The Adventures of Sunsette -- Nova Scotia yet again, Jan. 10

[davidd]

Well... your part of dry, barren Texas certainly seems to be lush and green! At least in the conservatories.

Lots of fun stuff to see and do there, if you have the time and resources, it looks like.

Tipsy Hustle? I wonder if the name is a play on that of comedian Nipsey Russell?

[Alliecat]

“Mum asked about his name but since he actually belongs to the people‘s daughter they will have to ask her. He knew we were leaving and seemed a little concerned. We will really miss him.”




“Yes, the gardens are booming. Everything was very green except for the bare spots in the yard where the ants were! The veggie garden looked like our area might in July or August. It’s a growing season now before the summer drought and heat.”

“We are on our way home again. We are not happy about it.
“Dallas has now solidly claimed second place for our most hated airport. When you have to take a bus back-and-forth two or three times between where you check in and where you get on the plane, or where the plane lands and where your bag ends up in different terminals like 20 miles away… And then Air Canada sends you bogus notifications that your flight is boarding two terminals away while you are in the right place because you actually looked at your boarding pass. Ugh!”



“Got our own seat again! It’s nice to be recognized for being fabulous.”



“Made it to Toronto. So far Mum has had two hours’ sleep in the past 24 and it will be another 8+ before we get home.
“We love flying. We hate airports.  ”



“We’ll have a few more pictures once Mum gets them all sorted out.”

“Love, Sunsette   ”

[davidd]

Just reading this makes my head swim after my airport eksperience this past March. Every airport is ALWAYS being remodeled, transfer gates are inevitably as far apart as they could possibly be, the incoming flight is always delayed making transfers even more challenging, and yeah, what the heck is with the trend to have trains at airports? Walk a half-marathon just to get on a train for three minutes and then walk another half marathon.

Open seats, huh? I didn't have that luxury, either. I guess nobody wants to go to Canada, yourself included, huh? 

Good luck on the final leg of the Incredible Journey!

[Alliecat]

"We're on an adventure!!
"Again!!!
"Mum's doing another recon in Nova Scotia, and since she says that like Mark Hogancamp she never goes anywhere without her backup -- here we are!  Scarlett and I still have a few photos from Texas to share but since Mum hasn't got around to sorting them yet ahem, we'll jump ahead for now."


"Millions of shorebirds visit the upper Bay of Fundy and this set of sandpipers was carved by a chainsaw artist to commemorate them.  Also, it's always very windy up here."



"Every time we visit Nova Scotia it turns into the BFE Dirt Road Tour... and we did it again.  Mum says realtors should be fired for crowing about the wonderful potential of clearcut wasteland lots that you need a tank to get to.  Also, we'd like to know where in the heck the notoriously high taxes of Nova Scotia actually GO, cos they sure don't go into road infrastructure."

[davidd]

Those gigantic shorebirds look awesome!

I could do without the wind. Two days of "gale force" (in any other state) winds these past two days, with more in the forecast for tomorrow and tomorrow night.

Nova Scotia, eh? I'd say hold out for a lot on Oak Island. Those guys from Michigan are gonna get tired of digging pretty soon and go in to the real estate business.

Of course, Dan Blankenship's house is for sale on Oak Island right now, for three-million CAD:
https://propertylistings.ft.com/homes/49...ova-scotia

I'm looking forward to seeing more BFE tank road adventures with the Nova Scotia away team!

[Alliecat]

"Did we manage not to post anything else from that trip??  We always seem to not post all of them, every trip.  Well, this one was a bust anyway, and Mum's friend died while we were away, and she came back with some kind of bug and felt kinda blah for a few days.
"So anyway, here we are again, just escaping our crummy neighbours, because the housesit people from 2 Christmases ago offered Mum the use of their house while they're away.  There is no kitty here anymore; he died shortly after our visit in May.
"We're probably not doing much recon this time... Mum's pretty discouraged with all that.  So we'll probably just hang out."


"On another ferry.  With a last-minute decision to go and bad weather forecast, there wasn't time to drive around.  So, $$$, with a tiny, freezing Airbnb because you can't get both ferries the same day, and Mum only got 4 hours' sleep."



