Appointment With The Doctor

Friday night was the first night of the Halifax Jazz Festival, and BF, D and I were in attendance at the opening show, Erin Costelo and legendary New Orleans piano player and singer-songwriter, Dr. John!

(I was way too short to get any good photos, so I have my dear BF to thank for all the Dr. John shots.  Thanks BF!)

Local gal Erin opened with a great set.

Followed by the Night Tripper himself, with his AMAZING band.

We didn't get photos of everyone, but we managed a couple!  

Dr. John mostly plays the piano, but he got up and jammed on his guitar for a while too, the instrument he started off playing back in the day, until he suffered a gunshot injury to his finger while defending a friend.  Yes, seriously.  He can still wail though!

Such a night!  He and his band were tighter 'n a drum and played full out for close to two hours - not bad for a guy who'll be 73 this year!  

Have you checked out any of the Jazz Fest shows?  It's running for the rest of the week, and there are lots of free shows too, so get out there!

Till next time folks!

That Was Then......

When BF and I first moved into our house, in March, this is what the backyard looked like.  

Wowza, did we ever have NO idea what we were in for!  It's July now, and here's what we've got going on:

It's wild!  Like a jungle!  We've got the world's biggest hostas:

Those things are eight feet across and waist high - well, on me anyway.  I keep expecting a dinosaur to bust out at us but so far the wildlife has been limited to birds, bees and bugs.

I interrupted a private moment . . . and now I'm posting it on the internet like the paparazzi in front of Lohan's house. . . . 

Anyway, look at all the pretty stuff we've watched pop up over the last few weeks.  We've got at least three bushes full of these beautiful little roses:

A giant wild rose bush with dozens and dozens of blooms:

And a few bushes of these little roses:

Unfortunately, one of the white rose bushes is falling down the hill!  That's it in the middle:

The rain we've had pretty consistently over the last two months has caused the ground to loosen up and a few of the large bushes that are growing on the steepest part of our backyard are actually sliding down the hill, pulling their own roots right out of the ground!

We used to have twice the number of patio stones but the rogue bushes are taking over!

I think we're going to pull out the biggest one, along with a couple cedars that are sliding along with it and already dying.  A landscaping friend says we can just fill in the space by splitting some of the giant hostas and spreading them around.

We've also got peonies:

A hydrangea plant popping up in the middle of the lawn:

And what looks like a million lilies growing all around the perimeter of the yard:

And that's just the stuff that's been there since before we were.  We are also keeping an eye on the few little plants we've been growing ourselves.  Some Hens and Chickens from my parents' garden:

I actually thought they'd died but they've made a remarkable comeback.

The hydrangea J gave us is settled into it's new planter and is growing a new bloom:

Then there is the celery and garlic I planted from, well, food scraps:

The celery is growing slooooooowly, it's only about five or six inches tall.  The garlic grew like mad, I've trimmed it back several times, from well over a foot tall, to what it is now.  It's been a couple months now and it seems to be going strong. I can't wait to harvest it!

It's exciting and intimidating to know that this yard is ours to do what we want with.  We have some immediate plans to fix a few things up, especially to make it look a little bit less wild for our wedding in September, but for the most part we're just letting it do it's thing and seeing what happens.  

Till next time!!

St. John's, Part II

St. John's, Part II

The second day BF and I were in St. John's, we woke up to a brilliantly warm and sunny day.  We had our coffee at the B&B and made our plan for the day - go out and see stuff.  That's about it.

This  is the view from the Balmoral, where we stayed.

We had a little lunch at Get Stuffed on Duckworth Street, then headed toward Signal Hill, our goal of the day being to walk all the way around it.  At the bottom of the hill, is a small park dedicated to Canadian hero, Terry Fox.  It represents Mile One of his journey, where he dipped his leg in the Atlantic to start it all off.

The caption along the bottom is a quote by him: "I just wish that people would realize that anything's possible if you try; dreams are made possible if people try."

