Giving Thanks

I have so much to be thankful for, and I so often forget to take a moment, breathe, and be thankful for the good. It might be past Thanksgiving, but in the theme of catching up on blogging, I feel compelled to go there still. :)

These days, I'm thankful for this fellow:

My handsome honey

 That's the face that surprised me at the airport when I arrived. I was supposed to take the shuttle into Halifax from the airport, but he'd gotten a ride to the airport and met me there. I was so happy that I blurted out eloquently (while giving him a giant hug), "What are you doing here?!" (Yes. I'm not known for my elegant phrasing.) It was pretty incredible to see him there, and then we got to take the shuttle back together. *Sigh*

I'm also thankful for delicious lattes with hearts or pretty leaf designs in them. :) Not to mention the giant pain au chocolat with the first latte pictured...yum. Yup, I sure am thankful for visits with a certain someone. Even though I feel like the long-distance aspect is getting to me these days, I still am really thankful for him.

Seeing the fall colours from the airplane was breathtaking- both in Montreal and Ottawa. Even though I didn't make it to my beloved Ottawa Valley to see the colours that at Thanksgiving are always more beautiful than you can imagine, getting to glimpse them from the plane was pretty terrific.

French. It seems like now, in three out of four courses, I am using French, and also in both my part-time jobs. Well, one's in English, but I have a French coworker and the food is French, so we go back and forth between the two quite a bit, which is pretty great. It's such a beautiful language and I'm loving getting to study it further.

School. What a gift and a treasure to be able to study and learn. What a privilege that we take for granted. With all this in the news about Malala Yousufzai, I am inspired by her outspoken bravery and saddened once more by the inequality that exists in our world when it comes to having access to information. One more reason to become a librarian, right?...

Family. I miss them like mad and haven't seen most of them since June, and am not sure when I'll see them next. It's that whole thing about each decision necessitating a lesser number of options than before...I mean, when you choose one thing it automatically limits your consequent options. I don't quite know how to say that. But it's something I think of when I miss my family, the fact that I chose to live here, not that close to them, is good in some ways but means I will be less close with family members and that is something you can't quite get back, missing the years when your siblings are in elementary school, high school. My conscience does jab at me for that one. All told, I love them and wish I were closer and yet the distance helps me appreciate them more, in certain ways. That said, I'm thankful to have my brother here and my sister nearby. They're pretty great, those sibs, that fambly. ;)

Music. I sure do like listening to the CBC, that there classical music. ;) Plus the other kinds...it truly does enrich life, don't you think?

Well. Clearly, I could go on (and on and on...) but for now I think I will sign off.

Now, if only I can keep remembering to be thankful...always more difficult when you're going through stuff you aren't thrilled with...but that doesn't mean that what you cherish is any less valuable, right? If anything, maybe you cherish it/them more. Hm.

Have a splendid week, blogging friends! I wish you a beautiful, warm, and cozy autumn. :)

xo

A summer, in photos

I promised I would post photos of the summer, so here they are.

 Peggy's Cove in May when Nathan's parents were visiting (and I was, too) :)

 More Peggy's Cove. What a sweet town.

 One of my favourite parts of the trip. We went to the Swissair flight memorial, Peggy's Cove, Mahone Bay and Lunenburg all in one day, with a stop in Chester. This was in Mahone Bay, and I got to go in and look around. Dream job material, right here!

A light supper we had one evening, Nathan and I. Delicious!

This was in...somewhere...Point Pleasant Park, I think.

We made a stop in Wolfville to the Just Us fair trade coffee roaster, Tangled Garden herb garden, and home to Acadia University- beautiful!

This is the place whose name I can never remember. I want to say Barry's Bay but I think that's near Ottawa. ;) (Nathan??)

This was called Evangeline Bay, I believe. I just really like this photo from behind of Nathan and his mom and dad at the Bay of Fundy. We found some pretty sweet rocks here.

My dear friend Lisa was visiting for a couple days from Israel and I got to visit with her while her husband was at the university.

My new birthday haircut I treated myself to. Magazine photo-shoot-ready, naturally. ;)

In July, I got to meet Nathan's brother and sister-in-law, and we went to Peggy's Cove again. (Can you tell they are brothers??) :) I took the train to Halifax and back and had a delightful trip.

Lunenburg, second time. We were here at a decent hour when things were open, which was a bit more relaxing. A period drama was being filmed while we were there, complete with 50s automobiles- pretty fun. Lunenburg was special to visit, as my parents went there for their first anniversary and ever since I knew that, I've been wanting to check it out. It's home to the Bluenose II (under restoration when we were there).

The Annapolis Valley, from a high-up lookout

This was on a hike the four of us took at a place whose name I regrettably forget. It was beautiful, though!

It was the Tall Ships festival in Halifax, and I got this photo of Renee and Jake in front of a ship. It was so great hanging out with them for the week.

As part of the festival, Parks Canada had a booth (for 1812 stuff) where they did airbrushing tattoos (you could choose from four from that time period). We all four got them. This, I learned, is called a compass rose. Isn't it pretty?

This is in London when Nathan came to visit in August. We were celebrating our one-year dating anniversary and this is the day Nathan left to go back. :( We went to Stratford and saw two plays in one day, which was magnificent.

So there you have it, the summer in a nutshell.

More to come...