Where I Had Lunch Today…. August 31, 2016

On a rock … near Stonehurst, Nova Scotia. We paddled our trusty canoe out of Blue Rocks till we found this perfect picnic spot. 

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Naturally Framed

The town of Burlington, VT, as viewed from one of the beaches on the bicycle trail along the lake. 

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Doors of Woodstock, Vermont

This was a happy discovery. A brief walk to stretch our legs during a recent brief (and speedy!) road trip through Vermont, introduced us to the very charming town of Woodstock. 

Here are just a few of the pretty doorways we wandered past. 

Seeing double!

There was a book sale at the public library. I didn’t get to, but I was dying to look inside this building. I have a soft spot for libraries. 

But after reading the sandwhich board, we could not resist checking this shop out. (Marketing works 😉).

And I must admit, it was (or is) quite possibly the coolest.  It certainly offers a very wide variety of quality products – everything outdoor gear and clothing to local cheese to children’s books to groceries to trendy pet accessories to beer and wine to salt & pepper shakers.  A very modern general store. 

This stone building had an open door policy. 

It was a quick stop and a fleeting visit, but I reckon we’ll be back.

Linked to Norm’s Thursday Doors.

Secret Door

Is there really a door in there? 

I walked passed this hidden door 6 times before I noticed it. Six times along the sidewalk, brushing the privet hedge. I am now alert to doorways (thanks to Norm!) and was appreciating the variety of doors on this street in Burlington, VT when this one called out to me. 

Suddenly I noticed an opening in the hedge … And I had to have a closer look …

Yes!  That’s a door.  Complete with mail slot.  

How intriguing!! 

Road Trip Fun

Let’s take a road trip – just for the FUN of it!! Boston to Burlington. 

One the highlights of summer has to be the “road trip”. When I was a kid, all our vacations were road trips – usually while hauling a camper trailer. 

This week, I’m off with hubby on one of his business trips. And we decided, much to my delight, to make it into a little road adventure, by adding a road component to the commute. This road trip begins with plane ride (… Well, actually we did drive from home to the airport, so …).

Landing in Boston.

Picking up rental car. This was our second choice – the car assigned to us was sopping wet inside. Ewww!  Someone must have left the window down during  the car wash, or something. It was squishy!

Through the tunnel, and …

… Over the bridge.

Enduring an 8-lane highway into New Hampshire. Note the white knuckles!

This was a little easier. North through New Hampshire via I89 to Lebanon.  

We stopped at an information centre in White River Jct to pick up a road map. Road maps are old school, I know.  But I like them! Here, we saw a railway museum display. 

We carried on along the #4 Highway, west to the very pretty town of Woodstock. We stretched our legs and had a little look around.  This place might require another visit!

And found one of New England’s famous covered bridges in Woodstock. 

The #4 Highway took us to Killington (major ski resort) at the southern tip of the Green Mountain National Forest and then to Rutland, where we turned north along the #7 Highway . We had intended to drive through the Green Mountains, but somehow we missed that turn off. My driver does not like to retrace steps. 

That’s okay. The mountain views were pretty.

There were loads and loads (and loads!) of antique shops along the route.

It’s farm country.

Including many solar farms – large and small.  You can’t see it in this photo, but there were hundreds of solar panels at the solar farm. The photo was snapped while we whizzed by.  My driver doesn’t care to stop, either, apparently. 

But the sky brightened from time to time and I convinced said driver to take a wee break from the highway and skirt the shores of Lake Champlain.

We were rewarded with our own little covered bridge which we got to drive through.

All that “no stopping” and “no retracing” paid off. We arrived in Burlington in plenty of time to have walk (that was a long drive!!), and sit on a patio for dinner as the setting sun warmed the bricks of this lovely building across the street.

I see a glass of wine in our future … Or maybe a local cider. Yup!  Cider it is!

Cheers!

Good Morning Rose Bay!

Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night. – William Blake

This quote works for me!!! (A notoriously slow starter in the morning)

The Doors of Fort Point

Fort Point Museum sits on a a pretty little knoll at the mouth of the LaHave River that witnessed little-known, but significant events in Canadian history.

This was the first bit of land that Samuel de Champlain and Pierre du Gua de Monts spotted in North America in 1604.  They named this place “La Have”, after “LeHeve”,the last view of France the explorers had of France.

Discovered and mapped in 1604, a settlement was established in 1632 by Isaac de Razilly, and was, for a short time, the Capital of New France in Acadia.

The prosperous fortified settlement included a chapel built for the three Capuchin monks, who brought education to New France by establishing the first school.

Prior to 1604, the Mi’kmaq used this place for summer campgrounds. A relationship sprung up between the Mi’kmaq and the French which continues.

A lot of “firsts”, and many “doors” opened here at Fort Point, La Have.  But, to make a long story short, squabbles between rival French factions in LaHave and Port Royal resulted in Fort Point burned to the ground in 1850.  The land changed hands between the French and English until the Treaty of Utrecht finally turned all of Acadia over to the British in 1710.

The Museum was opened in the former light keeper’s house in 1972.

Doorway into the gardens.

The doors of the building housing the communal oven are open wide.

The oven door.

We haven’t been here in years, but we dropped in on a cycling trip last weekend. And we were suitably impressed by this little museum perched above the beach.

While there, I made a happy discovery. Seems one of my family names (Comeau) is connected with the first French settlers. I’ll definitely be back to learn more about that!

Linked with Norm’s Thursday Doors

Narrow

That’s a narrow space between two schooners.

Because there are more boats here than mooring space available, these boats are tied up to each other at the wharf . To get to their boat,  the crew for the outer boat must make there way from the dock, scrambling  over any of the inside boats to get there. Sometime that’s an exercise in agility and acrobatics.

Here crew are pulling up the bumpers as they get ready to leave the dock.  It’s  the Nova Scotia Schooner Association’s  annual race week, folks! This year they sail out of Hubbards.