Concerts
02 October 2011 • Shelburne NS
We have several friends query us about “isolation” down here in Shelburne. I grant you that being two hours out of Halifax would appear to be on the teetering edge of the backwoods but nothing could be further from the truth. There are some nice restaurants here including one that is probably one of the best in Canada, the people that we have met are wonderful, and we have been to more concerts and live shows here in the last four months than we had in the previous several years living in Halifax and the best part is the cost. The most expensive ticket that we have paid for here was $20 versus from $45 up to $100 in Halifax. Granted, it is unlikely that a promoter will book this venue for the Rolling Stones or Paul McCartney but we still have some excellent individual acts such as Valdy and just last night Barb and I attended a violin and piano duo playing three violin concertos by Franck, Dubussy and Ravel that was truly excellent, and next week Joe Sealy, a jazz pianist will be here to perform his Africville Suite and at the end of the month there will be a Noel Coward play produced – Hocus Pocus. To top it off last night we bumped into a couple of guys there that we had met at Ian and Robin’s place for dinner one evening and they offered us a bunch of grapes off their vines so Barb has jelly in mind and I am thinking wine, depending upon the extent of their generosity.
Work on the house proceeds apace. Sometimes I get a little down about how long it is taking but when I stand back and look at the overall picture I realize that we are biting off hunks of the project steadily and it won’t be too long. For me the big thing will be to get the walls smoothed out and painted so that we can hang our paintings. The other thing that came as a wee surprise today was that I took off the outdoor front door lights to see why they weren’t working and discovered that they weren’t connected to any electrical circuits. Indeed, there wasn’t even a hole in the wall through which wires could be passed so they were never hooked up. I suspect that at some time in the past someone redid the door frame to allow for the modern aluminum door and when they did so they may have replaced the part of the frame that was adjacent which may have rotted over time. When they did so, they put up the lights, perhaps intending to attach them to the electric cables at some future date but never got around to it. Now it falls to me to do so. I sure hope that there is some wiring in place. There is a switch inside the house with wires connected to it but I have no idea where the wires run. Fingers crossed.
I am working on the two bookcases that Barb wants for the living room. They will have cupboards at the bottom and four shelves above them and will be made from a darkly stained maple to match the floor and wall pillars. It is a bit of a trial and error project as I am experimenting both with the new power tools in my workshop as well as with the design. I suspect that when completed they will be able to withstand a small explosion besides holding up our books. As well I am trying to figure out how I am going to recreate the ceiling molding pattern that had been broken up by some enterprising chap when he removed a wall and added the drop ceiling. The internet is getting a workout, I can tell you. Hopefully I can find a supplier or else I will have to piece one together which considering the complexity of the profile will probably take up to eight passes with a different router bit. Hmmm?! Now there’s a challenge!
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