62

Tags

62, Birthday, Election, life, Oysters, PEI, winter

Age is just a number, I think so. I cannot imagine feeling different at 32, sure you look older in the mirror but otherwise all is good. Yesterday was my birthday and we went to dinner with friends at my favourite restaurant in town, Claddagh Oyster House on Sydney street about 3 blocks from where we live. The owner is Liam Dolan, Irish from Galway. Claddagh is the oldest owned restaurant in Charlottetown, it was opened 36 years ago by Dolan and his family. The food is very good, they have a great selection of oysters from various bays around the island. The chef is great and it is very good value for money. He also owns the oldest Pub in town, the Olde Dublin. Charlottetown in 1983 was not the town you see today, it was pretty dreary and on the verge of huge transformation which have only accelerated in the last 10 years.

We started with oysters, they are very good at this time of year and champagne and then a rack of lamb it was wonderful. Lots of good conversation and laughs.

We made a mistake this Winter, everyone we know goes away in Winter for a minimum of 2 weeks to up to 2 months. The worst months are February and March, we should have gone away, anywhere for at least 2 weeks. So now I have an excuse to go away on 23 April to Montreal to see friends and to also visit the Fine Arts Museum and see a show by Don Andrus at the Gallerie Vu.

I have been on the campaign trail for 2 months now and I am going to take a break, its school March break now and Easter Week so the town will be pretty quiet. Just stay home re-organize the library, we have no plans for Easter at all. Don’t know what to do really. I am also planning to go to Europe in November after the Municipal election, even if just for a week, just for a break. I know I will need it, win or loose.

Advertisements

Winter perspectives

Tags

Canada., Charlottetown, Fanningbank, PEI, winter

Today Sunday is a bright sunny day and the temperature is mild for Winter at -5C, in the sunshine you feel warm. Though there is now snow on the ground since 17 January, it is a mild Winter with the exception of the wind.

The entrance to Fanningbank the Official Residence of the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of PEI.

In the countryside at dusk

Winter has arrived

Tags

Ontario, PEI, Sicily, winter

The cold has arrived from Upper Canada, bad weather comes from there and usually ends up in the USA, you know terrible cold and snow, no wonder we are in trouble over NAFTA, exporting ice and snow to the USA, I think it is called dumping.

Well they also send it over to the Maritimes. This satellite photo shows PEI surrounded by ice. I think we should impose a tourism visa or build a wall to keep them Upper Canadians out. There is a movement afoot for PEI to secede and join Sicily to avoid Winter weather all together.

 

Storm Chips

Tags

LAY'S, Maritimes, PEI, roast chicken, Sea, Storms, winter

In Winter on the Atlantic storms can be ferocious, living in the Maritimes you learn that high winds in the 80 to 100km range are common. If you are not use to it and can be a little disconcerting.  We get storm warnings about 72 hours ahead of time, which is a long time weather wise and sometimes the announced storm fails to materialize. Tomorrow Thursday 4 and Friday 5 January we are told there will be a big storm affecting the Maritime provinces, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI. Here on the Island we will get apparently mostly icy rain, the temperature will be too warm for snow.  The problem will be the high wind which can cause trees to topple and power lines to break, meaning power outages. We live in the centre of the Capital with modern infrastructure, hopefully we will be spared the worse.

Islanders are use to this type of weather and people are prepared. Today I went to the grocery store to get supplies for a party we are giving on Saturday, I did get extra candles. I did notice a big display of chips, apparently an absolute essential during a storm is storm chips made by LAY’S, you probably wonder why this would be the chip of choice.

It turns out that LAY’S buys all its potatoes here in PEI to make their chips. Well when you are in the dark, the wind is howling outside and the sea waves are crashing causing surges there is nothing like a bag of LAY’S chips to soothe the nerves, who knew!

In the store by one chip bag display a lady said to her friend, I have to get some chips and I told her it was important not to forget the chips given the storm coming, we all laughed.

A whole roast chicken is another commodity a lot of older people will buy, it is known as storm chicken, grocery stores stock up on it knowing people will come in to buy one, they have them in the deli section.

So you stay at home, everything will be closed anyway, no school, nor business will open, everyone knows better than to go out and the local radio will advise people to stay put. That is what we plan to do.

As of 3 January 2018 from Environment Canada

As seen on Highway 1

Tags

Birds, feeding, Reindeer, Santa Claus, winter, XMAS

From my car this is what appeared. Only in PEI you say…

As we approach the big day, look at this little fellow having a snack

Islander Day!

