Ferry to Tancook Island

Four of us took the ferry to Tancook Island today.  There was quite a bit of fog, but the ride was very smooth.

Little Tancook and Big Tancook are the islands I can see from my bedroom window at Old Salt.  We boarded the ferry at Chester.

The ferry went first to Little Tancook, then Big Tancook where we got off and walked to the local (and only) restaurant at the top of a hill that was steeper than it looks.

Suzanne and Sherry had fish chowder while Lucy and I were treated to the last two lobster sandwiches in the restaurant - very good lobster sandwiches.

When we returned to Chester, we went over to Suzanne's house to spend some time with Hugh - who knows more about the history involved with rug hooking than any person alive.  He is an energizer bunny when it comes to doing historical research, and he shared some of that with us today - too bad the day didn't hold more hours!

For the evening, Lucy Richard demonstrated her Wooly Mason Jar dye system.  By organizing an exact system of measurement, Lucy has taken complications out of dyeing.  If you can understand a color wheel with primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, you could become an expert swatch dyer using the Wooly Mason Jar System.  That was a pretty full day, so I'm off to bed!

 

Hooked Rug Museum

The pictures show a very small portion of the rugs on display in the galleries of the Hooked Rug Museum of North America.  The last photo shows a rug hooked with burlap on burlap.  Throughout the museum there are rug collections organized by theme (such as rug patterns by Edward Sands Frost or rugs that depict the story of the War of 1812, etc.)

In addition to enjoying the museum today, we did some shopping at Frenchy's in Bridgewater and Liverpool - which meant LOTS of driving.  I've added more than 400 miles to my odometer since my arrival at Old Salt.
Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to a ferry ride to Tancook Island - if rain doesn't ruin our plans.

Mahone Bay

We spent today in Mahone Bay - the town famous for it's churches.

There are a number of churches right on the bay.  Three of them have tall steeples and those three often end up as paintings and rug hooking patterns.  We had lunch (haddock chowder) across the bay from the churches,  but visibility wasn't great so my photography suffered.

After lunch, we went shopping at Encompassing Designs, a great rug hooking supply store right on the main street of this lovely, old-fashioned town.  We also did some antiqueing during the day - found some great old rug hooks and other essential collectibles.  We got back to Blandford just in time to have fish and chips at a nearby restaurant.  One of my purchases today was a book about the history of Blandford - my bedtime reading for tonight.

Peggy's Cove

Yesterday went by too fast.  Pam and I spent the afternoon with Suzanne at the museum.  I was surprised that two of the visitors were Yahookers, Phyllis Smith and her daughter Joanne.  Funny when you meet people you've known for a long time on the internet, they don't look at all the way you had them pictured.  I thought Phyllis was a tall, willowy, dark haired Tallulah Bankhead-esque sort of person - but, I was wrong.  She's my kind of person!

We went to Peggy's Cove and saw the lighthouse pictured in dozens of mats donated to the museum by the wonderful people in Ontario.  After seeing so many hooked versions of the lighthouse it seemed appropriate to view it in person.  While we were there, we had a delicious dinner of baked stuffed lobster tail.

We had a corner

 table in the restaurant, so I could see the ocean to my right and to my left.  Wonderful place to eat!

The early settlers in Peggy's Cove were given land grants for this area, and, although it's a very popular tourist area now, I think they got the raw end of the stick - the land is all rock.  Not rocky, rock.  Solid giant rocks of granite.  No soil for farming.  No soil to support a shade tree.  No soil.  Just huge, gray rocks.  Fortunately, those brave souls could make a living on the ocean because the land sure wasn't going to help them.  So, it was an isolated fishing village on the very rocky coast of St. Margaret's Bay.  We drove around on the other side of the bay when we drove down the Aspotogan Peninsula to get to Old Salt.  In that bay, 15 years ago, a Swiss Air plane crashed and all on board were lost.  There are memorials on both sides of the bay to those lost on that flight.  One man I met on Saturday thought I was a family member of someone lost and thought I had come such a long way because the 7th is the 15th anniversary of the crash

.  The fishermen on both sides of the bay went out to the crash to rescue survivors, but there weren't any.  They had to deal with the gruesomeness of  finding

hundreds of bodies.  The local people took in the family members back then and would probably be just as kind today.

