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ExUrbanis

Urban Leaving to Country Living

Waiting for Teddy

September22

We’re going to be slammed tonight and tomorrow morning by the end of Hurricane Teddy, but the past three days have been golden.

We started to clear a portion of our back acreage this summer and came up with some rocks, all of which we have not yet found a use for. I don’t pay much attention to the landscape back here but every time I walk out of the barn, I see this display of “weeds” (maybe ‘wildflowers’ is more accurate?). It strikes me as an ephemeral thing of beauty.

waiting_for_teddy_1(2)

 

What’s the last unexpected beauty you’ve found?

 

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The View from My Office Window – 02Jun16

June2

In April I decided to post a view from my office window on the last Friday afternoon of each month.

I was half-way across the continent last Friday afternoon (the last one in May) so I’m posting a photo from today. I didn’t want you to miss seeing the “May Effect”.

View 16Jun02 photo IMG_3649 450_zpstjgpjlzr.jpg

Nova Scotia came alive over the past month!

It’s still too cold for the beach (9C/48F now, at 10am, and the forecasted high for today is 15C/59C) but it’s gorgeous for yard work (like pruning that pear tree). And the lilacs are just beginning to open!

How’s the weather where you are?

Friday Afternoon: The View from My Window 29Apr16

April29

A few years ago, I ran a series of pictures with the view from my office window every Friday afternoon. I stopped because I thought there wasn’t enough change week to week to bear recording.

What I’ve decided to do now is to post a picture from the last Friday afternoon of each month. view from my window Friday 29Apr16 photo 2016-4-29 450_zpsuc993unr.jpg
We’ve had a milder winter than a lot of places but April has been cold and spring is still slow to come. I maintain that it’s only the first three weeks of May that are spring in Nova Scotia, anyway.

I’ll be in Ontario for a couple of weeks in May, so I’ll miss a lot of it. Buy–hey!–it’ll be summer when I come home!

And what a difference a day makes: this was yesterday.
view from my window Thursday photo 2016-4-28 450_zpsai9chbgi.jpg

How’s the weather where you are?

Thursday Afternoon: View from My Window 25Apr13

April25

A year or so ago, I ran a series of pictures with the view from my office window every Friday afternoon. I stopped because I thought there wasn’t enough change week to week to bear recording.

What I’ve decided to do now is to post a picture from the last Friday afternoon of each month. Since tomorrow I have a Giveaway Hop post scheduled, I decided to start for April with this Thursday view.

It’s April in Nova Scotia. We’ve had a milder winter than a lot of places but spring is still slow to come. The tree in the right foreground is a pear. No buds. The trees at the end of the driveway are tamaracks. No buds. There’s a birch tree across the driveway. No buds.

But just you wait. May is coming – and May’s the month that summer comes to Nova Scotia. Be sure to check in for the May 31st photo!

Oh, Happy Day: Snow in April

April8

Our late winter storm: I don’t think there’s quite the 15 cm (6 in) they forecast, but there’s sure the ice pellets mixed with it, as they warned.

late winter storm 08Apr12

The bright side is, it’s been too cold (expected of this season) for many buds to have appeared so nothing’s been ruined by last night’s weather activity.

Let me guess: warm & sunny where you are?


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Saturday Snapshot: Let It Snow

February18

This is my first time participating in the Saturday Snapshot meme, hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.

snow on the treehouse 18Feb12

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. The whole world seemed silent and clean. The tree house isn’t quite finished (and not quite in a tree anymore since a storm took it down).

What’s it like where you are?


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Six Word Saturday 11Feb12

February11

six word Saturday WINTER STORM COMING. HUNKER DOWN. READ!

Want to join the 6WS club? Describe what is going on in your life in 6 words and then link up with Cate at Showmyface.com


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Friday Afternoon: The View from My Window 23Dec11

December23

Pretty, isn’t it?

Friday afternoon 23Dec11

It’s been snowing lightly since before dawn – and it’s slippery out there!

Friday Afternoon: the View from My Window 16Dec11

December16

Look how gray the sky is!

Friday afternoon 16Dec11

But for a few glorious minutes just before noon, the sun burst out from the clouds at the back of the house and made everything glow. You can see the shadow of the roof peak in the bottom right.

I’m so glad I captured this moment – have a wonderful weekend!


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The View from My Window: Friday 11Nov11

November12

I know I’m a day late but I do have an explanation.

View from my window 11Nov11

Heavy rain started here in Nova Scotia about midnight Thursday and continued on until supper time Friday. In all, about 56 mm (just over 2 inches) came down in that time period. I took this photo Friday morning from my office window, thinking that the rain was benefiting the view: making the sere colours of November deepen and glow.

