Day 20 of my repatriation to Canada and I'm so very glad to be here! I have been busy as ever, visiting friends and family, and driving all over Nova Scotia with several more excursions planned. I arrived in Canada at midnight to a tiny but hearty welcome home from my ma and cousin. I certainly appreciated it! I had missed my homeland so very much, particularly over the last year in Australia. It was so good to see all of the red and white, maple leaves and all.The next day my niece came over and my how she had grown! She was just a young lass of 11 when I last saw her and now she is a tall girl of 16, towering over me from nearly 6 feet tall. She hung with us all weekend and we watched movies, shared stories, looked at photos, and she helped me unpack my bulging suitcases. At one point we walked down to Tim Hortons and I couldn't decide between a french vanilla cappuccino or an iced cappuccino so bought both and drank them with one in each hand! It was delightful.
I've been to Cape Breton and stayed with a past coworker and friend of mine for a couple of nights, watching the Habs win their last game of the season as they were knocked out during the next one. We had our lucky socks on, which I'm sure helped, but couldn't bring them to the finals. It was good to see my old friends, having left the east coast more than 5 years ago. We have kept in touch through social media, phonecalls, and FaceTime, but it just isn't the same as sharing a beer on the front step with them, watching the world go by. I was also able to spend a bit of time going through what my friend had been storing for me while I was away. Some was a little too painful to pour over as it was mostly items from Grand Bruit and things that had belonged to my late father, however it was also like Christmas as I had not remembered many of the items and was not sure what had been lost in the fire and what had not yet made it to Dartmouth. We had brought quite a load from Grand Bruit but much of it was stored at my aunt's mini-home in Port Shoreham and so I couldn't recall after the fire what had made it up and what was still waiting there. I was happy to reunite with some of my most treasured items of my father's such as his snowshoes, manual typewriter, and genealogy research such as family records and photos. My vinyl was also there, which tickled me pink.
I was also able to spend a few days with my aunt in Port Shoreham while we waited for the van I was to borrow to be repaired. It had sat mostly unused all winter so needed to be serviced. The weather was quite good most of the time, and I loved the fresh salt air that blew in from the Atlantic Ocean. The peace and quiet of her rural home was just what I needed after the hustle and bustle of Melbourne, and then the travel, and busyness of being in Halifax. At night it was so very quiet I could hear the little animals and birds as they moved about in the mossy forest. Bliss.I've been gobbling all of the foods I dearly missed in Australia - number one on the list was BACON! And yes, I have had several feeds of bacon since my return. I've also had a fair bit of snack food such as corn puffs, hot rods, cheesies, coffee crisp, corn chips, and so on. We've also eaten out at Mary Browns, Swiss Chalet, and Pizza Delight. I'll have to diet for the rest of the spring and summer to shed those pounds!
I've been to visit a friend who used to live in Dartmouth when I did and now lives in Sheet Harbour with her partner and her daughter. I was delighted to meet this little miss and marveled at how very smart this 3 year old was! We ended the evening with a campfire and s'mores. It was delightful. I was out to visit a niece for supper and meet her little one as well, also born while I was away. He cracked me up with his random comments, and is such a little Newfie despite being born in NS. Hilarious.
My ma and I jumped on the bus and went to the Halifax Public Gardens. There wasn't much up yet as it is early and winter is not far behind us but she loves the gardens as do I. My parents walked there often when they were first dating, and so it has been a favorite for many years. We also walked along Spring Garden Road, and visited Pete's Frootique, a well-known market. My daughter used to work there for a time when she lived in Halifax.
I took another drive to Port Shoreham after picking up my cousin and his friend at the Halifax airport. They are getting my uncle's plane ready to fly out west where he will sell it. My uncle passed a few months back and so the plane must be moved along. It's a Cessna, so just a 2-3 seater plane, depending on how big you are! I would love to have gone up for a ride, but there wasn't time. It's going to take him 3 days to fly to BC as it is. My auntie cooked up a feed of lobster for them and managed to receive her very first lobster bite! We were taking the bands off the claws to put them in the boiling water on the stove when he fought back and nipped her with his claw on the palm of her hand, drawing blood. After the initial shock of what happened, we all had a good laugh. She managed to make it through nearly 80 years as a fisherman's daughter without a bite and then he got her. We had just been talking about the time my ex-husband was teasing a lobster on the way to the cooking pot when one of the lobsters grabbed his nose and wouldn't let go when SNAP, one got my auntie. Both lobsters paid for it in the end, of course...we finished off the evening with a walk along the beach through blustery winds, picking up interesting rocks, shells, and sand dollars along the way.
This weekend we hit the road again and head to Cape Breton to celebrate a 95th birthday in Neil's Harbour. I haven't been "down north" for several years, so am looking forward to driving the Cabot Trail again. There are a couple of shops along the way I want to stop at as well, a leatherworks shop and a hat shop that carries some interesting locally made pewter jewelry. I had bought a few items there in the past but lost them all in the fire of 2010.
After the trip to Cape Breton, I'm bound for New Brunswick to visit a friend in Chatham (now Miramchi) for a few days and then we travel back to Halifax to see the Bay City Rollers at the casino. Now there's a blast from the past! My friend and I grew up listening to them back in the 70's, decked out in our plaid, while spinning our vinyl on my portable record player. As mentioned earlier, I had brought up my vinyl from Grand Bruit, two of which are Bay City Roller's albums. Perhaps I should bring them to the concert for autographs!After that, I'll be chilling with ma here in Halifax, sifting through closets, dressers, boxes and bins, shredding and donating as much as I can convince her to part with before she is buried alive, Ma is legally blind so cannot do it alone, The month of June comes to a close when I leave the east coast, bound for San Francisco where I will meet my soul sister in San Jose for the 50th anniversary concert of The Grateful Dead. We're staying for 4 days so not long, but it should be a helluva time - imagine being at a show with 75,000 other deadheads...and then exploring San Francisco post-concert...it's gonna be wild!!!
So yes, I am super glad to be home in Canada. I am truly enjoying my time on the east coast, and while my anxiety has settled some, it is never far away. Loud and sudden noises still have me jumping high, so I try to avoid them as much as I can, but it isn't always possible. A sudden shrill peal of laughter from a relative nearly sent me into the ditch when we were driving...
