Loud and Proud

I just attended my very first Pride Parade.  Yes, that's right, I was a Pride Parade virgin !

I've never been to an event that had such a joyous sense of purpose.  There was a party atmosphere with an undertone of understanding and acceptance.  It was a vision of how the world should be.

There were costumes, floats, placards with various messages, and lots of hugs.  The line between performers and audience blurred as embraces were often exchanged  as spectators hugged those marching by. One lovely woman had a sign that read: "Free hugs".  

Yes, I hugged her.

Kait and I met up with my chums, Amy and Mickie and we found a good spot in the shade near the end of the parade route

After the parade we sauntered around the booths at the base of Citadel hill.  I got some buttons, flags and rainbow buffs for the pups from the Venus Envy booth.

We then climbed the hill to enjoy the concert.

I'd brought Buffy with me and she behaved as if she thought everyone was there just to visit with her.  No one she met have her any cause to feel that wasn't the case.

 It was a wonderful day.

For everyone.

It's not easy being green ...

It's not that easy being green

Having to spend each day the colour of the leaves

When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold

Or something much more colourful like that

It's not easy being green
It seems you blend in with so many other ordinaray things
And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
Not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water

Or stars in the sky

But green's the colour of Spring

And green can be cool and friendly-like
And green can be big like an ocean or important
Like a mountain, or tall like a tree

When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why wonder ?
I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful
And I think it's what I want to be

A walk on the wet side ...

The weather here has been hot and sunny lately with the occassional wet day thrown in.  If it's not too cold, I'd rather be out on a wet day than in the blistering heat.  I'm just not that keen on hot weather. 
I should be careful what I wish for ...

Last week I took Wendy, Buffy and Sooki to the "back beach" at Rainbow Haven.  We walked up the track away from the ocean shore and headed for the area not used by beach goers.  Steering away from the marshes and ponds I throw the ball along the path and Wendy chases it while Buffy and Sooki chase each other.

At low tide the back beach is huge, much wider than it was last fall.  This increase has probably been at the expense of the ocean beach, as storms and surges shift sand from one area to another.

It had been raining off and on all day with some heavy down pours.  Later in the day the weatherman said the rain was done and things would be clearing up.  Foolishly I believed him but just to be safe I wore my rain slicker.

When we'd walked as far as we could, it began to drizzle and within minutes it was pouring.  Heavy rain.  So much for the forecast !  Rain sheeted down my coat and soaked my legs.   It was a sideways driving rain.  It found bad seams and soon was trickling down my back.

I hunched.  The dogs hunched.  We were a sad looking group.

The beach quickly became one big puddle.  My shoes (complete with orthodics) filled with water.  I sloshed.   It was not one of those warm rains.  It was a c-c-cold driving rain.

The poor dogs were sodden.  Buffy looked at me balefully and jumped up my legs, begging to be picked up but she is too heavy for me to carry that far.

There was nothing for it but to slouch our way back to the car. 

Once there I used the many towels and blankets to dry them as best I could.

Stoooopid weatherman !

Shubie doobee do ...

The Halifax region is blessed with a number of off-leash dog parks.

Recently we discovered that Shubie Park in Dartmouth has an off leash lakefront beach area.

On our first visit, there were over 20 dogs romping around, chasing each other, fetching sticks or balls, or swimming to their heart's content.  There were rottweillers, labs, goldens, pitbulls, spaniels, dobermans and some smaller fluffer-nutters there.  There were quite a few puppies of varying ages who tried the patience of the adult dogs with their inappropriate face licking, yipping and pesky biting.  A lot of ball thievery went on, with owners trying to figure out whose ball their dog just retrieved.  Wendy on the other hand would seek out other owners when she felt we weren't throwing her ball enough.  She'd run up to strangers, drop her ball in front of them and stare at them until they'd throw it for her.  In the shot below, Wendy has targetted the lady in the pinkish sweater for harrassment.

I wish the folk back in Peterborough who think that allowing dogs to be off leash together is a recipe for dog fights, could visit this park.  It's an example of just the opposite.  Dogs need to learn to socialize at an early age and this park provides just that opportunity. 

In the shot below, Sooki learns that size is relative.  That's Bruno, the Great Dane, explaining it to her.

It was at this beach that Sooki and Buffy learned to swim, and we discovered that Trey enjoyed retrieving.

It's a wonderful place to go on a hot summer day.

  

Just watching the pack having fun makes me happy.  It's as if I'm running with them, carefree, with the fur on my face blowing back and my long ears flying in the wind.  It's wonderful to be alive !   WOOF !

Signs and wonders.

I am very ADD.  "ADD" as in  "Attention Deficit Disorder".   It's an unfortunate anacronym as I have too much attention and not a shortage of it.  I notice stuff.  All sorts of different stuff -- like signs.  I'm often snapping photos of local, odd, funny or disturbing signs. 

