One of the things we noticed about the places we visited was the stark contrast between city and country.

Most of our time was spent in the small towns, which are common, and are surrounded by large areas of open land dotted with isolated houses and farms. Driving through these outlying areas we could pass one house and not see another for 20 mins or so. The other odd thing about these roads was the numbering of the houses. While numbers were always in ascending or descending order, they rarely followed on from each other. We could pass number 317 and the next house could be 332. We never worked out what happened to the intervening houses!

Travelling from these small towns to Halifax and then to Toronto we noticed how much more pronounced the difference is than in the UK. In a country so large with relatively few large cities, there is a lot of space between which is only sparsely populated, and makes the contrast between ‘country' and city even more obvious. Here, while cities are smaller in comparison, there are more, and the spaces between are smaller. And in general, your next door neighbour tends to be within walking distance!!

The other interesting thing about the places we came across were the names. Cities from all over the world can be found in this small area of Canada! We passed through Inverness, Iona, Falmouth, and Truro, Sydney, New France and Brooklyn and coffee in Liverpool at the end of the River Mersey! There are also some truly silly names in Nova Scotia, from the highly original Little River and Big Hill, to the inviting Wreck Cove, Marsh Brook, and, the old name for the town of Wolfville- Mud Creek!

PS I’ve added a couple of links to post #1, just in case anyone’s interested where any of these far flung places are…

This post by Ivan on Connexions gives an insight into the most recent hurricane to hit his home state of Florida. His thoughts about God’s presence in the midst of all this suffering reminded me what I know deep down, but it helps to hear it. And he says it much better than me!

Ok, so we’re back now. Relaxing, unpacking, and feeling more than a little tired- my body still isn’t quite sure what time it is now! I have so much to say about the last two weeks, that I haven’t managed to say yet. Hopefully this will materialise bit by bit over the next few days.

For the time being, I’ll just say this. It was a wonderful experience, a good for the three of us to be together like we haven’t been in so long- with work/exams/theses and being four hours apart we don’t get much ‘quality time’ together these days. It was good to be away from the work for a short time, I will get back into it soonish, but was nice to have a break. Hopefully I’m now refreshed for the final stretch! It was, in some ways (and don’t take this personally/the wrong way) good to be away from Swansea (much as I love the place!), and from people (who I also love dearly), and to have some space. People who know me well know that my mind has been somewhat tangled recently (to quote a friend who seems to like metaphors!), with lots of things vying for space, and difficult decisions demanding thinking time. I think I’ve made some progress over the last few weeks. I’m not saying everything’s sorted out, cos I don’t think I’ll ever be certain about some things. But its a start. And, as a certain person would say, the knot is a little less complicated now.

More on the holiday, and maybe even some pictures, to come.

Well the weather has definately cheered up (maybe Richard was right, you’ve taken the rain away!)- we’ve had some lovely clear sunny weather- blue skies and small fluffy clouds (makes a change from driving rain!). However, it didn’t clear up in time for the whale watching- which was cancelled due to gails out in the bay! So we changed our plans and went along the Cabot trail (Moog- will have to show you the pics and swap stories), taking in some amazing views and more stunning colours.

We also got to the after hours party at the festival (starting at 11.00pm, and going on till 3!), which was an experience- great music, I just want to come back! We visited Sydney today (on Cape Breton, this holiday doesn’t stretch to Oz!) and the ‘big fiddle’- a huge scale model made of what looks like fibreglass, with steel aircraft cable for strings (my Dad reckons it’d be really hard to tune..).

So difficult to summarise everything, especially when I’m borrowing other peoples computers. When we’re back I’ll (try to) write about it all properly. Anyway, tomorrow we leave baddeck for our next stop, and I’m not sure where or when I’ll have internet access again, possibly not till toronto. So I’ll say goodbye for now, and maybe catch you then!

So, here I (or we) are. Have managed to get net access in our B&B, so thought I’d check in and say hi.

We got here fine, no problems, flights long but stress-free. Stayed the first night near to the airport, after negotiating driving rain and dark, unlit highways (canadian equivalent of motorways) while my Dad tried to get used to an automatic car again! A ‘fun’ start by all accounts. We’ve now driven up to a small town called Baddeck on Cape Breton Island, where we’re staying three nights. We seem to have brought the Manchester/Swansea (take your pick!) weather with us, it’s been raining most of the day, so sitting in the B&B having tea for now before braving the weather to go out for dinner later (it’s 6.15pm here, 4 hours behind the UK). We’re (hopefully) off whale-watching tomorrow, though weather permitting I s’pose! The name of the tour we’ve booked is fiddlin’ whale tours- not tailor made for a certain Folkie, but almost. Talking of which, we also hope to catch some of the music of the annual Celtic Colours Music Festival in the next day or so, which is held at various venues around Cape Breton and timed to coincide with the peak of the ‘fall’ colours here in Nova Scotia, which is also amazing- mixed forests which just give such an amazing show in comparison with monoculture conifer plantations! Good timing all round!!!

Anyway, I shall end here, hope all is well wherever you are, and if anyone wants the rain from here, please feel free to take it!

Many good wishes till I speak to/see you next x

Blogging in this part of the wibsite may well be non existant for the next 2 and a half weeks, leaving (both) my regular readers to find entertainment elsewhere. Hmm, anyway… I may manage to get online at some point, but no promises.

So, I’m off into the wild blue yonder. Canada. This is quite an experience, I’ve not been quite so far just fo a holiday before. When I went to the USA for my gap year I was there about 6 months, a decent amount of time to get over the jet lag before I came back!! And this is the first time I’ve been away on a proper holiday with the parents for about 3 or 4 years too. Fingers crossed we don’t kill each other!

I think I’m managing to get excited now (ERG will be glad to know!), since I’ve officially stopped working, and think I’ve got into ‘holiday’ mode! On a more serious note, I’ve emailed a draft copy of the first two sections of my thesis to both supervisors (ooh, scary!) so will probably have comments awaiting me when I return. Eek, help!

Anyway, must finish packing, just wanted to say a final goodbye before we go. Take care all, and have a good couple of weeks. I’ll see you around x

Things are a little mad at the moment- I’m trying to get on with the thesis write-up, but everything else seems to be happening at the same time. And I’m going away on holiday in a week, to Canada with my parents for a couple of weeks! This was supposed to be an incentive to finish, and a rest from the stress, when I thought the deadline was the end of september. As it is, it’s more like a pause in the writing, but hopefully I’ll come back refreshed and ready to get back to it! So, tomorrow I’m heading home to Manchester for my mum’s birthday, and then we fly from there on Sunday. I haven’t really had time to get excited, there’s been so much else to think about. It’s more like a bit of time when I can’t work. It’ll probably hit me when I get home. Anyway, there we are. I may well post before then, and might even get near the internet when I’m out there, and blogging may well be a good way to let people know how I’m doing.

While I’m here, I just thought I’d plug a new cd I bought recently by Karine Polwart. She played at greenbelt, and, though I wasn’t aware at the time, won a number of awards at the folk awards this year. Anyway, her album, Faultlines, is my current favourite (to those who asked to borrow it, maybe when I’m back I’ll be able to give it up!). I was going to quote some lyrics, beacuse some of the ways she puts words together are amazing, but they just don’t do the songs justice. You really have to listen to them. Which you can do on the website

That’s all for now I think. I should think I’ll be back before I leave.