A Year Later

 

I can hardly believe we've been living here a year now.  We've been in awe of the beauty around us and thankful for our acceptance into the community.  It's been exciting and frustrating renovating the house but it feels like home and we can see the end is near.  We are so happy we made the decision to retire in the beautiful province of Nova Scotia and that we found the property we now call home in the village of Liscomb.

In anticipation of winter, we moved the Muskoka chairs back from the ocean so as not to lose them to the winter storms.  Tables were stored in the barn along with all the garden decorations...... we're ready for what winter brings!  So far we've been lucky and have had mostly rain.

The meadow changed significantly from last year.  It was being taken over by bayberry, blackberry and blueberry bushes along with so many wild roses that the grasses were being choked out.....decision time......to cut it back or not.  I started by cutting it back closest to the house by about 20 feet as well as down by the ocean but then I got on the tractor again.  I've cut it back drastically leaving only a swath of bayberry and the odd bush for interest.  We left the meadow in front of the barn all the way down to the old apple tree and sitting area.  We love the look.

              

 

We had friends visit in June and family in September and can hardly wait to see who visits next year. 

 

We've really made great strides with the renovations.  Both bathrooms have been renovated, the kitchen is installed with only some mudding, sanding and painting to be done and the livingroom hardwood floor is down.  As frustrating as the renovation has been, we love what we've done so far....well I should say we love what Irvin has done.  Whatever would we have done without him?  Now we will start the messy job of mudding and sanding the kitchen and halls.  I am dreading this job knowing that there will be dust everywhere for months.  At the same time I will be glad when it is done so I can get to the painting and wallpaper. 

 

 

       

 

I've cooked my first lobster, mastered fishcakes and learned how to make seafood chowder.  We ate so much seafood our first year that Michael cringes at the thought of fish now and doesn't want to see another lobster until next season.

 

 

 

Andrew, Irvin's son, took us out in his boat for a tour of the harbour.  It was great seeing what was beyond the island off our property and even more exciting to see our property from the water.  Next summer we are going to head out in our canoe to explore the shoreline....on a really, really calm day! 

 

 
 

Clam Bay is a really spectacular beach and holds a sandcastle competition each year.  Well, there are sandcastles and then there are sandcastles.  We saw the most amazing creations made from sand and offerings from the ocean.  It was a wonderful day and will probably be one of our annual events.

           

 

           

 

 

 Michael dragged the dory up from the ocean hoping it could be repaired but unfortunately it's too far gone.  It is such a shame it was neglected for so many years.  He was going to burn it but I suggested putting it under the big old tree by the barn. We've put garland and lights on it for Christmas and it makes such a picture.  Next year I'll paint it and it will look like new even though it will never see the ocean again.

 

Our second Christmas arrived before we knew it.  Time moves just too quickly, especially now that we are both retired.  This was a difficult Christmas for me.  I missed my family and friends.  Last year wasn't so bad, probably since it was our first in the new house and there was so much excitement around that.  This year was much different especially for me.  I was sad  I wasn't there Christmas Eve with my mom who is now in her 98th year, and I was sad I wasn't there for the chaos of the family dinner at my brother's.  I missed the children opening their gifts, Rick continually gathering up the ripped wrapping paper and stuffing it all in that large black plastic bag, Barb checking the turkey, talking to my nieces and nephew about this and that, letting our dinner get cold while we said grace,  popped the Christmas crackers and read our messages.  I missed mom insisting we all wear those silly paper hats that come in the crackers and I missed being so tired that I couldn't wait to get home and put my feet up.  Instead Michael and I had a wonderful relaxed day and cooked a ham for dinner instead of turkey.  We watched movies, talked about Christmases past and reflected on the future.  Perhaps we will head back to Ontario next Christmas, weather permitting, to be a part of what Christmas is all about...FAMILY!

 

This is the beginning of a new year.  We are getting ready to start the rest of the renovations.  I am working on another quilt, another original since I don't seem to be able to figure out the pattern.  A storm is coming in today.  It is snowing now and very beautiful.  My snowshoes are by the door and the trails are ready.  We are hoping Haydee and Robert will return for another visit and that Colin and Laura will come down in September.  Simone is supposed to stop in on her way either to or back from Newfoundland (I wonder if she would pick me up and take me with her..lol).  We'd love it if Nina would come down.  We never know who will show up but our door is always open.

 

We wish all our friends and families a healthy, happy and safe 2015.

 

Love Anna and Michael

 

 

 
 



Celtic Colors

Celtic Colors is an annual festival held in Cape Breton every October.  It offers music, art, food and so much more.  It's exciting for us to live so close that we can easily travel there to partake in everything.  We booked our campsite in the beautiful Margaree Valley near Baddeck which is centrally located to the concerts we prepaid to see, loaded up the car, hitched up the little camper trailer and headed up for 9 days of festival.  The campsite was next to a beautiful lake in a valley surrounded by mountains and the fall colors were magical.

 
 
  



Friday was a beautiful day so we decided to take the day and drive around the Cabot Trail to admire the colors.  We were not disappointed.  The Cabot Trail is magnificent at the best of times but seeing it in the fall was amazing.  Tourism Nova Scotia really should do more to promote this special time of the year.

 

Our first concert was Saturday night so on that morning I wanted to check out some beaches and do some beachcombing.  We drove up and down small mountain roads, and stopped at beautiful beaches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We didn't realize our wonderful trip would be short-lived due to car problems.  Without seeing one concert, we had to be towed back home (we arrived on Thursday and were towed home Monday)...thank goodness for CAA.  Never again will I complain when it comes time for our annual payment.  It would have cost around $500 if we didn't have that coverage.

