The World Begins to Come Alive Once Again

Hey.. so I actually managed a second post. It only took me 6 months to do it though.  Sorry been busy.  I've been in a new position at work since then and it has kept me more than busy.  Even spent some time in Moncton for work.

So it's almost May and the way the weather has been looking it might be a nice summer.  I don't really have any recent exciting adventures to talk about this time although I did see a very inspirational performance of Classic Albums Live - The Doors - L.A. Woman the weekend just past.  This was my third CAL performance, I've also seen their renditions of "Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon" and "Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced".  They've never done any less than amaze me with the performances they put on.  If you've never had the chance to see them I highly recommend it!

I've always been heavily interested in playing and listening to various styles of music.  I bought my first guitar back in 1991 and half self-taught myself to play it some.  I don't call myself a good guitar player, but some do.  Anyway, I was getting a bit bored with guitar and decided to try a new instrument.  At first I was going to look at getting a cello, but then decided against it.  Finally last June I bought a digital piano.  Now I have this level of practicality about me where I don't like to spend money without thinking it through first.  So, I've never played piano seriously before (besides the odd "Chopsticks" messing around whenever I was around one), and I figured that I didn't want to spend a lot of money on what might become a large doorstop/flat surface/cat bed whatever, so I researched for a bit and found the cheapest full-size (88 keys) digital piano I could find on Ebay.  Basically I didn't want to pay a lot for something that I didn't know if I'd enjoy.

I was wrong.  It happens once in a while (just ask my wife... on second thought, don't).  Within the first week that I had it, I learned what the keys were and how chords worked and I haven't left it alone since.  I also have hardly picked up my guitar again since.  The guitar just doesn't sound as good to me any more.  I've been trying to teach myself to read music and I'm getting better, but I'm finding it hard.  I find that when I'm trying to learn something I'm able to read a bit of the music to tell me where to start, and then the rest I figure out by what I know of whatever I'm trying to learn.  But after this weekend my new goal is to focus on learning some of the surprisingly easy but genius works of Ray Manzarek and the Doors.  I remember when I bought the piano, I tried all the different 'voices' it had (there aren't many honestly).  There were a few that I figured I'd never use until now.  They're perfect for playing The Doors' style.

So.. summer.  Right.  I'm hoping this summer will be different than last.  Last summer was mostly crappy due to the weather (or lack thereof); but work schedules also were a factor.  This year I don't think work schedules will be an issue.  It's going to be a good summer.  Friends coming down from Ontario that we haven't seen in a while, the Air Show is coming back to PEI in August, and I'm sure there will be other things to do.  We're hoping to do some camping, but we'll see how that works out.

So that last paragraph brings to mind something that I thought I would have wrote about in my last (first?)post but did not.  The air show.  Last year they had the Atlantic Air Show  at Slemon Park just outside of Summerside here on PEI.  They haven't had an air show here that I can recall since old CFB Summerside shut down (which is now Slemon Park).  Much of my time growing up in Summerside was in the "Hillcrest" area back in the 80's and early 90's.  At that time many of the townhouses in that area were military families.  This meant that a lot of my friends were from military families.  At this time, the air shows were annual and we almost always made it out as far as I can remember.  They had various aircraft and other vehicles on display on the grounds that you were allowed to walk through, get in and climb on, and then of course there were the air displays.  Various exhibition pilots/teams were brought in, and of course the highlight of every year would be a performance by the Snowbirds.

So as I was driving up the road to Slemon Park (arriving slightly later than I wanted to due to crazy traffic that day).  I see an F-18 Hornet taking off and I almost had tears in my eyes from memories of years past.  To make a long story short, the show last year was everything and more than I expected, and they are having it again this year, so I will be attending again.  This time I'll make sure to bring a better camera though.


Something else that happened last year was that my wife and I went to Halifax in November for Hal-con.  Hal-con (for those that don't know) is an ever-growing Sci-fi/Comic/Gaming convention that takes place in Halifax, NS.  Christine has been to the big "Fan Expo" in Toronto once before, but this was my first "con" experience.  The drive over was scary enough, it was torrential downpour the whole way and there were parts of the high-way where I was using the flashers and going about 60 (in a 110 zone).  Either way, we made it and had a good time in Halifax.  We had some friends there that we met up with and browsed the interesting booths and displays.  Chris got to meet the actor Nicholas Brendon and get his autograph, and we got some fun pictures and trinkets.  We didn't dress up for this one; we were going to, but the time just slipped away from us and we didn't get a chance to do the costumes we wanted to.  This year we're going to try and attend again, and maybe dress up.  No, I'm not telling what our ideas are as we didn't see anyone else with our idea last year, and we'd like to be somewhat unique.

The Dalek kept trying to pick her up.  It was talking about its "other attachments".

That's all I can think of to spill out for now. I'll try and make another post sooner, but it's much easier to write when one has something to write about eh?

TTFN

Amaizing Farm Days with Johnny Depp

Well then, how's that for a catchy title for my first blog post?  No.. amaizing is spelled correctly in context, keep reading please you grammar-police-type-people.  If you don't know me here's my Google+ profile (pardon the hideous profile link):

https://plus.google.com/103073969925474047081/posts

I doubt that I'll keep this blog up but I'll try.  You see,  I often have a lot of things on my mind and when I go over them in my head, I feel that I should write them down somewhere.  I'm not sure exactly why, but maybe every human being has an inherent desire to be known and have their story told to anyone who will listen.  Or maybe I'm just really bored.  I suspect it's a little of column A and a little of column B.

