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.
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!
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.
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)
I got some strange looks from our hosts when I snapped this shot. They couldn't understand why I would want to photograph a random car on a random street. I had to explain that we don't have 'letting agencies' in Canada. Also, it's not common for corner shops to advertise 'nougats, oysters, wafers' for sale. Apparently 'oysters' are a sweet, which makes more sense than selling shellfish in a corner shop.
I'm glad I took the time to take shots like this. Of course, photographer's remorse, I wish I had taken many more....
Last night, I was fortunate to attend the final artist talk by the NSCAD Lunenburg Artist Residents aboard the tall ship Providence. It was an amazing setting, as you can see by this shot taken of a flag atop a nearby tall ship.
The occasional cannon blast from adjacent ships punctuated the talk, not unlike those in
Tchaikovsky 's 1812 Overture. It sure kept us on our toes, who needs coffee when there is a cannon blasting away?!
Good luck to Nadia, Lynette and Jason with their future endeavours!
The end of my first day in Glasgow was in a Tesco Express in the Shawlands neighbourhood. I wonder if anyone noticed (or cared) that I was taking pictures of every aisle in the store? I'm glad I did and wish I had taken more product shots throughout the duration of the trip. But, at some point I had to stow the camera, stop documenting everything and use my brain/camera instead.
I love the prodigious use of British flags on these boxes 'o' cake! I wonder if it was a tie-in with the Royal Jubilee or if that's just the normal packaging?
I was trying to think of an equivalent American or Canadian product that is swaddled in theat nation's flag? How about you, faithful readers? Do you have any examples of flag branding/packaging?
Also wishing I had bought a box of that Cherry Bakewell cake...it looks scrumptious!