"Aw, Mum, are we doin the BFE Dirt Road Tour AGAIN???
"We should've brought some white paint.  Painting out 'maintenance' would make the sign much more accurate."



"Aw, MUM!!  You SAID, either a new house for Christmas or we're going SOMEWHERE WARM!"
>sigh< ... yes.... yes, I did. 



"There were endless winters and the dreams would freeze....."


"Thanks for looking."

"Love, Sunsette  "

[TrueFan]

Aw, I'm sorry about your friend.

I wish you had a cat in your life!

[Alliecat]

"Mum brought Yuki as well as Scarlett's and my mom Dawn along this time, thinking there would be Christmas-decoration photos to be done, but, the people didn't decorate this year, as they didn't know someone would be in the house till a few days before.  And, well, they were going away.  They had such a beautiful tree last time.
"We can, however, do snow photos.  We've had over a foot since Saturday.  We are all thinking we'd rather have palm trees, but what can you do.
"The roads haven't been fit to go anywhere, so our Christmas Eve outing was the front walkway.  Mum shot these crouching in the snow under a low-hanging tree that threatened to drop big gobs of snow all over the camera."


"Yuki is pretty excited to be the first Dal to go on a road trip with the crew.  And she's already a little Christmassy with her red and white outfit."






"We all got pretty wet.  We were happy to come in and get warmed up."



"Want to come carolling with us?"

"We wish all our friends a Merry Christmas, and a shiny New Year.  When we venture out into darkness, may we always find the light."

"Love, Sunsette  "

"P.S.  and because we wish we were in Hawaii, we're sharing our favouritest version of our favouritest carol.  Mum would've said drums on O Holy Night would be ruinous, but then she found this version by Hawaiian legend Willie K."

[davidd]

Sorry to hear that another friend passed in 2024. Seems we reach a point in our lives where that becomes an increasingly common occurrence.

And then a kitty, too! It just doesn't end, does it?

The tiny freezing AirBnB sounds unpleasant. Even tho' I operate an AirBnB myself, I have never stayed in one. I prefer the somewhat predictable mild unpleasantness of inekspensive hotels for "functional or necessary" overnight stays.

Ha ha! "Painting out 'maintenance'" is funny! Well, maybe not for you so much. Sounds like an adventure to me! Maybe you should get a Jeep! (Do you have a Jeep?)

A new house for Christmas: HERE YA GO, MUM! AN IGLOO! (I'm guessing Mum didn't laugh.)

I'm curious whether the well is deep enough for the water to not freeze? Or did you not get that close, for fear you might throw yourself in spur of the moment like? That well scene is genuinely picturesque. Is that where you were house-sitting?

Four figures and a dog: that's pretty ambitious for an outdoor photoshoot at night in the snow! Yuki looks too frozen to move! Scarlett's mum looks all cozy and warm in her fur-lined jacket, saying "c'mon, guys, who wants to build a snowman!"

Candles in the night-time snow? Well, battery candles, but still, that looks cool -- not cool as in cold, but cool as in nifty-neat! And again, ambitious!

The gang looks like they had a cozy time after the snow-scapades. They have gingerbread, now where's the hot cocoa?

Caroling looks like fun. Emphasis on looks like. Is this a neighborhood where they can walk house to house? Wouldn't it be easier to just go inside where it's warm and maybe do Youtube karaoke?

Mele Kalikimaka and Happy New Year to Mum and Scarlett and the entire PTFCo crew... a little bit late, but pretend.

I hope Yuki has thawed out by now.

[Alliecat]

"There isn't any water in the well.  It's decorative.  ...You didn't think that's where we're getting our water, did you? 
"Yes, we're in the same house we were in 2 Christmases ago.  And yes, you could go carolling down the main road through this little bit of a village.  That would've been fun."

"We've had one sunny day, yesterday, which ended our year on pretty much the same fruitless note as most of the year.  Mum went for a drive and pretty much all we did was rule out properties she'd had bookmarked as interesting.  We do not want to have to clearcut a woodlot, or live across the road from a gravel pit.
"We stopped for a few minutes to see the Shelburne lighthouse."





