Monday, May 28, 2012

May 28th, 2012

Yesterday morning Fred called from California, so after I talked to him I went for a little walk to see how his neighbour's property at the corner of John and South looks now. Unfortunately it's still the same mess with the exception that the bamboo/Japanese knotwood is growing up and starting to obscure some of the mess. I wish the town would get serious about their clean-up orders. The property on the Brighton Road across from the miniature boats is atrocious too.


Today is another rainy day (no fog though) - 30% chance of rain but it's been constant since beofre I got up at 6:00AM. Waiting for Irving to do our annual furnace maintenance.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Great play!

http://ospreyartscentre.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/AffectionsOfMay_sm22.jpg 
We went to see this play last night at the Osprey in Shelburne - the sets were amazing and the play is absolutely hilarious. It's set in a small town and much of the banter about small town life is spot on. The actors were great - handled the many comedic moments very well (especially Chet Buchanan who is SO good at facial expression and body language). It's a Canadian play written by Norm Foster - well worth the $15 admission.

We also had dinner at  Luong's restaurant before the performance. As usual, their food was lovely and fresh - hadn't had any Chinese food since last fall so it was a pleasant treat. Latest rumour in Lockeport is that The Town and Country (WHICH HAS BEEN SOLD!!!) was purchased by someone connected with Luong's - true? or not? We'll know soon hopefully.

Also - on the up and down restaurant front - the new B&B/cafe is progressing well, roofed and the windows and doors are in, currently the men are working on the building wrap and exterior finishing. In Shelburne, apparently Chez Patrick, which has been for sale for several (6 maybe?) years seems to have been sold - there were lights on at 10:30 last night in the upstairs apartment - whether or not it will be a restaurant again also remains to be seen. It was a gem for the few years it existed - and a really nice place to go after a performance at the Osprey, a sophisticated French cafe/wine bar atmosphere.

Weather-wise - we're into fog season - we had some truly nice days this week but a preponderance of fog and rain. Today is one of those many yard sales days but the weather is the pits - supposed to be nicer later.

When we bought this house, one of the first things we had our plumber do was put in outside taps so we could water the garden - hah! Not something you need to do in Lockeport - everything is self-watering from the fog and sea-air - the problem here is keeping anything dry. I keep making little bags of rice to store with my baking supplies to absorb moisture and EVERYTHING needs to go in sealed plastic containers - I podged a whole bunch of coffee tins in pretty colours to store rice, sugar, etc but they all rapidly rust out So I'm gradually replacing them with plastic (and rice).


Tuesday, May 8, 2012

May 8th - Good News and/or Rumours

2 encouraging news items on the restaurant front today:

1. A big truck brought tons of wood etc to the site of the new bed and breakfast/cafe so maybe construction will speed up and it will open this summer

2. Rumour at our hooking meeting that A-1 Pizza is going to open the Town and Country for the summer as they did 2 years ago. I did see that someone was in there on Sunday (but it may have just been periodic check/maintenance in a closed building).

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Dory Mates Concert

Last night there was a Dory Mates concert, hosted by Harmony Bazaar, sponsored by NSLC at the Legion. The artist was Ruth Minnikin accompanied by Anna Plaskett. Turnout was atrocious - even for Lockeport - there were 13 people in the audience including Corey doing the sound system.

The music, however, was very nice - rocking folk for the most part. Anna played both French Horn (a very pleasant surprise) and guitar, as well as handling some of the vocals. Nice voice.

Ruth is an accomplished singer-song-writer. She has a lovely clear voice and a self-deprecating sense of humour - all-in-all it was a very enjoyable show.

 Ruth Minnikin
 Anna Plaskett
Ruth and Anna stayed at our house last night - very nice young women. I hope we see them in Lockeport again.

Back in the Saddle Again!

Once again I've been getting complaints about my lack of output. Of course we were away from Lockeport for over 5 months between visiting Ottawa for the birth of grandchild number 4 (Benjamin Theodore Henry Cooper, December 4th, 2011),
 Christmas, our 3 months in Perdido Key, FL, and a return vsist to Ottawa to re-visit Ben,  and all the rest of the family. We have now been back in Lockeport for over 2 weeks so I guess it's time to get off my duff.

There have been a few changes during our absence - nothing too major but here are a few pictures.

 The beginnings of a new B&B next to the Legion on Beech St. Apparently they plan to use the kitchen and dining area of the little building Peter had renovated as a soup/sandwich place as well as feeding the B&B customers - at the rate building is progressing it may be open next year.

 The new gazebo kitty-corner from Town Hall - hopefully it will look better with some landscaping and flowers. It seems to be the same  model as in front of the high-school - I guess I expected something more of the dimensions of a band-stand gazebo - this is quite disappointing to me.


The new walkways and porch to the Little School Museum are complete - looks good, hope it's all enough if we get hit by more hurricane waters. Howard and Anne were painting the inside of the museum this week - now Cheryl has to move all the displays in and set them up yet again.


This is the current mess across from Fred's house where the crumby old trailers were finally removed. It still doesn't look very nice - I assume this stuff will be removed too eventually.

Other changes - Vanessa has closed her gift shop, all three local restaurants are for sale (yet the new B&B will include a restaurant - strange). At least the Parrot's Pins remains open (and serving delicious food as usual). Liz is advertising for servers for the summer so I guess The White Gull will be reopening too.  According to the last census (2011), our population is down to 585 or so - steadily declining. When we bought our house in 2002 the population was 702.