A Last Goodbye

My mother's house sold at the end of July so we went up to help clean it out before the new owners took possession.  Fortunately my mother worked hard to empty the house out in the years since my Dad died so it wasn't too difficult a job.  Also the new owners were new homeowners and happy to keep most of the furniture and kitchenware, tools, plants, @etc.  That made our task much easier.

One evening we went for a walk to Seymour Lake, near my sister's house.

Seymour Lake 

Comparing our bird apps.

Hard to believe we won't be coming back to this house again.

Boxes of books to be given away to the 2nd-hand store

Cleaning out the kitchen

 

We found this old plastic jug in the basement. Our mother  used to use it to wash our hair over the bathtub when we were kids.  It's probably 65 years old!

Out and About in July

 

Buckeye tree in our friend's yard

Some colourful thistles down in the creek valley

Watching Leo and the Cariboo Connection perform at the farmer's market

Smoky skies

Performances in the Park was moved to the arena because of the smoke. Not quite the same ambience but we enjoyed the performance anyway.

Hike to Farwell Canyon Sand Dunes

We went out to Farwell Canyon to hike up to the dunes.

There were a few mariposa lilies still blooming in a shady part of the trails.

Skies were a little smoky.

The dunes are a little different every time you come.

The ladies at lunch:

On the way out we spotted a herd of male bighorn sheep.

Rear view!

Afterwards we stopped in at the Chilcotin Inn for cinnamon  buns. Yum!

R

Last Days in Dartmouth

Our favorite thing to do in Dartmouth is take the pedestrian ferry over to downtown Halifax.

Heading over to Halifax harbour

Here's another ferry returning to Dartmouth.

Those are all new highrises going up along the Dartmouth shore.

We walked along the waterfront, redeveloped for tourists.

You can take a cruise on the tall ship Silva.

There's lots of opportunity to stick your head through things for photo ops!6

Closeup:

Another:

This one is an ad for the Maud Lewis exhibit at the Art Museum of Nova Scotia.

How'd she get in the picture?

The next day we walked to Birch Cove on Lake Banook where used to take swimming lessons when he was a kid.

Some little girls were getting ready for swimming lessons when we arrived!

We also walked by a house that had filled their front garden with ceramic mushrooms.

Later Cathy and Heather came in from Chester Basin and we all went out for deep-fried clams. THE place to go for fried seafood in Dartmouth is John's Lunch, but it was closed, so we went to its sister establishment the Pleasant Street Diner, just down the road, run by the same family.

Mmmm, deep fried whole fresh clams. Not to be confused with clam stories.

And that concludes our trip to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.  We caught our flight back home early the next day and arrived in Vancouver at 10:30 am, then drove home the same day.

 

Hike up to Castle Rock

 We woke up to a foggy morning and went for a run down the rail trail which is just up the road from Cathy and Rick's house.

Later we drove a little ways and used the rail trail to access Castle Rock.

Lake along the trail.

The sun came out so it was a hot and humid hike.  We reached thee top with 360 degree views.

Great view though the seashore was still foggy

Smiles all around.

We got some good views of an oven bird on the hike but no photos.

On the way back we spotted a few lady slippers.

More bog laurel.

A healthy young white pine.

The next morning we did a bird walk down the rail trail where we saw another ovenbird and this magnolia warbler.

Our niece Heather invited the whole family to her Chester house (she lives in Kent village but is buying and renting houses in an early retirement plan) for a barbecue.

Preparing real local strawberries for strawberry shortcake.  They were delicious.

Most of the family. Nephew Daniel's kids are in Ottawa visiting their Dad.

After the BBQ we drove back to Dartmouth with Leo's sister Ann.

If you heard of the recent flooding in Hants County, NS, Cathy and her family were in the middle of it (but no major damage for them).  Robert had his driveway washed away.  Heather's house in Chester had leaks in her roof.  Cathy and Rick were visiting Cape Breton, but Robert drove by and discovered water flowing out of their basement.  He pumped it out for them.

The blue door is their basement.  The babbling brook we fell asleep (located behind the motor home and the veranda) overflowed and ran right into their house.

Here's a photo Heather took of the damage on the road above their house. The ditch running to the left is their brook.

The rails to trails are closed. There is a 30 foot washout near their home.