The Royal Agricultural Fair

It's been quite a while since my last post - I have been pretty busy with work and haven't had much time to pick up my own camera. I'll be sharing some photos I have been shooting at work soon, but for now here are some from a weekend trip to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. Not what I imagined my first visit to Toronto to be like - we came back to Montreal with a bag of PEI potatoes and lots of dirt on our boots, but it was a really great weekend.

The Magic Hour

Today was the first day in quite a while that wasn't hot and humid, so I took advantage, dusted off my camera and did some exploring.

 

 

Settled In

We've been in Montreal for just over a month now - it definitely takes some adjusting moving from a small Nova Scotia town of five thousand to a French speaking city of two million, but it's a good feeling to be settled after living out of a backpack for almost six weeks. I think Chase and I both have the travel bug now, but we're planning to stay put for a while. Moving is not something we want to do again any time soon!

One thing I love about living here is the live music happening all around the city. So far we've spent a beautiful evening on the Lachine Canal listening to Plants and Animals and bluegrass by Notre Dame De Grass, saw PEI band Boxer the Horse at Divan Orange, and Chromeo at the closing of the Jazz Fest.

Tennessee, Kentucky & New Hampshire

A lot has happened since my last post! We spent a couple days in Nashville - went to the country music hall of fame, Jack White's record store, and out for a night of old country tunes at a honkey tonk bar.
From Nashville we headed to Kentucky to camp for two nights. Our car was getting worse, so we got it looked at one last time. It was going to cost too much to fix so we decided to keep our fingers crossed and head North.
We then spent a night "camping" in the mountains of Virginia...a rain storm and an encounter with a black bear forced us to move from a tent to a cabin. The next morning on our way out of town the car completely died, so we got it towed and sold it to a junkyard. Gerald, the junkyard owner we sold it to, let us hang around until we could get a rental car, and he even drove us in to town and offered us a bed for the night if we needed it. We finally got a rental car and were on the road again that evening.
The next day my wonderful parents drove all the way from PEI to Concord, New Hampshire to rescue us! It turned out to be a great end to our trip. We got to stay one more night at McClary Hill Farm, visit Dave and see the new piglets. It was amazing to see how much had changed in the couple weeks since we'd left New Hampshire.
We're now finally back in PEI, and going to Nova Scotia tomorrow to prepare for our move to Montreal next week.

The Silver Threads

Argillite, KY

Piglets at McClary Hill Farm

Tomatoes we transplanted

North Carolina

Chase and I spent the past week at Blue Heron Farm, an intentional community in Pittsboro, North Carolina. We met a lot of really nice people, ate great food, and did some work around the farm. Most of the work had to be done in the mornings and evenings because of the heat - it's only May and already humid and over 30 degrees, and the growing season is already well underway here. We built a cedar compost bin, prepared beds for sweet potatoes, and planted squash. We got to explore antique shops in the town of Pittsboro, visit an authentic country western store, and eat amazing burritos in Carrboro.

We've been having ongoing car troubles and were lucky to meet Ray, a great mechanic who helped us out with our car. We stayed with a couple named Debbie and Steve, but helped out at different households around the community. Near the end of the week we were glad to be moving on, but it was definitely interesting to see such a different lifestyle than we are used to.

Friday we drove further west to Asheville. It was a really beautiful and artsy city in the mountains, with lots of interesting shops, restaurants and people to see downtown. We visited some antique shops and vintage stores and had more Mexican food.

From Asheville we drove through the Smokey Mountains. The views were amazing. We weren't sure if the car was going to make it but we managed to get to Tennessee!

Connecticut to Virginia

Here are a few photos from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Mystic, Connecticut, and Fairfax, Virginia. After a relaxing visit with Kylee in Mystic we had a pretty stressful and long drive on the I95 from Connecticut to Virginia. The view driving through New York City was worth it, though! We ended up driving through 7 states yesterday. After 8 hours on the road, we made it to Virginia just in time to see the Avett Brothers play at George Mason University.

Today we avoided the interstate and had a beautiful drive through the Blueridge mountains. We're now settled in at a farm in Pittsboro, North Carolina. It's like summer here and we're looking forward to the next week.

Portsmouth:

Mystic:

The Avett Bros in Fairfax:

Epsom, NH

At the end of April, Chase and I quit our jobs, moved out of our apartment, and put all of our stuff in storage. We decided it was time to move on after living in Kentville for a year, so we headed to Montreal and found a new place for June.

From Montreal we traveled to Epsom, New Hampshire to work on McClary Hill Farm for a week. We felt so at home that we didn't want to leave when the time came. We milked cows, collected eggs, herded sheep, transplanted tomatoes, had a pizza party with the neighbors...I think the highlight for me was being woken up in the morning by two boarder collies and a baby sheep. Farmer Dave spoiled us with delicious food all week - almost everything we ate was from the farm. One thing that was surprisingly good were deep fried dandelions! Have a look at the farm website here.

We're now in Mystic, Connecticut, and leaving tomorrow morning for Virgina.

Here are a few photos from the trip so far:

Winter Hikes

I haven't updated in a while so I thought I'd share some photos from hikes in Black Rock and Gaspereau this winter: