Day 4: Battery Provincial Park

On the way to Panmure Island we stopped in Montague, which has a Pizza Delight that offers a delicious gluten free pizza. I ate half of it right then and there in the truck in the parking lot, and the rest at the campsite. It was awesome. We spent some time at Panmure Island beach and visiting Panmure Island. It's very scenic.

Beach and lighthouse at Panmure Island

Man in water with wagon, clam digging? Oyster fishing in the bay at Panmure Island

The next morning, we figured we'd get the 1pm Ferry from Wood Islands. Every other time I've taken this Ferry has been the early morning one, at 900 AM I think? The Ferry had other plans. When we were to buy our ticket we found out the 1PM Ferry was fully booked and we were put on Standby and did not make the 1pm Ferry.

In the end we made the 4:30 but mostly because someone in our standby line called and made reservations and then got his current ticket refunded. So Terry and I did the same thing to make sure we got the 4Oclock Ferry.

On our way to the Ferry we also stopped at Northumberland Provincial Park. This was the park were were supposed to stay the last night in PEI but we only stayed 3 nights instead of 4.

Beach at Northumberland Provincial Park.

The lighthouse at Wood Islands Ferry

I get teary eyed each time I cross the Canso Causeway.

Once off the Ferry we made our way to Battery Provincial Park near St Peters in Cape Breton.  I was so happy to see the Canso causeway. It's probably my favourite bridge in teh world.   The first time I went to Cape Breton, I left a bit of my heart there, and it will always remain.

Battery Provincial Park

Battery Provincial Park

Day 3: Panmure Island Provincial Park

Lighthouse in Souris PEI

East Point Lighthouse, PEI

At red point we were right near Souris, which is the port to take the Ferry to les Iles de la Madeleine. After which we drove north to the East point lighthouse, before slowly driving down to Panmure Island Provincial Park. PEI is always very scenic. Terry spotted a seal lounging on the rocks at the bottom near the East Point lighthouse, but it would be a few days before I saw any seals!

Red Point Provincial Park beach

Souris where the Ferry docks

There is a small population of Amish/Mennonites on the East Side

Beach at Panmure Island Provincial Park.

Have I ever told you how much I LOVE Fireweed??????

In PEI

Yes all the pink IS fireweed

More fields of Fireweed

I was thrilled to see that there are fields of Fireweed, all around coastal New Brunswick, all around PEI and all around Cape Breton and the Eastern part of Nova Scotia.

I discovered I loved Fireweed when I went to La Tuque about 10 years ago in Early September. The fields were pink with Fireweed. It's one of my favourite wild flowers and it is native here. It grows far up north too.

Day 2: Red Point Provincial Park

 We drove along the West side of PEI and went to the beach in various spots. Along the way we encountered our 2nd lighthouse, the one at Howards Cove. It's tiny!

Howard's Cove Lighthouse

We took a drive in the evening to Cape North lighthouse as Terry pointed out that he'd actually like to see a lighthouse at night. But the Cape North lighthouse is nothing special and not very big so he was a bit disappointed.  We ended up walking into the darkness and went to sit on a bench overlooking the cliff. Of course we have no idea how dangerous it was to do so.

Cape North Lighthouse at Dark

After a nice evening at Cedar Dunes, we drove to Cabot Beach, and got there around 11am. But it was Sunday Morning and we learned afterwards that it was a long week-end at least in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The lady told us to come back at 2pm, that she'd know then if she had any spots, so we drove to Cavendish and other federal campground, they were booked solid, no overflow sites.

Lighthouse at Cabot Beach Provincial Park

 We decided to keep going so end up at Red Point Provincial Park. After being told there was no room in 3 different campgrounds, being told that we could camp in the big lawn as an overflow site, made our day. She said she'd have a spot for us the next day but we decided to just book 1 night.

It's EVERYWHERE in Eastern Canada!!!!

