June 2016
Sunday June 26
Ann biking in Three Fathom Harbour yesterday
We have had a quiet week except for overseeing the kitchen renovation and a couple of bike rides. The drywall went up on Tuesday, but only small improvements to the kitchen were made after that. The walls will be finished this week; we will have to paint them next weekend before the floor goes in the following week.
On Tuesday, Ann and I went with our friend Karen for a ride with the Ramblers down our portion of the Trans-Canada Trail. This was familiar territory for Ann and myself but not for Karen: it was her first ride down the trail and with the Ramblers. The three of us were out with the Ramblers again yesterday, this time for a longer ride starting in West Chezzetcook and following the coast to West Lawrencetown Road and back again, stopping in at Lawrencetown Beach and Conrad's Beach on the way. It was a gorgeous day and the sunbathers, swimmers and surfers were out in force at the beaches. We rewarded ourselves with a meal out at Battery Park, a pub in downtown Dartmouth (we let James come too).
Monday June 20
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| The kitchen before | The kitchen now |
As advertised in my last epistle, we began a major kitchen renovation a week ago Wednesday. The picture on the left is where we started and the one on the right is where we are now. As you can see, the kitchen was stripped back to the studs and a new bank of windows has been installed overlooking the back yard. The back door has been removed and replaced by sliding doors at the back of the dining room. The opening between the kitchen and dining room has also been widened. The piping in the far left corner has been replaced because there was a leak coming from the upstairs bathroom. That has also led to the replacement of the vanity and flooring in the bathroom as the sub-flooring got wet and some of it needs to be removed. That still has to be done.
Since we are currently without the bathroom by our bedroom, Ann and I have moved down to the guest bedroom in the basement. It has also been set up as a temporary kitchen with a microwave, a slow cooker, coffee machine and a small bar fridge. We have been managing all right so far, but I think we will all be happy to have a proper stove and fridge back again when it is all over.
I was in Southampton on the south coast of England last week for another in my usual set of cooperative research meetings. This time the DRDC people stayed at a different hotel from everyone else, so we didn't do as much socializing in the evenings as we usually do. On Wednesday, I stayed in a hotel at the airport so I could catch my flight on Thursday morning. As our meeting was finished early that day, I took the train to Waterloo Station in London and spent the late afternoon wandering along the south side of the Thames. After dinner in a pub, I took the tube out to Heathrow followed by a bus to my hotel. I got back on Thursday afternoon in time to go to dinner at Carl and Roxanne's: a pleasant relief from our microwave concoctions.
Yesterday, Ann, James and I went to a birthday dinner for James' godmother Jenny at Mezza Lebanese Kitchen, a restaurant that we had not been to before. There were ten of us altogether and everyone had lamb of one sort or another. Mine was very tasty.
As usual, Ann and I have been out biking several times. On the Saturday that I left for England, we started at our friend Karen's house and biked through Dartmouth residential neighbourhoods to Bissett Road and from there down to the Shearwater Flyer, a trail along an old rail bed that goes between the Cole Harbour salt marsh and the Shearwater Airport. Rather than brave the traffic on Pleasant Street, we retraced our steps to get back again.
This Saturday, Ann and I went for a ride along our section of the Trans-Canada Trail. I went again yesterday, while Ann was at church, so that I could take some photos of the lady slippers which are now in bloom.
Sunday June 5
This week Ann's godson Alex graduated from Dalhousie medical school. On Thursday evening, we both went to a dinner that Ingrid and Mike hosted to celebrate; James was hired as butler. Ann also went to the graduation ceremony on Friday morning and to a graduation lunch at Pier 21. Alex is now going to move to Ottawa to pursue a specialization in anaestheology.
After the dinner on Thursday, James and I went to watch Ibrahim, our young Syrian friend, playing in his first soccer game. It was a close match which ended in a 1-1 tie, Ibrahim scoring his team's goal.
This weekend we have been preparing for a major kitchen renovation which is due to start this week. Everything has to be moved out of the kitchen and, as we will be refinishing the hardwood floors, also the dining room and living room. We will be getting a new fridge and stove, so arrangements have been made to remove the old ones. Meanwhile, we will set up temporary facilities in the basement with a new microwave (our old one self-destructed a couple of weeks ago) and the small fridge James had in his room in Acadia. No doubt we will also eat out fairly often.