Our Message Archive
April 2024
Monday April 29
Daffodils and glory in the snow
We have been fairly busy over the past couple of weeks. My current project is to remove what remains of the grass in the boulevard between the sidewalk and the road in front of the house. I did about a third of it last fall and am now completing the job. When done it will be a new flower bed. The part I did last year is already replete with crocuses, daffodils and tulips, the daffs currently in bloom; I'll add some annuals in a few weeks.
I've also got the garden ready and have planted some frost tolerant veggies: lettuce, kale, carrots and parsnips. I noticed today that the lettuce has just come up. There is also some garlic that I planted last fall.
Meanwhile Ann has been busying herself with her normal activities: volunteering at the food bank, attending book clubs, and singing in the church choir. She has also spent a lot of time figuring out our taxes; they were finally submitted today.
A week ago Friday was a beautiful day so Ann phoned Kim and we went for an impromptu ride on the BLT trail. When we got back Ann and I went for lunch on the patio at the New Scotland pub across from the ferry terminal in Dartmouth; David walked down and met us there. Later in the afternoon we sat out on our front deck with a bunch of our neighbours: Dave, Jim and Valerie, Carl and Roxanne, and Debra.
We have also been on several other rides: with the Roadents from Fall River to Enfield on Wednesdays and with the Railers out to Lawrencetown Beach last Monday. We also rode to Portland St. a week ago Thursday so Ann could meet Cindy and Vicki for coffee at the Second Cup. We have also used our bikes for a few assorted errands around town.
In Canning on our ride yesterday
On Saturday, we drove to the Valley for a ride with the Ramblers. I was sweep, the person who rides at the back of the pack to make sure nobody gets lost or left behind and to help out with any mechanical issues. About 15 kms from the end of the ride, Robert's tire slowly lost air. We pumped it up but it went flat again, a bit more quickly this time. Since it was a tubeless tire, we couldn't fix it easily, so I completed the ride and drove back to pick him up.
On Thursday, we drove to Mahone Bay to have Ann's e-bike serviced at the bike shop where we bought it. We took my bike and Ann's second bike with us and rode the trail to Lunenburg while it was being done. There we had a nice lunch with our friend Marilyn at the Salt Shaker Deli before returning to pick up the e-bike.
A week ago Saturday, I drove to Truro to play in a bridge tournament with my friend and ex-colleague Layton. We played in two sessions placing first in the morning and third in the afternoon, a very satisfactory result.
Yesterday was David's birthday. Ann was out for the Early Risers Breakfast at the church, so we deferred our traditional Eggs Benedict until lunchtime. David then went out to meet some of his friends downtown.
Sunday April 14
Getting ready for totality
As you no doubt know, there was a solar eclipse on Monday that passed within a reasonable distance of us. Ann, David and I left home mid-morning and drove to a spot on a back road just north of Rogersville, New Brunswick, about 3½ hours away, where we met our neighbours Carl and Roxanne who had got there earlier. Carl had figured out that it would be an excellent location and he was quite right. We set up our folding chairs in a field beside a house that was obviously not lived in. When we had been there an hour or so, the owner of the house showed up but he was very friendly and quite happy for us to use his field. There was one other young couple there with their young daughter, so none of the crowds that plagued some of the larger centres.
At the start of totality (Ann's photo).
Carl came with a pair of binoculars that he mounted on a tripod. The solar disk could then be projected backwards through the binoculars onto a sheet of paper (we later used a tilted table that the owner of the house came up with) giving us a good view of the progress of the moon across the sun. We all had eclipse glasses too, but the projection through the binoculars showed more detail, despite some shaking caused by the wind: we could see two sunspots fairly clearly until they were masked by the moon.
The weather was almost unbelievably nice considering how miserable
it usually is at this time of year: bright sunshine, temperature in
the teens, and not a cloud in the sky for the duration of the
eclipse.
Three exposures of the same image of the solar eclipse
I didn't notice any significant change to the light until a few minutes before totality. Then the temperature began to drop and and the light became flatter as it does at twilight. At totality, it very quickly became very dark except for a 360° sunset around the horizon. We left for home fairly soon after totality ended, not waiting for the hour or so it took the moon to pass completely away from the sun.
