For our summer holidays, we returned to Port Mouton (of course) to see our friends and family and soak up the nature and vibes of rural Nova Scotia. If you recall from the last post, we were fostering a lovely cat named Tisha. We took her to her new home in Nova Scotia with Annette’s nephew and his family and 2-year old boy. Tisha flew in the cat carrier between my legs under the seat for about 18 hours on two flights.

I wasn’t fully on holiday as I was teaching a course for Queen’s University and so I did spent a lot of time on our deck thinking about the course, and about other things. I sent this picture to my students to show them where I was when reading their work. I didn’t actually do much work on the deck, but I could have!

Much of our summer was taken with usual routines. We spent time walking on the local beaches including Summerville …

… and Carter’s Beach.

Carter’s Beach is also a great place to catch the sunset as you walk along the beach freezing your toes off in the water. The story is that Jacques Cartier back in about 1534 came into the bay on one of his voyages of discovery and named the beach.

We also explored a few of our local parks including the Keji Seaside Adjunct, where we love to check out both the excellent trail full of flora and fauna including pitcher plants in the boggy areas …

… as well as many different types of flowers including roses, orchids and trillium.

There is also a marvelous accessible waterfront area with some beach and rock. Much of the beach is closed to protect nesting piping plovers.

Of course, there was a exciting but low key boys gathering at the old cabin in Chezzetcook. The cabin is still standing after all these years of abuse!

Some of the boys are getting older and some are getting younger!

I was offered the chance to test out a hammock tent. I must say, it was light and easy to set up. When on a canoe trip in the back country, light and easy are key words.

We were unable to book a site in Keji in the backwoods due to irregularities and inefficiencies in their booking system. However, some great friends loaned us the use of their off-grid cabin on a marvelous lake in rural Queen’s County. We spent two nights there, with early morning canoe and fishing trips each day.

We were in a rural area where even the GPS ran out. However, we were assured that we had arrived when we met up with Hedley, the guardian of the gates.

We had lovely weather, but all things must end and so after two days and nights, we threw the canoe back on the car and departed.

At the end of July, I went over to PEI with my nephew and his wife to join our annual family gathering. It was a low key event as well. A wedding in the family the following weekend may have siphoned off a couple of people. The price of gas may have stopped some others. Our collective advancing age may have influenced attendance as well! Nevertheless, I got to hang out with some great people!

My sister’s cottage, where we have our gathering, is quite a beautiful spot and offers some amazing views and sunsets. If you look closely, you will see a Blue Heron waiting to catch a fish.

We paid a short visit to Halifax and spent a couple days cruising around visiting people. We also went to the waterfront which has been greatly improved over the last couple years. The waterfront spans a few kms and has a great range of restaurants and pubs …

… places to sit, and some interesting art installations.

But, the best part of the trip was sitting on the deck of the (Port Mouton) bay with good friends and family enjoying the views from our private little ocean front!