Its half day Friday ….

……………… Ha Ha it's not.

During my last chapter living and working in Southern Ontario, Fridays were always a half day. Typically, that would mean finishing work between twelve noon and 1.00pm, which was directly dependent upon the time you chose to arrive in the morning.

Half day Fridays were truly wonderful, nothing much was done during the five hours that we sold our time. Everything was very casual including the dress code, it was almost festive, perhaps borderline party time with cups of coffee, donuts and lots of chatting. For me I always got the same wonderful feeling on Fridays that was so familiar when I was a kid, the one that came with enormous delight on the day that school broke up for the long summer holidays.

Looking back now, I can honestly say I never really enjoyed my working days or even my time at school. In all those years, it was never what I actually wanted to do or spend my precious time doing it.

So, in this chapter of no half day Fridays, no joy and excitement over long weekends, statutory holidays or annual vacations, it is OK, in fact it is a lot more than OK. I am doing now what I spent years wanting to do, which in the words of Winston Churchill can be summed up as ~ “all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.”

This morning I was out early with my camera for a hop, skip and jump down to the LaHave River, before taking the ferry over to the other side and onto Lunenburg.

You will see the decks on Bluenose II look good and fresh after some annual maintenance, before getting all covered over for the winter.

Only half the beach today …

Recently I have been doing lots of additional walking around the local area, typically as much as six to seven kilometres a day. The main motivation to get me out so often is to listen to music. Earlier this year, I bought an mp3 player which now has a collection of 5780 files or songs. They been put together by copying (or ripping) from my own CD collection and a generous gift of a couple of thousand or more sent over from Vancouver Island by Buddy Dave.

Some days in addition to the local wander always in the pleasant company of the mp3 player, I also do a beach wander where I only need the agreeable company of the natural coastal surroundings and my camera. Today was one of those, a local wander in the morning and a beach wander in the afternoon. With only half the beach done, my legs were absolutely aching, they just had far too much today and they were telling me that rather loudly and painfully …

So, for the first time ever (I think), I only did half of Crescent Beach and then went off to the islands for a wee look around.

Today’s random pics …

Seagulls and other things …

The wandering conditions on Crescent Beach this morning was absolutely perfect, the tide was on its way out, it was comfortably warm, a slight mist, no wind and the best bit ~ the smell of the sea was strong and probably at its best.

I mentioned in the following blog from October last year,

“Misty, Warm, Still and a generous sprinkling of Silence …”

https://southshoretidewatch.blogspot.com/2022/10/misty-warm-still-and-generous-dose-of.html ~

 …. that “I have detuned a little and lost some of the sensitivity to the smell of the salt air, which always seems so obvious to the out of province visitor.” ~ It is a terribly unfortunate condition, but one I am willing to put up with.

Below are this morning’s pics, they are mostly of some fine-looking seagulls, who appeared to be enjoying the conditions as much as I was ….

Absolute bliss ....

With the tide on its way out, the morning sun shining brightly and an internal debate over whether the wind was cold or warm, I had a fantastic wander on Cherry Hill beach.

It is a location that never disappoints and offers a direct route to happiness via its empty curve of fine grey sand, exposed water and endless sky. The only living souls there this morning was myself and a few Plovers ~ absolute bliss …