And the Jungle Produces...

For those who haven't seen our vegetable garden recently, I think when you look at the picture below you will understand, quite easily, why we have dubbed it "the jungle." I'm not really sure what happened while we were gone to Nova Scotia, but when we came home we found this:
...most definitely a jungle. Our tomato plants had grown (and continue to grow) to an enormous size and our cucumber plant (which is a little hard to see, but it on the left) is also quite large. Anyways, until this week we really haven't seen any fruits from this jungle. Not too many tomatos, cucumbers, or peppers (which I ended up pulling out because they weren't growing anything). But today while I was doing some much needed work in the garden a saw, out of the corner of my eye, a flash of red. And upon further investigation I found:
.....three red cherry tomatoes. Horray!!!! Finally we're getting somewhere. And there are lots of green tomatoes (cherry and regular) that I'm hoping will continue to ripen. I'm not so sure what we're going to do with all these tomatoes, but it's exciting to finally see it coming together!
And other than that I'm attempting to enjoy my last week before school gets going....I'm trying to motivate myself to do some work so that I won't have to work too hard next week, but we'll see how that goes! And with Dave staying at his parents this week, I'm not getting much done around the house either. But on a side note, I'm being kept company by my parents dog, Roz. We're dog-sitting for three weeks while they're on vacation! So here's to hoping I can find my motivation and tomatoes!

Pianoman

There's a piano I know of that's not quite in tune.
It's never in tune.
The tuning guy comes once or twice a year, and for the rest of the year, the piano is not in tune.
I used to play guitar beside this piano.
It never sounded right.
One 'C' on the piano would not match another 'C' on the piano, and neither of those 'C's would match the 'C' note or chord on the guitar.
So nothing was ever in harmony.
Necessarily.
And yet, during church this past sunday, I contemplated the fact that although this piano has never been in tune for any sustainable amount of time, it has still made music, and church members have done their best to sing in tune with it, to the glory of our Lord.
Which is interesting to me, because, you have to wonder what it sounds like to God.
All our dissonant notes and harmonies, blended into a praise song of our God.
He's probably pleased with it.
And we should keep strumming our guitars with it.

Sidenote... this church could invest in a piano tuner ($75.00), and Piano Tuning Tool Kit ($50.00) and keep the piano in tune all the time...

Nothing much, just enough.

Wow, it's been a while since we 'updated'! So here's what's been going down...!

Not a whole lotta much.

I (David) have been working for me old boss in Hamilton (area). So two weeks ago I was spending time in Port Dover buildin' a shed. This week I was in Dundas buildin' a deck. Nothing special, but it's nice to have a friend/boss who will let me work whenever I seem to want to, with no real expectations for long term commitment. It's like a work affair. There when you want it.
But it's helping us pay the bills - which apparently don't stop when teachers go on vacation...

When we came home from Nova Scotia, we found out that our garden had done fairly well without us. We found our first ripened tomato. But couldn't eat it 'cause it was already eaten by something else... All the other tomato fruits are taking their time to ripen. Overall, I'm kinda disappointed by our vegetable garden, which hasn't produced much produce. We might have to make some changes for next year.

Steph has been enjoying her time off. But when I'm at work, she gets kindof bored. It doesn't help her that I've got our only car (yes, Steph's dad found a buyer for our red Mazda) with me at work - two hours away - so she has a 'harder' time getting out of the house. Mind you, all the malls are only a 20 minute walk away...

This summer has really been flying past us. I guess that happens when you are only in one place for two weeks at a time...

Oh, and our computer magically screwed itself up, so we couldn't print anything. Which is kindof a problem for teachers. And we couldn't fix it. And none of the backup discs we'd made would fix it. So Steph wiped our computer and it's back to its 'store-bought' condition. Now we have to download everything - like Skype, to get it back to normal... This has been terribly annoying.

So that's about it... Nothing much. We're looking forward to visiting Mom and Dad Geertsema's next week. The summer's finally gotten warm - so maybe we'll have reason to get into the lake?

Planning to Visit the Island?

I thought I'd post a few tips based on our experiences out on the Cabot Trail and our Return drive through New Brunswick for anyone who might be interested in doing a similar drive sometime in the future. If you're anything like us, you'll like the same kinds of things we liked, and dislike some of the things we disliked.

#1) Pull out your map of Eastern Canada (Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces). Study these roads:
Highway #2 is a four lane easy driving, and definitely not very scenic drive. I'd recommend it for your drive home - when you're sick of touristy stuff, and just want to get home.
On the other hand - Highway 132 (in Quebec / Highway 11 and Highway 8 in New Brunswick) travels a little further East and adds at least an hour to your drive. I recommend it for your drive to Nova Scotia - when you'll still find Quebec cities interesting (the churches in each town are quite something to see) and the scenery between Mont Joli and Campbellton is really nice. Sometime, it might be nice to camp near AMQUI, or Routhierville. The rest of the drive through New Brunswick is short (2 hours) but is abundantly disappointing as it lacks scenery of the ocean. To see the ocean along Highway 11 and 8, you'll have to get off the highway and take street-roads through all the little towns, which will slow your drive down considerably. The bridges in Campbellton, and in Miramichi/Chatham are interesting to see.