So it's Monday and the weekend just past was quite an eventful and, dare I say, fun weekend.  I did have a birthday on Friday (BFHD - big fat hairy deal), and the usual Friday night shenanigans took place with the addition of a tasty cake.  Saturday a group of us went to a Corn Maze ( http://www.themaize.com/sites.php?ID&username=belfast ) and had fun getting lost and found, fighting off "He who walks behind the rows", shooting corn-cob guns, and whatnot.  It was actually more fun that I was expecting.  Years of playing Dungeons and Dragons have given me killer maze navigation skills..

Sunday was a long day on the road.  It was Open Farm Day on PEI and we had planned to hit 5 or 6 farms in various locations across PEI to partake of whatever they had to offer for Open Farm Day.  Christine and I did it last year, and she took part in it with other friends a couple of years before that.  This would be my second year doing the Open Farm thing.  This year we had our friend Marilee with us.  So the plan was to travel to the farm farthest away first, and then hit all the others on the way back.

The Shadow Fish
On our way to the first farm, we stopped for a moment at the bridge in Grand River to snap a few pictures and enjoy the scenery.  I've always thought that this area was quite nice and if it wasn't so far away from civilization, I wouldn't mind settling around there.  Anyway, the tide was out a bit and we noticed a whole swarm of little tad-pole-ish fish swimming in and around the grass near the shore.  As we were just looking around and taking pictures we happened to notice that these fish were afraid of shadows.  Now, anybody who would know anything about marine life would say this is normal.  To a fish, a shadow coming from above the water would normally mean a predatory bird coming in for the kill so the instinct to run from shadows  is natural.  The funny part was that if I threw a rock, it didn't bother them.  So I was chasing fish around with my shadow for a few minutes then we went on to the first farm.

1: Arlington Orchard, Arlington http://peiapples.com/index3.html
If you like apples, pears, plums or stuffed animals hanging from trees and poles (I won't judge), then this is the place to satisfy your cravings.  They have all kinds of different types of apples for a variety of uses and they're cheap.  The catch is well.. it's a U-pick, so you gotta pick them yourself. They give you a little red wagon and some baskets and let you know what's ripe and more importantly, what is NOT (CHRIS!) ripe.  We picked about 9 lbs of apples and a few pears and it was under $13.  I had apples fall on me, thrown at me and we all stepped in mushy apples at some point.  Also, some of us chose to climb a tree but I won't mention who.

Where do the stuffed animals come in?.. heh.. If you don't already know, I'll not spoil the surprise.. go there yourself.

2: Green Gables Alpacas, Birch Hill http://greengablealpacas.com/
This wasn't originally on our list, however we noticed that it was only a few minutes away from Arlington, and Marilee was interested in the fiber shop that was advertised.  I think we were also a bit curious about the animals themselves.  So we found the farm quite easily and right away, the owner of the farm came to greet us and talk to us.  I won't go on about alpaca fiber and weaving because it's just not my area to be talking about.  Alpacas themselves however, just seem to me to be strange creatures.  They look close to a llama, but they're not quite the same.  They come in many different colors and apparently they're very curious.  Anyway we all learned a bit about them that day and their fiber of course.   My highlight of that visit was when I heard the owner refer to one of the young male alpacas by name.  It was named "Johnny Depp".  It just struck me as amusing, so I went to ask for his autograph, and he ended up eating my piece of paper.  sigh.. celebrities.

Brown one in the middle is Johnny.. looks different in the movies for some reason.

Aside: At this point I should mention that we had spent WAAAAYY too much time between these first 2 farms.  Not for any reason other than that we were enjoying ourselves.  But this also meant that we'd have to drop some farms from our list since most of the farms were only "Open" during the hours of 11-5.  So in the end we ended up skipping over the next 3 farms on the list and heading right to the last farm on the list which was on the complete other end of the Island in Pisquid.  On the way there, however we made another stop in Winsloe to look at a field of sunflowers.

3. Shepards Farm, Pisquid http://shepherdsfarmorganics.com/about/
This wasn't the farm that we thought it was.  Last year there were 2 farms in Pisquid in the Open Farm Day and they were just down the road from each other.  The other farm had a notorious gang of gregarious geese, but it wasn't open this year. However, we managed to pick up some organic veggies and got some pictures of some pigs, goats, turkeys, chickens and sheep.  Incidentally, the "purple" beans we bought were fake.  They turned green when cooked.

The Road Home
So last year on OFD, Christine and I stopped off at a potato warehouse in Pisquid and took each others pictures with a giant "Mr. Potato Head" that is there.  So we decided to make this a tradition, and now Marilee has had the "Potato head experience" as well.  The downside of this year is that it's election time and Mr. Potato Head had a sign for a Liberal candidate duct-taped to his hand.. oh well, there's no accounting for taste.

We took a different way home this year and were fortunate enough to drive by a giant strawberry in someone's yard.  Yrd, you heard right, a giant strawberry.  So.. of course we all had to get pictures taken with that too.

Sorry.. took this from the wrong angle.

So that's my story for this weekend.  The evening was topped off with a visit to my sister-in-law Kathleen who had made a tasty Apple-crisp for me.

Nothing else to say this time, but whenever I feel I have more interesting tales, I shall write again.  Being as this is my first post, please be nice and I'll attempt to improve my writing format and style as I see fit.