A Sink Can Make You Cry!

Yes, when you have been washing dishes in a plastic basin filled with water from the bathtub, having running water (hot and cold!) coming out of a tap into a double sink can make you have a little grateful weep.  I would also like to add that my faith and feeling of not taking things for granted have deepened over the past few months as we have been on the edge financially a few times, and there have been some amazing things that have happened to prevent complete financial collapse.  Now that I'm getting all mushy, I would like to add that Brian's patience, sense of humour and skill at this renovation has impressed a lot of people (including me) and I am very proud of him.  OK...now back to the usual bitter and twisted self.

In chronological order...Paint the Town was fantastic, and my cousin Ellen and I had a great time.  We painted in the beautiful historic gardens http://www.historicgardens.com/  We were joking about how one of us might fall into the lily pond...that didn't happen, but Ellen did fall off her stool into the bushes behind.  There were a few tourists watching her work at the time.  I heard a yelp and rustling from my location around the corner, but decided to let the handsome male tourist help her out.  Thought it might be a romantic opportunity!

Brian had to go up on the roof of the summer kitchen to patch a hole as I wouldn't let him hire a roofer.  I figured once he got up there, he could do a fine job.  He drove the car up close to the house, tied a rope around the axle, flung the rope over the roof, tied it around his waist and with this high-tech safety equipment climbed the ladder and scooted up to the ridge of the roof only to realize he'd forgotten half the essential tools.  I ingeniously put the items in a box, tied a string to the box, tied a heavy hook to the end of the string and threw this up to him so he could pull the box up.  I only hit him on the head twice and missed getting anywhere near him a few more times, but it did work well once he caught the hook. 

Brian's 55th birthday was celebrated on Aug. 27th with a great party here, and the new kitchen worked very well.  About 20 people new friends and family came and feasted on the pot-luck offerings.  

Hurricane Irene arrived last week, and it was a noisy night of high winds, but no rain.  The next day was very windy as the pictures show.

Brian and our neighbour finished the upper part of the house above the kitchen window, so we will be snug for the winter.  Climbing up and down the scaffolding has made Brian need to take in his belt another notch!

Cheap and cheeful!  Paint the Town silent auction...My collages were made of shingles from the house, newspaper images from the old papers from 1962 that we found under the living room flooring, and birchbark found under the trim around the windows circa 1760!



In the Historic Gardens



Ellen at work

Brian waving (not a Vulcan salute) from his not very comfy perch on the roof

Sweet peas beside the barn (before hurricane...after...no flowers/buds left)

We have never seen the River so choppy as seen here the day after the hurricane

Brian may have to climb up on the roof again!

At Port George with friends having a sausage roast

Trying to get the fire going again

Sunset over the Bay of Fundy

While lettinga cat into the house in the wee hours of the morning, Brian snapped this shot of the mist on the opposite shore of the river

New boards, housewrap and clapboard

SUCH FUN...Kayaking, Puffy Pink Insulation and Art Work Sales

First the chat, then the pictures! 

The last blog showed a picture of a very worried Brian in a canoe.  I persuaded him to try a double kayak with me and that proved a much more successful venture.  We got some steering tips from one of the leaders of the kayaking group with Bridgetown Recreation, enjoyed chatting with some of the other kayakers as we paddled along, and saw what is left of an Acadian dam/dike that made the area so fertile along the marshes, and was a part of the terrible expulsion of the Acadians (French settlers) by the English.  Click on the following link if you are interested in the history of that:

http://www.uppercanadahistory.ca/finna/finna6a.html

We helped out at a big yard sale and barbeque at our church and had a good view of the Natal Day parade that went down the street in front of the church.


Weather here is FANTASTIC at the moment...so fantastic that during a bike ride up the hill and down the lane into the protected marsh areas (beautiful, lush fields of over 800 acres) I just had to dismount, trot down to the river, strip off to underwear and hop into the river...so wonderfully refreshing!  Even got Bri to take off shoes and socks and stick his feet in! (he isn't a water lover).  One of the many joys of living here in rural Nova Scotia is that the population is very low and when you go to out of the way places like this marsh area (accessible by foot or bike, no cars) you don't see anyone else at all.  We were awed to see ospery eagles on their nesting platform and watched them ride the thermal winds in huge arcs without a wingbeat.  The young left on the nest started complaining loudly after a while! 

The kitchen is coming along very nicely.  The pink insulation has been covered with a vapour barrier and Brian is teaching himself (with the help of youtube, books from the library, and advice from friends) how to put up the gyprock (I think you Brits refer to it as wallboard). 

The wood stove is in and looks just great.  It also works fantastically, kicking out a lot of heat...we tried it late one night when it was a bit cooler. 

Brian has also spent time sorting out the very sad electrics in the house.  He spent hours in a dirty, un-used little attic above the summer drilling holes, running new cable and ripping out old.  You can see how grubby he got!

