Welcome to Our Web Page
When this web page began more than twenty years ago, it described most of the activities of our whole family. Now that most of our children have flown the coop, it is mostly about what Ann and I (Dave) have been up to. I update it most weekends. We save all the messages over the past year in an Archive along with links to what we were doing ten and twenty years ago.
You can click on the pictures above to get a bit more information about each of us.
Tuesday August 12
Alex at the Back to the Sea Centre
We have had a busy couple of weeks since I last updated this page starting with the Roadents annual lunchtime barbecue the next Wednesday. We started by riding our usual route from Laurie Park through Enfield and Horne's Settlement though we cut it short a bit by not going out to Monte Vista. When we returned, we all went to Dick's place in Fall River which has frontage on A Lake. A bunch of us, including Ann, went for a swim while the rest of us sat in the shade and ate summer-appropriate nibblies like watermelon slices. Then we moved inside for hamburgers, hot dogs and an assortment of pot-luck salads.
That evening, I dropped Ann at the ferry so he could meet Katy, Mona and one of Mona's friends for dinner at Gahan House followed by Mama Mia at Neptune.
On Thursday, Ann and I went out to dinner at Colette's who has a very nice house overlooking Lake Loon. She is one of our biking buddies who, for about a year now, has hooked up with Sylvain, the president of the Ramblers. He co-hosted the evening. There were about a dozen of us in all, all Ramblers, and we had a very pleasant dinner on the back deck.
On Friday, Lauren arrived from Cape Breton where she has been doing field work for a couple of months. For dinner that evening, we went to Evan's Seafood on the Dartmouth waterfront and stayed to see a couple of Japanese acrobats performing for the Buskers Festival. Lauren stayed overnight and we gave her a ride to the airport on Saturday morning for a flight back to Ontario. That precluded us going on the Rambler ride that day so, when we got back, we rode from Shearwater to Lawrencetown Beach instead.
On Sunday, Katy, Ben, Andrew and Alex decamped from Mona's to our place. The following day, we all walked down to Sullivan's Pond to partake in the Dartmouth Natal Day festivities. Andrew and Alex tried out the bouncy castles and we got some food from the chip trucks. In the evening there were fireworks on Lake Banook which we could see, partially, from our bedroom window.
On Tuesday, while I went to have blood collected for some routine tests, Ann, Katy, Ben, Andrew and Alex went to the Halifax waterfront. Ben and Andrew went to Amos Pewter for a lesson in how to make pewter ornaments while Ann, Katy and Andrew explored. Katy and Andrew then returned on the ferry and went kayaking at the Fairbanks Centre in Shubie Park while Ann, Ben and Andrew went for a ride on a sailing boat in the Halifax harbour. Andrew was allowed to steer for a while and then lost his hat overboard. They took down the sails, turned around and managed to retrieve it.
On Wednesday, Ann, Katy, Andrew, Alex, Valerie and I went to the school playground in the morning then, after lunch, we went, minus Valerie, to the Back to the Sea Centre run by a non-profit society to teach about marine life. They have a touch tank with a variety of sea creatures: crabs, starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and the like.
Blue Rocks
On Thursday, we all packed up and headed down to Lunenburg to stay at Ingrid and Mike's cottage which they kindly let us use while they are in Europe. Ann and I were also there for the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival which we try to attend each year. We stopped in Mahone Bay to explore the Faerie Trails and so I could take my e-bike into Sweet Ride Cycling for some regular maintenance. After an ice cream, we went out to the cottage and got our beds set up before going into Lunenburg for dinner at the Shipwright Brewing Company. Ann and I then went to the evening concert while everyone else went back to the cottage to watch Finding Nemo.
On Friday, we all went to the Fisheries Museum followed by lunch outside at the Fish Shack. Katy and co. then left to return to Mona's for the night before the long drive home on Saturday. Meanwhile, Ann and I went to the Prairie Towns workshop with Red Moon Road, Connie Kaldor and the John Wort Hannam Trio. As soon as that was done, we walked up to Blockhouse Hill to get good seats for the evening concert and got dinner from the sushi food truck. Our friend Jackie joined us for the concert.
On Saturday morning, we rode to Sawpit Park to join the Rambler ride which I had carefully scheduled to start in Lunenburg while we were there. We rode down to Corkum's Island and Mason's Beach, then back past the park and out to Blue Rocks and Stonehurst East. It was a very pretty ride with lots of spectacular ocean views. After the ride, we got cleaned up and then went into Lunenburg for the Trio of Trios workshop with Red Moon Road, The Good Lovelies and The Young'uns. Then it was back up to Blockhouse Hill to get seats, dinner (from the pita truck this time), and the concert (sitting with Jackie, Martine, Pamela and Anne).
On Sunday, Ann got up early to go to the gospel concert with Pamela, Jackie, Anne and Phyllis while I slept in. I rode my bike into Lunenburg around 11 o'clock, got the car, took my bike back to the cottage, then met Ann at the park stage to hear Theresa Malenfant; we couldn't actually see her as we sat on a nice shady bench behind a rhododendron but we could hear her fine. Ann picked us up lunch at Dory Mates on her way to the park from Blockhouse Hill. From there we went to see the end of the Harmonies workshop (The Hello Crows, The Good Lovelies, John Wort Hannam Trio, Quote the Raven) and then the Laughter is the Best Medicine workshop (Connie Kaldor, Terra Spencer, The Young'uns). The latter took a decidedly bizarre turn when they got on the subject of dogs; after Connie Kaldor sang an amusing song about her dog, Terra Spencer sang one about an incompetent cadaver dog (i.e. one that locates murder victims), which was then trumped by David Eagle of the Young'uns with a song about a Satan worshiper sacrificing his pet dog. After the concert it was the usual routine: up to Blockhouse Hill, dinner from the food truck (sushi again), and the evening concert.
On Monday, we packed up and headed home, stopping at No. 9 Café for coffee and cinnamon buns on the way. I arrived to find that my garden had gone wild in our absence. I picked 16 cucumbers, several large zucchinis, snap peas, beans (regular and scarlet runners), beets and cherry tomatoes. There are also a couple of heads of broccoli that I haven't picked yet.
The month of July saw very little rain and the temperatures have been very hot over the past week, so everything is extremely dry. That prompted the provincial government to prohibit any traffic (hiking, biking, ATVs, etc.) through the woods. That has meant that some of the scheduled Ramblers rides, which use the trails, have had to be changed so that they only use roads. As I am the Ride Coordinator, it has been my job to come up with replacement rides. This afternoon we also got an alert on our phones saying that there is an uncontrolled fire in the woods behind the Bayers Lake Industrial Park; although that is on the other side of the harbour from us, it is still worryingly close to the city.