Whale Cove, Digby Neck, Nova Scotia/ July 2009
come to an end. Thirteen years is a tremendously long time to be absent from anywhere. Most of it is just as I remembered it. Some people have passed away and others are grayer but essentially, time has stood completely still in my area of Nova Scotia. At sixteen it was smothering and confining. At twenty it was snail crawling up a hill dull. At thirty, the lack of change and progress was disturbing and pathetic. At forty seven, it’s rock solid, defining and so comforting it’s difficult to be here and not there. I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but here it goes: I could live there. Really actually give it another go and stay this time for good, until my bones turn to dust. Nah! It’s just the post visit home afterglow, it’ll pass…I think. :0
I didn’t see any family this time and that made a crucial difference. I went in as any of you would, as a tourist on vacation and it was spectacular. We slept in a tent and went on daily road trips of discovery (both self and external) throughout the area. The Annapolis Valley is very much as I left it in 1996. Rolling hills lead into a temperamental sea, tidal and sweeping. A real soul cleanser. The smell was the first thing that hit me. Salt, fish and mud. I inhaled the precious scent and it reminded me that for generations, my family had been born for a life on that water. We swam in it, we fished it, we walked beside it and we talked about it. It defined our existence. It even took some of our lives. The second was the politeness. I”ve missed the pleasant manners of the people here, my people. Straightforward, humourous, loud, dramatic, complex, kind, golden rule lovers to the core and staunch supporters of the work ethic. I immersed myself in the simplicity of who they are and who I am. The directness of our interaction was fresh and rejuvinating. I’ll be empty and yearning for that I believe. The dialect also washed over me and it didn’t take long for it to slyly meander it’s way into the twist of my tongue and the smooth twang and drawl of the words flowed naturally as they had before in my life. It wasn’t all fun and game thought you know. ;0 I was also rather industrious as you will see. Ehem, list!
For ten days I…
introduced our shared Acadian roots with my daughter for the first time and took a lovely road trip through the french shore: Clare, Meteghan, Mavillette, Doucetteville, Yarmouth, Saulnierville etc. It was good for her to know her background and Oui, the french is coming along nicely. ;)
shared my home with my husband, and he loved it as I knew he would
laughed with others for a ridiculously long while.
reluctantly got a tan
ate fish fresh pollock
ate fresh lobster
ate fresh scallops
sailed on the sea three times
listened to blue grass and tapped my toes
took photos of everything I could
visited and interviewed an artist down the road from our campsite and through this meeting learned that Stephen King had been at his home a few years earlier. ;)
saw whales, dolphins and a seal
rode on a roller coaster with my daughter
walked 235 steps down to and up from balancing rock
used an outhouse
read a book and bought some more
shopped for clothes at Frenchy’s, a tradition for all who live in or around Digby Nova Scotia
received a total of eleven very itchy mosquito bites
drank way to much java
Wrote an outline, complete with character profiles for a horror story I’ll write when I have time in about three hundred years when I reincarnate again as yet again, a writer.
spent a relaxing afternoon immersed in an old junk/antique shop and bought a painting there
ate dulce ( a sea vegetable I lived on as a kid)
and last but not least, I thought of you
Okay end of list…oh wait, I’ve some scribe news.
I wrote an article for a Reader’s Digest publication about a year ago and after it was published, I wrote a second article for them, sent it with some accompanying photos, but nothing came of it. Until now that is. It’s sort of eerie actually. About halfway through my holiday, I was talking with a couple of people at the campsite and mentally recorded segments of our chats for future reference. I chewed on it that night in my tent, when I recalled this Reader’s Digest magazine and a light went on. I felt I had two wonderful stories to offer them and resolved to email the editor when I got back home. With this in mind, I broke down and hooked up to the net during our final night in Cape Breton, before we caught our ferry back to Newfoundland. I looked at my email for the first time in ten days and what do you suppose I saw there? Yep, an email from the editor of that magazine! I figure I must be telepathically sending some sort of desperate print me vibes or something, but they want to use the halloween story I wrote a year ago, in their October/November issue. Apparently they kept it on file, and being the opportunist I am, I used this gift of the cosmos moment to pitch my two new stories. I’m still waiting to hear back, but I’ll let you know how it all pans out.
Okay, that is really the end. Be good and this week I’ll once again resume my career as a serial commenter on your blogs and as a writer of god only knows what. Oh, and yes, there shall be photos…bwahhhhhh! 
