Monday 27 August 2012


This place is Ours - Home at Last

Our home from lookout
Now that any construction and clean up has finished, we are getting down to enjoying the place and looking about the area to familiarize ourselves with people and place. We, the family, held an open house for an afternoon and evening and welcomed many friends and co-workers and neighbours to our home. We had a canopy set up, games spread around, and bought more deck furniture so all would be comfortable. It was a success and if we thought no one knew we were here, we discovered the area knows all there is to know about us. Houses appear to be spread out with so much territory but you can bet in the country, folks know what is happening everywhere and to whom it is happening.

On a walk we were pulled in by a neighbour who had stepped out to meet us. We went in to meet his wife, Rose. She is one of the bravest individuals I had ever met and a bit of a hoot in the best way. Cancer over taking her, she remains in a forthright “this is how it is” mood and informed us of activities about the road and talked of the gardens, and the neighbours. She welcomed us and knew all about us. She was a delight and an inspiration.We felt very much accepted and at home. Her husband spoke to mine mostly about the past and former jobs. We met another neighbour a few days before out cutting the grass and stood and chatted for some time then. Previously we had met and already know the horse people as I had walked up to them to ask for pictures or drawings for a painting. I have all the pictures now for an artwork. It is doubtful I will get the resource from drawings as the horses are loose in fields so requesting them to hold a pose will not work. The photographs will have to suffice as reference.

View from lookout
This weekend we decided to drive around the area to find what roads came out where, and visited the lookout, viewed from our house. We have been asked twice for the directions on the road. A drive up for curiosity and to be able to inform any other seekers, seemed like a good Sunday event. We did find the spot from the lookout road where we could view our new home. We also discovered on the other side of that hill we could see the town of Pictou and the harbour. Driving the whole area gave us orientation of place.

The area is not built up to point that at night you can see where you are in relation to other’s lights. In fact, it is the blackest of abysses out there at night. The few houses we can peek through the trees do not use night lights. We ventured out onto the deck one night to see the clear skies. It is dark on the deck and stepping off to complete blackness didn’t seem a good idea. My husband had heard muffled noises in the woods when he came out to see the meteor showers some nights before and decided meeting something out there wasn’t a good idea. We do need a good flashlight or spotlight. Binoculars for day time viewing are also on the list. We can see far afield here. This night the showers had mostly dissipated but I could see a few faint flashes of trail. Mostly I was awed by the brilliance of the stars and the layers behind the brightest ones seemingly to disappear into the back with dimmer light in layers. We seem to be able to see deep into the layers to a faded cloud of stars behind. There was a full canopy of sky unlike anything I had seen before. We sat out for some time enjoying the view.



The town and harbour
We took a drive another day to a spot easily accessible to the West River. It is where we have seen fishers many times. I want to do a watercolour of the river. The river is low where we have had hot weather all summer but still interesting enough to paint. I am sure as the autumn rains come the river will be high and full and deep again and I will paint it then as well. The best part of the river is at the bridge. Still full there, it is difficult to get down the high banks. Maybe I will learn of a spot from others where I can get to the bank below. Meanwhile I know the autumn will bring me plenty of muse as they all exclaim about the beauty of the coloured leaves here in the fall. Finally I am at a point where art making is taking over the work of settling in and I expect to be busy in the studio if not out prowling around the land.