I don't think I've been to a Provincial Park this year that did NOT have POISON IVY all around the edges of the campsite. Thankfully neither Terry or I have managed to touch it or get welts from it.

But seriously, there was some at Plaisance around our campsite, there was some in Mauricie National park, there was some at Charleston lake and this photo comes from Cedar Dunes Provincial park.

This is not good when one needs to tarp the campsite for rain. This is usually when I walk in the bush to bungee a tarp.

Day 1: Cedar dunes Provincial Park

Currently  arrived around 10am after driving since 7pm from Montreal.  I was so  exhausted after my full 40 hours of work.  

At least the weather is spectacular! Currently it's 23 and not a cloud in the sky. I'm busy chasing dragonflies!

Beach at Cedar Dunes Provincial Park

West Point Lighthouse

This weeks dresses

Pull over cotton dress

crinkled rayon dress - now a favourite

Dress made in stretch sateen.

They have a promo video

Tonight I'll be able to see the band my buddy Phil in Ireland plays in. Not great quality as it was done with a phone but at least now I can see him play!

It was too cute

I still go to Value Village every other week in search for cool stuff. Last trip to VV I picked up this really cool sarong! Currently though I'm looking for black and dark sarongs since my bf has taken to them and wears them around the house.

No Calypso this week-end!

I was hoping to go to the Calypso Water Park on Saturday. But once we looked at the weather Saturday morning, there was risk of Thunderstorms so we decided to stay home.

I figured if it turns out nice we can go to the pool at work in the afternoon. In the end we had thunderstorms from 12:30 to 3 o'clock. We had to be at Terry's mom's for 5ish, so we never went to the pool at all.

I checked with my daughter and she said she'd seen no storms in her area. Then she messaged me a few hours later. Apparently sometime around 4 there was thunderstorms in their area, and people claim to have seen a flash and heard a large bang a bit before the church in St Isidore was noticed to be on fire. It got so bad they ended up evacuating 300 people from the town because they feared the steeple would collapse.  Thankfully Samantha is close to 4 km away from the centre of town, so depending on prevailing winds she might not have been even affected by too much smoke. Which was just as well, Madeleine had been cranky the past 2 days. With the heat and all.


Apparently there was 2 fires that day, the 2nd was a barn fire/

I've always been afraid of thunderstorms, and there's still good reason to be afraid. Lightning kills!

Bamboo

I was at winners and stumbled upon grey Bamboo rayon queen sheet set, for around $50. Considering how expensive bamboo sheets are, I was so excited, I bought them. They are awesome. Love how they feel.

The abomination....

Would you believe he said I smelled like coffee. You read that right. Coffee.  I have never smelled like coffee. I don't like coffee, don't drink coffee, I certainly do not smell like coffee. YUCK!!!

My sweetie has been addicted to Tim Horton's Ice Cappuccinno's and twice a day he was having one of those vile beverages often in a large size.

He decided a few days ago that he needed to stop drinking those that it is doing a number on his stomach. He's been going through caffeine withdrawal. Hence I smelled like coffee. Uhm. No. Your brain is pining for caffeine and giving you mirages!

More new summer dresses

Finished a while ago, forgotten. Soft rayon pull-over dress

Finished today, with a cotton Sateen and two packages of Purple RickRack!

New dresses Summer 2016

Made with a coupon. Notice the dragonflies!

This one has been dubbed "The sleeping Beauty" dress

First attempt at a Cynthia Rowley dress. The waist is way too tight

Attempt #2 at the dress, this one fits perfectly in the waist.

Back detail of dress

Disappointed in other Canadians.

Today I read about a black man in New Brunswick who just pulled over at a wharf to go read a book. SEVERAL people reported him as SUSPICIOUS. WHy ? Because he's black???? WTF?????

The other story that almost made me cry was some asshole who took it upon himself to PEPPER SPRAY a group of Syrian refugees being welcomed in Vancouver.  What possesses someone to go and attack a random group of people they didn't even know!!!!

