Kayakin' Heaven

There is something about the quiet calm of kayaking that gives me strength. I wish I could explain.

I always marvel at kids (boys especially, but I do know a couple of girls too) who love hockey... around here, they love it, passionately. They play it all winter, at ungodly hours, it cold rinks, and then play it on the roads, and in the gym...they play it on video games and they watch it on TV. I have NEVER loved any sport that much that I make it a way of life.

But, I can slightly understand the love, just slightly, because I love Kayaking. I won't change my life for it, and I won't kayak in all weather conditions, or watch it on TV (well, maybe for a bit).... but even the word KAYAKING makes me go ZEN.

Canada Day started off a fairly clouding morning but we thought we would hit Aylesford Lake bright and early before the bad weather hit. It was our first time putting the kayaks on the top of the car on our own, so it took us a little longer to get the routine all worked out. We enjoyed the drive up the mountain and as we passed the Kingswood Camp entrance I was whisked back in time to Brownie Camp, and sweet times with all our little brownies and my two wonderful friends Debbie and Dianna. I couldn't help but shut my eyes and smile at the memories of those days. As we turned the corner to Aylesford Lake I started to get nervous. I wasn't sure if I would like these kayaks because I only got to test one in a weird little fast moving brook and I didn't do very well with them.

As we got closer to the boat launch, the wind was up, the waves were choppy and I was feeling sick to my stomach. Emotions... they play havoc on the soul. It took us about 10 minutes to get all the gear put in the right spot, the kayaks on the ground, the car put away and the sunscreen on (wishful thinking). I was cranky at Terry, I was not comfortable in the kayak, the life jacket was weird, the footpads were too far away, the paddle was too long... the rudder was too sticky... Ohhhhhhh...... Terry, the saint of patience... just let me rant. He stayed close and didn't comment. He helped me when I was overwhelmed with the rudder, but I bit his head off anyway. 5 minutes... after 5 minutes.... I paddled away.... I just paddled.... I looked around... I closed my eyes... .I thanked Dad........for what, I am not sure... but it felt right. I had a little cry and then I paddled away.... I melted into the water and it was perfect. The kayak was sleek, straight, fast and smooth. It cut through the waves like butter, and it fit me perfect.

Aylesford lake is 5 km long. We paddled the top half, and then up the Loon Lake Channel at the end. The wind was refreshing, and the sun was shyly hiding behind the clouds but it was nice and warm. When we got to near the end of the channel and the opening to Loon Lake, we decided to turn back. We sat for a long time close together, not paddling, just letting the flow of the channel take us back to the lake...
Once we got back into the lake, the wind was against our back, the sun popped out, the paddling was easy and the landscape was amazing. Halfway back down the lake, we cut across the whole lake and raced back to the boat launch. We were out just 2.5 hours but it felt like a whole day. Next time we will need to bring a snack. I was starved by the time we got out of the water. We met two other kayaking ladies who told us about a great spot to Kayak at Mahone Bay so we are looking on the map tonight for a new adventure spot.

Meet Pixie

About 3 weeks ago, my sister in law in Ottawa had a life changing experience. Life changing that is for... PIXIE.

Here's the story, or as close to the story as I can remember.....

Kelly and James spend little spurts of time on their deck outside, every night. On one particular night, James was out there, and he hear a strange sound coming from close by and couldn't quite identify it. He chalked it up to the remarkable about of wildlife they experience in there yard even though they are in the heart of Ottawa and have a completely fenced back yard. Not wanting to disturb the invasion (cause who knows when skunk might pop onto the deck), James went in and didn't give it another though.
The next afternoon, after Kelly and the kids got back from work and school, Kelly was puttering around on her deck when she heard the same sound. Now hearing such a sound in the daylight has a whole different effect than at night, and Kelly was instantly curious as to what it was. She and the girls started to investigate when.... under the deck they could barely see a little black ball of noise and panic all pressed up against the wall of the house. They knew it was a very young animal and they waited cautiously for a mother to arrive. Now the wait was awful, especially when you hear the heart wrenching cries of a scared little critter and since there was no way Kelly or the girls were going to crawl under the 6 inch crawlspace under the deck to get what ever it was..... they did the only thing they could...