Tags

Ian sherwood, Islander day, moving, Music, PEI, Pub, winter

Today is Islander Day,  what is this public holiday about, no one seems to know for sure, though everything is closed and it’s a day to spend at home relaxing or doing some fun activity. Since everything is closed you cannot shop or do much which would involve a consumer activity, so reading, a craft activity, sports of all kinds is what most people will do.

In Canada each Province has what is called a public holiday or Family day, the concept being to give people a day off in February which is also Carnaval time in cities like Quebec, Ottawa, Charlottetown, etc. We are in that calendar period after the Christmas Holiday period and not yet at Easter which is the next big holiday. So in February you get a break.

Last year for Islander day, we were here in Charlottetown. We had decided to come to PEI to see what life was like in Winter on the Island, we were still living in Ottawa at this time last year. We were seriously thinking of moving to PEI but wanted to make sure that this is what we wanted to do and there was enough activity on the Island to make it worth our while.

Well it was a busy February one year ago, we started looking for somewhere to rent in Old Charlottetown, not at easy as one might think, lots of rent and at very reasonable prices but if you want something more like the big city style apartments, it is not so easy to find. Also real estate agents are not that helpful, most will try to sell you a house in the process, but we were not in a buying mood. With the help of friends we did find exactly what we wanted and moving in in May, some 10 months ago.

So last year Islander day was wet, foggy and with next to no snow at all. It made for a dreary day, so we went to the Pub to drink, because that is what you do on such days.

Speaking of which, many pubs have live music with some pretty good if not professional musicians like Richard Wood or in this case Ian Sherwood, with this song, The short end of the stick.

 

Intermission

Tags

CBC, Charlottetown, PEI, storm, Wind, winter

Well this morning we got up and the storm has stopped or past us, the wind is still pretty strong but is diminishing gradually. The Confederation sea bridge is still closed to all traffic, it has been closed for 12 hours now and I can just imagine that many trucks on the mainland side in New Brunswick are just waiting, parked in the special area for the bridge to re-open. The weather was just as bad in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and Cape Breton (Isle Royale) sticking out into the Atlantic, they always get the brunt of all storms.  What it means for us on PEI is that the grocery stores will start having shortages in fresh produce like salad and imported fruits from the USA or South America. You can still get the essentials since we have lots of farmers and livestock farms.

My main concern is digging my car out from under the snow, right now the front of the car is buried in snow, our parking lot is clean, the plow guy came by early around 5am and cleaned it all out. The City and the Province have re-started the plowing of the streets and the highway and secondary roads after a 12 hour stop, so now they have to catch up. Matt Rainnie the host of CBC Island morning was telling us that another storm is coming this is just a break, an intermission if you like, the new storm should arrive by early hours of Thursday and dump another 25 cm of fresh snow. So Wednesday off I go for more food shopping and essentials.

 

I don’t think I would want to live outside of a major town on PEI in Winter, here we have all the services and living at the corner of two main city arteries means the roads are cleaned first. I heard stories of people in the country side and they are left to fend for themselves, no one can get to them, the wind is too high and there is too much snow on the road. Stories from last night are of 3 babies being born during the height of the snow at home. The way it is organized on PEI is when a storm hits, emergency plows stand by at Fire Halls, all of whom are staff by volunteer fire fighters. If a call comes in the emergency plow will open up the road for the Fire trucks and hopefully make it on time to help, like in the case of births at home. It becomes a neighbourhood affair, since everyone knows everyone else.

 

There are some tragedies of homes burning down and the Fire dept can’t get to them because the driveway to the Farm house is 200 feet long and has not been plowed or is too narrow. Last night a big barn full of bails of hay burned, the storm delayed the Fire Dept by 3 hours. Many of our secondary roads are also nothing more than soft red earth which in Winter turns to hard icy roads and are not necessarily plowed.

I don’t think many people will be going out for Valentine’s day given the state of the roads and everything is closed today anyway. Just stay home and read and enjoy the day. Until the next storm on Thursday morning.

I have to say that the City of Charlottetown is doing a wonderful job of cleaning the streets quickly and efficiently, a much better job than Ottawa who never seemed to be able to clean streets unless you called your City Councillor to complain.

