Nova Scotia Strong.

 Last April, a month after Covid-19 invaded our lives, a monster briefly walked among us in Nova Scotia, and took 22 innocent lives.

But that's not what this post is about.  This post is about how a province and a county responsed to that pointless tragedy

Nova Scotia tartan ribbons popped up all over.

Hearts appeared in windows and on home-made signs.

"Nova Scotia Strong" became an oft repeated phrase.

Tim Hortons a nation-wide coffee chain, as a fund raiser decided to sell a "Nova Scotia Strong" donuts. ALL proceeds would go to the Canadian Red Cross "Strong together Nova Scotia Fund", which would work to provide support to the individuals, families and communities impacted by the mass shooting with immediate and long-term needs.

Each of the 1400 nation wide stores was free to design its own version of the donut.  

I must confess that that week I went to Tim Hortons more often than usual and quickly learned that the N.S. Strong donuts were the first to sell out each day.  From Newfoundland to British Columbia everyone wanted to buy a Nova Scotia Strong donut.

In one week of sales, $1.4 was raised! 

  

Since then, bumper stickers started appearing on cars.  

Each time I see one of the stickers, I snap a photo.  How do you like my collection ?

  

  

  

  

  

   

  

  

So here we are moving into the second wave of Covid-19 and the TV show "The Fifth Estate" has done a special on that black day in April and how it was handled by the RCMP.

We are working consciously to remain a strong province.  We are hunkering down to protect ourselves and others from Covid-19.

And I wish to goodness we could hug each other. I miss hugging so much.   I know we will again one day.   But not today or tomorrow.

In the mean time we'll have to settle for just hugging each other in our hearts.

Stay strong and care for each other.

 

May you live in interesting times, or lessons I've learned during Covid.

According to Wikipedia "May you live in interesting times" is an English expression that is claimed to be a traditional Chinese curse.  While it sounds like a blessing, the expression is normally used ironically; life is better in "uninteresting times" of peace and tranquility than in "interesting" ones, which are usually times of trouble.

We definitely are living through "interesting times"; the key word being "living".

After our Premier demanded that we all "STAY THE BLAZES HOME!" we learned to stay put and venture out as little as possible.   

When Covid-19 first impacted our lives, the ice was just going out on the lakes in Nova Scotia.

Now as we navigate the second wave, the leaves have turned colour and Winter looms.

In March the media spoke as if this might last a few weeks, or even a month or two.  I wonder if we would have believed it if we were told back then that the Pandemic would be affecting us well into 2021?

All sorts of 

humorous signs have popped up to remind us how to behave.

 

At the start, sanitizer and face masks were hard to find; even toilet paper was in short supply.

Now the shelves are full of masks. Christmas themed masks and sanitizer gift sets are already popping up in stores.  Who would have thought at the beginning of this that face masks would become a fashion accessory ?

We've always been pretty patient about lining up.  Under Covid, we have learned to increase the distance between us in line  to 6 ft (2 m.). while following directional arrows.

Many  folk who'd never gardening suddenly turned up at garden centres in droves.  Since they could not travel, many sought to turn their gardens into places of refuge. As you know, I've been a gardening nut for eons.

As we could no longer socialize with friends in person many of us learned to meet over "Zoom" or FB Messenger.  

Laughing is so important in times like these.

Still, I miss singing in my choir.  I miss hugs.  I miss my chums Pat and Sandy who have visited me every year since I moved here.  I miss spending birthdays with Sara and Kelly.

Even though I couldn't afford to fly anywhere right now, just knowing that I can't makes my world feel smaller.

So what have I learned ?

I have learned that that song that goes, "You just don't know what you've got till it's gone"

 is quite, quite true.

Going out and not worrying about social distancing will be so nice.

Not wearing a mask will be terrific.

But these are such simple things, aren't they ?

And yet things feel so very different.

We took a lot for granted in the "before" times.  

A few years hence do you think we'll treasure the simple things we're missing now; or do you think we'll be taking it all for granted again ?

How has your life changed ?  

What are you missing most ?

116 kilometres

 116 kilometres isn't really that far.  It's 72 miles.  Sometimes we express distance as time.  "How far is it to Burntcoat Head?" you ask.  "Well from my place it's around an hour and 20 minutes."

But it's not quite a direct route.  It could be.  But with me it rarely is.

I wanted to show my friend Donna, Burntcoat Head, sight of the highest tides in the world, but as usual there were places to stop along the way.

We agreed to meet up at the lay-by at Cheverie at 11:30; three hours before low tide.  There's a large parking area so you can enjoy the stunning view across the Bay of Fundy to the cliffs of Blomidon.

 

I've told you about this spot before.  I may have mentioned that many visitors come to take in this view, and then happily leave, not realizing they have missed something very special.

If they tore their eyes from this view and turned around they would have seen this on the hill behind them.

It's a stunning building created in 2012 by some students of Dalhousie University.  It stands atop a grassy hill, just waiting to be explored.  But few people even notice it.

    

To be fair, it's not like there is a large sign or anything.  

This teeny sign is the only thing directing you to it.

In a dark room within those walls is an enchanting surprise.  Well not at first.  You have to wait a bit for your eyes to get used to the darkness.  Then you simply stare at the floor waiting and waiting ... until on the floor you see projected the view across the Bay.  What's super fun is when a car zips by at your feet.  (The smudges and marks I think reside on the mirror that projects the image)

BTW that's Donna's car parked just left of centre.  The road is just behind it. Below, is what the projection is showing.

Just a kilometre down the road we turned down Shipyard Road so I could show Donna the gypsum cliff.

 

    

After a walk there we continued on to Walton where we got take-out lunch at the Walton Pub -- "Under one billion served" it declares proudly on their sign.

We ate it at the Walton lighthouse.

It was pretty close to low tide.

We stopped on our way back home several hours later for a comparative photo.

Finally it was time to head to Burntcoat Head.

Did I mention that we brought our dogs with us ?

Donna has a black and a white Schnauzer; Pyper and Allie.

We just about had the whole shore to ourselves.  We walked for a while and wanted to keep walking but as I kept reminding Donna, "the tide has turned".

Donna's high tech watch told us that we'd walked 10,000 steps.  I was pretty darn tired by the end of our explorations and easily believed we'd walked that and then some.

The dogs were pretty tired too.