I mean what have those refugees done to the person with the fucking pepper spray? NOTHING, he never met them before. BUT he felt the need to be a ginormous jackass. I hope they find him, and deport him to whatever close-minded country he's from!!! There was no follow up in the news about this attack, but at least the Syrians took it in stride.

I'm so disappointed. I mean I knew Canada still has a long way to go before it treats it's natives like human beings, but now they are attacking blacks {Which have been in Canada for several hundreds of years} and Syrians, also people who started to relocate to Canada back in the late 1800's. 

WTF is going on in the Excited States of "Murica?

I sometimes wonder about our neighbours to the south who feel very strongly about their right to bear arms (as opposed our right to bare breasts in Canada!)

Between the stupidity of bathroom laws {Personally as long as you wash your hands and don't pee on the fucking seat, I don't care which bathroom you use), people who refuse to bake goodies for people who are gay (Because GASP it offends their Christian beliefs that someone else is gay!) and the pervasive racism against blacks, I don't know that I'd ever want to move there, live there... even having them as neighbours is sometimes embarrassing. 

Don't get me started why a WHITE University kid who was caught raping an unconscious woman has his swimming scores published and he gets a slap on the wrist. A black man for the same offense might have been shot on the spot, if not condemned to years in Prison and they would have dug out every single little transgression he might have committed like getting into a fight when he was 15 for instance .

After several days where black men were shot in dubious circumstances, multiple police officers got shot in Dallas. The New Yorker had an interesting article.

Let's hear it for single and double blade razors

I'd been getting EPIC rashes in my bikini area from shaving the past couple of years to the point where I wasn't sure if I didn't want to go full hairy. {BLEAH}

My boyfriend suggested that the newfangled multibladded razors were the problem. That all those blades for that extra extra close shave were the reason I got such bad rashes that would last 3-5 days.

So last time I went to Pharmacy I picked up the cheapest razors I could find, with just two blades. They were some BIC razors very old school, reminded me of the ones I stole from my dad as a teen, except those were yellow back in the day, these come in pink, purple and teal.

I shaved for the first time 3 days ago.  Other then a tiny little localized rash where the skin rubs against my underpants, I had no rash. I did not have to spend 3-5 days using Zinc Oxide to make the rash go away. I didn't spend 2-3 days feeling so itchy I wanted to rip my skin off.

So old school Bic razors with 2 blades that appear kinda sharp did the trick.  Will never buy those funky 5 blade razors again.

Subways in Montreal treat gluten free request as a request to buy a ticket to Mars.

When we travelled to Charleston lake we stopped at a Subways in a small town off the 401 and they had gluten free bread. The kid who served me not only changed gloves but went to get a wrapped plastic knife and he also put my bread of a gluten free surface. He made me a 6" gluten free veggie sub that was devine.


Happy with my experience I attempted to replicate over the week-end. Well apparently asking for Gluten free bread in a Subway in the West Island is akin to asking if they sell tickets to Mars. One kid told me "We had it for a while but it didn't do well so we'll never have it again".

Well then Subway, if you want me as a customer, you need to offer bread I can eat. So since apparently gluten free bread is not going to be available in Montreal you've lost a good customer. Before I went gluten free I used to eat one or two Subway sandwiches a month.

You'd think that in a large city like Montreal, I'd be able to find a Subway with gluten free bread easier then in a Subway in a small town in Ontario, but apparently not.  It's like Subway doesn't care to get more clients.  If people are gluten free and you don't have gluten free bread and you are a sandwich shop then you are loosing on the gluten free clientele.

Tick tock, more ticks!

I forgot to mention that while we were packing up on Monday morning, I was outside in Shady Ridge campground and I was wearing my white cotton bohemian knit, Terry spotted a tick walking up my sweater.

He flung it on the ground and stomped it. I doubt the tick even had a chance to bite me, but damn, again a tick. So far we've camped in Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario and we've seen ticks in Nova Scotia and Ontario..but there was an article about ticks in Quebec just a few days ago.

