Planting Leaves and Old Carpets

The day before the world changed and Barack Obama was elected (yeah!!!)  we were very busy at the new place and it felt like progress was being made.

We started out the day with a talk about heating systems and Larry was kind enough to put our options onto stickies so that we could look at the different scenarios and really cost it out. Any major appliance that is coming from the US has gone up in price due to our lower-valued dollar. So the heatpump for instance, has jumped in price by 15% almost overnight. It’s a good news/bad news thing. It raises the price so high that it eliminates the choice. Fewer choices make decisions a lot easier!

Decisions, decisions

At the house while we waited for some insulation / drywall / wood delivery, we took a look at the ploughed garden. There seems to be a natural ‘water feature’ happening!! I have to laugh here because ‘water feature’ was always on my list of ‘must-have’ for a property, but eventually it slid to the bottom of the list because it seemed so rare. Bear River is notorious for underground springs everywhere that feed into the tidal river. It looks like there are a few running through the field where our huge well sits.

This means that I will have to rethink the garden location and perhaps I can even dig out a small pond without affecting the well level. I wouldn’t have been able to see the water pattern without the ploughing so it’s a good thing. I am wondering what that part of the field looks like in spring…..maybe it’s totally flooded? We shall see. We are actually perched on the edge of quite a sharp drop down to the road so I am amazed that the land holds water. I guess that accounts for the huge willow tree in the yard. The land is dry around the tree.

Touring the wetlands with Larry

Finally the delivery came. 

Larry and the fellow from Robichaud’s carefully unloaded the supplies that will turn the garage into a warm, insulated studio.

The first of many deliveries?

I worked outside raking leaves and really appreciating how many there are. For once in my life there will be more than enough! For years and years I used to troll my Toronto neighbourhood for bagged leaves that neighbours had put out for recyling. I would bring back a dozen of them to mulch my garden with or to use with the compost that I kept feeding all winter long. Now that we have so many trees and leaves, there is no need to go beyond our yard!

Lovely, fragrant fall leaves

This year I am taking a leaf out of Jane’s garden tricks. I am trying to create some flower beds where I won’t have to first remove the sod. She says that if you make a pile of leaves and then place old, discarded carpet over it, the worms will work on the leaves and the sod underneath all winter long.

The wind played games with my raking!

By planting time there will be soil under those rugs. It sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it?

A good way to reuse discarded rugs!

We’ve had some beautiful, warm days and it was so good to be working outside. I saw over a dozen robins working their way across the yard. As a city kid, I never realized that robins hung out in groups at all. It’s so great to experience so many ‘ah-ha’ moments when it comes to the natural world.

While I was reveling in nature and smelling the crisp, brown oak and maple leaves, Larry was inside the house on a plaster removal mission. You can see in this short video just how easy and addictive it is to remove plaster.

When he was finished, there was a fine coat of plaster dust everywhere. Larry has a good mask, but it didn’t stop the dust from getting into every fibre of his clothing and body. I thought the pattern of the lathing slats was really interesting in terms of texture.

Interesting geometric lines happening.

 

We drove home that night feeling pretty accomplished. First though, I had to stop the car beside someone’s recyling bags. Although we don’t need leaves anymore, now that we are using a combination wood/oil furnace, we are having a shortage of paper to start the wood fire.

Hmmmm. I wonder if leaves would work?

All the Oak and Maple leaves are on the ground waiting...

Brier Island – camping on the Atlantic Ocean

Larry and I used to spend every August long weekend camping with our kids and relatives and friends in Renfrew County, Ontario where we owned a couple of acres of new-growth forest on a small lake.

Cameron Lake, Ontario (watercolour)

Some of my favorite summer memories are of that time and place, of sitting around a campfire at night watching the burning embers;

Camp Fire on Brier Island

or listening to the kids daytime squeals of pleasure as they jumped into the cool lake. We thought we were roughing it because we had no electricity or running water– just an outhouse and pails of fresh water for washing, dragged up from the lake.

During those years, a thousand kilometers to the east, people who we didn’t yet know in Bear River were camping on Brier Island every August long weekend. This August we were invited to join their annual trek.

Brier Island is on the tip of the Digby Neck

Brier Island is down the Digby neck, the last island before it descends into the ocean. It takes 2 hours to get there from here, including 2 ferry rides. The trip there is pretty scenic and relaxing due to the light traffic, the little villages and coastline.

