Summer Lovin' (June 29 - August 6, 2020)

August 20, 2020

Summer Lovin' (June 29 - August 6, 2020)

Summer is short and very sweet in PEI. We try to take advantage of every day off and with so many beautiful days this summer, it hasn't left much time for the blog.

Canada Day was spent with Matt, Chasity, the kids and Veda.

Canada Day Treats

Kayla & Alexis

Dom & his Canada watch

Matt - Not sure what to say

Kayla with her floaties - 6 weeks later she is swimming without them.

Beautiful wildflowers cover our backyard in July. Bees everywhere.

As always, Scott has been working on the house. No easy feat this past month with lots of heat and humidity. The screen room has been a wonderful addition to the house. At the moment it's being used as a painting studio while Scott paints hundreds of pieces of clapboard for the siding. Once in a while we put chairs out there and enjoy the evening view, free of bugs.

Screenroom and deck in progress - structure to the left is the "Grillzebo" (covered BBQ area)

Door was left over from our house plan changes
It will be painted down the road

Screen room / Paint room - House corner boards are on the rack

Steam coming off the carrot field after a light rain

Scott also spent hours ensuring we have a ready supply of fresh veggies and getting the RV ready to roll.

The RV needed a new muffler, one which isn't available any longer so a local place manufacturered brackets and some custom tubing to mount an after market muffler. Still loud but much quieter.

There were quite a few other things including repairing the black tank - there was a leak where the connection to the toilet had let go meaning the cab tended to be overly aromatic when we were driving. Very happy to say, that is no longer the case.

View from behind the fledgling veggie gardens (early July)
House, screen room and RV parking

Check out the back box with the fox.
We watched him stroll up the driveway, through the yard,
hop up into the box the curl up on the radishes.

Whenever possible, we take little trips. One day trip was up to Cavendish which was so much quieter than normal thanks to the effects of COVID. Cavendish has plenty of touristy things along with beautiful beaches in the National Park.

Wild roses can be found all over the island

Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables author) took much inspiration in this area.
Fun to see how people used to dress to enjoy the beach.

Not overly crowded

Brackley Beach Lighthouse

Dunes of the north shore

We had an impromtu visit from Gail, one of Scott and families childhood friends. Although I made the mistake of not taking a picture I will always remember this particular visit thanks to our introduction to Handmade "yo-yo" cookies. They are locally made in Murray Harbour. 4 huge cookies to a bag.

Decadent to say the least. We love you Gail :-)

There were beach days a plenty. Whenever possible, we'd head out after work for a couple of hours. Water temps ranged from "Hell no" to "Awesome" , either way hanging out there is always great.

Beautiful on the beach "Hell No" in the water
Two weeks later we went to Panmure again and the water was perfect

Our little tractor has a loader and although it's fairly slow it does move dirt quicker than a person which lead to Scott helping our neighbours move some. As a thank you Jackie and Andrew invited us out to dinner at the Wheelhouse in Georgetown. The view and food were fantastic and as a bonus we got to know our neighbours a bit better.

Andrew and Jackie on the Wheelhouse patio in Georgetown

Hard to beat this view from a restaurant patio

Jackie and Andrew also surprised us with a couple of Stone-fired pizzas from Nimrods on the floating dock at Peakes Quay Charlottetown one night. Worth a try if you are in town. Yummy!!

Probably should have taken the picture before we started eating.
It was so good I stopped to take a picture.

We never tire of the view. Especially love watching the various boats and ships.

Evening at Panting Shores

You know those things you don't throw out just in case. Years pass and you hang on to them just in case.

I was VERY excited when I finally got to dig into my stash of sewing odds and ends to put elastic on to masks Sarah had made us. We were heading to Nova Scotia where masks are required indoors.

Now I just need to find a use for those sew on snaps and loops :-)

Positive from Covid - got to use some of my stash

In equally as important news, after trying out 3 different greens and red and a yellow, we settled on yellow for the house clapboard siding. Scott has been removing the remaining siding, adding strapping, trimming the windows, doors and corners in pine painted white, staining the clapboard front and back and installing them. This is going to take a while but progress is being made.

Header board at the bottom for the porch which will go here one day
Strapping to ensure air circulation behind the clapboard

Applying a bit of adhesive as this piece is going under the window

Expertly nailing the clapboard on

Sue, a friend from work, and her husband, Duane, got together to go kayaking at Seal Cove for a couple of hours. Fantastic day and kayaking conditions.

Sue and Scott

Heading back in

That same hot day Scott and I went to Panting Shores for a swim. It was the busiest we've ever seen it. Still plenty of space though.

Crowded beach by PEI standards

Love seeing kids just hanging out and enjoying themselves

At Panting Shores you do need to watch for the odd crab trying to tickle your toes

The RV has been safe-tied and has new PEI plates. As a pre-vacation trail run we booked a weekend at Panmure Provincial Park. We love the location, close to the beach and bay for kayaking. Scott went and setup in the afternoon and for me it was wonderful to leave work and in 20 minutes be sitting outside beside the RV enjoying the park.

View of St.Mary's Bay from the rig

Evening campfire and moonlight

On Saturday we picked Veda up, enjoyed a visit to Panmure Island Lighthouse

as well as dinner at the campground.

View from the lighthouse ground over Panmure Beach and over to the campground

Veda and Scott relaxing under the pergola at the lighthouse - gorgeous views

Another moonlight campfire

Loving the beach even though we need to share with the crowds LOL!!

We got the kayaks in the water a couple of times that weekend at Panmure.

Rather than check out Sunday morning I just headed to work from the RV Monday morning.

Fantastic weekend

Gardening update

Peppers will be a plenty

Tomatoes and onions too

Zucchini are flourishing - not quite sure what to do

Farmers carrot in our front yard look healthy

Scott's 55th birthday happened August 5th

My good friend Dominique (in Switzerland) turned 65 on the same day for those of you who have met her.

We celebrated with an ice cream at What's the Scoop along with Veda, Pam, Trevor and Emily

Another fantastic milestone was reached.

Evan graduated from Brock University with a degree in Business Administration. Woohoo!!

He and his friend Drew own and run XpertVR (Using VR for marketing research and training) with his friend Drew. Despite some Covid setbacks they are doing well and we are so proud of them.

Evan's girlfriend Hope and her family put together a graduation celebration for Evan and sent a few pictures. Thanks Hope for taking such great care of Evan.