For VanRamblings, Monday and Tuesday proved to be a busy couple of days (although ‘busy’ is a relative term when in come to Annapolis Royal).
Monday
After spending the morning exploring Annapolis Royal — walking along the boardwalk, sauntering over to The Queen Anne Inn, checking out the various museums, galleries and shops, as well as spending a bit of time at The Internet Cafe — it was home for a great lunch, fresh caught scallops and greens from Corinne’s garden, made into a scrumptious salad.
After lunch, we traveled on over to Granville Ferry to Michelle’s home on the Annapolis River (opposite side of the river on which Corinne resides) for Film Club, a monthly film buff discussion group. Consisting of a group of 7 – 10 Annapolis County women (sometimes men attend, as VanRamblings did on Monday), mostly retired, each month these erudite women meet to discuss a film suggested by a member of the group. This month it was Nick Cassavetes’ adaptation of Nicholas Spark’s 2004 best-seller, The Notebook. In September, the movie up for discussion will be Tim Burton’s modern-day fairy tale, Big Fish (which, Christmas of 2003, VanRamblings’ loved).
Monday afternoon’s discussion revolved around the issue of Alzheimer’s, the experience various members of the group had with the malady (friends, family), and how realistic was the film’s depiction of the degenerative illness. The issue of ‘passion‘ was discussed — some members of the group felt that ‘passion’ transformed as one aged, but there was dissenting opinion on the matter. Most group members felt that Joan Allen’s seemingly latter-day humanistic conversion was inconsistent with her conduct throughout the film, and such plot device only served to take them out of the film. There was general agreement, tho’, that Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams had very real heat in the film; VanRamblings offered that, in fact, Gosling and McAdams fell in love during the making of the film, and lived together for five years subsequent. Discussion group participants swooned.
Following Film Club, Corinne and guest traveled over to the grandeur of the North Hills Museum, an Annapolis Valley heritage home owned formerly by Toronto-based antique collector Robert Patterson, who in retirement moved to Annapolis Royal, and set up his home as a Georgian manor, a perfect representation, and collection, of period décor. Patterson bequeathed his home to the people of Nova Scotia, as a heritage site, in 1974.
Well, that was only part of what VanRamblings was up to on Monday. Just wait til you read about our many adventures on Tuesday …
Tuesday
Up bright and early for a breakfast of granola, yogurt, garden-fresh blueberries and coffee. Then into Corinne’s Honda Fit, along the highway to Digby (world capital for scallops … more about scallops another day), and then to the Acadian ‘French shore’, for a day of sightseeing (see the video above), an incredible lunch at Chez Christophe (where we dined on exquisite, home-baked seafood lasagna, chock full of scallops, haddock, lobster and shrimp), as well as VanRamblings’ usual salutary exploration of Frenchy’s where, suffice to say, as per usual, VanRamblings picked up several incredible buys. Here’s only a sample of what we purchased …
- Two computer ‘carry cases’ perfectly tailored to VanRamblings’ laptop. An unbelievable buy at only $3.25 apiece.
- Two new sweatshirts, one wheat-coloured, the other navy blue, replacements for the sweatshirts we picked up last visit, and a fabulous buy at $3 each.
- The Vintage Contemporaries novel Lulu Incognito.
- Three cotton market ‘carry bags’ so VanRamblings can transport our veggies home in style from Young Brothers Produce on West Broadway
- Two jackets, one a dark green, lined winter jacket that fit perfectly, and looks great ($7), and a green water-resistant jacket (with elastic around the waist) that will take us through the fall ($3).
And that was just for a start. In addition to the above, we picked up authentic handcrafted Acadian … well, that would be giving away the nature of the gifts we’re giving to friends upon our return home next week.
