Andrea and Paul

Cat lover, photographer, scrapbooker and... frog enthusiast?

No, it's not me I'm describing. It's Andrea, the bride from my next project, who married her long-time love, Paul, on September 21, 2012.

I met Andrea through a friend, and she and Paul drove my sorry butt home from work through the entire six weeks of the 2012 Halifax transit strike (best. carpool. ever.). She also talked me through a plethora of potential solutions for cat health problems, so when she asked me to shoot her tiny courthouse wedding, I dropped what I was doing and responded with an emphatic YES.

The day started out at Spirit Spa in downtown Halifax. Those ladies were at work early on a rainy Saturday, did a fantastic job, and deserve a little shameless advertisement: 

 They even provided Andrea with a room where she could put on her dress and accessories so she wouldn't have to go out in the rain before heading to the courthouse.

Once there, Paul realized he had forgotten something in the car. Hm....

 ... rings anyone? Haha, best man to the rescue.

Alright, let's make it happen!

Just like that, Mister and Missus!

 I loved the flowers that Andrea chose.

 After the fact, I realized they kind of made me think of lilies on lily pads, which was quite appropriate considering the apparent theme of the gifts.

The whole ceremony was over by eleven-thirty a.m. so in lieu of a reception, our gracious hosts treated their guests to Chicken Burger in Bedford. The staff were incredibly patient considering we were a party of a dozen or so and other customers were lining up for their own taste of the 50's-style diner. I couldn't blame them; the food was yummy and the atmosphere was perfect.

Who wouldn't be game for some 50's-themed photo styling in a place like this? Much love to all the random customers who moved out of the way for this one.

Then, shortly after noon, it was all said and done except for one last pit stop in the parking lot for this little number before the bride and groom whisked themselves off to their cabin for a bit of end-of-summer honeymoon time!

Feeling Blue? Just Wine A Little.

When I was little, I used to go blueberry picking with my mom. She would pick buckets upon buckets of blueberries, and I would "help", although I'm pretty sure I ate more than I ever put in the bucket. When we got home, she would bake. Much of what she made would go in the freezer ("they're for Christmas, Terri!") but there was always a treat after supper or in my lunchbox the next day. 

September of 2012 found me wondering if I could re-create some of my mother's recipes and knowing full well that store-bought blueberries just weren't going to cut it. A trip to a u-pick blueberry farm would do just nicely, however, and if that u-pick blueberry farm happened to also be a winery, well, who am I to argue?

Cue: Lunenburg County Winery.

The winery is located on beautiful Hackmatack Farm just outside of Mahone Bay, NS. Along with the winery and blueberry farm, there is a picnic area and a lady by the name of Heather who weaves baskets in her onsite craft shop.

The way the u-pick works is that you purchase a bucket in the shop before you start, and fill it to your heart's desire with berries. I don't remember the exact price of the bucket off the top of my head, but I do know it was comparable to buying the berries in a grocery store, and on top of that, you know that your berries were absolutely, one hundred percent fresh. That sounds like a definite win to me.

And off we go...

Uh-oh, bucket's full.... wait... what's this?

No, for the record, you can't pick the grapes. You can, however, certainly buy them in their very best form. 

Which I did.
A lot.
And a lot more since.

After the harvest was loaded into the car, there was a bit of time to wander the grounds. I have to say, the place is pretty remarkable. Someone puts a lot of time and care into keeping the area in top shape.

On the way back to the highway, there is a tiny graveyard. The stones are old and alluring...

...and hauntingly sad.

Because I know you're dying to know, yes, indeed, the very next day, I made my first ever pie from scratch. My mother recommended her best friend's recipe for the crust, and her own for the filling. If I do say so myself, it was pretty tasty, and I'll tell you for sure that not one bit of it got saved for Christmas.

Medford Beach on the Bay of Fundy

One hundred billion tonnes.

Can you picture it?

