Scott and Becky go East

Nova Scotia winter #staycation

As the days get longer, and the weather starts to warm, I watch as friends start to think about which seeds they should be starting in preparation for the growing season. I, on the other hand, am thinking about cross-country skiing. This has been a particularly good snow year for the South Shore of Nova Scotia. We usually need to drive for hours to get to skiable snow.
Cohousing and my fantasy future

I first learned of the concept of fantasy future in a group therapy session when I was at a Commonweal Cancer Helping Program retreat. We keep in our minds a vision of our future, but that future is a fantasy. It is a future that is never going to be. One of my neighbours reminded me of this idea, when she suggested that I needed to let go of what I thought (my vision of the future) our community would be, so that I could celebrate and be happy with what our community is. I had to let go of…
The cost of a can of beans?

After several hours of pedalling in the heat of the afternoon sun, we pull into a small convenience store. We know we will be wild camping tonight, so we need to find a source of water, not just for drinking now, but also for cooking dinner tonight and wiping our sweaty bodies down before sleeping. We also hope to top up the charge on our laptop.
Standing Up

I have a knot in my stomach. I’m scared. I feel like an impostor. Will the water be too cold? Can I get back on the board in deep water? These thoughts are running through my mind as I prepare to leave.
A short getaway

Getting a campsite on weekends in this part of Nova Scotia during tourist season is almost impossible unless you’ve booked in advance, so we opt for boondocking. We decided to check out the coast southeast of Shelburne, closer to Yarmouth, somewhere we’d never really explored.
Where did the water go?

Sitting at an old wooden table on second floor of a cottage with the window open listening to the birds and overlooking the Minas Basin. There is over a mile of ocean bottom naked and exposed to the sun, brown-red mud with cracks, lines that meander towards the ocean. It is low tide, and the water is gone. I am reminded of my cadet years. Back in the late 1980s, I spent my summers at HMCS Quadra, a cadet camp in Comox BC. The camp is on a small spit of land surrounded by ocean. The parade square, where we…
Wild Camping

I worry about where we’ll sleep tonight. I worry about our budget. We had planned to camp more in Italy, but most campgrounds are closed for the season. Aside from one night in Nicotera Marina, when a generous Couchsurfing host let us stay in his beach house, we’ve relied on hotels and bed-and-breakfasts. It’s been safe, but it’s also been expensive. We’d expected to cook more meals on our camp stove, to spend nights in our tent. Instead, each day ends with the same uncertainty—where will we sleep?
Songkran

It’s stifling. A hot humid heat that makes the air feel heavy. Sweat isn’t dripping from me so much as it is pooling on me, sticking to my skin and failing to cool me down. I consider using some of the water in my water bottle to cool my head, but that water is precious. It is clean drinking water, and I need every drop of it to keep me hydrated while pedalling in this heat.

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