We had a dinner reservation with some friends in Halifax (about a two hour drive) and were amazed to see the water on the way: ditches running white water rapids, streams flowing through fields and down hillsides where there had been no streams a day earlier, standing water making hay fields resemble rice paddies, but the roads were fine even through Truro which sits on a flood plain at the end of the Bay of Fundy (highest tides in the world!)

Truro is located at the far right end of the water in this diagram (just off the map) – past where it says tides are 49 feet (15 m).

bay of fundy tides

Ah – but supper time was low tide. By the time we traveled home at 10 that evening, matters were different. We saw a car abandoned in the Sobey’s parking lot, water up to the middle of its doors. And we found all the access roads through & around Truro closed because of flooding, necessitating some quick thinking and back roads to get home.

None of my photos turned out because it was too dark – but trust me: what looks so benign in my front yard was anything but at high tide in Truro.


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What Makes a 3-Year-Old Cry?

October5

Our three-year-old grandson has a pretty happy disposition and not much gets him down, but he was in tears this morning. We’re having a bit of a blow here on the east coast – a nor-easter with lots of rain and winds that are gusting to 100 km/hr (60mph). The ‘breezes’ caught the tree that held the start of the tree-house that Grampa is building for Steven – and took it out by the roots. Tire swing’s gone, too.

treehouse down

The silver lining? As Steven, who never cries for long, says: “I can fill up that hole with water and jump in the B-I-G puddle!”

Friday Afternoon – A View from My Window 16Sep11

September16

Summer is fast drawing to a close & I realize that I’ve not shown you a full summer view from my window. (Oh, I wish I had a new camera!)

Mountain ash berries

Despite the warmish weather of the last couple of weeks, the grasses and trees are losing their vibrant summer green, so I thought I’d concentrate on the mountain ash tree in the front garden. It volunteered itself there about four years ago and this year, for the first time, displayed the glossy orange berries that characterize it. (And, yes, the sky is really is that blue.)

What a difference a day makes!

We spent yesterday afternoon at the beach but it rained all night and today it’s 13C/55F with a NW wind blowing at 60km/35mph that makes it feel much colder. But the sun is shining – which it’s supposed to do all weekend. Have a good one, wherever you are. I’ll be back with book-related posts next week.


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The Sun Sets While the Thunder Rumbles

August2

There’s thunderstorms somewhere around here this evening – we hear them in the distance and every so often see a faint flash of lightning. The dogs are not happy, as unused to the sound of thunder as they are.

Meanwhile, sunset came and went behind the clouds, lighting up the western sky with these gorgeous colors.

August sunset,thunder storm sunset

I never tire of sunsets; in the city, we seldom saw them as the buildings blocked our view.

Friday 25Mar11: The View from My Window

March25

Last week, we were on a road trip to southern Ontario where (then) it was balmy and spring-like. While we were gone, most of the snow here melted too and the first three days this week were wonderful and left me full of hope. Then I woke up this morning to this–and still snowing.

Friday afternoon,March,2011

Will winter never end? It makes me so down….

Friday Jan29: The View from My Office Window

January29

We’ve had rain and temps above freezing all week, and last night when I went to bed, there was no snow to be seen. I thought I’d show you a real contrast from last week.

Alas, this is what I awoke to. That’s a main highway out there. There’s a wind gusting to 50 mph from the south (?!), which is the other side of the house, that blowing a icy mist of snow across the roads.

Friday Afternoon view from my office window,snowstorm

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Friday Afternoon Nov 6th- the (View) from My Office

November6

Not being camera-savvy, I couldn’t get the picture beyond the window this week. The lens would record only the ice on the pane.

At 4 p.m., it’s as dark as night, the wind is howling and blowing the trees and the sleety rain horizontal.

What a change from last week!

viewNov6th

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Hurricanes & Clotheslines

August22

Hurricane Bill is barreling up the Atlantic coastline and due to brush Nova Scotia tomorrow. It is, of course, the talk of the town.

The year we moved here (2003) was the first year in a very long time that Nova Scotia had been affected by a hurricane to any extent. But that September, Hurricane Juan Read the rest of this entry »

Weather with Names

March31

Last night we were storm-stayed again–for the third time this month. Isn’t that a charming term? We’re made to stay inside by the storm.
Photobucket
In actual fact, all the doors are snowed in at least knee high and the path to the car is drifted to my chest. (If, indeed, the car is out there – we can’t see any sign of it anymore.) So storm-stayed we are.

All of our friends in urban, commerce-driven Read the rest of this entry »

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