Back by popular demand ... well ... sorta.

How are you doing my friends ?  

I present to you the "Cole's Notes" version of my life.

Life has been a series of woodland rambles,  gardening fun and explorations of this beautiful province.  In other words, not much has changed since I paused Blogging.

As you may know by now, Winter is my fourth favourite season.  

But now it's almost May and Winter is well behind us.  

Dexter and Sooki are wonderful companions. Sooki is on several medications to help lessen the pain from her leg surgeries.  As she is now well over 13 years old, I suspected that winter would put an end to her; but happily it did not.  She still looks forward to going for walks.  Now the warmer weather is coming, she enjoys lying in the sun on the back deck.

In November my daughter Kaitlyn, went to England to spend three months with a friend there.  Well, that three months turned into six; and though she is coming back in May, her heart remains in London.  As a result, I am experiencing "empty nest syndrome" at age 73 !

My dog walks are also another way to get out and observe nature.  The photos I take I then post to iNaturalist.

I tell you more about my explorations.  Next time ...

I'm hoping to keep in touch via this Blog.  However I gather that Blogger.com doesn't send out notices of new posts.  I send notices of new posts out to an email list of friends and I'll share too to FaceBook.  I don't know if commenting is still functioning either.  Guess we'll all find out together  I would like to hear from you either by a comment or email.

So ... what have you been up to ?

Things I miss ...

 Well, I'll tell ya what is DON'T miss; I don't miss Winter.

At least Spring brings the distraction of gardening.    The garden doesn't look like this right now, but it will in a month or two or three.

And of course the dog walking never stops; both on and off leash.

              

And of course the nearby woods are always there to be explored.  

Sorry.  I lost my train of thought.  Yeah.  Oh, I know, I was going to tell you about missng stuff.  I was gonna haul out a slew of lovely photos of Fundy; pics of Scott's Bay, Grand Pre and Hall's Harbour and engage in a moderate pity party.

I was going to share a lament for friends I miss.  So far it's been FIVE birthday get-togethers with Sara and Kelly that haven't happened.

And of course I miss being able to visit family and friends in Ontario and England and ... Cow Bay !

And choir !  Don't get me going on how much I miss choir !

                                                                        BUT

I am still here.  Fundy still exists.  I haven't lost any family or friends.  I've had my first shot.

There will be a tomorrow, and more tomorrows after that.

Things haven't really been missed -- they've just been postponed.  

And when we do get together again think how much we will appreciate being together.

And when we can go places we haven't gone in ages, think how mucy we will appreciate being there.

Sending you virtual hugs and my sincere wish that you find what you CAN do, and enjoy it ... until the day you can do even more.

Leave a comment or send me an email telling me about what you've been up to.

A few more walks ...

My last post was about my spontaneous trip last Saturday to the dyke at Port Williams.

Sunday found us at Sandy Lake.

This fall has been even milder than usual which has made for some lovely late fall walks.  Sandy Lake park is only 10 minutes from my home and is a combination of wide open trails and up and down woodsy walks.

I cannot resist gently turning over rotten wet logs looking for Salamanders.  I'm loopy for Salamanders !

I found eleven of the little darlings and was thrilled to find three under one log.  These are red backed Salamanders and must be handled with great care as they partially breathe through their skin.   BTW I always roll the log gently back leaving them as I found them.

Sadly I also found lots of garbage in the form of empty beer cans.  I flattened them down and stuffed as many as I could into my small back pack.

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Monday was a nasty wet day with driving winds so I took the dogs to Shubie which is sheltered more than most places we go to and has easy wide trails.  Shubie is a well-tended park with an off leash section.

The rain was sheeting down and I soon learned that an above-knee raincoat guarantees that one's legs will be soaked from the knees down; and I was.

Looking a tad bedraggled.

In spite of her lovely, lined raincoat Sooki wasn't impressed.  It certainly was one of our shortest walks.

I think Sooki would have passed on the walk if she'd known it was going to be so wet.

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The next day was milder and dryer so we headed to the Jack Lake Trails.  These trails are longer and more adventurous than the Sandy Lake ones.  This is the area where I got badly lost a couple of weeks back.

Do NOT fret.  I have loaded a hiking Geo Tracker app onto my cell phone.  When I get out of my car I turn it on and always have an idea of my direction and more importantly how to get back to my starting point. 

The dogs love bombing around in the woods but are rarely more than fifty feet away.   

They like to stay close because they know I carry high quality treats.

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November 1st found us back on the Barrett Lumber trails.  I'd been there once before.  They're wide open roads that lead for several kilometres.

Along the way we found some abandoned cars.

An old window crank mechanism

An old speedometer -- not in kilometres.

After walking two kilometres this is what confronted us.   Hmmmmm.   Decisions, decisions.

Actually the decision wasn't a hard one when I consulted the Geo Tracker app on my phone and was surprised to see these trails marked.  That lead me to continue on the main trail.  All three trails were dead ends.  The centre one was the longer trail.  I took it but didn't go to the end as I kept reminding myself that if I walked three kilometres outbound then I'd have to do that same amount back again.

