August 13, 2009, Western Head, N.S. Time.

I have been here ten days, and it already seems as if I have been a month. When we arrive, it takes me about two days to live only in the present, here in Nova Scotia, and all other parts of my life fade away. Time passing is a funny kind of thing. A few days can feel like an eternity when you are a kid waiting to go to camp, yet other days just fly away. One thing is true for both of us, that we do not worry about anything except where we are right now. In fact, we don't even think of anyplace except right here. Friends of ours tell us that they worry about their house back home, when they are on vacation, but we we neither worry or think about it. It gives us great peace of mind, perhaps foolishly.

Today just flew away. Ken and Mal decided to strip the carriage house doors. We purchased these large wooden doors, thinking they would look great from a distance, but the sun beating on the doors was hard on the varnish and has already been re-done twice. And we finally decided that the carriage house would look better if both doors were white, rather than one large wood door and one small white door. Now it will be painted white. Mal cleaned Fisherman Joe with a bleach solution, so now arter a day of sun, the painting will begin and will soon be as good as new. I shopped at the Sobeys grocery store. The last two times I shopped at the Atlantic Super Store I was not happy with the service, so today I went to the old store, Sobey's. I never liked to shop there because the ceiling was low and the place was dark, but they removed the false ceiling and added lots more lights. The service was great too, so from now on, I am going to shop there. And they installed a bakery too. Competition is such a good thing. Pat painted all morning, then late this afternoon we went for a walk. Perfect weather for a walk: 75 degrees and overcast but no breeze. At the end of the day we four sat on the deck enjoying the calm seas and looking for whales, and of course drank our glass of wine. Tonight, the ocean seemed more like a large lake than a massive ocean, with not a ripple on the surface. Unusual but very pretty.