That's how much water flows in and out of the Bay of Fundy, located between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, twice a day, every day. Halifax is about a 75-minute drive from the Nova Scotia side of the bay, but I lived in the city for 12 years before I resolved to experience the phenomenon myself and, as they say in the tourism commercials, "take a walk on the ocean floor."

My chosen point of disembarkment was Medford Beach. I have no sense of direction, and Google Maps told me it was a relatively simple place to find. How's that for scientific process? Scientific or not, it worked, and after traversing highway, back country road, and a maze of pot-holes that had been designated a dirt road, I came out here:

There were cottages all along the cliff, and it was easy to walk along the manicured yards and find things like this:

There were also a number of wooden staircases leading down to the water's edge. Some were downright crumbling, some maintained to perfection. For whatever reason, I found myself on the former but managed to make my way to the shoreline.

You can see in the shot above just how high the water gets, and that there was a half mile or more between me at the water's edge and the cliff-face. Here's yet another video to which I have no claim to copyright, but which illustrates the extent of the tides in 30 seconds much better than all the typing in the world that I could do. 

Also, be warned that I had a few scary moments out there when my shoes got stuck in the mud and I literally couldn't move one foot or the other. Luckily each time I was able to find firmer footing with my other foot and (slowly and carefully) pull myself out. More than once, I was pretty sure I was leaving my shoe behind. Speaking of shoes, don't wear your favorites, or flip flops. Try a pair of cheap rubber boots that you seriously wouldn't mind having to leave behind. Because even if they're not stuck in the mud, chances are they're not going back on your feet!

Science Made Me Do It

The summer of 2012 brought a :blue tide" to River Ryan, Cape Breton. Caused by the growth of bioluminous bacteria due to a drop in the amount of rainfall over a period of time, this phenomenon lives up to it's name, causing the water to glow a bright and beautiful blue when disturbed. I didn't hear about the occurrence until I visited on the Labour Day weekend in September and when I told my mother about it, we decided to go investigate that night.

Unfortunately, we were too late, and the bacteria had moved on with their little bacteria lives. I know you're disappointed, I was too! So here's a video that someone uploaded to Vimeo to which I have no claim to copyright, but which I'm sure may enjoy some additional views and satiate your need to witness the blue tide at the same time.

On the bright side, what I did get out of the adventure was the inspiration to take a little side trip back in that direction the next morning before I started on my way back to Halifax. It's not a direction I usually drive in, so I wondered what it looked like in the daytime. The Lingan power plant sits on the shores of the very body of water that experienced the tide but was, for the record, completely unrelated to the phenomenon.

The other side of the road...

Thanks to Google Maps and directions from a friend with a substantially better direction sense than me, I managed to navigate a loop that brought me through the town of New Waterford and into the suburb of New Victoria where the highway kisses the ocean and you can pull over and get shots like this practically without leaving the car. 

 If you do want to leave the car, however, there's the now-restored Fort Petrie sitting guard at the mouth of Sydney Harbour. What used to be a haven for drinking and vandalism has in the last few years been designated a municipal heritage property and makes for some fantastic photo opportunities.

 

If you're lucky, you'll also see one of the huge passenger ferries on it's way in from or out to Newfoundland. The fort also provides another magnificent view of the Low Point Lighthouse.

The last stop on my mission was the most rewarding. I passed through New Victoria and into the village of South Bar where, as you know from here, I lived for the first nine years of my life. I navigated the short dirt road (if you can call it that) to the sandbar, where I spent much of my childhood swimming, skating, and hopping from rock to rock, breakwater to breakwater. Much of the sandbar is eroded away now and if the tide is in at all, you can't get out to the other end anymore. On this morning, though, it was absolutely perfect. There was not a breath of wind and the puffy clouds decorated the aqua sky like they'd been painted there. I sat for a long, long time and would have stayed longer if I could have, enjoying the peace and tranquility that only comes with being in a place that you love.