Home from holidays

We had the nicest time in Nova Scotia. We started in Lunenburg, then made our way across the province to Digby for some whale watching. I was very keen to go whale watching in a zodiac. It was the calmest day I have every seen on an ocean. Not a wave in sight, which made it great fun and easy to see tons of harbour porpoises. I did not get any great whale watching shots, but my hubby did. I will try to post some soon. I was too busy watching the whales to be taking pictures. We saw one jump right up in the air in front of us - amazing! We also saw moms and babies. Such fun to see the little tail and then the big tail!

While in Digby we had to check out Bear River. Somehow I imagined it to be a bigger place but we met Rob Buckland-Nicks of Flight of Fancy - what an amazing shop. All handmade stuff - not one piece of mass manufactured trinkets in sight. It was wonderful!

I bought the most beautiful bird, hand painted by Rob. He paints all kinds of birds on rocks that he finds on local beaches. He was kind enough to share many locations of great beaches, too bad we weren't around long enough to go exploring on all of them.

While in the Digby area we stopped by a small park that I had seen advertised called Balancing Rock. We had about an hour before whale watching and thought we could make it down to the rock and back. We had barely enough time, but we made it. It was a great walk on some pathways through a bit of marshland, through a bit of forest and then down 237 steps to the edge of the ocean where the most amazing sight was awaiting us.

I am not quite sure how it stays there, but it certainly is impressive. The walk up the stairs was a bit of a trek, but it was so well worth it. I am very glad to found the time to see this in person, so to speak.

After Digby we headed west towards the Cabot Trail and Baddeck. We took a day to explore the trail. Which was not nearly enough time. We stumbled upon a cliff near Chedicamp and I took this cute picture of a baby seagull. He is so ugly, I actually think he may be cute! There were seagulls and cormorants nesting on this cliff face. I just sat down on the top of the cliff and watched. I could have stayed there all day, but we had tons more places to see.

On the way back down the Cabot Trail we found Wildfire Pottery. Sarah Beck makes the cutest animals and she was kind enough to postpone an errand in Baddeck so we could do some shopping. She was so kind, said no need to feel we have to purchase anything, but I just fell in love with this puffin. I have such a soft spot for them. He is too cute!

Our trip was wonderful. The people were amazing and we stayed in bed and breakfasts all the way. Every one of them was great in its own way. Much more fun that staying in hotels, in my opinion.

I have found some time for my torch and am getting very excited to go to Rochester for Gathering. It is fast approaching (in like two weeks!). I signed up for half a table so I am not under too much pressure to make a zillion beads! I think I actually have enough for the one day show. I also have a bunch of trade beads - that is my favourite part - bead trading at Gathering on the Sunday night.

The other thing keeping me occupied is getting ready to submit class ideas to Bead and Button - can you believe that the deadline is coming up in the next few weeks. I have to have demo beads, descriptions and photos done and then everything needs to be mailed to Wisconsin! I have been working away and am getting close. One more angel is in the kiln because the first demo bead was not the most photogenic lady you ever saw, so tonight, after teaching all day, I made another one. We will see what she looks like in the morning.