#2) Getting to the Island. Getting there along Highway 104 (on Mainland Nova Scotia) is somewhat dull, but we enjoyed the cities of New Glasgow and especially Antigonish (a nice-looking university and a downtown that's small enough to walk). But these towns aren't anything terribly special, so don't get your hopes too far up. There is a Dairy Queen in Antigonish (visible from the highway), which is nice if your car lacks air conditioning like ours does.

#3) The Island Itself. We drove along highway 19 (the Western side of Cape Breton) up to Glenora Falls (the whiskey distillery and a Celtic Music Translator Museum on this highway). The Distillery was nice but overpriced unless you actually like taking shots of whiskey. Pay attention to the corner where Highway 19 meets Highway 219 - Steph and I missed that turn and added a bit of useless driving to our trip...

Cheticamp has a Tim Hortons and a Full Service National Camp Ground nearby.

The Skyline Trail - was disappointing. If you're thinking it's nice scenery the whole 10 kilometer hike - well, it's not. It's a long walk through a forest, and only 100 -200 meters of the 10 kilometers feature a wooden boardwalk. They SAY you can expect to see 2-3 moose along the trail - but we saw 0. And only the trail to the left is gravel. the trail that goes to the right is an old-fashioned trail complete with rocks and roots to step around or twist your ankle on. Oh, and definitely don't do the whole trail if you are feeling sick (like I was). The nicest part of the trail is on the left. So we recommend you just stick to the left trail which takes you out to the Headland jut-out, and then turn around and come back. Unless you're actuall hunting for Moose.
Sidenote - We DID see a Momma bear, and two cubs cross the road somewhere near the skyline trail.

Our first night, we stayed at MacIntosh Brook and really lucked out. It has flush toilets, but the water (from the taps) is not drinkable. What made it memorable was the fact that we shared the campground (it's small) with only two other families/groups - So we were able to have a lot of privacy, and yet, as we set up our sight, we enjoyed the violin and cello being played by a son and daughter of another family. (It was like having a private concert being played for you in the middle of the scenic highlands!)(it was nice). We also discovered that there is a 15 minute hike into the woods with a nice waterfall at the end of it. (which we also enjoyed).
MacIntosh Brook turned out to be much more enjoyable than the full service campground we stayed at later - simply for the fact that there were so few people to share it with.
Whale Watching is also really close by in Pleasant Bay.

The Second Night, we stayed at Broad Cove (a full-service National campground) which is close by Ingonish, Mary Ann Falls, and the #1 Rated Public Golf Course in Canada. The only thing I could say was that it was nice choosing a campsight near the ocean, AND be careful of the showers - they're really sensitive to any adjustments you make to the temperature. Steph really hated her shower. I learned from what she told me, and enjoyed a great shower - but only barely touched the controls when I needed to change any temperature. I laughed as I heard a boy screaming when he kept cranking the hot and then cranking the cold, going from Extremely Hot Water, to extremely Cold water.

There are some nice shops on the Ingonish side. We found a wood-workers shop, beside a glass-makers shop, beside a Chicks Cafe & Bakery somewhere between Ingonish and Tarbotvale.

And that's really all we can say or recommend.

Be careful of the "Ferry" to get to Englishtown. It costs something like $5.00, and only moves about 500 meters before it lets you off again. It's probably just as easy to go around the bay, and you can check out the Celtic College near MacLeods Point.

- Hope our advice is helpful!

Very Glad to Be Home!

We've finally made it home! It was a fun two weeks, and we really appreciated being able to stay at Martin and Emily's for so long!

We thought we'd better update everyone on what happened out yonder on the isle'o'cape Breton.

So we drove out and on to the island... That took a while.

We moseyed on up to the Glenora Distillery - maker of Canadian single malt whiskey - paid a little bit of money. They walked us down a hallway, gave us a shot of whiskey, and said "Thanks for visiting!" Just like 'em to treat us like a bunch of scots...

As it turns out... Steph doesn't actually like Whiskey on its own. "It burns" she said.

Some interesting facts we learned about whiskey - You're actually supposed to smell it. The glenora brand sits in wooden barrels (which Jack Daniels or someone like that uses first), and sits in a barn for something like ten years... During that time, the wooden barrels absorb some of the scents of the neighbouring countryside, and so Glenora's whiskey is said to have a bit of an apple scent. So go ahead and smell your whiskey!