There was all sorts of warning about Deer ticks all around Charleston Lake Provincial Park. So fact a tick was found on me wasn't that surprising.

It was like a scene right out of Lucky Luke!

The first time I saw a Turkey Vulture a few years back I was just getting acquainted with how the wings of a bird of prey look. At first I used to confuse them with eagles as their wing span is similarly shaped, but you can always tell them apart because Turkey vultures have paler wings then their bodies. When I first looked it up, I realized that those birds did not used to come as far north as Southern Quebec & Ontario, but now they do. All maps that show their territory show them far more south. But each summer I see more. This time it was creepy. Two trees at a distance overlooking Charleston lake there was 13 - yes count them 13 Turkey vultures. It made me think of Lucky Luke.

There are 7 Turkey Vultures in this tree

There are 6 Turkey Vultures in this tree

More from week-end camping

We thought the sign was cute

Amazing shot with phone of a dragonfly

View of the March at dusk

Selfie with a dragonfly

We spent most of the day in the canoe. We parked at the canoe launch early in the morning and paddled all the way into the beginning of the march, then around a private island before we came back around lunch time. Around 3pm we decided to canoe again, and went from the same launch site. This time we went in the other direction and checked out the closest backwoods canoe camping site as well as the Buckhorn picnic site. We saw all sorts of turtles both in the water and one was sunning on the point of the rock near the Buckhorn picnic site.

This was the 2nd or third dragonfly to land on my sarong

The selfie with the dragonfly in the canoe

dragonfly says "hi"

Women who camp in Minivans!

The first time I ran across one it was in Cape Breton Highlands National Park in 2014. Next to us at Corney Brooke camping one night was a woman alone who camped in a minivan.Yes... She camped in her Minivan, not in a tent!  I thought it was a fluke or an aberration. I've been camping since my late teens and had never run across a single woman camping, with the rare exception of the all sporty girl that is as equipped as her male counterpart.

This particular woman also looked like she was maybe escaping a relationship fight or a bad situation. She had everything in her minivan, even some crappy wood to make herself a fire, which she did with no issues. She had brought herself a steak which she cooked on the fire with lots of smoke and she even came over to apologize for being smelly and noisy. [Which gave me feeling she wasn't used to being outdoors camping at the time, but perhaps it was just her personality]

She spent the evening by her campfire, and then before bed put everything back in her truck and slept in the back of her minivan. By the time we got up the next morning she was gone.

I've run across a 2nd woman who camped in her minivan at Charleston Lake Provincial Park, but she was visibly not someone who was running away but someone who had planned her trip and who visibly spent some time travelling alone. I noticed her because she was staring at us when we arrived. That's when I noticed she was a lone woman in a minivan, and EVERYTHING was in her minivan. She didn't even build a fire, but spent hours sitting in her chair on her site reading a book.  She stayed one night and was gone by morning.

Now I'm thinking women who camp in minivans, can be avid campers, who don't feel need to buy camping equipment to go camping. She seemed quite equipped together, and didn't even get phased out by the outhouse. Some women really don't like outhouses...

Googling this morning I found an article about women who camp in MiniVans! The article even promotes safety by giving tips to be inconspicuous..There's also a nice article about nomads in Minivans :)

Charleston Lake Provincial Park

We decided last minute to go camping this week-end. We'd talked about it and originally I wanted to go to Murphy's point provincial park especially since I found they had backcountry canoe camping sites. But after reading a few reviews, I changed my mind. Apparently lots of noisy motor boats around the park. At Charleston lake, inside the bay near the park there are no motorboats allowed, so at least near the beach it's quiet and not too wavy.

We arrived at 5pm without a reservation and got the last campsite that was available for the next 3 nights. We were put in the Meadowlands campsite. This one is the one that is nowhere near water, it is a large campground in a meadow. Sites are pretty big and most of them have lots of shade during the day.  We had site 152, right in front of a bathroom, so there was constant traffic.