You know you've hit a tourist area when you see a sign like the one below. 

No shortage of things to do here.

The following wonderful sign was posted next to "The Happy Dudes Surfer Emporium" chip truck.  There was a lovely, lazy, yellow dog dozing in the shade not far from the sign.  He didn't even lift his head when we came by to take a picture.

Now what do you make of the sign below ?  Is it warning the ducks to be careful as there are children in the area ?   or is it telling children to watch out for attacking duck families ?

On gravel roads in Ontario you might see a sign that says "loose gravel".  This local sign intends to convey the same warning.

How on earth is a person supposed to avoid "flying stones" ?  I watched for ages but they pretty much just lay there on the road, thank goodness.  As I walked away I kept expecting one to whack me in the back of the head when I wasn't looking. 

I like church signs that get me thinking -- but I don't think the writer understands the impact of the message conveyed by this sign.

Did the minister / sign-writer-person not see the contradiction when later on they posted this new sign ?

I really liked this sign.  

This hand-written, self-explanatory sign in a lighthouse made me smile with its understated way of requesting that visitors not smoke.

My favourite sign is this one.  

 Great advice for all of us.

Foggy thoughts

I love fog.  Which is a good thing considering where I live.  Nova Scotia is rather prone to fog, and if Nova Scotia is prone to fog, then  Eastern Passage is addicted to it.

I may wake up to a cool, thick, morning fog in the Passage and 30 minutes later be baking under a hot, sunny sky in Halifax. 

The other day it was lovely and sunny when an odd layer of fog drifted up the harbour.  The layer began about ten feet off the ground and ended 50 feet up, so I could see the bottom and top of buildings but not the middle. 

Whatever it's form, I love the way fog softens the world around me. 

Nova Scotia fog has more character than the plain old fog I knew back in Ontario.  There, fog might hover in the morning in low-lying farm fields or occassionally it might envelop everything in as if a blanket had been dropped on the world.

But here?  here -- it drifts, it moves, it grows, thickens, fades and grows again, all within a short period of time.  It rolls up the hill toward you like a wind-borne stream.  It enfolds you in it's magical, mystical vision.  It fuzzes the edges of things around you and brings with it the scent of the ocean.

I love that scent.  The smell of the salty sea and fishy things with just a hint of rotting seaweed.  I sniff deeply.

And sometimes, rather than hiding things, the fog reveals them.

There's magic in fog.

And Nova Scotia is a wonderful place to be in the fog.

Especially when you're with puppies !

So much to sea ...

Moving to Nova Scotia has had an unexpected benefit.

Friends and family are coming for visits. 

My childhood friend, Betty just left after a whirlwind one-week visit.  Betty and I grew up together in Toronto.  She lived over my back fence and we share the common experience of childish days spent together in play and adventures.  Aside from my visit out west in 2005, we hadn't seen each other in over 30 years. 

The years mean nothing.  That shared childhood links us forever.  The outside wrinkles and older bodies are just fascades covering the children who still dwell within us.  We knew each other as children and that is so wonderful.  The adult bit can be brushed over.  We talk of our children, jobs and lives lived during the 30-year gap, but it is that childhood joy and wonder that glues us together.  So we pick it up as if no time has passed.

We visited beaches.

Betty at 5 km-long Martinique Beach on the Eastern Shore

And historic towns ...

The Lunenberg Academy.  The town of Lunenberg

We had lunch of hot dogs and chips at the "Surfer Dudes Surfing Emporium" bus.  They even had "veggie" hot dogs !   For the rest of the day our speech was punctuated with "dude" this and "dude" that.

We discovered hidden gems.  And learned that Nova Scotia is too shy about publicising its scenic wonders.  There was a definite lack of signage when it came to finding scenic lookoffs and attractions. 

But for each thing we missed we'd stumble upon something unexpected.

One of several caves at Burncoat Head on Minas Basin (Gloosecap Trail - Fundy Shore).

Burncoat Head rivals the heavily publicised, Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick.

 We stopped at a picnic area and discovered that it lead to the shore.  And what a shore it was !   The tide was out and the water that remained was red/orange from the stirred up sediment.  You could wander for ages.  That little black dot is Betty.

We visited airplane and maritime museums, toured the Citadel and a ship moored in Halifax Harbour and we learned that mid-summer may not be the optimum time to visit Peggy's Cove

We learned that unplanned days can be more rewarding than over-scheduled days.

We made multiple visits to Rainbow Haven and sauntered around the boardwalk at Fisherman's Cove.

It was a week crammed with many adventures for two little girls on summer holiday.

And we had a wonderful time !