Happy New Year

Eleven days into 2015.  Is it too late to wish everyone a Happy New Year?

When the blog is slow, life is busy.  It appears I haven't posted anything since July!   I guess I had a busy summer.  

The summer certainly did seem to fly by.  The cottages were booked, festivals were happening and we went to the beach as much as we could.

kite flying at twilight

We took a family trip on the Nova Star Ferry to Portland.  From there we traveled on to Boston and New York City to soak in a bit of BIG CITY culture.

New York Skyline from the Staten Island Ferry

It was Wonderful!

For me, one of the highlights was a trip to MoMA where were were lucky enough to see a couple of my favourite paintings: Broadway Boogie-Woogie by Piet Mondrian and Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh.

Of course, a visit to New York is not complete without a visit to the Central Park Zoo.

and a giant New York pretzel.

Fall sailed on by with more festivals: the 14th annual Whirligig and Weathervane Festival was in the last week of September and Sandy Lane sponsored a new Festival: the first Shelburne Film Expo. Both events were a blast.  

Fall turned into Winter and with that came Christmas and a much needed break.  We spent days and days just relaxing!

2015 is going to be another busy year with lots of new things happening for Sandy Lane Vacation Rentals: 

a new web page, an improved reservation system, a new logo AND a new assistant! It's all good.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year.

May 2015 be kind to you.

Hurricane Arthur

Hurricane Arthur paid us a visit over the weekend.  

By the time it arrived, it had been downgraded to a Tropical Storm.  

But what a storm!  It sure packed a punch.  

There were some pretty hairy gusts with wind speeds of 140 km.   

We lost 4 or 5 really large branches from our maple trees.  

There are branches, sticks and leaves all over the lawn.

I took the boys out for a drive around town to see how the rest of the town had faired.  

Shelburne is a town with a lot of old trees. 

There was a lot of damage throughout the town. 

This huge Ash came crashing down, just missing a friends house.

What helpful kids, clearing branches off the roads.

Our power was out for 24 hours.  

Phone service went down, except for emergency calls.  

My service provider did not think the calls I have to make were emergencies.  

That was a bit of a problem, because I was waiting for some guests to arrive and I needed to let them know that there is no power or water at their cottages. 

We were lucky, there are still people with no power 5 days later.

Our "Talking Tree" lost 2 huge branches.

Have you ever noticed that when the power is out, all you want to do is things that require power?  “I think I’ll do some laundry”, oops no I can’t. “ I need to check my email”.  Oh No! can’t.   After spending a few minutes running through my list of things I could not do, I thought of something I could do …  Paint.

So, I spent a very peaceful hour or two finishing a painting.  

Here is it.  

I think the background still needs work.  

Thanks for stopping by.

Snowy Winter

When the blog is quiet, life is busy.

We have had an extraordinarily snowy December and January.  Its been a winter wonderland for all those who like winter weather and a snowy hell for all those who don't.  

I haven't see this much snow since 2004.

Thank goodness we have a snow blower!

 The Arctic Vortex came for a visit and delivered bone chilling temperatures of -23C.  

We stayed in those days.

On warmer days, we subscribed to the attitude "if you can't beat it join it".  

So we did...

building a snowman

Snow shoeing - don't I look sporty?

Even the most ardent winter haters have to admit it is pretty!

Icy harbour

Sunset over the harbour

 Here is a little something I worked on before Christmas -

Cardinal Ornaments for friends and family

 Happy New Year.

Thanks for stopping by!

Show and Tell

As a fund raiser, the Osprey Arts Center invited all local artists and would-be artists to take participate in a local art show.

It worked like this: you bought two 6" x 6" canvas for $10, painted them anyway you wanted and submitted them to the Osprey for the show.  The work was then displayed and sold for $25 each.  The Osprey got $15 of the proceeds and the artists got $10.  
 
The show was fantastic. I really enjoyed seeing all the different pieces.

Can you guess which ones are ours?

6 x 6 is not a large canvas, but there were so many ideas. 

My boys have two in this shot

I ended up buying these two by an artists I don't know.

. 

I get to pick them up today, so I can found out who did them.  If it is a woman, I am hoping I can convince her to be a featured artist in the Harmony in Art Show sponsored by Sandy Lane at next year’s Harmony Bazaar Festival of Women and Song.

The show is over today, so now I can tell you which ones we did:

 

Mine is top right.

The boys want to keep their pieces anonymous.

I hope they do it again next year.

Meet Florence ...

Meet Florence Rose, our beautiful 1966 Plymouth Fury.   

We purchased her on a whim in 2011.  We were chatting one night,  lamenting the loss of our original Fury who was sadly smashed by an airline bus in Toronto.  As we started scrolling through the online car trader for similar models, Florence jumped right out at us.  We hummed and we hared and then we finally succumbed to her straight lines, sparkling chrome and killer style.  With only 45,000 miles on her, she had been around, but had many more miles in her.

She is quite the Lady: original paint, chrome interior, burgundy seats, lap belts and a V8 under the hood. She is a treat to drive, charging down the road attracting appreciative nods from people who remember her from her heyday.   It is impossible for her to go by unnoticed.  All that sparkling chrome, and chest pounding base, she always "makes an entrance"

It is like taking your living room for a ride.  Over six feet wide, and 17 feet long, we could sleep in her if we had to.  She is our summer time chariot of choice.

I hope you'll hitch a ride and come along as we cruise our way through Nova Scotia.

Cheers

Helen