Boat Launch at Charleston Lake

View from Canoe Launch

View from the beach area at Shady Ridges campsite

Dragonflies at Shady Ridge campsite

This twit proudly wears her "Canada" Tshirt

But the Canada she thinks she lives in is NOT my Canada.  This twit thought it was ok to go attack unprovoked a young Muslim woman with a small child in a supermarket!!!!! Why is it that people think it's that someone who looks different from them should be attacked or that they don't belong?

The best I read yesterday was shared by one occupy acquaintance who witnessed it in an IGA in the Pointe yesterday.

Overseen at the IGA:
White woman: Does it get hot like this?
Black man: *shopping*
White woman: *louder and slower* DOES IT... GET HOT LIKE THIS?
Black man: ...Excuse me?
White Woman: *exasperated* Where you're from. You know. AFRICA.
Black man: Ma'am... I'm from Verdun.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I had Haitian neighbours 50 years ago in Montreal North. Blacks are not new arrivals in Montreal or in Canada, the first one visiting came with Samuel de Champlain, and there have been communities formed since the late 1800's in Montreal. 

Same with Muslims, some Lebanese and Syrian Canadians have been in Canada since the late 1800's as well. Canadian Muslims in the past were less likely to be visibly Muslim but the past 10 years more Muslim women have adopted the Hijab.  It never occurs to anyone that some Muslims are born in Canada and some non Arab Canadians can also be Muslims because they decided to convert. 

One of the stupid things I saw yesterday was this Good for the woman to remind this idiot that he's the idiot in this location. 

Similar story shared was a Native American speaking Lakota to someone and being told "THis is the United States of America, speak English" 

People must think very little of me...

They can't be bothered to return my house keys.....

First it was the homeless ex, who took over 1 year to return my house keys. By the time he did I'd changed the locks.   Then my moved out in October, it's now 8 months later, she still has the keys.  

Then I fired my cleaning lady... who didn't even have the keys on her,,, and though it's been over a month, she also hasn't returned the fucking keys. You'd think she would she's still owed $60 and that normally makes a big difference in her budget.

I lost my own house keys a few months ago and I figured why remake more keys when I already have some in circulation.

I'm not going to be begging anyone to return my fucking keys.   I'll be buying a new fucking deadbolt again.... because you know ... it's fun to change your locks every 2 years....

In lieu of Punishment, a bath for the boys

Jethro wet!

My BF lets the cats wander around outside when he goes outside to tan in the mornings and that day the boys ran away and took a while to come back. I decided they were dirty and needed a bath. In fact any time they run away, I will probably give them a bath.

WOOT

Found these Iron Fist shoes for $10 at value village. What a find. Was so thrilled!

Driving home in torrential rain

Driving home from the maritimes is always like driving in bi-polar weather. We got sun, torrential downpour, all types of rain and fog.  You know, just to get variety. At least it wasn't pervasive fog like at Christmas time!

In Nrw Brunswick around Edmunston just before we drove into a torrential downpour

And it's raining like hell.

A beer drive thru?

We notice that it seems to be a beer drive-thru!

Yep it's a beer drive thru

Moxie's bar and Grill - Darmouth

I'd been to Moxie's bar and grill both times I visited AMD in Toronto. It was the place the AMD guys took us to lunch!I remembered they served delicious food. It's a bit more pricey then I usually go to but I had to go. I took Terry and we had an amazing dinner, which cost me about the same as the cheap motel in Bedford.Yep. I'd rather have a good dinner then a fancy motel. 

I had the lemon Salmon and he had the sirloin. It was so good.  I've just realized they do have one in the Montreal area.  A place to remember when I really want a fancy dinner.

Third visit with my grand-daughter.

I walked her and held her for a few hours, as my daughter took a nap, and Brian welcomed his parents to visit with the baby. Of course I offered the baby to the other grand parents the minute they were settled in. I figured they were eager to hold Madeleine too.

Hard to take baby selfies

Sleeping on my arm