a tour of Halifax harbour

And now it's officially the third week of November and I'm still playing catch-up from the first day when we went to pick my friend, Connie, up at the airport. After proceeding directly to Pier 21 in downtown Halifax, at Connie's request, Wally and I left her there to explore her past while we proceeded to Pleasant Point Park.

We went by way of the industrial docks, an extension of the public docks that have been made over to everything from the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design to a grand farmer's market, Pier 21 and a brewery, a convention centre and restaurants. These massive silos are part of the "real" world of the harbour.

This pile of building blocks that houses P & H Milling Group dwarfs the train car below it.

This extensive walkway to the silos may also be a track. What do I know?

Four silos deep, this massive structure fascinates me.

The harbour is full of huge structures that I imagine have something to do with loading and unloading the containers to and from the trucks that bring them and/or carry them away.

I often forget that these containers that come overseas from all over the world are the very containers we see on trains and trucks. Just around this corner lays the prettiest park...

Point Pleasant Park

This is where we often come to eat our lunch as we did that day.

(Connie ate hers on the way to Pier 21). 

Wally pointed out a container ship beyond the little island that houses the lighthouse,

rising out of the ocean like a massive apartment building sized mirage.

A buoy to the right of the island also marks the way.

Another container ship is leaving and will round that point and go out of sight before we leave this scenic vantage point.

After checking out some art galleries along the piers where Connie was, we picked her up and carried on to our rendezvous with a seaside restaurant

. Here we pass the old Alexander Keith's Brewery now turned offices for rent. What a fabulous old fortress of a building.

Just a little cool, it was a beautiful evening, a Wednesday, to walk along the boardwalk.

We found this fabulous Maud Lewis background for a portrait, Dartmouth across the bay.

To our surprise and delight, we found some...

starfish in the water!

and more!

Now we've come to that small ship(?) (I never know when they go from big boats to small ships)

This is the one you can see in that previous picture of Connie. Wally is in an excellent mood, finally on a mini holiday with the prospect of eating out.

Here a man is boarding the Acadia.

reflections of her and the ropes in the water

more reflections of a pier just beyond

I guess I'm just in a reflective sort of mood. 

These pigeons have found a safe place to roost.

We arrive at our destination only to find that the restaurant is closed on Wednesdays.

Of course; it's November.

But that doesn't stop the seagulls from having a buffet on what I can only imagine are barnacles.

This seagull sets up a warning cry.

"Get off my roof!" and he chases this pretty girl away.

What a lucky shot of these boys on a sculptural bump.

This handsome pigeon waits for a handout

as does this female

posing for the camera

Wally and Connie are off ahead of me in their hunt for an alternative restaurant.

We cross the road and find this outrageous construction site.  I don't want to think about all the old buildings that had to come down to make way for it.

Looking through glass, please forgive the reflections.

About to turn into an old group of buildings turned shops, one last view of the street with restorations going on beyond. It is truly a lovely city.

Remember that buoy out in the harbour to the right of the lighthouse?

I'm sorry I didn't get Wally to stand beside this one to show you the scale; they're huge!

Well, that's all for this installment. It's getting harder to motivate myself for all this photo prep I must do if I want to get these pictures up on the blog. I hope it was of interest to you.

til next time

peace in our hearts

trippin' to Mahone Bay

 

As I mentioned the other day, we were fitting in another adventure on a fine Saturday, with intentions of making it down to the sea. This is a snippet of our day away.

 

Stopping at several yard sales chewed up a lot of our afternoon. This lovely peachy barn sat across the street from one, not far from the sea. In fact I think it was in Chester Grant.

 

Barn door

We stopped at an old time fish and chips diner, but never went in

 because the view and the seagulls seemed infinitely more interesting.

This bird was very calm, probably hoping for a potato fry

So calm that she started grooming

 

A funky shot from my slow exposure

 

Ready for take-off

 

After a big feed of fries, the birds hung out waiting for more

I felt sad for them. Someone ought to bring them some fish if anything.

Still it made for some fine photo "ops"

This girl so similar to the first one I photographed

but her eye colour and beak are different. (At least I think it's a girl.)

There were many gulls about

 

but my girl and I kept finding each other

 

Mahone Bay has got to be the prettiest fishing village of all.

This is the view of where we drove into town.

 

from the opposite side of this little channel

 

 

The bay is more likely to be filled with sailboats and recreation boats than fishing boats

 

as this beautiful town has become a quintessential tourist destination.

 

Retirees must come up with discreet ways of discouraging confused shoppers.

I was quite taken with how closely this jade coloured car came to matching the mint house.

 

an unusual fence

 

While there were many pretty shops and houses

I'm always taken with what I would call local folk art;

the unintentional charm of handmade signs

 

Just down the street some excavators took out an old building

and found some dangerous artifacts to share with passers by.

They also managed to save a fabulously huge elm

 

As one nears the end of town, real life takes over,

the world of the local people and their working boats

 

My eye always wanders to some wonderful "artifacts", just taken for granted.

This is much larger and heavier than it looks so we didn't wander off with it.

 

Our day didn't end here. I'll have more vignettes to share another day.

A happy Solstice as we officially slip into Fall.