So we started up the hill.  Now something you should know about St. John's, Newfoundland is that much of it is built into the side of a very, very steep hill.  Signal Hill, a separate hill entirely, is just as steep.  Sadly, I was suffering the symptoms of a low lying but never-ending cold and my lungs were just not up to par, so this walk was tough.  But, with the patience and support of my dear fiance, and many breaks along the way, I persevered.  This is about half way up:

Oh, how far away it still seemed.  But you just have to take a look behind to see how far you've come:

That's the city down there.  With those views the hike was pretty damn rewarding, and this ain't nothin'!   :)

The highest point on Signal Hill is called Ladies Lookout.

 It was where the women used to go, years ago, to watch for the ships coming in, ships on which worked their husbands and sons.  It's straight out to the Atlantic from there.  

In fact, from there you can see Cape Spear, the most easterly point of land in North America.  That's it below, in the distance, the little point of land at the very end.

Ladies Lookout was covered in little piles of rocks that visitors had built, some in the shape of inukshuk, others just little stacks.  

We left one too:

Oh, also, this is what St. John's looks like from the very top.  Not to shabby Newfies, you've got a pretty town there!

So then we sidled up to Cabot Tower.

Signal Hill was the scene of the final battle of the Seven Years War, when the French surrendered to the English, in 1762.  For nearly two hundred years after, it lived up to its namesake as a place that people used to communicate, via a flag system, between land and sea.

Much like Halifax's Citadel Hill, Signal Hill also has a noon hour canon.

  

We didn't hear it while we were there, but here it is!

At this particular spot in Newfoundland, we are apparently just 9, 236 kilometres from Kabul.  As good a time as any to start walking.  

Down the hill, along the trail, oh the views!

Below, you can see some of the stairs on the trail descending from Signal Hill.

A view of the Hill, the Narrows and St. John's in the background.  What a day we got for a hike!

At the opening of the Narrows.

An old, clearly long abandoned post.

You all know how I love me some graffiti!

At the end of the trail (or the beginning for those who walk UP the trail instead of down, which admittedly is 95% of people) you come upon this little community.

You walk right through to get back to town.

Which we finally did.  WHEW!  Since we were going extra slowly and obviously stopping to take a lot of pictures and gawk at the scenery, the hike that the locals told us might take two hours, actually took us almost five.  It was soooo worth it, was a gorgeous place.

I tell you what though, in town is not to sad to look at either.  I mean look at this:

Understandably, we were famished by the time we got back.  Good thing we had reservations at:

The chefs at Bacalao strive to make almost everything in house, including smoking the tender partridge and making their own lamb sausage for the charcuterie plate.

I had the cod - when in Rome! It was served with roasted red pepper sauce, chick pea cassoulet and mussels and house-made chorizo.

BF had lamb with roasted pulled goat.  Seriously.

So after we filled our boots, we strolled (yep, more walking!) back downtown to O'Reilly's for some:

And some:

That's Con O'Brien with the guitar, a founding member of the legendary Newfoundland folk group, the Irish Descendants.  According to our awesome server, he just comes and jams with different people all the time!

We capped the night off with a slow walk back up the hill to the B&B, under the (blurry, haha) moon.  Another great day!  Thanks St. John's!

Till next time!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!

Top Five Reasons We Rule:

1.  Best tunes: Hey Rosetta!, Rush, Arcade Fire, Joni Mitchell, K'naan, Leonard Cohen, Hawksley Workman, Sloan, Joel Plaskett, Stan Rogers, Sam Roberts, Kathleen Edwards, Big Sugar, The Tragically Hip, Wintersleep, Serena Ryder, The Guess Who and the Sheepdogs, to name a few.

2.  We were cool with gay marriage ages and ages ago, but for reals on July 20, 2005.

3.  We can travel through tundra, desert, urbanity, prairies, ocean, great lakes, rolling forest hills, rainforest, mountains, and icy expanses without a passport.

4.  We might need to wait a while sometimes, but as far as health care is concerned, no one will be left behind.  

5.  We really hope that everyone feels welcome here because it's our differences that make this place as awesome and interesting as it is.  

Hope you all had a wonderful day, whatever part you're in! 

xo

Till next time!!