The Unveiling Canvas of Autumn in Nova Scotia

I felt the crisp, fresh breeze of autumn drift up from the harbour yesterday evening. It seemed as if Mother Nature was gently lifting the first corner of her fall canvass, giving us just a hint of the brilliant hues that would soon dress trees and bushes.

A breath of that cool, invigorating air and floods of memories stirred in my mind and sliver of contentment traveled up my spine. Autumn stirs this province from the lazy late summer heat and sets the pace for the winter to come. Steaming mugs of hot cocoa after a crisp evening walk in the park. The delirious mess of the kitchen from pumpkin carving and the scent of roasting pumpkin seeds.

Soon the Annapolis Valley will hear the laughter of children dashing about the Corn Maze. The local farms bustle with people out to pick their very own pumpkins straight from the field. Kentville and Wolfville homes and places decorate their lawns with fancily dressed pumpkin people. For a warm evening barbeque there's always the Pumpkin Beer of Propeller Brewery, yet another unique flavour of Nova Scotia.

The long anticipation of the Thanksgiving turkey dinner. The kitchen filled with family and friends preparing the meal while the house overflows with the melodious scents of cooking turkey. Plates filled with turkey, butternut squash, potatoes, carrots and turnip, heaps of stuffing and ladles overflowing with gravy. A crisp Gaspereau Valley or Jost wine to wash it down.

Sweaters become warm companions, while jackets are shaken from their summer slumber in the closet. Shorts and t-shirts are laid away for their hibernation. Lawn chairs and umbrella's are tucked and rose bushes wrapped. Leaves carpet the lawns and the sound of raking fills the Sunday afternoons.

Perhaps most pleasant of all is the daily, changing canvas of Mother Natures trees. Some brilliant yellows, startling reds or the occasional mottled brown of the oak. This is autumn in Nova Scotia, where memories of laughter and pleasant evenings warm a heart on a chilly winters day.

(Photo Credit: laszlofromhalifax on Flickr)

High Summer Days of August

A heady miasma of heat with the drone of summer, settles across the province these mid-August days. It's high summer in Nova Scotia. It's these days we hold close to our memories on the bitter, damp days of late January when the spell of Christmas has long since drifted away.

Cicada's buzz in the trees, the cat's are listless alternating between sun and puddles of shade that offer but only an illusion of coolness. The white sandy beaches crowd, though the people move in a thick soup across the scorching sand to the waiting and ever cool Atlantic ocean.

The air is almost still and the humidity pours through you and out again in rivulets of sweat. These torpid days are golden, just as the setting sun turns the surrounding green a soft yellowish hue. These are high summer days in Nova Scotia and we realize how special summer is, despite the heat we are not used to. The flowers in their fine full plumage, the grass tinged with brown. The ice cream shops will be bursting with giggling and laughing children vying for the most exotic of flavours and the biggest scoop possible please. Then darting their tongues as fast as they can to lap up the quickly melting treat!

Ovens remain shuttered in kitchens while BBQ's surge into life and steaks, hotdogs, hamburgers and chicken sizzle over their grills. Beer bottles pop and soda's for the kids are guzzled down in quenching gulps. A cool, fresh salad full of crisp vegetables from the Annapolis Valley farms or perhaps a chilled muscat chardonnay from Gaspereau Valley Winery to calm the palette?

Perhaps we enjoy these heady, hazy high summer days so much for they are so precious to us in January.

(Photo Credit: laszlofromhalifax)