Winter / Spring Update

It's been a while. Not a whole lot has happened this past winter. I'm hesitant to even call it a winter!  All that looking forward to downhill skiing, snowshoeing and exploring the pristine winter wonderlands of Cape Breton was for nothing.  We didn't get any snow!  We had a couple of mini storms that saw a few inches of snow fall but no major blizzard.  There wasn't even enough of it to shovel for the most part.  I think I shoveled once.  My lonely snowshoes sat in the back of the car all winter, never used.

Despite the lack of snow, I did manage to be kept busy for the most part.  I wasn't expecting overtime at work but at the last minute, we got the go ahead to do some.  At first, it was only supposed to be for a week, than 2 weeks.....and it ended up stretching into almost 6 weeks. 13 hours a day almost every weekday and chores on the weekends to catch up on.  It made the time go by fast because I blinked and it's now spring. 

Some notable events over the past few months include a lunar eclipse, an early morning sunrise eclipse, a few movie and dinner outings with friends, an arctic owl sighting, a few hikes with a friend at Petersfield Provincial Park and some fox sightings at the beach. I gifted myself season tickets for the Highland Arts Theater so I was kept busy one night a month since January.  There are 2 more productions before the end of the season and I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed what I've seen so far!

So that's about it for the winter of 2025.  Not much to report but thought I should post an update so it doesn't seem like I've forgotten about this blog. 

Lots of adventures planned for spring and summer including some possible trips abroad in the near-ish future!

 

 

 winter 2025...work situation, no snow, eclipses, foxes and snowy owl....

The May Long Weekend means Summer is Here....Even if it is Unofficial!

I'm not used to having vacation time from work.  For the first time in my life, I have a job that comes with such a luxury and despite feeling a tad guilty for requesting a day off even though I wasn't sick, I went ahead and took one of those days that my managing team has assured me are there for me to use and not waste!  I'm just not used to not being at the office when I'm feeling completely fine.  I took that day which made my long weekend extra long this year; 5 glorious days just relaxing, doing things I enjoy and spending time with the people I just don't get to spend enough time with as of late. 

Thursday wasn't all that exciting. My car broke down earlier in the week so it spend that whole day in the shop.  I spent the day catching up on housecleaning bill-paying. Friday morning I got some troubling news; the part I needed for the car repairs still hadn't come in.  All good.  I ended up going with Dad to Framboise for the day and was reassured by my mechanic that it would be fixed time I got back that evening! 

Framboise with Dad is a long-weekend tradition since I moved back home. The weather can be hit or miss on that side of the island.  It was mostly nice but very windy and cool that day...good for keeping the flies away while fishing...bad for casting in little roadside brooks.  After getting massively tangled in branches and rocks, I did manage to reel in a few decent-sized trout. 

After a day of fishing, hiking and exploring, we rested on Ferguson Beach by the river that meets the sea.  Sometimes at low tide, we can cross there but on this day, the tide was fairly high and the river had the passage completely blocked.  Being too cold to remove our shoes and wade across, we sat on some driftwood on the sandy banks where we were sheltered from the wind and cracked open a beer each. I don't normally drink, but I do like a beer on the beach from time to time!  As per normal on these trips, we drove up to St. Peter's, got a coffee and drove back...except this time, we went the other way through L'Ardoise and Point Michaud rather than taking the way we came. 

I had planned to get my bike out of storage and go for a ride followed by an afternoon spent cleaning my car and sorting my camping gear.  That evening when I got back from Framboise, I checked the weather and saw that it would be too windy for a bike ride. I also decided that I didn't feel like cleaning my car.  That could wait.  My friend who sets up her travel trailer in Englishtown every May long weekend invited me to take a drive there and pay her a visit. I only live once right?  Why spend the first unofficial weekend of summer cleaning?  

So Saturday morning, I went for morning coffee with Dad, paid a quick visit to my sister and her family, got some snacks ready and hit the road.  It's not that far to Englishtown, about an hour and a half.  But it's the just getting out of town and heading out into the country that made it sound so appealing.  I don't do enough mini road trips anymore and the driving conditions were perfect!  Sunny and warm enough to cruise with the sunroof and windows open and the music up loud! 

