In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire ?? & 'Didn't we have a lovely day'

In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, Hurricanes , Hardly Happen    ( My Fair Lady )..........Really ?


It seems that wherever we go some bizarre  twists of nature follows. I kid you not? and if Paul's reading this I hasten to add I am not complaining.I am merely making observations.
 It appears that to Paul I'm always complaining..... Moi !. Mind you I was  living in Mexico at the time and o.k so yes I admit I had my moments. Oh and if my memory serves me correctly most of my 'complaining ' was done in his eatery. Mmmm, you can draw your own conclusions? ( sorry Paul you started it )


Anyway I digress...............................Hurricane Irene? We spent 3 years in Mexico, never saw a hurricane. We have been back in Canada 2 months and we have hurricane Irene to look forward to. Who'dathunkit? As of this moment it looks like Washington, New York and The Carolinas are going to be hit which I can't begin to imagine the damage that it will do.We will see the periphery of the storm , high winds and rain and yes we are still in the motor home.We don't move until the 1st. Bad timing or what? I'm just hoping Irene doesn't head further west then it could be catastrophic. Not that I want anyone to suffer but the thought of it touching land here in Nova Scotia is certainly not a happy one.


As I mentioned, bizarre things do follow us around like........
When we first moved to Alberta? worst flood for 50 years.The town we lived near was evacuated.


Or not shortly afterwards, the worst May snow fall for a similar number of years. The wet heavy stuff as I recall.We had power outages for weeks.


Then there was the plague of grasshoppers. Crawling carpets of hungry hoppers eating every blade of grass they could find.


Then there was the dense, smoke filled skies from the B.C fires.......... 


Oh and lets not forget the mad cow outbreak not long after we first arrived in the country.   England was in the midst of their most serious outbreak of foot and mouth disease in a long time when we left and i have to say I did feel a tad uncomfortable.However I do believe they said that it didn't come from Europe. Phew.

So there it is. Just sayin'?!?!

Didn't we have a lovely day

"Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Bangor

A beautiful day we had lunch on the way and all for under a pound you know.

But on the way back I cuddled with Jack and we opened a bottle of cider

Singing a few of our favourite songs and the wheels went around

Elsie and me , we finished our tea and said goodbye to the seaside

Got on a bus, Flo said to us, oh, isn't it a shame to go

Wouldn't it be grand to have cash on demand and live like this for always

Singing a few of our favourite songs as the wheels went around." 

Well not quite the song but we have had some great days out. Some friends we have just met said to take a trip to the Annapolis Valley as they said it was beautiful . They weren't wrong ! It is indeed a beautiful part of Nova Scotia.

Wolfeville

Wolfeville

On our other day trip, we decided to take a whale watching and nature cruise from the harbour. It was a gorgeous day (yes again)  and we had a tremendous time.  However not a whale in site but we did see some porpoise so all was not lost. The commentary was very informative with a comprehensive history of Halifax and some interesting nature tidbits. 
The views from the boat were spectacular and as it was such a nice day the sail boats were out  in force which made for a considerable photo op. I think I took 109 photos. Thank goodness for digital cameras.

Lunch on Cable Wharfe after the boat trip
We're not in the photo.I took it for the view.

Can'y you still hear the noise on the Pier
As we took a breath of sea air
Having a go at every side show
We passed along the way, we had
Our fortunes told,when it turned a bit cold
And a go on the tombola
It was such a surprise 'cause I won first prize
When the wheel went around.


As sung by "Fiddlers Dram"

62 houses later ......

Halifax wharfe

So , having pondered over New Brunswick and decided that it wasn't the place for us. we decided to take a day to check out Halifax, Nova Scotia. New Brunswick just wasn't bustling enough for us, but our first look at Nova Scotia just felt right. After all where else were we going to go ? We are as far east as we can get there's no more land left!

Halifax harbour

 Having made the decision to move we upped sticks and changed our location to another camp site just outside of Halifax. Setting off again in the motorhome was not, as you can imagine done lightly. I have had it up to my armpits of this nomadic life style.

Lunch

So, yes 62 houses and three weeks later we have found a house. 62 because our realtor kept a tally and told us. She also told us that she has been a realtor for 20 years and we have set a new record for her..... do you think she was trying to tell us something ? ........ She did actually say it with a smile on her face , I don't think she could quite believe it herself I know we couldn't ........ apparently people tend to view around 20 houses before buying. Mmmm I wonder what  that says about us ? either we are very picky or we really should buy a lottery ticket. Our sights are set way to high for our cheque book.


We have been lucky with realtors both here and in New Brunswick. Tracey and Nancy have been really great people and have both been tireless in our quest a to put down roots again and I think we have made two really great friends along the way, which is the biggest bonus of all.

