First South Travelogue

Last evening, I took a walk.

It's been a grueling month. Twice a year, I do a BIG typesetting project. It's my bread and butter and pays for most of the year's expenses, but it's a grind with 45- to 60-hour weeks and one day off in the past 30.

I'm tired.

Yesterday was the very last day, and as still more changes came in in the morning, something in me seemed to snap. I burned out. My brain stopped working. I couldn't focus. I sent a bunch of things back with errors. I was done.

But no rest for the weary! With plenty more work from other clients queued up and waiting for me to be available, I slogged most of the rest of the day out at my desk – fairly ineffectively, but still.

And then, as evening hit, I felt the call of something bigger. The VERSE. Bigger than daily cares, bigger than fiscal responsibility, bigger than me, all humans and the entire construct of human endeavour.

I live surrounded by the most gorgeous landscapes I have ever seen. And as an added bonus, yesterday evening was 9 degrees (Celsius) and sunny.

If you are like me, plowing away at your responsibilities, burdened by worries and cares, I invite you to come along with me on this walk.

The view of the Town of Lunenburg from the top of the
hill by the golf course. The house I've been renting in this winter
is just off the left edge of the frame.

As I headed up the hill, I heard rustlings behind me and realized that my cat, Salinger, had decided to come along.

Here is Salinger, stalking me. This time of year our landscapes
are excellently colour-coordinated for ginger camouflage.

My handsome fellow stayed with me quite a distance – well past the Topmast Motel at the crest of the hill. Fortunately, he is timid of cars and stayed off the road.

Salinger <3

At this point, Salinger decided he had reached the limits of his territory. I, on the other hand, felt like really stretching my legs with a good, long, cobweb-clearer of a walk.

Heading down the hill and out of town.

In a couple of months, this will all be vivid green, but right now, it is a restful golden brown, which I think co-ordinates quite nicely with the blue of the ocean.

On the flat between Hill 1 and Hill 2, looking out to sea.

Coming down the second hill toward Corkum's Island:

The curve at the bottom of this hill always catches me by
surprise when I'm driving. It's a doozy!

About a half an hour out from my starting point, I decided to turn back. Having climbed two big hills on the way out, I knew I would have to climb back up two big hills to get home (unless I called my housemate to come rescue me in her car – LOL!)

I didn't want to overtax myself after a very sedentary month.

I took this picture at the point where I turned
around to come home. Absolute serenity.

Back up the first of those big hills:

Trust me, it's steeper than it looks!

And back into town at the base of the second big hill:

Town limits. Where First South ends and the
Town of Lunenburg begins.

When I got back to the spot where Salinger and I parted ways, I gave a little holler — and look who was hanging around waiting for me to get back!

Salinger, playing "keep away" by the side of the road.

My holler startled three deer who tore off into the trees behind the golf course. I wasn't quick enough to get a photo. 

As Salinger and I came back over the crest of the hill, there was twilit Lunenburg with the first of the lights beginning to sparkle on the boats in the harbour.

Home again, hone again, riggety-jig.

This is a blessed place. 

Its peace eases my heart. It fills my eyes with beauty, my heart with love and my soul with gratitude.

Portrait of the (very tired yet refreshed) blogger
with her cat, Salinger, upon being happily reunited.

4th annual Pennybrook Festival report

What a weekend!

I have been one of the core organizers of the Pennybrook Festival every year since it began, but this is the first year that I was living at Pennybrook Farm during the festival. In past years I have sometimes tented and sometimes gone home to my then-house. How much more awesome was it to have my own Tiny Home right on the festival grounds? Much more awesome – to have my own comfy bed right here and to have no reason to leave all weekend, because although the Festival is technically only on Saturday, our home overflowed with music for the entire weekend.

Friday was the biggest set up day. A number of friends came by to help erect the tents while Charlie put the roof on the stage that Jude had built through the week. As dark fell, the banjos came out. #BANJOY! We had two fine pickers here: Darren Arsenault and a wandering minstrel who goes by the name of Railroad Ty. Jude joined them on mandolin and each of them switched to guitar on occasion. It was a fine night of songs.

