Halifax classic and funky

Squeezing in my last post for January, I have our trip to Halifax to share with you- somewhat- as we covered a LOT of ground.

 

The snow flurries forecast were gone by the time we hit the road.

This incredible refraction of light made for some exciting eye candy.

There's usually a remarkable display of steam coming off this wood mill.

It's woodlot is thinning out this time of year.

Coming into downtown Halifax, one can see a bit of Halifax Harbour and Halifax's sister city, Dartmouth, across the bay.

I've rarely seen someone actually wearing the famous Hudson's Bay blanket coat,

and now that I do, it looks fabulous.

Here a Navy woman appears to be waiting for her ride.

Because we were driving, I cannot always tell you the name of these marvelous historical buildings that Halifax is known for, but, boy, are they substantial.

Aren't sliced off building remains fascinating...

A view down Granville St. towards the Halifax Wharf

that hosts all kinds of events and festivities in the summer.

And looking back up Granville St.

EY (Ernst & Young LLP, tax advisory) and RBC (Royal Bank of Canada)

This must be the financial district (duh)

Down by the sea as we are, a down coat we see

Omg it was cold and windy.

a statue of Joseph Howe

Here is Wally as we organize ourselves for our walk down Hollis Street

The wonderful façade of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

How it is dwarfed by the modern buildings,

yet it was the huge one its day.

the wonderful bas relief and mouldings

our destination: the art supply store for NSCAD (Nova Scotia College for Art and Design)

The dizzying height of the BMO building (Bank of Montreal)

and Halifax's tallest building 1801, which houses many businesses, right beside the former

I was happy with these angles caught quite by accident from the car

A wonderful rendition of the Lion and the Unicorn

I didn't know that these creatures represent Great Britain,

the lion, England, and the unicorn, Scotland

The magical entrance to the historic Bank of Nova Scotia building that I've shown you in past posts.

Outside that same entrance.

I must have been on the move not to get better shots of this wonderful place.

Wrapped like an art installation, but I would venture it's more like a non-art insulation.

Rock Candy. Wouldn't you think this was a rock bar? I was surprised to find out it was clothing.

I would have checked it out if I had known enjoying kitsch as I do.

Crossing Sackville and more construction

After our visit to yet another fabulous art supply store it was now almost dark just after 6pm.

Not bad for a longer span of daylight. (I'm always a sucker for Christmas lights.)

Wally the strongman

We didn't realize the strongman was outside Freak Lunchbox

a fantastic candy store with lots of oddball kitsch

We went in to marvel at the array of colour and wild graphics

"Cats Love It"

(yah, right)

the hand painted counter like old circus signs

and finally, the last of my pictures as we headed back to the car

this amazing painting on the side of the building. You must understand that I took this from across an empty lot, painted on a building that was about 3 stories high. Quite a feat!

I hope you enjoyed this small slice of our trip to Halifax. Wally thought he might like to live in this town again as he once did when he was a young man. It certainly has a great energy with its art college being right downtown and so much vibrancy and youth culture, but I have to say that I prefer my quiet country life, happy to visit the city and happy to come home again.

And that's January. As usual, it is trying to snow without much sticking.

Let's have a lovely February. Doesn't the word just glow with red hearts?

peace

decembering

Good Morning on a new day, a fresh page-

what a wonderful scene to wake up to

the bowed hydrangeas with the little Harelson apple tree just beyond

How grateful we are for something rural to look out onto

The little maple that we toy with removing looks spectacular backlit with snow

Muji has a hard time waking up

but a good yawn should do it

and there he is

Babu gives me his love face. He has no trouble waking this bright winter morning.

On another bright morning- so rare- I held my hand up to the light

It turned out that the key jammed in the lock. Thankfully, our problems are little ones.

Wally takes care of the fixer up details while I'm on domestic duty.

Here he works on the skeleton key lock.  We love these old mechanicals that make this house so homey.  Ultimately it only needed a new key which he found in a lock upstairs.

Sometimes the answers are easier than we think.

While he worked on the lock I found the boys in backwards parentheses on the bed.

Sometimes Muji only somewhat makes it on the towel.

A rare case of Babu not moving. He makes a fine bracket.

Muji is too cute and often reminds me of a bunny.

We've been gearing up for Christmas. Every time I dust I dismantle the mantle.

I took a picture this time to remember how I had displayed.

Wally loves his headlamp for fixing things. A friend of mine suggested it as a present for him and it's been a go-to for a myriad of things. Notice something else?

Wally prefers to work on the floor. He has camping in his blood.

Muji helped Wally for a bit and then jumped onto the chair for some loving.

On another morning Babu caught me looking at him

and spoke to me.

Hoping all your troubles are little ones.

One trick for minimizing pain is to focus on it. We have a tendency to distract ourselves,

but it actually works to reduce pain by putting our attention onto the point from which it emits in our bodies. This is an extension of meditation practice.

This can be a tricky time of year.

stay in your light