they cut a piece out of their deck to rescue it.
After careful examination, they determined they found themselves a little kitten and it was no more then 5 days old. Eyes still closed, and hunger as bear! How do you feed a 5 day old kitten...
The kids were thrilled to have this little bundle to care for, but Kelly and James were so afraid for its survival. But within a few hours they felt there was nothing they could do but try there hardest to help this little guy survive. So, off to the vet for formula (at $8 a box) and the smallest little bottle and the every 4 hour feedings began.
They weren't sure if they had a male kitten (which would be named DEXTER, since they had to saw out part of the deck to get him) or PIXIE.... probably because of her razor sharp pixie claws!
But after a few days of 4 hour feedings, lots of hugs and cuddles, they brought the little stowaway to the vet, who pronounced her a girl.. who was less than 10 days old but doing FABULOUS! Her eyes were open by then, and she was eating very well and gaining weight each day...
She is now a month old, and is starting to change colors, as she matures. They are trying her on very diluted cat mush, but so far she isn't biting. She loves her little bottle and isn't too thrilled with solid food.
The dilemma..... the whole family is hopping on a train ride adventure this Friday to come East to my place (and other family members) and they have to leave little Pixie behind... To the rescue... gramma Marie and Papa Frank... Marie is like a "Cat Whisperer" and although she has 3 cats of her own now, she will be the best gramma to little Pixie while they are away. I am just hopeful she will be willing to give Pixie back to them, when the gang goes back to Ottawa the following weekend!

these last few pictures are the most recent, and Little Miss Pixie is doing great. She is playful and adventurous and she is still so small, they keep her in a box for her own safety. She is taken out when the kids or mom and dad are with her, but when she is sleeping she is kept in a box. Well, the newest news is, the little 8 ounce bundle can now scale her way out of the box!!!

Its here......

Its huge....... its quiet.......its complicated.....its gorgeous and its sexy!

Happy Birthday Gail

The causeway in Cape Breton was opened in celebration of my sister's birthday. The Island of Cape Breton was permanently linked to the rest of Canada all because my sister was born. Some Cape Bretons hate her for it, but most love her. They are talking about making a new provincial (or maybe just Cape Bretonal) holiday in honor of her. Well, that's the story I've been told.

It wouldn't be very nice of me to make fun of my sister today.. on her special day.... after she and my brother were so nice to me. Actually, I receive my Cross Eye'd pair today... on her birthday... I am so lucky for my sister. Its so funny, how we use to be arch enemies when we were little....truly. We fought all the time, doing dishes, sharing a room. Even my cousins, who lived with us said we fought a lot. Apparently, I was a real pest. Of course, my cousins were older and always sided with my sister....because she was an angel....NOT But when tough times fell on me when I was 17, she took me in without any hesitation for 4 months, and we became fast friends and good sisters. When tough times fell on her later on, I dropped everything at any time to help her.... Its been that way ever since. She has a wonderful family and I love them all. 3 Daughters, 5 granddaughters and one grandson.. and one amazing husband too. I am so lucky to have them in my life too. Only 4 of them are in the picture above.

This is the only picture we have of the three kids together until later on.... and there aren't very many. We didn't grow up in a "picture taking family" This is my dad's father and this picture was taken in July/Aug 1967. My brother had is first birthday in Cape Breton.... How appropriate when they built the causeway in honor of my sister... hee hee




Happy Birthday Gail

Cross Eyed Secret

so... I have been researching what could possibly be the secret involving cross eyed. My sister said last week that she had a secret... and the clue was that it involved something cross eyed. It was for me.... and I just couldn't think of it....

A new baby? A cross eyed Eagle? A cross eyed Cat? a cross eyed evil looking cat?

Or maybe a side by side, front loading washer and dryer set. Did I guess right? I am really good at putting together clues. I am somewhat of a crack detective! I looked at all the evidence, I did some lab work to separate all the DNA in the clues, I consulted with the worlds experts on mystery solving and then.....





I answered the phone and it was Sears.. They needed to make a delivery to my house and wanted to know when I would be available. When I asked what they were delivering, they told me it was a gift....


After some intense questioning on my part, and some intense pussyfooting around on there part, I managed to get out of them that it was a gift from my sister Gail, and my brother Tracy. More heated and intense questioning uncovered.... it was a front loading washer and dryer, complete with pedestals and a work station!

The delivery will happen tomorrow and I am more than excited. Somehow, my very perseptive sister figured out by using my 1976 Magtag washer, that I might be needing something a little newer. Its works really well, but some would think its a little old. Because it actually doesn't fit into my environmentally friendly way of living (because of its large amount of water consumption), I was planning on replacing it. But it was next in line after paying university bills, a wedding, a bathroom upgrade and a new stove.

I was so surprised and absolutely giddy when I found out, I had to call my sister right away. I haven't been talking to my brother, because he is a cell phone carrier and its hard to get him, but hopefully tonight. I ruined her surprise by all my questions to Sears but I couldn't wait a week to find out and being in a rural area, we only get delivery once a week. We were both pretty giddy on the phone, and that was more fun than gruelly the poor Sears lady who felt terrible because she was giving away the surprise.

