Another cold, wet weekend

Conditions at 5:30 am: rain and fog and 11'
Expected later: 14' and mainly cloudy

We had a great start to the weekend and then it just deteriorated. Friday night was beautiful as we made our way through the countryside to Indian River for the Festival of Small Halls.What a beautiful spot and a wonderful time.

It's Festival of Small Hall's first venture into historic churches, and what better way to start than with St. Mary's church in Indian River. Known as one of the top 10 natural acoustic halls in the world, it will be host to The Once, a Newfoundland group with vocal harmonies "thick enough to stand on", the 'Lord of the Strings', J.P. Cormier, and Le Vent du Nord, a leading force in Quebec's progressive folk movement. Clean, clear harmonies and winding guitars and fiddles will be the hallmark of this show - it is one not to be missed

What a great time. The musicians were all amazing but the first act, a group from Quebec were especially interesting. They played an unusual instrument that none of us knew anything about and they never told us what it was. James, if you read this, please ask your music teacher cause we want to know! You can see it in the picture. It's the strange looking thing the 2nd follow is holding. The Ones, from Newfoundland were also there. We'd seen them at the ECMA's and J.P. Cormier, whom I've not seen before. He's a brilliant guitarist and plays other stringed instruments equally well. All in all, a wonderful night. During the break we went outside and had coffee and rhubarb cobbler with whipped cream. YUM. It was almost midnight by the time I got home but it was well worth it.

Saturday morning I worked my first Saturday at Toyota. I haven't heard yet what the plan is yet for the rest of the summer but hopefully I will find out soon. On my way home I stopped in to visit with Jens and his wife Linda. I met Jens in the shuttle a couple of weeks ago and was supposed to stop in a week ago but got delayed having a drink with the Honda people. They have a beautiful spot just off Blooming Point Road, actually right across the road from a farm house that some friends rented a few years ago. Small world. We sat outside and chatted until it started to rain then we went inside and sat and chatted at the table. We had a lovely visit and I was there for about 3 hours. We made tentative plans for them to come over for supper one evening while Lloyd is here. When I got home I made something to eat and then just watched some TV for a while - a pretty uneventful Saturday night on the island.

Sunday was predicted to have rain for most of the day but it held off until later. I got some jobs done in the house and then Brenda picked me up and we joined the bikers at Kristi's for breakfast. They had been into town for coffee at Tim's but it was threatening rain so they came back. We had a lovely leisurely breakfast and chatted for quite a long time before heading back home. Brenda dropped me off and I finished up some laundry. By then it was thundering and lightening and raining quite heavily so I watched a movie  between loading the washer and dryer. Then suddenly the sun came out and it was very warm outside. So, I headed out and did some trimming then decided it would be a good time to start splitting some wood. I managed to wrestle the splitter out of the shed (that thing is VERY heavy) and did a little bit before the big black clouds moved in once again. I packed everything up and headed inside just in the nick of time. I spent the next little while lounging in a nice hot bath with a good book while the thunder and lightning rages outside. A lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

So no biking, no kayaking but at least I got a couple of things done around the house so it wasn't a total waste!