Old Salt, Blandford, Nova Scotia

I'm up early at Old Salt this morning, enjoying the sunrise and some toast made from homemade bread Hugh and Suzanne brought over yesterday.  They came to visit early in the morning, but I had already left to see them at the museum.  I took a wrong turn and ended up miles (well, kilometers) in the wrong direction before I turned around and actually got to the museum. I was able to do a lot of sightseeing and a little yard saleing along the way.  There were only a few small things that caught my eye and my wallet at the yard sales - I bought a set of Japanese dogs, an old children's book, and some earrings - all good stuff.

After my museum visit, I did some beachcombing.  I'm looking for the perfect stones to make handles for rug hooks.  I found some that feel right in my hand, but they are shale or slate or sandstone.  I really want granite, for the beauty and strength, so I'm putting more beachcombing on my schedule for today.

Sauder Village Rug Show 2013

Thursday morning, I suddenly remembered this week is Sauder Village rug show week.  I cancelled my other commitments and made the almost two hour drive to Archbold, Ohio.The rug show was HUGE.  I think there must have been more rugs than any other year.  There were several shows within the show and all were impressive.

 There were vintage shirred rugs, part of a collection that goes with a book that I didn't buy :(

 There were President rugs, a rug for each American President, with an extra display of Presidential dolls - a knitted and needle felted doll for each President.

 There was a set of color challenge rugs:  the gorilla was hooked by April Deconick who was assigned "light" as her challenge.

 Lisanne Miller hooked the forest with dark trees and darker trees.

 This great aurora borealis was hooked in response to the challenge, "green".

 

And so on,,,
Hundreds of rugs and dozens of great people, lots of old and good friends.  Rug shows are great!  and I survived the drive, a good test for my Nova Scotia trip.

Summer Update

It is now August and I apologize for not finishing my last trip report.  I did something really foolish after my last post - I woke up the next morning and decided to drive all the way home.  I drove too many hours, took too few breaks, thought the air was too thin and that explained why I couldn't breathe.  I did get home in time for my painting class that Wednesday, but by noon the next day I knew something was really wrong - I thought I was having an asthma attack, but learned later it was a lot more serious.  The swollen legs and breathing trouble were all signs I will recognize in the future as congestive heart failure.  My heart was in big trouble, surrounded by fluid that was putting pressure on my lungs - then it started marching to it's own beat, and it wasn't a regular beat.  Four days in the hospital later, I'm now taking a blood thinner and not doing heavy work - no more haying in the hot sun for me!! :)  I'm actually very pleased to have had this warning to be a little more respectful of my health.  I'm now eating better, drinking lots of water and less coffee, and I'm planning a more careful drive to Nova Scotia next week.

I'm planning to take three days driving to Nova Scotia instead of just two - I'll do some sight-seeing or take some photos or rest in some way at least every two hours.  So far, I haven't been able to do any plein aire painting, but it's on my list of things I want to learn, so maybe I'll just find a place to relax and paint whatever I see.

After I got home from the hospital in June, I lost my car keys and my rugs and hooking supplies were all in the car.  I finally found the keys a week ago.  I'm a full month behind on hooking Big Momma, so I'll try to get a lot done in Nova Scotia - and I'll try to do a daily blog report on that trip.  We're going to be doing some dyeing for Jo-Anne Harris' new shop in Toronto

, so I'll be sure and post a photo report on that project.  I'm also planning to spend a lot of time at the Hooked Rug Museum of North America, so I'll also post a museum photo report.