Nova Scotia, week six: ride the lightning

Hello Everyone,

Much like a Disney princess, I have fabulous hair, a great singing voice, and birds feed from my hand. The first two claims are perhaps open to interpretation (see photos below), but the third is now a stone cold fact.

I’ve been filling the bird feeder here, and I’ve slowly let the birds, particularly my favourites – the chickadees - get accustomed to my presence. I stand still next to the feeder with bird seed in my hand. They started by flying by to check it out, and then eye me suspiciously from the safety of the tree. Eventually, greed got the better of them, and one at a time, the timbit-sized creatures have landed on my hand and pecked away aggressively at the food.

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Arthur barked at a deer the other night. That's not that surprising in and of itself, given that he'd gladly bark at deer all day if he could. The thing is, it was three in the morning, and the deer was silently walking across the lawn about 20 yards from our house (munching on my apples no doubt). I'm not sure how Arthur knew it was there. It was dark out (I could barely make it out when I got up to investigate his barking), the windows were closed and the thing was deathly quiet. I imagine he smelled the deer, which would be an impressive feat. He was presumably asleep just before the thing ambled by, and it wasn't even that close. Hell of a nose.

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Fact: donair (donairs?) are not as good as shawarma. I'm sorry, there’s lots of great things about the Maritimes, but it loses this one to Team Ontario's middle eastern food of choice. Shawarma have vegetables and pickled turnip, and garlic sauce. Donair loses this on every count. -----------

I went surfing on Sunday. There's a small but dedicated surf community in Nova Scotia, and one of the best beaches is about 15 minutes from our places. I rented a board and wetsuit, and took an hour lesson from an enthusiastic transplant from Toronto. The water was brisk, such that after about 20 minutes in, one's hands become blocks, but it was a great experience. I managed to stand up several times, though my inflexibility was a hindrance. Getting my front leg up forward enough on the initial push up off the board was basically impossible, so I had to shimmy that leg forward as soon as I was up. I was in and out of the water for about two hours total, until the waves died down and the hypothermia got worse. Still, was a lot of fun and something I'd like to try again while we're here.

Wes

Photos

This is a series from the GoPro that was attached to my board. Don't let the dude standing in waist deep water in the background fool you, these were monster, Nazaré-level waves (famous surf spot).