After the almost 6 km. walk Sooki fell asleep sitting up in the car.

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I end up at Shubie a couple of times a week.  We went back there today.

   

Thanks to a couple of blowy days most of the colourful leaves have been ripped from the trees.  Still there is a lingering beauty even in the bareness.

I took the opportunity to put the dog's through some obedience practice.  

I suspect if it wasn't for these dogs I wouldn't get half the exercise I do and let's not discount the marvellous therapeutic effects of time spent in nature.

Off on a whim ...

Being retired, my mornings are pretty laid back and undirected.  That's not always a good thing.  It's nice to have some place you have to be; where people are waiting for you.  Now Kait has moved out I'm learning to cope with living alone for the first time in over 35 years.

After breakfast I was snuggled in my comfy chair vacillating between reading and falling asleep.

At 11 a.m. the thought came into my head that I needed to get off my arse and go somewhere.

I got dressed, did some laundry, hung it on the line and headed out with Wendy and Sooki.

By 12:30 we were at the Port Williams dyke.  

Today the tide was at its lowest.

It's one of my favourite places in Nova Scotia.  A long walk along the top of a dyke it looks different each time I go; not just seasonal changes but tidal changes.

This is not high tide.  The tide is about half way up.  

The weather was sunny and mild; amazing weather for October 28.

The trail curves to the right in the distance and ends up in the town of Wolfville several kilometres away.  If you look very carefully you might even be able to see the white spire of Acadia University right of centre.

I've never actually gone all the way there, though I have explored the trail from the Wolfville end.

The dogs love trotting along the top of the dyke.  After a while they get hot and start looking wistfully at the water in the river below.   

So near and yet so far.

There's really no way they could get to the tidal river.  The muck would make it impossible for them to move forward.

The dogs romp in the grass and occasionally stumble into hidden muck holes. 

Sooki disappeared into a muck hole and when she scrambled out this is how she looked.

Wendy's turn was next.

Nothing like a good roll with your favourite ball.

By 3 pm we'd had a good walk and it was time to head home but in a different frame of mind.

                                                         A better frame of mind for sure.

P.S.  Had to give Wendy a bath when we got home.   You should see the tub.  lol

Three special walks ...

The dogs and I go for a walk every day; some walks are close to home and pretty routine while others are more in the "adventure" category.

I love walking in new places.

Wednesday found me walking at Mount Uniacke Estate with chum, Janet.  Mount Uniacke is only about 20 minutes from my house and yet I've never been there before.

The country house built between 1813 and 1815 by Attorney-General Richard John Uniacke  is one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture in Canada.  While it is possible to tour the house, Janet and I opted to check out a couple of the seven trails on the over 2,200 acres estate.

After reviewing the trail map we decided to take the Barrens Trail then connect with the Wetlands Trail and come back via the Post Road Trail.  It didn't take us long to wish we'd read the trail reviews before setting out.  

Sections of the first two trails were laced with boulders and roots and where they were less bouldery and rooty they were wet; very, very wet.

Perhaps we should have been more suspicious of anything named "Wetland".

Happily Wetland Trail connected us with the Post Road Trail which was delightfully wide, clear and grass-covered.

After three hours of slogging, sliding and strolling we finally made it back to the house vowing to come back again in Fall and walk the easier trails.

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For a couple of weeks I had been hoping to visit the Bay of Fundy shore near Walton.  Thursday the tides and weather provided the perfect conditions for me to finally have a walk there.

It was a warm beautiful day.  The dogs and I hiked along the shore.

The folds in the rock are stunning.

We stopped for lunch.  Nothing like a picnic while staring out across the magnificent Bay of Fundy.

Wendy was eager to go for a paddle in the Bay so we set off to find the water.  

The problem was the water was far, far away.  There WAS muck but still no where near enough water for Wendy to swim in.

So we kept on walking.  These rocks, covered in seaweed serve to remind me that in a few hours the place where we're walking will be under many feet of water.

These rocks are covered in Barnacles which close up their "mouths" so they can survive for several hours out of the water .  

It became obvious that we were not going to be able to reach the very elusive water.

We sought out ridges of pebbles that enabled us to walk out as far as possible and headed back along a similar ridge.

It was a wonderful magical day.  

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Saturday my friend Mickie and I met up at Hemlock Ravine Park.

Hemlock Ravine is a lovely park in a residential area.  Many of the trails are designated ON leash but one big loop is OFF leash.  

We sought out that loop and then proceeded to set the record for the world's slowest, pokeyest walk.

There were so many neat things to see.  Mickie was tickled when I showed her that Red Backed Salamanders can be found under rotted logs.  Our final tally of found Salamanders was SIX.  Our goal was ten so we need to go out again next weekend to continue the search.

Mickie took this marvellous shot.

Our walk consisted of walking and stopping and walking and stopping.  We spotted this amazing pattern of Lichen (?) growing on this dead tree.

Mickie took this lovely shot of Wendy and Sooki.

Friends and dogs and places to explore -- Oh my!

  

At the risk of repeating myself; "Who's a lucky girl?".