A Dark Spot

There’s a dark spot on the silver cloud that is this lovely province we’ve moved to. In a word: ticks. Not familiar with the little darlings? Check this out. I can wait…

I realise that, if you’re around farm animals a great deal, ticks might just be an annoyance to you. However, I don’t live on a farm. I live in a town. And I hauled six ticks off my dog last Thursday night. She had an accident waiting for me in the den on Friday morning and off to the vet we went, after pulling SIXTEEN ticks off her just from her morning ablutions. I was not impressed. I do not like ticks. At. All. Apart from Germany where we found an occasional tick on Para, our backyard in Middleton appears to be a breeding ground. I found one in my hair a few weeks ago (ew! I just happened to find it too; I hadn’t been checking before) and my father had two on him within the first two days of their visit.

The vet said that this has been a very bad year for ticks. The vet assistant thinks we have a nest in the back yard. Either way, I’ve re-dosed Para with Revolution and she is now wearing a preventive tick collar (a very, very safe one – I don’t like using harsh chemicals on our pets).

As for the accident in the den, the vet feels that Para is trying to tell me something. She isn’t getting enough attention. Bad Patty! I am trying to rectify that with lots of pats and more regular walks. I can certainly admit that she had not been receiving regular walks up until my parents arrived. Walking Para is coming back to being a priority so I guess her message worked. Poor little puppy.

My parents left us this past Tuesday. It was a very sad day for those of us left behind. Iain is too young to really understand that they’ve left. Para and I were very sad for the rest of the day because we do realise what their leaving means. Luckily, we will see them again in three weeks. It will be interesting to see if Iain remembers them or not!

While they were here, I managed to get much more organised for both Iain’s first birthday party and the family reunion. DH says he now needs a list to know what to help out with and it didn’t take me long to think of a few things! It will be a busy couple of weeks. I’ve booked an appointment to get a first year portrait done of Iain this coming week. Iain’s party is on his birthday, July 4th. We leave the next day to start heading East for our ferry trip on the 6th (we’re breaking the driving up over two days for Iain). We will then be away until, at least, July 22nd. And that list doesn’t even touch on what needs to be done between now and then!

On Father’s Day, we ‘treated’ the fathers in the house by going for a hike on Long Island, NS. This is another fun destination if you have lots of time while visiting Nova Scotia. Here are Fadder and DH on the 5 minute ferry (literally! Expensive though - $1 per minute of crossing...) ride from mainland Nova Scotia to Long Island:

It’s a little off the beaten track but the hike itself is just over 2 kms and well maintained.

There are, ahem, a few stairs to go down and up though. Like, over a hundred of them.

However, we all made it up and down just fine. Balancing Rock itself is a bit of a marvel.

Apparently it’s been this way for thousands of years.

It was a nice hike but, if you’re hoping for a final destination that makes a pretty picnic area, this isn’t it. The boardwalk is built on the side of the rocks and is, essentially, a viewing platform so no grassy knolls to sit upon for lunch.



Luckily, we ate our lunch before heading out (Mudder forgot her hat so she's borrowing Iain's. He didn't need it at the time. See next picture).

Here’s what Iain thought of the picnic. Again.


He did wake up for the hike, however, and is here to remind you of the importance of hydration when you're hiking in warm weather:


On the knitting front, Mudder wouldn’t leave until I turned Chase’s heel to her satisfaction (sorry, no pics of that). Now I have some stitches to pick up before carrying on. I also have Iain’s chevron sweater blocked, dried and in the sewing process (the photo looks so sparkly because I'd just sprayed it with water. Funny what the camera picks up sometimes).

Hopefully I can catch Iain before he’s grown out of it (if he hasn’t already!) so that he can model it for you. He is standing on his own for seconds at a time and cruising around the furniture rapidly so it's just a matter of time before my baby boy is walking.

I managed to get three of four runs in so far this week – not bad for a week without my parents here for baby-sitting assistance. My long run, a 9 km, will happen later today when it’s a little cooler. I’ve been running after DH comes home so I usually go out after 6:00 PM and before dark. Luckily it stays nice and light for running at this time of the year.

Now, before you get worried that I’ve disappeared off the face of the earth, remember how much I said we have to do before departing on July 5th. We will not be back until July 22nd, at the earliest (and I am considering staying longer) so blog posts may be scarce over the next month or so. For that I apologise but, remember, at least I WILL BE knitting! That’s what driving trips are for!