"It's nice to know there's at least a little bit of tide here; apparently you can walk out there at low water."



"Today it's back to carwash rain, aaalllllll day.  And it was so DARK.  This little ray of sunshine joined our crew on Friday.  Mum said Magenta needed a sister.  Sounds fair.  This is Daisy Madison."



"She looks bright and optimistic.  We hope the new year will bring some light."

"Thanks for looking...
"Love, Sunsette  "

[davidd]

Hi, Daisy Madison! It looks like you're bringing a ray of golden sunshine with you wherever you go!

The Shelburne Lighthouse looks interesting. I'll be looking up more info on that here in a moment, because it looks like it has potential as a model for a miniature dollhouse lighthouse.

I'm sorry to hear that every house on the "look at" list has significant disqualifying features. Yeah, the gravel pit thing wouldn't be a step up, would it?

The tide pool area looks like fun to eksplore... on a nice day that isn't raining or windy.

More info about the Sandy Point lighthouse at Shelburne, automated in 1980, decommissioned in 1996, and now privately owned and operated by a local community group:
https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=1359

[Aijo]

That looks so relaxing and idyllic. Does the tide get higher at night? The water looks so low, but I agree that tide pools would definitely be so interesting to look at. When I did our Morro Bay trip in elementary school, I remember really wanting to see tide pools, especially since it was what was often mentioned in our guide book! I would have loved to see starfish and sea urchins in a tide pool, but seeing them at an aquarium was pretty nice.

But I love the little sailor outfits; those are so cute and appropriate for a seaside stroll. Overall, the rainy weather looks cozy. It's good blanket weather as well as carwash weather.

[Alliecat]

"Tide follows the moon and cycles through the day.  Depending on where the lunar cycle is at, high tide could be any time.  We didn't find the weather very cozy alas, cos the house was really cold and it was just dark and gloomy.  But... it was QUIET, and that was wonderful."

"We're back at HQ now ... same rut, different variations on the theme of noise.  Here are the rest of our photos from this trip."


"Our holiday activity cos the weather was crummy.  You can read our thoughts on puzzles over on the PTFCo Pic-A-Week last page."



"Isn't it pretty?  The fun finale was one little piece that we couldn't figure out where it went until the very end, because the little face on it, although complete, was small.  It was like he was the central spirit of the puzzle, and went in at the end to complete it."



"Then we found this one.  It was definitely 'dastardly difficult' but we did it, and Mum said it was a great exercise in mindfulness and attention to detail."



"Shaun lives on a window seat upstairs.  We didn't get to take him outside this time."



"A previous guest/sitter here made a couple of little fairy houses."






"Unfortunately by the time it emerged from the foot+ of snow, it was near the end of our stay, and it was gloomy, so we didn't get very good pictures of it."



"And this one was covered up for the winter.  It's actually a couple of feet long with several little structures on it."



"Oops."



"We don't know if the same person made this.  Scarlett didn't find anyone at home.  They were probably smart and went south *cough*."



"GEEZ Mum!!  AGAIN???  EVERY time we come to Nova Scotia our ex!plorations turn into at least one episode of BFE Dirt Road Tour.  What IS it with this province???  This time, on the way to some realtor's fabulous lot with 'endless possibilities', we almost got stuck in the mud.  We turned around."



"Our last night, with our new crew member Daisy in the back.  We had a cozy bedroom and were very sorry to leave this quiet place."

"Thanks for reading!"

"Love, Sunsette  "

[davidd]

The fairy houses are cute, and almost perfectly "mini sized."

Was this a "house sit" or a "vacation rental" stay?

Muddy dirt roads and frequently overcast skies might be something you'll need to become accustomed to if you're looking for a "quiet" retreat. Oh, and cold. Penetrating cold. Because anyplace that is not cold and grey and muddy is filling up with people and houses and traffic and noise.

Yeah, I understand how tide cycles vary, so I was wondering if the keepers' shifts varied depending on the tides out at the Shelburne Light. Rowing out in a boat makes more sense than waiting for the tide, especially since the tide height can vary considerably as well, and "low tide" is no guarantee that the light would be accessible on foot.