Another interesting thing... The whiskey 'mix' gets boiled twice. The alcoholic evaporation is collected, and then boiled again. After the first time it's boiled, it's approximately 30% alcohol. After the second time it's boiled, it's approximately 75-80% alcohol.

Then they add water before they put it in a bottle at approximately 40% alcohol.

The Cabot trail was nice scenery. Here's Steph on the 'Skyline' Trail which didn't really live up to its name... it was more like the "7 km of walking through a forest, and 100 meters of ocean view trail". Steph is sitting on the 100 meters of boardwalk on the trail where you can actually get a really nice view of the surrounding ocean and valleys. Steph is at the limit of how far we actually able to go out on the 'boardwalk' though - because there were high winds that day and the warning on the signs said "Don't go out on the boardwalk in high winds". Apparently you can get blown off the boardwalk. And possibly off the cliff... ( a couple that went out after us, didn't read the sign, and found out the hard way...)

This is me, on the trail. Carrying an unfortunately heavy back-pack full of raingear that we didn't need or use.

Below, is me in the forest of 350 year old trees. They're old, so they're protected. Hence, you can't journey into the center of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park...

Below, is Steph, at a picturesque stop called Black Cove.

And below, is Mary Ann Falls. On the Ingonish side of the park.

And this, is just some random guy fishing. But it looked like a good picture.

We didn't go whale watching because it was too windy, so our boat reservation was cancelled. Apparently they don't take you out onto the ocean in a Zodiac when it's windy. That day it was like 30 km/h winds. so that was disappointing.

And we Don't recommend doing the Cabot Trail just before heading home. Because it's just way to much driving.

Oh. And don't take the Eastern side of New Brunswick on the way home. It's boring. Unless you're going to stop in all the small towns.

Oh. and Steph doesn't like Quebec as much as she used to think she did, but we'll blame that on all of the driving.

Yar, I missed me sailing vessel again!

A couple days ago, we travelled out to Peggy's Cove, and then to Lunenburg. We took fewer pictures but still managed to get a few that I really like. Here are a few:

The 'postcard' view of Peggy's cove in use. I like all the colours in it that kinda stand out from all the brown and grey.

This one was hard to choose - I like it for the look on Maria's face - slightly turned to her dad, as if her dad had something important to say and she was really paying attention.

I like this one of all of us with the lighthouse behind us. The lighthouse was smaller than I expected... Anyways. I like the line of heads just sticking up from the rock between us and the lighthouse - it kinda reminds me of pigeons.

I just like this one for the look on Maria's face... Like, you gotta be kidding me... You're kidding me right Uncle David?

We took it easy for the last couple of days. Martin and I did a little more work on his investment. Tomorrow, Steph and I are heading for the Cabot Trail. We'll check out the Glenory Distillery (home of Canada's Only Single Malt Whiskey)(which can't be called Scotch because it's not made in Scotland...) and then we'll stay up near Pleasant Bay. Saturday we hope to do the whale watching out of Pleasant Bay (No Sailboat tours unfortunately - they aren't operating this summer - hence the title of this blog entry), and hike the Skyline Trail (but it's supposed to rain 10 cms all day Saturday!), and then Sunday we'll check out the fort at Louisbourg before we head back to Martin and Emily's again.

Hopefully I can raise a glass of Canadian Scotch Whiskey to NO RAIN on Saturday?!

Powder Rooms and School Rooms.....similarities?

First, a side note: IT'S A GIRL!!! We are sending our congratulations and love to Steve, Katrina, Naomi and Petra on the birth of Rachel Jean this morning at 3:30!! Welcome to the family Rachel!

Alrighty, now for our update: We have been very busy here in Nova Scotia. We're making sure we see lots of things and are checking out all the "touristy" spots and more! So we checked out the Citadel. It was an absolutely beautiful day (which are few and far between here...) and so we spent a few hours touring around the rooms and different exhibits.

Here is some of the gun powder stash:

Here are the rules that were posted in the school room at the Citadel.
Emily took this great picture of us. It has the MacDonald Bridge (one of the bridges between Dartmouth and Halifax) in the backround, but that might be kind of difficult to see on this size of picture.
And here the soldiers were shooting off fake cannons. Despite the fact that they were fake, they were very loud!

Next on the list was the Parade of Sail for the Tall Ships. The Tall Ship festival has been going on since Thursday and on Monday they were leaving for the next port. So they sailed around the Halifax Harbour and then out onto the ocean. So we got a few close-ups of the ships and then we drove down the coast to see them sailing out.

And then last night, we checked out the Halifax Public Gardens. They have beautiful flowers here! So there were lots of photo ops! Here are a FEW of the pictures we got!