It's a new dawn, and a new day, and a new year ... and I'm feeling good

Today found Dexter* and I heading to Lawrencetown for an invigorating beach walk.

Our goal was this wonderful hill just past the Lawrencetown Beach.

We had a choice of walking on the trails behind the beach,

or along the Trans Canada Trail.

We did a section of each and then slogged up the steep hill.

The reward is a terrific view and a stroll by a rapidly eroding cliff.  As you can see Dexter was wildly unimpressed by the cliff.

And I imagine the view didn't impress him much either.

I found both to be more than adequate and very much worth the hike.

Clearly it was stormy out on the ocean as the waves were big,

 and sheets of rain were visible on the horizon.

It seems to be a marvellous tradition in Nova Scotia to visit the beach on Christmas and New Year's Day as I was not alone in my explorations.  But it wasn't crowded.

We crossed back over one of several boardwalks and noticed something on the side of it

it was an unexpected sign.

"If you enjoy this beautiful place, please remember all those and their families that sacrificed so much !  Let us remember not only today but every day"   D.W.S.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* BTW Sooki is getting over a wrist infection which is compounded by the fact that she has recently been diagnosed with Lyme disease.  She cannot go for walks until she stops limping.

What ? Sandy AGAIN ?

As I may have mentioned in the past, you know someone is a true friend when they visit you in Nova Scotia in FEBRUARY !

My good chum Sandy just did that.  AGAIN.

Though we did have a couple of cold days the weather really was rather unseasonable. Not once did we have to worry about snowy roads.

Though I must confess that the day I dragged her up Oland Hill it was BITTER cold.

So after our walk we treated ourselves to a yummy lunch at the Heron Restaurant and Tea Room at MacDonald House.

Sandy had the Chowder ...

We watched the waves rolling in on the beach below while we ate,

and planned what we'd do the next day.

A warm Friday in late November.

With the current frigid temperatures, it's hard to believe how lovely last Friday was.   You'll just have to take my word for it; it simply lovely.  

I had planned on going for a walk at Conrad's Beach, but a certain hill beckoned to me.  I'd seen this hill lots of times as it's near the end of Lawrencetown Beach, but had never explored it. This time I pulled the car over and parked, then climbed the well-worn path...

Up the hill we walked and were rewarded with this lovely view.

Sooki jostles her way past Wendy on the narrow cliff-edge path.

Look at that boulder!   From the land side it looked like a lovely spot to stand and admire the view. From this angle you can see that it is just hanging in space and that standing on it would be a dangerous mistake.

Past that boulder and around the side of the cliff, this is the view that rewarded us.  That is Lawrencetown Beach in the distance and beyond that, appearing rather dark, is MacDonald Hill.

Given Sooki's track record with Porcupines I outfitted her and Wendy with bear bells, and when we walked through the deeper trees, I even leashed her -- just to be on the safe side.

See that little blue car parked by the side of the road ?  That's us waaaay down there.

Once back in the car, we drove 2 minutes down the road for a brief stop at Lawrencetown Beach with its many boardwalks and grass-covered dunes.

We had our choice of paths weaving through the tall grasses.  

At the beach Wendy's goal is always to get to the water asap.

No matter the time of year, she wades into the shallows, and if the mood moves her, has a nice lie down.  BTW, that hill in the distance is the one we had just climbed.  As you can see, we pretty much had the beach to ourselves.  

Back in the car we drove ONE MINUTE down the road to Kannon Beach.  It was low tide and there was a strong wind.

Kannon Beach is on the other side of MacDonald Hill from Lawrencetown Beach.

The wind was whipping up the ocean causing piles of foam to accumulate along the shore.

An where there's wind ...you'll find kite surfers

As it was low tide, I was able to walk far out onto the exposed sand and watch the kite surfers as they performed some pretty amazing jumps.

How's that for height !

I have so many ordinary days but then a special one like this comes along to remind me how lucky I am to live where I do.

I need to remember to make more special days like this.  It's all up to me.