The biking season has now officially begun with the first Roadents ride taking place on Wednesday and the first Ramblers ride scheduled for yesterday. We joined the Roadents but the Ramblers ride was rained out as is quite common in the spring. I have been out a couple of extra times riding different variations of the loop through Lake Loon and along the waterfront, on Tuesday by myself and today with Ann. Unfortunately, the generally lousy weather has precluded any more than that.
On Tuesday, Ann and I went, at short notice, to see the movie Hailey Rose with Kim and Glen. It is an amusing drama, set in Nova Scotia, about a young woman returning home and coming to terms with her dysfunctional family. It was shot in Hubbards and Chester and there are several aerial views of villages along the Aspotogan Peninsula, one of our bike club's regular rides. Afterwards, Glen had to go to a choir practice but Kim, Ann and I went to the Quinn Arms, a pub on Quinpool Street, for dinner.
Sunday April 7
I guess there's a reason they're called winter aconites
Spring is not usually the best time of year in Nova Scotia and this one is shaping up to be no different. We had a late snow storm on Thursday; though the snow didn't last long it turned to rain for much of the rest of the week. That meant that we were only able to get out biking once, on Wednesday, when Ann and I rode around the Lake Loon loop in the opposite direction from my ride last week. Luckily we are told that it will be sunny all over the Maritimes tomorrow for the solar eclipse.
During the wet weather I have been watching the chess Candidates Tournament which is currently taking place in Toronto. It will determine who will get to play matches against the current men's and women's world champions. So far there have been some exciting games with another ten days to go. I've also been learning some new fiddle tunes and getting the garden ready for planting, when it hasn't been raining too hard.
Meanwhile Ann has busied herself with her normal activities — working at the food bank, practicing and performing with the church choir, and reading books for her book clubs as well as attending their meetings. We also both went to give blood again on Tuesday.
Monday April 1
A couple of our crocuses
After a very soggy week, today was gorgeous, albeit a bit cool. Ann and I took advantage of it this morning by riding out the waterfront trail to the Woodside ferry terminal. This was Ann's first time out this year and my second — I rode around Dartmouth Crossing last Sunday. In the afternoon I went out again, this time on a longer and hillier ride along the waterfront trail, up to Portland Estates, across Forest Hills Parkway to Lake Loon and Montague Gold Mines, then back along Waverley Road.
A week ago Thursday, Ann and I went to hear Symphony Nova Scotia play Beethoven's Piano Concertos 2, 3 and 4 with Jon Kimura Parker at the piano. Ingrid also went though she was sitting in the first couple of rows while we were upstairs in the balcony. We enjoyed them a lot.
We were out again this Thursday to see The Full Monty, a musical version of the film, at Neptune. We enjoyed the show but I thought that the band was a bit off and some of the singers were a bit off-key. It was only a couple of shows into a fairly long run, so may be they will tighten it up a bit with a few more shows under their belts.
Ann was busy last Sunday, starting out by going to the Early Risers' Breakfast, then singing in the choir at the church service, then going to a choral concert at the Anglican cathedral in Halifax with Ingrid. I instead went on the aforementioned bike ride through Dartmouth Crossing.
The following day we went for a walk in Shubie Park with the Roadents followed by coffee at the Marco Polo Café. These walks have been going on all winter but are normally on Wednesday's; this one was moved ahead because of the rain forecast for the rest of the week. In the evening Ann went to the ABC Book Club to discuss Bluebird, a historical romance about World War I nurses partially set in Windsor and in the present day. It was generally enjoyed despite it flaws.
Yesterday we hosted Easter dinner for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Ingrid, Mike and Alex, Kim and Glen, and Carl and Roxanne came. Ann cooked ham, scalloped potatoes and a carrot cake and the rest of us contributed appetizers and various veggie dishes. It was very pleasant to be able to host such a gathering again.
During Easter dinner, Roxanne mentioned that our ex-neighbour Alex MacPhee had a small exhibition at ViewPoint Gallery that was due to be taken down today. She invited us to go out with her to have a look before they were removed; we went after lunch. We both liked his photos a lot. There were five, all at local beaches taken at sunrise.