Notes from Nova Scotia

So yes, Sydney and I arrived safely in Nova Scotia last week.  I hope no one was sitting on the edge of his seat, waiting to hear of our arrival 🙂

The morning after we arrived in Nova Scotia the whole family took off for a two-day vacation to Cape Breton, on the other side of Nova Scotia.  Talk about dramatic scenery!  Pictures forthcoming, I’m sure, but imagine a park with high mountains, a rocky coastline, lots and lots of trees, and a road snaking around it (and up and down it), with the occasional pull-off at key picture-taking spots.  It was lovely.  It also gave us a chance to get to know Heather, Nelson’s new girlfriend, since all six (both parents, both boys, plus wife and girlfriend) traveled together in the family van.  I loved being able to see the park, since I’d heard a lot about Cape Breton from Sydney and others.  We also took a boat tour out to the bird islands, where we saw Atlantic puffins and cormorants and gulls and even a kind of penguin.

After four days of straight driving, though, I was glad to come back to the house and do farm work for awhile–with a few other diversions.  On Friday night the youth of Sydney’s church got together for a game of volleyball, and Nelson convinced Sydney to come along, despite Sydney’s demurrals about no longer being “youth.”  I was glad Nelson proved persuasive, since we all had a fantastic time.  I hadn’t played volleyball in a really long time, but it only took about ten minutes for me to get pretty competitive.  Nelson and Sydney and I were all on different teams (Heather was with Sydney), so it was great to meet your mate or your brother-in-law across the net . . . and try to cream him 🙂  There were a lot of siblings out there, so everybody seemed to be giving everybody else a hard time and having a great laugh about it.

I went with Sydney’s mom to the area farmer’s market on Saturday, and got what Sydney calls my people-high as I negotiated foreign currency, twenty kinds of vegetables, and lots of customers.  People in the area have really gotten into organic, local produce in recent years, so we did well.  Since Sydney and I are frequent customers at our own farmer’s market, it was also interesting to see it from the other side of the booth!

Sydney and I plan to head home on Thursday, arriving late in the evening on Friday.  Since it’s such a long drive here and back we would love to make it a longer visit, but as we weed here we are reminded that our own garden is becoming overgrown while we’re away!

Erin