This leg of our journey however has been an interesting one. Last night being one of many unforgettable moments here in Nova Scotia ...................... The heavens decided to bless us with a deluge of rain followed by quite the barrage of thunder and lightning. Unfortunately...... we leak. Well, that is 'the old girl" leaks , it's the Royal 'we'      ( old girl being a term of endearment for the camper in case you don't already know) Both our beds are at the back of the motor home right underneath a window and as we discovered last night the windows leak. Water comes in and collects in the window well and then heads gung ho for our beds. We spent the night mopping up the water, trying to catch it before it got through to the mattress. This was a continuos process and we quickly ran out of dry towels to mop up with. We tried everything to stem the never ending  flow but to no avail.Hence we stayed awake until around 4 in the morning wringing out soppy towels, when the torential rain at last abated. We have since plugged the leaks.....I hope.


The following day got no better. We had arranged to meet the house inspector at 10.30 only to receive a message that he had fallen down the stairs or some such and couldn't make it. We had however to go to the house anyway as we had to get a water sample for testing. Not long after leaving we thought we were kicking up quite a lot of dust in our wake so decided to check it out. As it happens the problem was at the front not the back end of the car. Steam was coming out of every possible nook and cranny imaginable and when we did manage to get the bonnet ( sorry I'm slipping back into my mother tongue), hood it didn't get any better. It looked like the radiator hose that housed the thermostat had broken.We knew this because the thermostat was just hanging there in the joint.Oh and just to add insult to injury it was raining again.


Now remember we had no phone and haven't had a phone since leaving Mexico.Talk about feeling disconnected, well we could talk about it just not on the phone. Anyway there we were stuck in the middle of nowhere......... but!..... thank goodness for our Canadian Good Samaritans. Several people came to our rescue and we were soon given a lift to the local auto mechanic .


The mechanic was himself a joy to behold! Mr Negative couldn't even begin to describe him........' No, I don't come out on calls '. ' No I can't tow you back '. 'No I can't fix it I'm booked up for weeks '..... O.K. then? What do we do now? We had  left Nancy not that long ago but we had no phone to call her and she was the only person we knew. Mr Happy was not offering any solution and to be quite honest we were flummoxed. So, there we were at what I can only describe as a Mexican stand off...... and we had never had one of those even when we lived in Mexico.


Eventually after prising words of more than one syllable out of Mr Grumpy one of the other guys thought that it sounded like we could cautiously drive the car to the garage so he offered to take us back and have a look and to cut a long story a little  shorter we ended up back with Mr Crabby and after much cajoling he offered to get us the part (which they said could be delivered that day surprise surprise) AND he also said that he might fix it before the close of day. When he said that I think we were both gob smacked . By the time we picked up the car Mr Cantankerous turned into at least Mr Amiable and 165 dollars later we were on the road again.


What a day.................


To top it all Barney has decided that he likes bringing us little gifts in the middle of the night. The first time he announced himself and delivered a rather large ( dead, thank goodness) mouse to us. Right on the floor in between our beds. The second time I heard this strange  grinding noise and turned the light on to find him chomping on the head of a mouse in the same place.

Butter wouldn't melt ?

 I found the body later on the drivers seat. The last time topped it all. I woke up to find what I thought was  a really big mouse on the floor. When I got out of bed I discovered that it was a live squirrel. Unfortunately when I tried to catch it with a towel it shot passed me  and we couldn't find it. So we went back to bed and could hear it running around the camper. I haven't seen it since so I gather it found it's way out of Barneys window. I wonder what he will bring in next?

That behind us we now have brought ourselves back into the civilised world yesterday we purchased   a cell phone each at last. Ah,I feel so much better now that I can phone and text. I haven't had my own phone for three years. It will take some learning again and I am hopeless with gadgets .... they just seem to have a mind of their own where I'm concerned. 


We hope to be in our house by September 1st by the way. Can't wait. I have to tell you though that Nova Scotia is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been to and  I have to admit that before we came here we really had a poor view of  Nova Scotia.I don't know why but there it is. However the scenery is quite spectacular and the ocean coves are quite breath taking.

It is great to be back in Canada..... just love the Canadian style...they are some of the most welcoming warm hearted people we have ever met.......... and just for all my non Canadian friends.................. I love you too. It's just that Canada feels like home.

Peggys Cove

 Oh,and a couple of shots of the new house.

The front view.We have plans at a later
date to convert the garage into a living
space with patio doors onto a deck
at the back. But that is for later.

The driveway.

Garden? Well one day.Not till
next year though now.