This is the first of a three part series on the Annapolis Valley. This one is on barns. All were taken while we were at our daughter's place in Morristown, which is between Berwick and Aylesford on the Aylesford Lake Road. I wandered the Hall Road, Victoria Road, and Harmony roads over to Greenwood, stopping here and there for a late morning/ early afternoon summer session.  

 There seems to be a lot of subject matter to shoot over there as there is in most rural communities. This was a particularly warm, cloudy summer day, with lots of humidity.  

The peace, tranquility and beauty of the idyllic rural farm life is in a juxtaposition with the reality of the difficulties and harshness of the realities that farm life can sometimes offer. Barns have a lot of charm, yet suffer the ravages of time as the barn boards take on all the weather that summers and winters and wind and rain and snow can offer. And yet, they seem to stand the test of time as very few people can remember when the old falling down barns were brand new and full of hope for the farmers and animals who inherit the luxuries of new surroundings.

I love the sight of the faintness of the old red style barn that seems to say: "You have forgotten us - look, you haven't even put a new fresh coat of red paint on my boards"...

I wonder what stories these old barn boards could tell us, if given the chance. As I stand and observe, and enjoy the peacefulness of the warm summer tranquility, I get filled with wonder and curiosity with what's inside these old structures and what their story would be.  

As the year's pass, the green grass  and hay grow and the trees and fruits and gardens flourish in the heat, sun, and rain of the lush Valley weather. But as the plants flourish, the man-made additions to the natural world take a beating. Perhaps they are not meant to remain forever - as a powerful reminder of the role nature plays in the order of mankind.

Some barns (and old vans) are closer to the end than others. It's a good thing we don't have a pool on when these old structures will finally collapse to the ground - it could take years. It has taken a long time for some of them to acquire the state in which they currently exist. 

Had a really nice day the other day - after the work was all done we had cocktails on the deck and put out some peanuts for the birds. 

We (and the birds) are adjusting to no feeders. We are so used to sitting and watching them all and now there's just a few "hangers on".

 We then finished up with a small campfire. It was a really nice Tuesday or Wednesday evening.  Enjoy...

Brother Lloyd and I started with the first of the trees coming down on May 22. The building took about 6 weeks with days off and since I was in no hurry, I didn't hurry. I had lots of help and really appreciate that. The kids will too. It was certainly a labour of love and is now in good enough shape I can leave it alone for a bit while I get some other stuff done. The end result looks better in person than on any drawings I made up to try and make sure it all went together well. There are no major issues with the construction, although I did have a few days that questioned my sanity when things didn't go as smoothly as I had predicted or wanted.

 Here's the latest of the treehouse pictures. This is from the deck.  

 The steps aren't perfect - these were done in a hurry quite early on and I needed to get them together so I could save time. But they work OK for now. I may need a little more challenge for the kids to crawl or climb up to the house. 

Here's what you see from the walkway coming over from the garage.

WaxWings and Turtles

Our neighbour Beagle Ken was telling me about these birds he hadn't seen in about 5 years and they were at his place eating his holly bush berries. So I told him to call when they reappeared. He called and I ran down, but only managed one sequence of one bird - there were about 10 about but most were under cover. The berries are almost gone. I was happy just to get any. This was on Wednesday April 20.

On Friday My brother Paul and I headed for the Valley for a fishing trip on a very warm spring day. On lake one we were fairly unsuccessful fish-wise - but very successful fun-wise. We then switched over to lake number two and before we loaded the boat we checked the local turtle log to see if any were out and about. There were six on the log originally, but they disappeared rather quickly when the alarm goes up. Three reappeared after things settled down. Here's Turtle One and Turtle Two telling Turtle Three to come on up to practice the synchronised sunning routine they were working on ...

The little guy was swimming around the log and finally said "I'm coming on up ... I'm just getting my energy up for the big climb."

OK, so here we go - ahhh made it .. that sure is a long way to pull up a heavy shell like mine...

OK, so synchronized practice over - then what do we do ? How about some balancing practice.

Look guys, no hands or feet !!!

 We got the turtles, we got a deer, two pairs of ruffed grouse, some red-tailed hawks, two beavers, and then a mystery bird that must be a lightened up eagle - further research required. Oh, and by the way we did take enough trout home for a great breakfast for three on Saturday morning. Great day on the water with lots of heat and interesting things going on... No bugs, and no sunscreen - forgot that. Summer can't be that close !!! Some of the stories are for another time... 

