Boxing Day!!!

Did you know, there is no Boxing Day shopping at all in the Maritimes!!! 
Nothing. Zilch. Nadda.*

One has no option but to spend one's boxing day sipping endless 
cups of tea and making  polite conversation with one's host .. 
or go tramping through the woods!

View of Echo Lake from the McDonald family's backyard.  

And as you can see, it was indeed a white Christmas!

(*though we did see one Tim Horton's and one MacDonald's drive through 

that were open.  Not the restaurant proper; just the drive through's.)

Do you know what Nova Scotians do on Christmas Eve?

They go surfing at Lawrencetown Beach!

Halifax Explosion Memorial

Fort Needham Memorial Park

There is a 10-bell carillon in the Memorial, many of the bells

donated by family members of those killed in the explosion.

The Memorial overlooks the Narrows (strait connecting the upper 

Halifax Harbour to the Bedford Basin) where the Norwegian vessel Imo 

collided with the Mont Blanc, a French cargo ship loaded with explosives.

Also, a series of markers are being placed around Halifax to serve as a 

permanent commemoration the the Explosion.  Twelve, 10-foot high 

marked will be placed in 9 locations around the city incorporating English, 

French and Mi'kmaq text as well as a Mik'maq petroglyph.

(Halifax weather report -

- Saturday, Dec 22nd - rainy and 12 degrees plus!

- today (Sunday) - minus 4, dry and sunny)

Dartmouth - December 21th

Right now, have to admit that winter in Halifax hasn't been all that uncomfortable!  

• Tuesday, - 4 degrees, heavy snow
• Wednesday, plus 3 degrees, sunny (so all the snow melted!)
• Thursday, plus 4 degrees, sunny
• Friday (today), plus 7 degrees, light rain in the afternoon
• Saturday, plus 13 degrees!!!!  Heavy rain and wind is expected, so not sure if we'll go out gallivanting

But out gallivanting we have been!

Dartmouth and Halifax - views from the Dartmouth Ferry

Halifax boardwalk

Halifax Public Gardens

Downtown Dartmouth, at dusk, from the ferry

You May Have Heard a Rumour …

… that Linda Kincaid was re-locating to the east coast.

Well, that rumour is true.  Ms. Kincaid has re-located to Dartmouth.

You may have heard a rumour about a road trip to Dartmouth that was suppose to happen around the same time.  And that I was part of that road trip.

Well, the rumour about the road trip and about me going were true …. at the time.

But when the time came, I was felled by a viral infection that left me ill and miserable for the better part of the month of October.  So I didn't get to make said road trip.  

Quell sadness!

So to make up for that disappointment, I am heading to Dartmouth for Christmas.  I am in Montreal right now on the first leg of my trip, waiting to catch the "overnight" train into Halifax.

As much as I am looking for to Christmas with Linda and her family, I am also going to attempt to determine once and for all, if indeed, Halifax doesn't get hit by all the east coast winter storms, and is in fact a comfortable and worry-free city in which to spent  winter!

Stay tuned for updates!

(The Montreal train station is not all that bad!  Being that it's Sunday night, there are no massive crowds, a Tim's, a Starbucks, and a Second Cup!)

Lego Mural - with a Twist!

If you're out and about, shopping at the Christmas Market in 

Nathan Phillips Square, be sure to check out the Lego mural!!

The original "blank" mural was set up outside Union Station during the month of November.  Members of the public were invited to build a grid of Legos and add to the mural.  (I built my grid!  My grid turned out to be part of the moose!)  For every "grid" a member of the public added to the mural, Lego donated a set of legos to CTV's "Toy Mountain" campaign.

In the end over 660,000 bricks were needed to complete the mural and over 18,000 Lego sets were donated to "Toy Mountain".

The Twist … 

… the 1D mural has been designed with a 2D twist! The mural is different, 

depending on which "side" of the mural you view it from - the right side or the left!  

If you look at my second photo (above) you can "see" the "change" beginning to 

happen with the hockey player in the centre of the mural.  He appears to be 

holding both a candy cane and a hockey stick!

And there are 7 other images that change, again, depending on whether 

you view the mural from the left side or the right side!