Today was the first day of Paint the Town in nearby Annapolis Royal. I am on the Board of Directors for the Annapolis Region Arts Council that organizes this weekend of 75 artists working outside, with their work being auctioned off.   My cousin Ellen and I set up in the lovely Historic Gardens, and had a super day of creating.  We both were pleased with our sales at the silent auction and enjoyed the dinner with Brian and Aunt Thelma (Ellen's Mum) joining us.  Ellen and I meet for breakfast tomorrow and do another day.  I am going to rummage in the attic for some larger canvases to take. 

http://www.arcac.ca/arcac/paint.php

This is just such a wonderful thing for me to be working again, as there wasn't an artistic group/community in Colchester and I didn't have the space to work.  I have a studio and storage space in our lovely huge basement here, and am starting to offer art lessons and workshops again...website link for that is http://www.valleyhousestudio.weebly.com/

Well, our social life is booming...no less than three invitations to dinner at lovely people's homes last week, we had new Florida friends Doug and Karen (we are hoping to visit them this winter) over for dinner this week, and next week is Brian's birthday bash, I keep inviting people...must stop! 

That's it for now!

Kayaking on the beautiful Annapolis River

Our church, St. Luke's in Annapolis Royal

The parade...with Brian's favourite blue loco!

A very grubby electrician

Insulation being added in the kitchen

Some of the beams aren't very straight!

Our favourite spot for lunch on the front lawn

the wood stove, we will be warm this winter

The woodstove  pipe is internal, but the chimney comes through the roof




 

A very overheated biker runs to the river's edge

Ahhhh....lovely refreshing swim

The osprey's nesting platform

Our little female hummingbird that nests in the Astrican apple tree (males have a red bib)

Gyprock going up in the kitchen....HOORAY!

Day's end over the Annapolis Basin

A pensive Jasper

A few minutes relaxation after a fantastic first day at Paint the Town in Annapolis...more about that in next blog

Oh, Those Crazy, Hazy, (but not) Lazy Days of Summer!

(gentle reader,  I am now going to put the photos at the end of every blog.  This  means you are forced to read my carefully crafted script to know what the photos are about, and it is easier technically)

We are anything but lazy, unemployed maybe, but not lazy!  The windows are in the kitchen and livingroom now and look fabulous.  We cut down a very old apple tree that had split in a few places to improve the view from the window. 


Best of all, Brian has finished the clapboard on the lower part of the house that we hoped to finish this summer. 


We have made a template for the wood-stove hearth and have cut the concrete board.  The old chimney bricks have been cemented onto the concrete board and the rest of the footprint of the old hearth filled in with bricks. Brian has made an attractive wood frame and is, at this very moment, getting ready to pour sand in the cracks and then add the tinted (terra cotta) grout.   The wood stove will be installed next week. 


In the stud wall to fill-in where the old chimney was in the kitchen, Brian has put a half of one of the old windows, with the wonderfully wonky glass from the hand-blown glass.  In the 1700's the hand-blown glass for these windows was shipped in from Boston, in barrels filled with sawdust to protect the individual squares of glass.  The frames were made here to fit the glass squares.  This will allow light to enter the living room from the kitchen. 


The barn was cleaned out with the enthusiastic help of dear cousin Marcia (a.k.a. Mike), so there is now room to bring in the wood for the winter fires in the wood stove.


My art camp was a great success, and I have created a blog for my art news and schedules (and the odd personal rant as Brian says this blog is meant to be about the Valley House, not about me...honestly, how rude!), so please add www.thevalleyhousestudio.blogspot.com to your reading list. 

The weather is amazing, a bald eagle is roosting on a tree by the river and king birds are in the apple tree below the back door.  My birthday was celebrated with a wonderful barbeque with new friends, neighbours and family, and one of my presents was that Brian agreed to go in the canoe.  He isn't much of a water baby, but with Steph's expert hand at the helm (her summers of paddling at Banook Lake really paid off) he survived, but as you can see by the photos, didn't like it.  He did, however, like the double kayak ride this past week on the river, and says he is ready for a single kayak next time.  We are planning to go on a group kayak/canoe excursion to go loon spotting at Keji park in August.  Keji is short for...well, I can't spell it, so here's the link...it's a fantastic huge protected park in the middle of Nova Scotia.  
Keji National Park



The loon is the bird depicted on our "loonie", or one dollar coin.  It rides low in the water, and the babies ride piggyback!  Their undulating, haunting cry is a "trademark" of Canada.



We went for a picnic lunch at Kedji

The next few photos show the windows going in.

Paul and son did a fantastic job, as usual!

The last piece of clapboarding being measured before cutting.

HOORAY!  A job finished and very well done!

Brick hearth made out of the old fireplace bricks.

Here is the stud wall with the old window at the top, as seen from living room.

Clearing out the barn!

Some of the barn "treasures"!

Stephanie and I made these cupcakes for the birthday party, her coffee icing and Skor bar candy toppings were a hit!

In hysterics as we finally got Steph's head through the "horse collar" lifevest!

Steph made me wear the horsecollar, but it didn't dampen my enjoyment.

Steph and Brian coming into shore...he doesn't look too happy!

Marmalade on the wood pile

A lovely sunset at Hampton Beach, on the Bay of Fundy