The Paw Patrol Easter Egg Rescue

"Hi I'm Ryder(Grammie), I just got a call from the Easter Bunny saying the wagon I borrowed from Grammie to deliver Easter Eggs has turned over and needs to be rescued. We need two teams to set out and try and find the wagon with the spilled eggs... Skye (AJ) and Marshall(Holden) will be PawPals 1, Everest (Norah) and Rocky (Eloise) will be PawPals2.
"PAW Patrol, to the Lookout." …  " All paws on deck"...

Everyone get your badges and baskets to gather the missing eggs and instructions from Ryder.

Here they are at Clue #1 - the big yellow mountain. Marshall just wanted to slide: "I'm fired up! Pups Away"..

Off to clue #2: Where the fairies live near the Fairy Door: ROCKY: "Green means go!!".

Clue # 3: Off to the Dragon Cave where the dragons live... Skye:"Let's take to the sky!"

Clue # 4: Off to Nikita's Garden. Everest: "Ice or Snow I'm ready to go!" .

Final Clue: Near the Big Boat and the Wood Pile:

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: YOU HAVE LOCATED THE TURNED OVER WAGON!!! PUT ALL THE EGGS IN YOUR BASKETS …

Perrfect Paw Patrol Participation... Now PUPS - go find your rewards in the house: all is set up in Grammie and Grampie's Room...

Eloise was happy to get a carrot, but she also got a three wheel scooter (below).

Norah got just what she always wanted - a skate board !!! Here she is showing Daddy ...

The girls put together the scooter for Adeline (Grampie's AJ) ... 

...and Holden came away with mitfull of trucks - a dump truck with even a plow on it !!!

Here are the scooters - Holden also has a blue one like Eloise's... all awaiting patiently for the Paws to go have some fun on the driveway - with helmets of course...

Hope everyone had a beautiful Easter. We then headed off for a marvelous turkey dinner with home made apple and blueberry pie and ice cream ... 

The Yellow Chat, Cardinal and White Tails...

At the end of January Paul was helping care for a summer layover Yellow Chat that was having difficulty with the winter cold. He was the "Jellyman" to help the chat get fed with grape jelly, and hopefully, survive the winter. These were taken at a cemetery in Lower Sackville.

Although he stayed mostly in the rose brambles, he also was quite friendly and cooperative to visitors for some quite striking yellow breasted photos.  

Along with the yellow chat came the cardinals, waxwings robins etc. The waxwings and robins were not as cooperative as the cardinals and the chat - the star of the show.

Here are a few of the male cardinal, the female was about, quite often at the same time - just not on this day ...

While unsuccessfully pursuing the robins and waxwings we scared up a few tails on the lower road. Just as we were leaving, we were very surprised to find these guys munching on a birdfeeder in the front yard while a neighbour worked on his car right across the street !! Obviously, town deer used to traffic and people.

Seems like Momma didn't like the snapping of pictures - or maybe it was the strange "truck slowing down to take  a look at her"... In the Spring and summer I'm sure they keep the neighbourhood clear of any roses and tulips or other such fine dinery ...

Although about a month out of sequence, I felt these pictures needed to be in the blog as wonderful nature encounters and beautiful natural pictures and stories...

Back In the Saddle

Sat Feb 27, 2016 - It's been about a year since my last post so it's time to get back into the game. It was a very nice and mild +5C with the sun shining bright so I decided to take Allie our wonderful dog for a little scout. These Common Goldeneyes were down at the south end of Porters Lake, diving for food. So on one of their dives, I snuck out of the truck, crossed the road and got ready to shoot.

There were a pair of males and they immediately became suspicious of "what changed"... So they nervously headed for more open water. The lake de-iced everywhere yesterday - there wasn't much ice on the lake this winter at all... It is now all open, right up to Duckhead.

Anyway, this pair decided enough had changed to warrant a scoot. It doesn't take long for these guys to plane it up and become airborne. They didn't go far - just up around the bend to Rocky Run.
 

So we adventured on and did a quick trip into Fisherman's Reserve where most of the birds were quietly sipping on low-tide marmalade or hunkered down on the rocks just melting in the warm sunshine. This Ring-billed Gull shows just how blue the sky reflection was today...

The Shore Road had some Canada Geese resting and chowing down - but everyone of the 100-300 had their heads down, munching - no pics this time, but we'll watch and see who else shows up in Chezzetcook Harbour. I had to scoot myself over to the grocery store to fetch some ice-cream and ginger-ale (another story). We'll see how this post looks after being away for so long...