What kind of squash? I pushed a few seeds into the bare earth. There will be squash. There're everywhere. And see the bees in the close up of the flower, doing their thing, I shall supply all my friends and relatives.

seaweed

On Monday I worked in the daylily field for the day. The "soil" is gravelly. It drains well, but there is no organic matter and few nutrients. So at the end of the day I went to the beach and got three buckets of seaweed to spread around the plants.

It takes me about five and a quarter hours to drive here. But then I stop on the way, so it takes nearly six hours. There is a ferry but it cuts less than an hour off the time and it costs a lot more, even though it is a lot more fun on the Digby Ferry.

home for a day

I went home to Nova Scotia for a day after church on Sunday. I spent a day working in my daylily field and drove back today. I am going to try to return every two weeks or so. It's worth the long drive.

from the dock

I couldn't get to the cottage this year. I had stuff to get done at home in Nova Scotia. My sister sent me this picture of the lake. I simply must get back there next year!

flea market

Last weekend Sussex went to the dogs with the National Dog Ability Championships. This weekend there was a giant flea market at the Exhibition Grounds, which are a short walk from my apartment. There were thousands of vendors. I walked for an hour and I don't think that I saw a third of it. By this time I was beginning to feel itchy. But if I ever need fine art, beer can wind chimes or an Elvis lamp, I'll know where I might find them.

gift of catnip

Harvest time. Here is a bunch of fresh catnip. There was something for everyone. I was given fresh corn, beets and cucumbers. We have our preerences.

cow town

This is a rich valley filled with dairy herds, which have been the mainstay of the economy. And look, it turned sunny this afternoon! This is the second in the series of murals.

rain

There has been rain every day. Even blue sky that I saw five days ago did not last and there was rain by suppertime. Never mind my desposition, now the crops are spoiling in the fields.

mural #1

Sussex bills itself as the "Mural Capital of Atlantic Canada" There are 26. This is the first in the "Official Guide". There was a provincial exhibition in 1861 and this hall was built for the grand show, but it was never used again and was later torn down: a singular lack of foresight.

flush

There is an entire lack of privacy as Miss Johnston simply has to watch the flush. In fact anthing that happens in the bathroom is infinitely fascinating.

gardens

I visited the gardens at Red Lane and Cornhill - and learnt a lot about marketing the product just from walking around and observing. There were two very different approaches. Someday I may have a little daylily business of my own. This picture is from Cornhill.

08/08/08

08/08/08 a lucky day with blue sky - so I am heading off down the road and over the Span of Green Cables to Prince Edward Island.

yucky day

It seems like the end of September and not August at all. And I know that we'll never get these lost days back. It's cool and cloudy and a bit of rain every day. So here's another daylily from my garden. This is Apricot Delight. Tomorrow is my day off, so I'm going to Prince Edward Island to see a large daylily commercial garden and I'll be back the day after that.

Alice Ziesa

Rain everyday and more rain to come; I drove into Saint John today for a meeting at the hospital and then I drove back. I still haven't seen the city. So I'm doing some daylily dreaming before I get into writing my sermon. This is my 86th daylily, which is growing back home in Nova Scotia. Its name is "Alice Ziesa".

wild phlox

The wild phlox grows above the riverbank and along the railroad track. The walking trail that starts across the street from my apartment goes under the train bridge and beside Trout Creek. Here there are "creeks". Across the Bay in Nova Scotia there are "brooks". What is the differeence between a creek and a brook?

baskets

The town hangs these baskets along my street and throughout the town for the summer. I wonder what they feed tem to produce such a profusion of blooms.

Today is a holiday: New Brunswick Day. I think that it is a relic of the old Celtic Lammas, which celebrated the first harvest. For me the first harvest was a bag of beans that I picked from the potager before I left Nova Scotia last Saturday. It will take several days to eat them all.

stairs

These are my stairs. This picture ahould discourage anyone from visiting me who might happen to have mobility issues. The lease says that I am responsible for clearing the snow this coming winter. So I am praying for no snow and even less ice.

return

This morning I walked through my daylily field and deadheaded - 94 varieties and then the cats and I drove back to New Brunswick and to work tomorrow. It was hard to leave. It was such a happy month. Plus, I almost finshed putting the primer on the house and am well into the wallboard project, besides getting the daylilies up to snuff as they had been abandoned for at least a couple of years.

play day

We three friends drove to Yarmouth for lunch, feasted on the deck of a microbrewery and then drove home along the French Shore. We had a lovely day dodging into all the used clothing stores and strolling on the beach. We do what we do best.