I will take pictures of the actual "Cross Eyed" pair when it comes in tomorrow!!! It is not the set above, that was the only picture I could find....

Grace

My god-daughter/niece, Grace is graduating this year. she will be 18 in August and will be attending St. FX with Michelle and Scott if all goes well with Pre Cal this summer!!!!

Her prom was tonight... she has grown into a beautiful young woman.

Congratulations Grace

Saturday, again

Have I told you I love Saturdays.... well, I do. Today was a bacon and egg breakfast day.... My dear husband... never eats breakfast. I love breakfast. I eat breakfast...every day. I don't think I have ever missed breakfast.

In October, I changed my work hours so that I started work later. This was mainly to be home in the morning a bit longer to help dad with some of his morning chores... making his bed, some minor bandaging and making his breakfast were my main tasks. The bonus for me with the new schedule was I had extra time in the morning to walk for half an hour before Dad even got up. The other bonus for me was that I had someone to eat breakfast with every morning. It use to be that dad and I had breakfast together only on the weekends. Usually oatmeal on Saturday and always poached eggs on Sunday.

Terry has been hovering for a few weeks now, making sure I don't crash... little does he know, I crash when he's not around, hee hee. Ya need to, sometimes. Anyway, since all the company has gone, and things have gotten quiet around here, Terry has decided to have breakfast with me on the weekends. How sweet. soooo, this morning, he was up at 8:00am, and was frying bacon before I even got my hair blown dry. I was primping away and all of a sudden I could smell bacon... oh, yum.

After breakfast, we hit the road for Glad Gardens near Cambridge where I sauntered, oooo'd and ahhhhh'd, touched and smelled, peruse labels and consulted my list for over an hour. Then I started picking up things. A yellow iris (Swedish style, very slim leaves), a fun looking dark green, almost red thing, that I have, but I wanted another one to give to Robin. Then tons of shade plants for my clay pots. I have some really pretty combinations last year, so I looked at pictures and made a list and sort of a map. After the first hour, one of the gardeners who work there came to chat, and he ended up giving me some great ideas and cool combinations. I have these cool hanging clay pots and I haven't really been happy with them the last 2 years... so he gave me some good suggestions for them. Tomorrow is planting day... a whole month later than normal but I don't care. I can't wait to put them together.

After we unloaded the car of plants, had a quick lunch and made a few phone calls, we piled into the car again and headed to Halifax for a marathon run of errands. We met a lady in Mount Uniacke whom we were buying a Thule car rack from. We found her on Kijiji and it was a good deal. We needed a roof rack as we are planning to buy Kayaks too and the rack is a necessary accessory. Then we were off to Cole Harbour to buy saddles for the roof rack that hold the kayaks. We found this guy on Kijiji as well. We got there just on time to ward off another kijiji shopper, sitting in his car trying to convince the owner to sell them to him, even though we were on our way to buy them (2 hour drive too at $1.44 a litre). Anyway, we bought them and the man through in some straps and two water tight storage bags too. Great deal. Next we went to Old Creek Kayaks and canoes to price out kayaks. This guy is a Thule dealer too, so we ordered the fit kit from him while we were there. We loved his kayaks, and this is the second visit we had with his store, and this time I even hopped into the little river next to the store and tried out a red/yellow one. Called Aquafusion, 13 ft long and that's all I know. Anyway, I ran it into the rocks to my left as everyone watched, and that was pretty embarrassing. . I usually have pretty good control of kayaks, and couldn't understand what I was doing. Once I got into the lake at the end of the river, I had better control. Once I headed back up the river to the store, I realized what my problem was. The River was pretty fast moving and only about 15 feet wide...very narrow channel and I have never paddled a current. When I headed back up the river, I felt like I was crawling up hill..!!! The guy at the shop laughed as he saw me struggling and said he calls this the "Trendmill" for arms.... He made me feel better about the rock crash saying everyone does that cause of the shape of the river.
We left there with an estimate for two kayaks, all the safety stuff we need, paddles and skirts. We have to go back next weekend, and get the fit kit for the Roof Rack (this is different for every make of car, which is sold separately). The fit kit on the rack now is for a 1991 Honda Civic..not even close. When we go back, we will probably buy the kayaks. We talked about them all the way home... and are pretty excited. He gave us a good deal, with some free stuff, and a "two kayak" discount too.
The drive home was pretty exciting... we left Bedford just as the rains came, and the lightening was spectacular. I hate thunder and lightening, except when I am in a car. Its the only place I truly feel safe. We drove through pounding rain for about a half hour and then the clouds melted away to sunshine in the Promise Land. Our Valley. I love our valley... we are so lucky to live here.!