Fishing huts at Westport, Brier Island

I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned to you how laissez faire Nova Scotian’s seem to be about the ‘private’ in private property….at least the ones who are accessing it! You see, Brier Island doesn’t have an official campsite and people were pretty vague about the land where we put up our tents. “Doesn’t Harry so-and-so own this land?” “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind…..especially as we will leave the site in better shape than when we got here”. Meaning, we’ll take with us all of our garbage and any extras that we come across. I ask “well what if the owner(s) show up and don’t want us here?” People looked at me like I was speaking an incomprehensible language. “But we’ve always come here.”…..and then finally: “well, we’ll just move our tents.” I mean, come on, tradition is tradition!

Brier Island - Bay of Fundy side

So with that said, about a dozen tents went up, well spaced from each other, but within a short distance to a communal kitchen. A few people pitched their tents on the edge of the ocean, and listened to crashing waves all night.

Tenting on St. Mary's Bay side of Brier Island

 

Our tent was in a more sheltered spot where we could hear the sounds of distant waves and seagulls all day and all night long.

Our tent's fly kept us dry in the downpour.

We played horseshoes and explored the island, gathered driftwood for the fire and drank wine with supper.

Horseshoes is supposed to be fun, right?

The forcast had called for non-stop rain, but we only had one big downpour. The reward the following morning was hundreds of delicate spiders’ webs which appeared in the bushes.

Spider's web after the rain.

The fog rolled in and rolled out and watching it blow and move around us created the illusion of living in the clouds. In fact the whole island felt like out of the pages of a 19th century novel what with the soaring birds, blowing wild flowers of purple and yellow and white, and the sounds of crashing waves.

I had stessed before the trip about what it would be like for me to stay where there are zero bathroom facilities. Like, how does that work? I’ll tell you how. You bring a trowel. You bring a roll of toilet paper in a plastic bag (so it doesn’t get wet from rain or dew). You find a place in the bushes where things are growing (ie. not sand, but earth). You dig a hole. You squat and do your thing. You deposit the toilet paper into the hole and cover everything up with the earth. This way it all decomposes. Don’t use kleenex because it doesn’t break down as well. Then you go back to your tent where you have a basin of water, brought from home and you wash your hands with soap. It made our former camping adventures in Ontario seem like 3 star experiences, but at the same time I was surprised at how easy it is to adapt.

Wld flowers bloom everywhere.

Briar Island is a favorite migratory spot for birds and I recorded some of their sounds which you can hear in this photo montage of flowers on the Island. We heard the birds all the time and I wished I had an interpreter with me!

It was yet another great weekend spent with over a dozen Bear Riverites of all ages, along with several of their dogs. Watching tides, looking at rocks and camping on the edge of the world.

Pat and Reggie walk the beach facing the Bay of Fundy

Storm update

This morning CBC radio preempted the regular programs to broadcast a ’special storm report’ to the maritime provinces. Apparently there are thousands of homes, especially in Halifax that are without power today and for the next couple of days. No doubt the inhabitants are feeling mighty skittish after having lived through Juan and White Juan….one of which ripped up the trees in the public park in Halifax like a herd of brontosaurus lumbering through.

Here in the Bear Riviera, it’s business as usual and I’m looking out the window at the birds soaring, and there are little patches of bright blue sky.

Noel…waiting for the storm

Well, there has been a lot of hype on the news about “Noel”, a storm that started out as a tropical cyclone in the Caribbean. We are living in a self-imposed news blackout here. We don’t get the newspaper and we don’t have cable TV.
Looking out the window it seems like a rainy summer’s day….warm and windy, but what does an Ontario gal know about cyclones?
There were news reports of stores in Halifax being emptied of candles, water and flashlights.
Well, just in case the worst was to happen, we filled a couple of containers with our delicious well water, filled the bathtub with water and baked some bread. We made some hummus following a recipe in the cookbook that Maria M gave me “the Vegetarian Manifesto“. We ate by candlelight (Larry’s tomato sauce on noodles and broccoli with lots of grated sharp white cheddar from the cheese coop and the fresh bread baked in the toaster oven!) and drank some Nova Scotian wine (a bit on the sweet side, but very fruity).
Maybe the storm is yet to come?
I wonder where the birds go during a storm? The last couple of days we’ve seen a bald eagle soaring above the river, just outside the house. This morning I opened my eyes and looked out of the skylight above the bed and low and behold, there was an eagle. How lucky is that?