I arrived at my friend's trailer late in the afternoon but it was still warm enough to sit outside and enjoy the natural surroundings and take in that fresh ocean air.  After some catching up, we took a drive to a nearby hiking trail and set out to check it out.  We had been saying for years we would check out this trail but never did.  It was too long to do the whole thing but we hiked about 4 kilometers in until we reached a scenic outlook and turned back.  It was nice to get out in nature and hear birds and sit by a babbling brook.  I almost fell asleep listening to the sound of that brook as I sat beside it just taking it all in.  

Instead of going straight home that evening, I made a little detour to Dominion Beach. I didn't intend to walk that night but I ended up walking the entire beach and back.  Maybe it was out of habit as I walk it so much or maybe it was just because it was such a nice evening. I also think I was secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of some baby foxes I suspected were born further up the beach earlier in the spring.  They usually come out around this time but, despite keeping an eye for them, I saw no foxes at all.

I was about ten feet away from my car when I spotted something small run at top speed under the boardwalk.  I walked over to the spot where I saw whatever it was a second earlier and a little head popped out then a little fox kit appeared at my feet!  What a surprise! But where was his mom? And his siblings?  Surely there couldn't be just one kit alone so close to the road.  Sure enough, mom appeared and sat about 30 feet away as her kit checked me out.  She wasn't at all threatened by my presence or at her little one inching so close to me.  No other kits appeared so I suspect he may be an only child.  It was a nice experience to have a wild animal take such an interest in me but I'm concerned about Mom keeping her young one so close to people and cars. 

By Sunday morning, my job feels like a distant memory.  I'm just not used to having this much time off! Instead of getting up and getting ready for work, I got up and got ready for another day of hiking!  Of course, I went for coffee with Dad first. After all, this has been a morning tradition since I moved back to Cape Breton! Before I met my friends at the trailhead in the Gardiner, I stopped off at the beach to check on the little fox kit.  He was still there playing with a stick all by himself with mom watching a little ways away. 

I hike the road where the wind turbines are in the Gardiner all the time but always wondered where the trail on the other side of the highway went.  So I recruited a couple of friends to come check it out. We started out, us and an adorable little beagle pup, and walked into the unknown.  It was a warm day but very windy.  Not that I should complain about the wind because it kept the flies away! For a trail in the middle of a residential area, it certainly didn't seem that way! It was quiet with lots of trees, some streams and hardly any other people...just the I like my hikes. It was nice to be able to get out in nature without having to drive a few hours to get there!

Monday felt like Sunday but it was Monday and that meant come Tuesday, I'll only have a 4-day work week! I was tired but refreshed and ready to go back but I had every intention of making good use of my last day.  After morning coffee and a drive, I cleaned my car and got my bike out for the first time this year.  I didn't go for a long ride but one long enough to get my legs used to riding again.  It was nice to have that cool ocean air hitting my face again as I sped down the highway. I have to say, I made good use of my time off and got a lot done....both things I had to get done and things I wanted to do for a long time but didn't have the chance.  The next long one will be Canada Day which hopefully will bring some warmer temperatures and conditions ideal for more outdoor adventures!

It's a Year Into this S**t Show...How's Everyone Doing?

Since the start of this pandemic, I've been cursing it and everything negative it caused.  The isolation, the not being able to see friends and family due to the travel ban and Canadian Travel restrictions, the loss of work, the loss of money, the not being able to travel due to travel restrictions and the constant bombardment of Covid-19 this and Covid-19 that.

Yes, it's been rough in so many ways, but I'm starting to see the good that has come out of it.  It's been almost a year since the lockdowns, isolation and mass covid travel restrictions became a part of everyday life.  The first few weeks was a constant string of bad news.  First my beloved cat Captain Jack passed away followed by the news that the project I was working on was stopping along with my income.  Than the worse shooting in Canadian history right here in my quiet, peaceful home province of Nova Scotia.  All this combined with the bad news coming from all corners of the world made me anxious and even depressed.  

As the months passed, there were ups and downs, goods and bads and all sorts of emotions and hurdles and new developments.  But it's only recently that I've started to realize that, despite all the bad, some really good things came out of all this. I should have seen it earlier.  I should have embraced those doors that were opening up to me.  I should have appreciated the things that were transpiring.  But my eyes were closed and my brain was focused on the changes, the losses, this new normal that wasn't at all normal...at least not the normal I was used to.  But who defines normal anyway 

I feel like I've been more fortunate than a lot of people on one front.  While many people I know were upset because they couldn't visit restaurants, bars and movie theatres anymore, nothing changed for me.  I don't go to any of those places often anyway.  I am an outdoors person. I will pick a picnic in the woods or a hike along the shore over a restaurant meal or movie theater outing any day! 

