You know you're 'down home' when....

On a recent trip to the Bridgewater Superstore, I read a sign that made me laugh out loud.  I laughed long and hard at that sign.

I wonder what possessed someone to write it?  Did a manager ask Trina to "make up a postah, so people know there's more tuna down back on a table"?   Is "down back" a location at the Superstore that is universally understood?  I wasn't sure where it was.  Beside the meat counter?  Near the frozen dinner section?  At the end of  aisle 6?  Behind the building?  Where is "down back" anyway?


Sadly, I did not have a pen with me so I could correct the sign to read, "...down back on to a table".  


The first time I saw the sign, I did not have my camera in hand.  The next day, I returned to the Superstore to capture the shot.  While I was there, I decided to go for a wander.  

Here, for your enjoyment, I have discovered the location of the elusive DOWN BACK!

The Big Ex: Plum Tuckered Out

The Big Ex: 4-H Barn

Bridgewater, NS

July 25, 2012

A trip to Bridgewater's annual agricultural fair is not complete without a visit to the 4-H barn.  It's great to see a new generation of kids learning how to raise, care and breed animals.  Chances are, these will be more useful survival skills than how to code HTML5.

This scene greeted me as I entered the building.  A young boy crashed out on a couple bales of hay, not unlike the other mammals resting beside him. 

What's on this weekend? Breakfasts! Local food supper! Roast Beef!

Some old favourites this weekend and something new as well.  If you are looking for a breakfast, Saturday is the morning to scout one out.

Saturday evening, the Close to Home dinner at Wile's Lake Farm Market sounds really interesting.  If local food, sourced within 100 km intrigues you, check 'er out!  It's a part of the sustainability festival which starts today and takes place all weekend.  Check their website for more info.

Breakfasts

August 25 

Royal Canadian Legion #23, Lunenburg,

7:30-11:30 a.m. 

Adults $7; ages 5-12, $3. 

Takeout available for pick-up $7.50. 634-4215

Saturday, August 25

Newfie Breakfast,

7:30-10:30, 

Chester Basin Legion. 

Menu selections and take-out available.

Saturday, August 25. 

Firemen's Breakfast, 

United Communities fire hall, Cherry Hill, 

8 - 11 a.m. 

Adults $7, children 5 -12 $3.25, under 5 free.

Sunday, August 26 

Brunch, 

Mahone Bay Legion,

10 a.m.-1 p.m. 

Adults $7; children $3; under 5 free.

Suppers

Saturday, August 25

"Close to Home" Local Food Dinner (part of the Growing Green Sustainability Festival) 

Wile's Lake Farm Market, 3254 Hwy 325, Wileville

5:00 pm dinner guests arrive
5:30 pm – four course local food “incredible picnic” starts
Appetizer * soup * main course * dessert
All ingredients sourced within 100km
Vegetarian option available
Entertainment by local musicians
Tickets are $20, and can be purchased on the Community Sustainability Network website, or may be bought in person at Wile’s Lake Farm Market.

August 26 

Lunenburg & District Fire Department Fundraiser Roast Beef Dinner, 

Lunenburg Fire Hall, 

4:30- 6 p.m. 

Adults $12, children 6- 12 $7, 5 and under free.

Cod carcass graveyard

Tapper's Cove Wharf

Torbay, Newfoundland

Aug. 12, 2012

This was a sight to behold, hundreds of filet-less cod bodies laying underwater beside the wharf.   I half expected to see legions of crabs and other underwater scavengers crawling over these cod remnants.  Oddly, not much activity down there...at least, not any I could see from the wharf.

Most folks fillet their haul at the wharf and chuck what remains in the water.  I understand why, just imagine 15 cod rotting in your compost bin for 2 weeks and you'll see why folks fillet at the wharf and not at home. 

This car is gooood, but it could use more crowbar....

The Big Ex:  Demolition Derby

Bridgewater, NS

This team spent quite a while trying to pry off that bumper.  I'm not sure how it was attached, it seemed pretty resistant to crowbars and pry bars, that's for sure!

This car eventually won the title of 'most crushed'.  It's a Pontiac Grand Am, remember what it looks like because the 'after' photo does not look like a Grand Am.  Stay tuned!