Snow day

Tags

Canada., Charlottetown, PEI, snow storm, winter

We are currently experiencing a big snow storm which came from the US East Coast and now crossing through the Maritime region. Upwards of 60 cm of snow and high winds around 90Km. Everything in the region in closed and everyone is told to stay home, even the plows are off the road until the weather calms down. The Confederation sea bridge to the mainland is also closed completely to all traffic which shows how dangerous the situation is now weather wise.

Yesterday I did my food shopping like everyone else, here is a view of the parking lot at the Atlantic Superstore.

It looks as if the store is buried in snow.

This morning the view looking West in Charlottetown. The storm is coming but it is still 2 hours away from us.

Just outside the City as the snow starts.

About one hour later when some brave souls still went out. Walking the dogs is also difficult in blizzard conditions, they don’t want to do out because of the heavy snow and high winds.

A little later on Queen street downtown. Visibility now is almost nil, the airport is closed and so are all businesses. People are simply staying at home and enjoying a quiet day.

It will be like this until at least 10 am tomorrow Tuesday.

 

 

The world is a small town

Tags

CBC, Charlottetown, PEI, storm, Wind, winter

This saying figures in the title page of my blog. This is certainly true of where we are now. We go to Receiver Coffee three times a week when I am done with my duty at the Art Gallery. It is the in spot on Richmond Street behind the Confederation Centre of the Arts.

The food is quite good and the coffee superb, they also have art on the walls for sale by young emerging artists. Currently they have amongst others a photographer who is also a barber at one of the Hip Barber shops in town. His name is Jared Doyle and he has an account on Instagram Ivory Orphan. Looking at his portfolio I notice that we know all the people featured, same at the Café, everywhere we go now, look around and you see friends, acquaintances, neighbours or prominent citizens, we speak to everyone, exchange greetings and news. It is that sort of a place.

This morning I was listening to CBC Island Morning with Matt Rainnie and Rich Cormier, there is a big storm coming says Matt so you should go to the grocery store and stock up because Friday morning it is going to be a snow day and no one should be on the road. He is speaking about the entire Province of Prince Edward Island not just Charlottetown the Capital. As I write this the storm has arrived and already the wind is howling at 80Km per hour and we are expecting 40 Cm of snow or 16 inches in the next 5 hours, which is significant. The winds will top 100km in about one hour, the bridge to the mainland has is closed to all traffic and the Canadian Coast Guard has come into the harbour to dock for the night, I can understand they don’t want to be out at sea in this weather.

So I followed Matt Rainnie advice and went to the SuperStore to stock up on all the food items we may need. I was not alone at the store and it was a chance to speak with people about this and that, at the Deli counter a lady was exchanging news with the Deli Counter clerk, the polite thing to do is wait until she finishes the story, you don’t want to barge in, she might be someone’s cousin you know.

Got my shopping done, it was a beautiful day today but by 6 pm the clouds had accumulated and on the news they were giving us the run down of all the places that were cancelling activities tonight, all of it re-scheduled for a Saturday or later. So it is pretty obvious no school tomorrow, the University and College are closed. Many businesses will not open and very likely the government will also be shut down for the day. The airport has already cancelled the evening flights and many delays for tomorrow, so call ahead. At any rate who wants to land or take off in 80 Km winds, not me.

I still had to take the dogs out, they did not want to go out too much wind and blowing snow for them, but out we go, not far like a few feet do what you have to do and turn around quick.

Yes we live in Mayberry and it is a nice feeling, everyone will be at home tomorrow and just read and relax until the storm passes.

Art Night

Tags

Art after Dark, art., artists, Beach, chagall, Charlottetown, colour, Gaugin, winter

Many activities on the Island are organized in January to entertain people around a cultural or artistic activity. One of the craft Beer companies organized Art after Dark. So our friends DS and PS and C O’G organized a Art after Dark of our own and we went up the streets to our friends house to paint and have food and drinks. Will made a wonderful chicken meatloaf, it was quite good.

C O’G brought her artistic organizational skills and supplied the already primed canvas, we had tons of paint brushes, paint tubes etc and a glass of wine for inspiration.

Here are the results of this fun evening.

Homage à Gaugin on an Asian theme, Holly in a pot, domestic happiness

Homage à Marc Chagall or where is the fiddler on the roof.

Pot de fleur sur la nappe à carreau

Homage à Jack Bush or Brackley Point Beach at night.

There are about 10 other paintings but the artists took them away.