I don't know when it hit. I don't it hit all at once. It was a gradual thing.  I started to lighten up a bit, think a little more positively and that's when things started happening.  Or maybe it was me just becoming so comfortable with all the negativity around me that It started feeling normal enough for me to start thinking straight again.  Sounds weird but everything is weird these days.  I still can't make any sense out of anything anymore but at least, I am moving forward in some way and I'm not in the very dark place I was a few months ago. Loss of employment and sense of purpose will do that to a person...but a new-found purpose can do wonders for a person.  

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I'm currently freelancing full-time now.  No, I'm not getting rich of it.  Not even close.  But, I'm doing something I love, I'm filling my time with purposeful work and I'm making enough to get by.  I also must say that I am quite proud of myself for remaining independent and for being resourceful.  Not many people can say that they have a talent outside of their regular work that they can use in a pinch to survive.  I feel very grateful for that.  My writing was once a hobby but now it's a lifeline!  So many new doors have opened up, many new connections have been made and I've learned so many new things!  The best thing is I'm still writing about travel despite the mass travel restrictions.  While I'm not writing about my own travel since I'm under Canadian travel restrictions, I'm writing travel content for other sites.  In my free time, I take courses and work on my social media channels and, from time-to-time, I write a blog filled with updates that will soon turn onto blogs about my own travels. Hoping  we can return to normal soon as I have many trips and adventures planned once the travel ban is lifted!

As for current adventures, we finally got enough snow here so I could get a day of snowshoeing in.  I Don't know how long the snow will last with all the rain and freezing rain we seem to get in the winters now but if I get out once, that's better than nothing since I didn't get out at all last year.  I stay pretty close to home for the most part though.  Every few days, I'll walk at Dominion Beach to see if any new and interesting debris washed up and to visit my friends the foxes, seals and eagles.  I'm itching to go further and do more but until Covid takes a hike, I'm content getting some things done around home! That's one good thing about the travel restrictions - I'm spending time completing some projects around home that I would otherwise not get to!

Just an Update....

Well, here I am still without internet. I managed to find some time to get to a coffee shop and avail of their wireless services but despite the lack of service at home, I have been kept quite busy these past few weeks. Things got a bit hectic at the end of my time at 2791 Lingan Rd. The day before we were supposed to vacate the property and have everything out, it still looked like a tornado had struck but with a few helpful neighbors with trucks and an extension that allowed us to have the entire next day to get everything out, we managed to have the place completely cleared by 5PM that day. I tried not to get emotional when the time came to leave for good but I just couldn’t hold it back no matter how hard I tried. I mean, I did spend my entire childhood there and it was really the only home I ever knew not to mention the memories attached to the house and the familiar surroundings that I could always retreat back to even after I went into the world on my own.

This past week, I found myself with a slightly difficult adjustment but not as hard as I thought it would be. I am still in Lingan at a house a few doors down from 2791 and have finally reorganized myself somewhat with pretty much everything I need to sustain a comfortable living with me and the rest in storage for the time being. I am staying with a friend for now until I find my own place closer to work. Speaking of work, I started that new job I mentioned in the last post and it is going very well although the adjustment from full-time freelancer working from home on my own hours to full-time 8-hour work days on someone else's schedule has been a bit trying. I am used to working at my own pace for as long or as little as I want each day and have done this for a little over two years after loosing my job in St. John’s and moving back to Nova Scotia. I now have a serious lack of free time but a few good things are already coming out of it; my hectic schedule means I am not sitting at my computer eating junk food and drinking wine in the evenings and this means I have already lost a few pounds of that little bit of extra weight I was carrying around since last winter. The biggest adjustment will, no doubt, be the lack of free time I will have to spend writing but having a job outside the house for a while will allow me to at least branch out and learn some new things, meet some new people, make some new contacts and spend some time outside of the confines of my room which I spent numerous hours holed up in trying to meet various deadlines to make a few extra bucks to keep me afloat while I searched for a “real” job.