I'm really bad about not taking photos during events.
I prefer to be right in the experience instead of watching it from behind my camera.
So, the last Pennybrook photo I took was of the stage on Friday night.
And I didn't take another one until the one at the end of this post:
a photo of the site this morning, now that it's all over.

Festival Day on Saturday dawned grey and overcast, threatening rain. The weather here is so changeable that we decided to take no notice. We proceeded to finish the last preparations – we hung our new black curtains (donated by my stepdad – THANKS!) around the stage and set out more chairs. By noon, the sun was in full force and we had a perfect day for the festival, sunny and warm with a cool breeze. A fair few mosquitoes, but we survived the bites!

The line-up was truly stellar. Jude has a gift for booking great musicians who are also really nice people. Everyone who came and performed added to the fun. And so did the audience. It was a joy to see everybody get along. We used my Wholehearted House as the green room and it was a very fun for me to provide food and drinks and a warm welcome to the musicians. I loved having so many friendly and talented hearts in my home throughout the day! I also invited everyone in the audience to feel welcome to poke their heads in to have a look at my home if they were curious. Many people came and expressed their interest in and appreciation for my sweet little home.

In terms of the music, I think my favourite act of the day was Lucas Reeves and the Lunar Skyline. Lucas has a simply phenomenal voice and his three-piece band brought a very danceable up-tick to the day's tempo. But 15-year-old Liam Potter also blew us all away and surprise substitutes Sahara Jane and Dant Lee (who filled in for all but two of the songs of flu-stricken Erika Kulnys' set) were an unexpected treat. Everyone was brilliant – those are just my personal highlights.

The potluck supper was a smash success again this year: Spatchcocked BBQ chicken, beans, salads, chili and much more (om nom nom).

The music didn't stop with the end of the scheduled musicians. The party moved to the bonfire and the music opened up to musicians and audience members alike. Some late-comers arrived with guitars and smiles and hugs. The party went late (I must admit I staggered off to bed long before it was over, but I could still hear the music from my home until I fell asleep).

Sunday dawned sunny. I made some bacon-cheddar scones to share and our friend and neighbour Kerriann (who is our coffee guru at the West Dublin Market) made coffee and hash browns for everybody. I had nice chats with my fellow early-risers.

I was feeling wiped out on Sunday. It has been a very busy summer for me and the past couple of weeks had been emotionally exhausting as well (for reasons I won't get into here). I did a little work collecting recyclables, particularly wanting to get the glass bottles up off the ground. I did a survey of broken cups and glasses – that's one way to downsize possessions – volunteer the breakable things to be used at a folk festival! I washed several dishpans full of dishes and retrieved my silverware from the pool that had been used for the potluck.

I spent the rest of Sunday lying in my chaise lounge and napping in bed. I felt so happy and relieved to have the pressure of helping with the festival off my shoulders. The music continued with an all-day jam that went electric in the afternoon. I drove a stranded festival goer home and picked up a little more booze on the way back. That evening, Kerriann came back after work and we had a little visit in my house. We were joined by more and more folks – I think at the peak I had 8 people in my tiny home, shooting the breeze and drinking whiskey. It was so much fun! It felt like exactly the warming that my house has been needing.

The evening was soft and gentle and at the end, three dear friends and I were sitting on my deck singing a Capella gospel songs and glorying in a beautiful summer night. That was my favourite moment of Pennybrook 2014. Warm arms around me, warm hearts with me, warm voices weaving harmonies. Perfect.

It was back to work for me yesterday – I had a client meeting in Wolfville and files to wrap up for another client. We got the rented gear returned to Long and McQuade in New Minas. There is still clean-up to do, but I am officially on a semi-vacation. No more pressure, no more stress and a break from heavy responsibilities.

I'm going to enjoy this little pause. My next big task will be winterizing Wholehearted House (I had many conversations about how to do this with various festival-goers). I expect that will be my next blog post, too.