September 30, 2014. Western Head, N.S. Cancellation.

Gill suggested I cancel dinner at our place tonight. Our plan was to have dinner with Susie and Jeff along with my friend Sandra at our home to say goodbye to Gill. Last evening at Walt and Mary's, I started coughing and I could not stop. It turned out that if I talked, I coughed, despite all the cough syrup they gave me. By morning, I had decided to take Gill's suggestion. If I had a bug, it seemed silly to spread it around. This is not my pattern. Normally, I keep on going until my task has been completed. Perhaps now that I am older, I am getting smarter, or perhaps I am merely losing my nerve. Evidently, Walt had the same thing happen a couple of weeks ago. He lacked energy and had a bad cough, which was why he had cough syrup on hand last evening. I believe that this is the first time I have ever cancelled a dinner party. With my Pollyanna attitude, I prefer to think it was the wiser choice for me to call it off. I spent the afternoon and evening being lazy. Now I hope the added rest shortens my recovery. I would not want to have missed a pleasant event for naught.

September 29, 2014. Western Head, N.S. Sea Food Chowder.

Everyone makes seafood chowder a little differently. In Maryland, we used to order Maryland crab soup in restaurants because each time the soup was a bit different. The same is true in Nova Scotia. Each chowder is good but everyone is just a bit different. Some use cream only and some use milk only and some use half cream and half milk. And then there is the type of cream to say nothing of the amount of shrimp, fish and other sea food. Potatoes go into chowder too but in some chowders you eat mainly potatoes while other chowders are mainly fish. Most Nova Scotian cooks do not thicken the chowders either. My brother orders a cup of seafood chowder with every lunch in restaurants. He says he has never eaten a poor chowder in Nova Scotia. Lane's makes the best… maybe. Tonight we dined on seafood chowder at Mary and Walt's home. Mary is our best cook by far and she excels at chowder. There are lots of lobster, shrimp and fish. The potatoes are present but are cut in small pieces so are not obvious. And the seasonings are just right. Mary makes an excellent chowder for my taste. It is a perfect meal to say goodbye to Gill.

September 28, 2014. Western Head, N.S. Coughing.

Ken does not like me coughing. Of course, he coughs all the time, sometimes worse than other times, but he prefers to be the only one in the family with a cough. He tells our friends that, in his line of business, he should be able to stop me from coughing. What he really does not like is the simple fact that I may have something the matter with me when I continue to cough, and that brings on a bit of panic. My habit with my health is to ignore symptoms and keep on doing whatever needs to be done. I certainly never tell Ken my complaints until I really need help from a doctor. But I have had a cough for several weeks so he decided to ask me all the questions, many of course I do not know. The he looked for a stethoscope which we do not have. Neither do we have a thermometer, so he can not possibly play doctor. He does think that when we are in Texas I should have a chest X-ray. I prefer to keep drinking lots of water and take ibuprofen regularly and assume that my coughing is an allergy, so that soon I will be cured. It has always worked in the past!!

September 27, 2014. Pleasantfield, N.S. The Cottage.

Why do we enjoy the cottage? Our home at Western Head looks out at the bold Atlantic Ocean and the house is comfortable, yet we regularly drive the 45 minutes to the tiny cottage by the lake. The view is like every other lake except the boats are scarce and we can not see neighbors. The deck by the water if spacious and comfortable and is a favorite spot for reading but it still does not compare with the view from our ocean house. Yet we continue to enjoy ourselves here and I am not sure why. The isolation at the cottage is complete. These cottages are mostly used during the summer months and right now we are the only folks in residence, except for the 3 families who live here permanently. And we have no phones. When we arrived mid afternoon, I took a gigantic nap, finally getting up at 5:00. As we have no TV, we read. Now that the Internet and WiFi work well, I can check on the scores from the Ryders Cup which has helped. The drive today was pleasant, as the colors of the leaves are springing to life. Perhaps it is merely a change of scene that gives us so much pleasure or maybe we like the force of the water pressure in the showers? Whatever it is, we are enjoying our solitude at our little cottage at Moosehorn Estates, which is a fancy name for a perfectly ordinary group of about 25 cottages. For whatever reasons, we like it here.

September 26, 2014. Western Head, N.S. Departures.

Our group is getting smaller. After tomorrow, we will be down to 3 when Wendy and Clausen depart. And next Wednesday Gill will leave to spend a month in New York. Soon our homes will all be dark. Each of us have travel in 2015 so our leave taking comes with the hope that the winter will be kind and we will all return next June to pick up where we left off and to share our travel experiences. And of course, we e mail to each other too. But we all enjoy having friends within walking distance so we miss proximity to each other. This evening, we five dined at Lane's. Typically, we get together before departures, usually in each others homes but instead we decided not to work but to eat dinner at Lane's. We were delighted to know that the restaurant was full. We want them to keep open as they are really the only good restaurant in town. Their scallops were excellent, big juicy Digby scallops that I will have trouble eating in Texas. Katie in Mississippi hates saying goodbye so instead she always hugs you and says, "I hope to see you tomorrow". We say that we will see each other next June. Then we laugh.

September 25, 2014. Western Head, N.S. Kelly Yeske.

It seems unbelievable. One month ago, Dave and Irene took us all to dinner to celebrate Ken's birthday. Our good friends Frances and Kelly Yeske attended. Kelly seemed fine although Ken commented to me that Kelly did not have a good color and when asked about their garden, he mentioned that he was having difficulty keeping it in check. We all laughed because we all know the feeling. Tuesday afternoon, Kelly died of pancreatic cancer. It seems so unfair. Kelly was energetic, enthusiastic and able. They moved to Liverpool from Edmonton when they retired from teaching. Their intention was to rent a house on the east coast, then do the same on the west coast before deciding where to settle, but after 8 months, during a return visit to Edmonton, they decided to make Liverpool their retirement home. Frances and Kelly worked as a team and made major contributions to the town. We all loved Kelly. He was well organized without being pedantic and of course, his sense of humor never left him. I feel grateful to have known Kelly. He was a hard working gentleman who loved to travel and loved his wife and friends. We will all miss him and his many contributions to our community, but most of all we will miss his rare spirit. RIP Kelly.

September 24, 2014. Western Head, N.S. Short and Sweet Visit.

The visit was short but it certainly was sweet. While we sat on the deck, seals cavorted in front of our home, keeping us all entertained. Two bald eagles fly past the window just as we were eating. We leaped up to watch from the deck as they passed by us several times. It was thrilling to see them so close to the deck, which was almost at eye level. Wendy Buckley Watson is my niece and Katey Watson is her daughter, making her my grand niece. She and her boyfriend Brock and his parents visited us this afternoon, arriving at 3:30 and leaving at 6:45. The day was glorious so we sat and enjoyed the sea and the seals. Our friends Wendy and Clausen came by with the dogs to pick up a goose carving, so they joined in the conversation. Gill had met Brock and Katey at York University so I invited her too. After Wendy and Clausen left, we seven took tea and quiche at the dining table. Along with the tea biscuits they brought and the cucumbers from Ken's garden, we had a pleasant repast. Next stop for them was Digby, where they intend to dine on Digby scallops, which are the world's best. Brock's parents live in Prince George, in British Columbia and had never been to the Maritime provinces before. They loved it so we hope it will not be their last. We thoroughly enjoyed the short but sweet visit with the four of them.