What's on this weekend? Pork! Blueberry Grunt! Lobstah roll! Planked Halibut! East/West Breakfasts!

I've lapsed in my community grub scraping/reposting, I picked a good week to pick up the torch again!

Saturday morning, pick a side of the Lahave river and go git yerself some breakfast.  Saturday evening..I hope you like blueberries!

Sunday has a head to head seafood battle on the west side of the river.  I wish these folks would coordinate so they didn't schedule two awesome dinners at the same time.  Take your pick of a lobster roll supper or my perennial fave, the Conquerall Bank Planked Halibut Supper!  Check out my previous posts about the planked halibut supper if you are curious.

Have a great weekend one and all!

Breakfasts

August 18
Central United Church hall, Lincoln St., Lunenburg,

7:30- 11:30 a.m. 

Adults $7, children (6-12), $3.50, children (5 and under) free. 

Menu: Eggs, hash browns, bologna, bacon, juice, sausages, beans, tea, coffee and toast. 

Come enjoy a good breakfast with your family and friends.

(Take-outs are available)

Saturday, August 18

Fireman's Breakfast. 

Petite Riviere fire hall,

8- 11 a.m. 

Full menu, 

Adults $7, under 12 $3, under 5 free. 

Information 688-2117

Suppers

August 18

Pork Supper with Blueberry Grunt Dessert. 

Midville Fire Hall,

4- 6 p.m. 

$10 person, $5 children under 12. 

Advance sale tickets call Alice 543-7225. 

Limited number available at the door.

Saturday, August 18

Blueberry Supper, 

St. Jerome's Church Hall, West Caledonia,

4:30- 7 p.m. 

Adults $10; under 12 $5; under 5 free.

Sunday, August 19

Lobster Roll Supper,

4-6 p.m. 

West Side United Church, 2702 Highway 331, Pentz. 

$15/person. Lobster roll, potato salad, coleslaw, dessert, tea/coffee. 

Alternate meal available and take-out available. 

For advance tickets/information: 688-1580 or 688-2631

Sunday, August 19

30th Annual Planked Halibut Supper 

Conquerall Bank fire hall,

4:30-6:30 p.m. 

Halibut baked on an open fire. 

Served with mashed potatoes, tomato, cucumber, coleslaw, pie and tea/coffee. 

Adults $12; children $5; under 5 free. 

Proceeds for Conquerall Bank Fire Department.

Rose Bay: Tall ships ahoy!

This was the vista that greeted me July 24th as I drove down the hill towards Rose Bay.  The following tall ships were anchored in Rose Bay: Providence, Lynx, Pride of Baltimore, Amistad, Tree of Life, Larinda, Roseway, and Unicorn.  It was neat to think about a time when this sight would have been commonplace.  

It was great to see the Tree of Life back in local waters, it was built in Petite Riviere in 1991.  I remember the night it was launched.  It had to be moved from Petite to Lahave for the launch.  As the boat was transported along the highway, a group of my friends and I attempted to resurrect an old tradition for ensuring good luck for new boats.  We tried to enter church bell towers along the way and ring their bells.  There are many churches along the road from Petite to Lahave!  Sadly, our efforts were thwarted when the RCMP arrived as I stood at the bottom of a long extension ladder leading up to the bell tower of a small church.  Luckily, we did not get in trouble....we never did ring a bell that night.

Here's another shot with a slightly zoomed in view:

Sappyfest 2012: Waiting for the grease

Sackville, New Brunswick.  August 3, 2012

This chip truck was a permanent fixture for the entire weekend during Sappyfest .

All hail grease!  I love the neon and the metal work on this chip truck.

The Boys

Tapper's Cove wharf -- Torbay, Newfoundland.  Aug. 12, 2012.

August 12th was the last day of Newfoundland's recreational food fishery, so it was quite a busy day at the wharf with everyone and their dog trying to get their boat in/out of the water.  

Lots of fishers and non-fisher onlookers were hanging about, waiting to see who would bring in the biggest cod of the day.  Mine weighed a mere 6 pounds, though I did hear (but did not see) of 20 pound specimens...