Despite being so busy lately, I did manage to do the one thing that I absolutely cannot miss every Fall; a drive around the Cabot Trail. I went later in the season this time but, for some reason, the leaves are staying on the trees longer than normal and the colors seem to be brighter than in the past. I picked the best possible day to go too! The weather was perfect with a cloudless sky and temperatures hovering around 15 degrees the entire day! This past Saturday was the Annual Halloween dance at the Lingan Hall so I also made some time to put a quick costume together and enjoy the weekend with friends and a few drinks before starting a new week off with my first official day at the new job after a week of training.

Another Day of Grace - The Humble Beginning......

For the first time since I started this blog, someone recently asked me how I came up with the name "Another Day of Grace". Well, I have to admit, I can't really take full credit for the name because the idea for the title was actually pitched to me by a friend. I can, however, take credit for my middle name, which happens to be Grace. The suggestion really jumped out at me and, although I prefer to take credit for my own work and come up with these type of things myself, I was unable to come up with a more suitable name for my first blog. And so Another Day of Grace was born....

I started this blog back in November of 2008. I didn't know a thing about blogging and frankly, I wasn't all that interested in blogging. But at the suggestion of a friend who thought it might be good to at least start one so I have a place to showcase my writing and photography skills, I began the process of setting it up and trying to find loyal readers. When I go back to those first posts, even I can see that this blog has come a long way from that personal diary peppered with random posts about anything and everything that, at best, occurred every few weeks. It was only recently that I decided to take it a step further and try to specialize a bit more and since my main interests are writing, photography and travel and my life pretty much revolves around those three things, I have decided to try and focus my blog around those interests. After all, they are all intertwined. I travel, I take pictures of my travels and I write about my travels so it seems to be working out quite well!

Anyone who has been following me for some time has probably noticed that I've made a lot of changes in the last few months and my posts have taken on a different direction and feel. I am still making some changes here and there and probably will be for the next little while.

That being said, I am thrilled to see that I will soon be reaching the milestone of 60,000 visits to my page. Not a whole lot considering the period of time we are talking about but a large amount of those visits have been in the last year so I guess that is a sign that people are finding me and seeing my work! With that milestone approaching soon, I would like to thank anyone who has taken the time to visit this page, to comment on my posts and for sharing it with others. I take pride in my work and thoroughly enjoy it and I am only glad to share it with the world!

Thinking About that Trip I Plan to Take with my Air Miles Again

Not much has been happening around here lately. The weather is colder, the bike is put away, the winter clothes are out and there is less sunlight. The skates and snowshoes are out too but we are in an awkward weather stage here where it is too cold to do much outdoors but there is no snow to enjoy the cold weather sports I can't wait to indulge in once we do finally get some snow. Hopefully we at least get a dusting for Christmas!

What has really been on my mind lately is that trip I have been meaning to take for months now. The one I want to take with all those air miles I have been collecting for more than a decade. I figure that since I am unemployed now and have the free time, now would be the best time to go. After all, I will be back full swing into the job search soon and no employer is going to want to give me a week off to go frolicking in the sun somewhere after I have only been working there for a few weeks or months! Once I get the final loose ends tied up in Newfoundland and bring Captain Jack home and get the rest of my belongings out of my friend's storage room, I will be free and careless for a while. The only problem is I can't decide where to go! I have it narrowed down to a few destinations:
Hawaii
California
Montana
South Africa
Costa Rica
one of a number of European countries
Cuba

Today I narrowed it down even more when I outweighed the good against the bad of each potential destination. California and Montana are in the United States and I have already traveled to the states numerous times and would like to see other countries. They are also close to where I am and can be done at another time since the airfare would not be very expensive anyway. I was thinking about camping and hiking around Hawaii but than came to my senses and realized that that is probably not a good trip to take alone and on a strict budget. South Africa and Costa Rica are probably too far to be covered by my frequent flyer miles and, although Europe has many deals when it comes to flights and the miles used to get to certain countries, everything else is too expensive for my current budget. So that leaves me with Cuba. Its another country and another culture but it is still fairly close and can be done cheaply. So it looks like I will be possibly taking a trip to Cuba in the near future. Or I could just keep saving my miles for a few more years and have enough to go somewhere further like Australia or New Zealand and hope in the meantime that my miles do not expire!

I welcome suggestions if you have any idea where I could go on a small budget. Somewhere relatively safe, of course, since I will be on my own!