 

The Ford is still in for repair and we are now preparing for winter and thinking about more home renovations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out and about

Renovating a house takes so much time and this project for us has taken even longer than I ever imagined. In thinking back, one reason it has taken so long is that we took time to smell the roses, so to speak.  I really did think we would be doing much more touring around our new province but we found it difficult to leave our little piece of heaven here in Liscomb.  Now that is not to say we never leave home.  We are having fun doing what we want, when we want, whether that is working on the house or exploring Nova Scotia. 

 

Magical Peggy's Cove

 

 

 

 

.....not quite sure what I was expecting the day we went to Peggy's Cove.  I suppose I thought it would just be a tourist trap and nothing really very special...well I was so wrong.  As we approached the village the shoreline changed dramatically reminding us of our beloved Georgian Bay back in Ontario.  The village is very quaint and what you'd expect when thinking of a Nova Scotia fishing village.  The day we went there were several artists scattered throughout the village and across the rocks painting scenes that we are all familiar with.  It really is an artist's paradise.  It is also a place every visitor to Nova Scotia should experience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If houses could talk

...I wonder what stories these houses would tell....they are everywhere in Nova Scotia, houses just left to fall to ruin. 

 

Just left to fall apart, hundreds, probably thousands scattered throughout the Maritimes.  We see them everywhere.  I've started taking pictures of these long ago beautiful houses and perhaps some day I can bring them back to life through my photography.

 

 

Beaches

 

Oh my......this is one of our reasons for moving to Nova Scotia, to be on the ocean.  There are so many beautiful beaches...some are like the Caribbean, others rocky....some easily found, others hidden away known only by the locals and yet others impossible to access other than by boat.  The dogs are confused by the salt water and I am not surprised since they lived on a fresh water lake back in Ontario. I love the ocean except of course when I see the jelly fish coming in with the tide. I am fascinated with salt water...love the smell of it, intrigued with the taste and mesmerized by the tides. 

 

 

 

 

 

  I could spend hours beachcombing, looking for those special treasures the sea washes up with the tide.  Poor Michael, he has to deal with the sea art I drag home, dry out and then display on the wall or in baskets on the tables.

 

 

 



 Oh, how I love living on the ocean!

 

 

 



 



Winter Projects





Renovating is so much more work than we had anticipated...probably our age more than anything.  We are discovering that things we did in the past take so much longer to accomplish now that we are "seniors".   Our family room looked like a Home Depot warehouse with kitchen cabinets, boxes of hardwood flooring, a dishwasher and the microwave exhaust hood.

Our handiman drywalled the hall and worked on the mudding.  Oh joy, oh joy, sanding is next...LOL...the house is so dusty there's just no point in cleaning.  I suppose I could look at that as a positive for me.  Our bathrooms are now done and we are so happy with how they turned out.  It was quite the process, especially the main bathroom which was in such bad shape that it was pretty much a complete gut...

 

main bathroom before and after

 

            

 

 

                       

 

 

 





                                          2 piece before and after

Before

After

  

I started to remove wallpaper from one of the bedrooms while Michael put kitchen cabinets together...CRASH, BANG, BOOM...oh dear...his little fingers don't work like they used to.  I had most of one wall stripped in the bedroom and then stopped....ah the joy of retirement...no pressure here to get anything done.

We had some spectacular days this winter.  Moving here in the fall we anticipated a bad winter where we would be snowed in for days on end.  Well, we were wrong.  We are in a little pocket down here that seems to miss most of the snowstorms.  When we do get them it is beautiful but we probably get more rain than anything else.  We bought a huge upright freezer thinking we would be in for the winter but we soon learned to take our windows of opportunity....a storm coming then head to town....storm hits then head to town 2 days later...LOL....we got it figured out pretty fast but we still had a huge freezer packed with food, enough to last a year I think.
 

 

 

       



 

 

The deer don't come around too much, probably because of the dogs, but when they do unexpectedly show up,  it is magical...

            

Just when we thought we were through the worst of winter we got that March 2014 storm of the century.  We've never seen such winds.  The day of the storm the wind blew and the snow came down with such force that you could hardly see anything outside.  We were snuggled in prepared for the worse, at least that is what we thought.  Early evening the wind let up and we thought the storm had ended....WRONG...we were in the centre of the storm, just like a tornado.  After we went to bed the wind picked up again and the direction changed.  The house shook with the wind.  It was very unsettling.  CRASH.....the wind actually blew in the bedroom window.  We were lucky the glass didn't break but parts of the frame were broken and Michael had quite the job to get it back in.  We had to have someone out to repair it...oh joy....
 

Our Shelagh Duffet wall is growing.  We love her art....it is bright and cheerful and always puts a smile on our faces.  I could keep on buying and buying (I love her original works) but alas my retirement income keeps my impulses in check.  We have since bought another original and 4 more prints.  I always said I wanted to fill the walls with Nova Scotia art and it looks like we are.

       

 

                     

The long winter got my creative juices flowing.  I dug out our paints and started painting birdhouses.  I joined a quilting group where I met some great ladies and learned to quilt.  The quilt below is my first large quilt which still is not finished.  I learned pretty quickly that I love making the tops but hate the actual quilting so in future I will do like everyone else and send them out to be quilted by someone who knows what they are doing.  All in all winter actually went pretty fast.