Somewhere between Glasgow & Edinburgh

I wish I knew exactly where this farm was located...best guess it is closer to Glasgow than it is to Edinburgh.

I shot this through the window of our train as we hurtled down the tracks toward Edinburgh.  As you can see, this day was a wee bit 'o' all right.

Glasgow Train Station

Back to Glasgow!

While waiting for our train to Edinburgh, I snapped this shot at the Glasgow train station.  That was wayyyy back in June!  

The Big Ex: Demolition Derby

After a year of regretting that I missed last year's demo derby, I finally got a chance to check out the spectacle that is The Big Ex demolition derby.  

What___a__shit__show.

I'm sure somewhere, J.G. Ballard was smiling down on Bridgewater that drizzly Sunday.  

This was the scene that greeted upon arrival.  Sweaty men with beer guts, sparks, big pieces of metal, grease, etc..  All signs pointed to awesomeness.  This crew was.....welding something to.....something.  

The stands were packed full of excited derby watchers like myself.  We were not disappointed!  Round after round of gasoline charged mayhem ensued all afternoon.  Stay tuned for more pics in the days and weeks to come.

If you are kicking yourself for missing out on all the shenanigans, fear not faithful readers.  The Coldbrook Lions have an event at the end of August which looks even MOAR ridiculous!

Billed as the 'Bash for Cash', it will feature 80-100 cars registered to get destroyed.  Heck, there's even a mini van class, what's not to love?!?  

August 26th.  In a gravel pit.  Be there.  I know I will.

The Sappyfest Chronicles

Oh Sappyfest...you came and went like a pleasant daydream.  Wait, was it a dream?  No, it was real...I have the blisters on my feet to prove it.

Sappyfest is the only music festival on my radar these days.  It's within a 4 hour drive from my house, the crowd is there (mostly) to listen to music and I only recognize 3 or 4 of the bands in the lineup.

Sappyfest:  your port-a-potties were air freshened with well cured sinsemilla smoke rather than ammonia pucks.  Your festival guide told me to accept lineup changes:  "things change, get over it".  I did.

The drive to Sackville was hopeful, filled with anticipation.  This was my second foray into the fest' that is sappy so I had a vague idea of what, when and where to expect it.  

The air on the highway was hot and the windows were down.  I'm sure I wasn't the only driver who had a Don Quixote moment when passing the large wind power array at the NS/NB border.  

Once I crossed the Tantramar marshes (it was just like the Sappy Times handout said....utter those words like a mystical incantation:  tantramar marshes, tantramar marshes, tantramar marshes), it was as if I had entered Mordor.  Epic cumulus clouds and sunny skies were replaced with a thick blanket of grey fog that enshrouded my home away from home.  At the time, I thought I wanted more sun.  As it turns out, I didn't know what I wanted.

Skip ahead to the last day of the festival.  I sat in a shady corner of a parking lot, enjoying the support of the soft driver's seat in my car.  I felt like I was drowning.  It's not the heat, it's the humidity.  Actually, it was everything.  A weekend of sensory overload.  I was suffering from hipster fatigue.

I bolted.  

Staying in Sackville for another 4 hours quickly started to feel like getting up for work after a heavenly and relaxing long weekend.  I started assessing my festival experience the way day traders perform a price/earnings ratio analysis of stocks and bonds.  I realized how Sappy happy I felt.  I stopped thinking about getting my money's worth from my ticket the way ravenous diners approach a cheap buffet.

I couldn't stay any longer, so I didn't.  I escaped.

I fueled up my body and my car and hit the road.  I gave my new Eternal Summers cd a test run as I had another Don Quixote moment.  I was awake, alert and happy to be driving.  Maybe I was just happy to be in a comfortable, air conditioned seat.  

I ran.  I ran back to my cosy Lunenburg county home.  I ran back to the chilly embrace of my familiar Atlantic ocean.

I was happy to see a thick bank of fog greeting me as I crossed the county line.  I rolled down the windows.  I inhaled and exhaled.  I cooled down.

Thank you, Sappyfest.  See you next year.

(more pics and stories to follow)