Dappled Air

This past week hubby and I had the most delightful summer adventure of a different kind, we went Segway Gliding . That's what it is called when you go for a drive on a Segway. A few years ago at a Health Show I had the opportunity to do 5 minutes of Segway gliding and I fell in love with it. First stop at a small waterfall on the BLT trail Then a few months ago I came across a local ad for Segway tours in Nova Scotia . I made a mental note and told myself that hubby and I would do this some time in August. Well, last Thursday was that day. It was early in the morning on hot summer's day. We met up with Max from Segway NS at the BLT (Beechville - Lakeside - Timberlea Trail) at trail on what once was the rail bed. What is a Segway Anyway? Here is the info from Wikipedia: The Segway PT is a two-wheeled self-balancing battery-powered electric vehicle invented by Dean Kamen. It is produced by Segway Inc. ofNew Hampshire, USA. The name Segway is a homophone of the wor...

On Friday's walk around Oat Hill Lake we came across the first ducklings of the season. That's why I always take my camera along on my walks. The ducklings must be very new as they still have yellow in their plumage from the egg.

The cold air has arrived much earlier than usual and yesterday it felt with the windchill like it was below -20°C. I decided not to venture outside, but the birds did not have that advantage. Around lunch time I was looking out my kitchen window and saw this blue jay all puffed up sitting in a pine tree trying to stay warm. I grabbed my camera and put it on full zoom which turned out to be 24x digital. Trying to find the bird at that zoom was no easy task then the next step was to stay still and not shake to take the picture. To my big surprise the picture turned out very well.

On our daily walk around the lake we came across some elementary school aged kids with one of them holding something in his hand. It turned out to be a 'Spotted Salamander'. They had found it by turning over a rock. Always having my camera with me allowed me to take a picture. The animal was scared and peeing, so they decided to put it back where they found it. Here is the info I found at Wikipedia about the Salamander: Latin name: Ambystoma maculatum "The spotted salamander is about 6-7 1/2 inches long. The spotted salamander's main color is black, but can sometimes be blue-black, dark gray, or even dark brown. There are two rows of yellow/orange spots that run from the top of the head (near the eyes) to the tip of the tail. These rows are uneven. An interesting fact is that the spotted salamander's spots near the top of the head are more orange and the rest of the spots are more yellow. The underside of the spotted salamander is slate gray." "The spott...

Looking through my pictures I took during November, I realized that the one with the bicycle in the snow was perfect for December. Wallpaper with Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1900 x 1200 pixels Wallpaper without Calendar 1024 x 768 pixels 1280 x 1024 pixels 1900 x 1200 pixels

What a difference 5 days make. Saturdays snow did not stay around for a very long time. The last few days saw temperatures that were hovering around almost 10° C and the snow just faded away. I am not complaining, it is now easy to walk around the lake again as the snow turned to ice making walking dangerous. So I just had to take another picture of my backyard to record the difference.

Well, there is now no more doubt, winter has arrived. On Thursday we had about 2 inches of snow and everything just had a 'sugar coating' of snow. The storm came from the North and all the North sides of the trees had a line of snow on them. Then yesterday morning we woke up to a foot (25 cm) of snow. It didn't matter that is was Saturday morning, we had our work cut out. On top of it the city had plowed the street narrow, that meant we had an extra 6 feet to clear on the street that was 2 feet high. It took hubby and me an hour and a half to shovel out or drive way. All I can say that we got our daily work out and the opportunity to take some more pictures to share.

I wonder how many mothers are doing what my youngest daughter and I do quite frequently, we go shopping together by phone. My daughter goes to universtity in Toronto and I live in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Since she has added my phone number to her 5 most called numbers, she does not incur long- distance charges any longer. So I keep on getting phone calls from whatever she happens to be doing at the moment. Her favorite time to call is when she is grocery shopping. She walks up and down the isles and tells me what she is looking for and asks me if she's getting a good deal or not. I enjoy our time together and feel much more invovled in her life than I would be without those phone calls. I really would like to know if other children do the same or if it is more unusual. I am looking forward to your comments.

Lake Banook looking North -> The sun was out and it looked beautiful, but a strong North wind and temperatures around 4°C did not stop us from going for a long walk around Lake Banook checking out what the city was doing. The city is putting in a new sewer line and lowering the water level of the lake. We dressed warmly and had a great walk and I was able to take some lovely pictures. The city blocked off the connection between Lake Banook and MicMac Lake and were lowering the water levels in Lake Banook at the Western end with 4 powerful diesel pumps. They sure look impressive. I took some great pictures on our walk around the lake. View all the picture I took here .

Yesterday's Sunday outing took us the the York Redoubt. "York Redoubt was the heart of the defenses protecting the outer harbour approaches to Halifax. It is currently a national historic site of Canada." The last time we were there was when we first moved to Halifax and I did not have a digital camera yet. The fall colors were beautiful and the temperatures still quite nice. My favorite picture of the afternoon is the one above. It is a shot of the interior of the quaint little wooden church (1846). I took one picture, but it looks like I took a few and put them together in Photoshop, but I did not. left: Closeup of gears in the canon right: broken trees still show the damage from hurricane Juan in 2003 Check out the other pictures I took here .