Canada Day Fireworks

I was lucky this year in the IWK Lottery and actually won a prize. It was a little Nikon Coolpix camera and I thought, as it had a ‘Fireworks’ feature, I’d try it out at the Canada Day fireworks at New Germany .

The colours flashed brightly, in a smoke-filled sky.

Gold glittered on black, but silver sparkled and shone,

with lines twisting and turning at every angle.

Some looked like ballerinas,

others like hot metalic palm trees.

Threads of light shot upwards, and spread,

like ribbons of lava from a volcano.

A star exploded,

Then the Grand Finale!

                                                             

I didn’t even take these photos. Jeff and I were exhausted after a hot day kayaking, so had to leave Cameron with the camera to try it out for us.

Conclusion: The Nilkon Coolpix is a great little camera. Pity it wasn’t the waterproof version for kayaking.

Olympic Torch Comes to Lunenburg

The Winter Olympics begin in Vancouver on February 12th 2010.

The Olympic torch left Greece and arrived in Victoria BC on 30th October.  Since then it has travelled by relay across the country. First North to Dawson City in the Yukon, then through Yellowknife in North West Territory. It then travelled way north to Alert in Nunavut, the most northerly, permanently inhabited settlement in the world. The torch was carried through Quebec, Labrador and Newfoundland before arriving in Nova Scotia.

Last night it came to Lunenburg. There was great excitement in the town and almost everyone turned out to see the flame arrive.

This is a very safe little town, but the police turned out in force! I think all of the police cars in the area were in the town.

Coca Cola being one of the main sponsors led the torch bearers.

The girls on the truck were handing out  fluorescent coca cola bottles. They were great light sources for the evening.

Eventually one of the torch bearers arrived.

And ran up Lincoln Street towards the Harbour.

Jeff and I walked down to the the waterfront, where the entertainment had already started.

We listened to a great group called Air Traffic Control, followed by a choir from the local school.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, despite the weather. We’d had almost summer weather all week, only for it to change about 6 pm.

The Olympic torch was brought across the harbour in the Chockle Cap.

We walked to the golf course to get a view of the town from that side and watch the fireworks display.

The rain was at its heaviest by now, but it didn’t dampen the spirits too much. This was as wild a Friday as it gets in Lunenburg.

The torch will now be relayed back through the rest of Canada to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Over 1,000 communities like Lunenburg will have the chance to celebrate in their own ways.

Tall Ships Festival, Halifax

Last Sunday Jeff and I headed to Halifax to see the Tall Ships Festival. This was quite an outing for us as we haven’t been so far from home – a  75 minute drive – since being in Halifax with Cameron and Louise last October! Well, we have actually driven farther south and west from Lunenburg, but on really quiet roads. As it is such a thought for us to leave the tranquility of the South Shore, we decided that we’d stay the night at the Marriott Hotel, making for a more relaxed trip.

Tall ships arrive from all over the world and many are competing in the Tall Ships Atlantic Challenge. This is a seven heat race that started in Spain in May, then travelled to Tenerife, Bermuda, Charleston, Boston, Halifax and finally to Belfast.

The atmosphere at the waterfront was exciting, especially for us country bumpkins, and I took hundreds of photos. 

 

The Bounty was built in 1960 for MGM studios’ Mutiny on the Bounty with Marlon Brando. Since then, the new Bounty has starred in several feature-length films and dozens of TV shows and historical documentaries.

The studios commissioned the ship from the shipwrights of Smith and Ruhland in our town of Lunenburg.  The new Bounty was constructed from the original ship’s drawings still on file in the British admiralty archives.

In February of 2001 H.M.S. Bounty was purchased  by HMS Bounty Organization LLC, which is dedicated to keeping the ship sailing and using her as a vehicle for teaching the nearly lost arts of square rigged sailing and seamanship.

 

The Sagres , next page top, is a Portuguese Naval training ship. She was built in 1937 by the German Navy. She was captures by the U. S. Forces in 1945 and given to the Brazilian Navy. In 1962 she was purchased by Portugal.

 

The US coastguard training ship, the Eagle, was also built by the German Navy.

 

The blue  Concordia, is a well known sight in Lunenburg, being the school for the Class Afloat. It will head off from Lunenburg in September on a 9 month long trip.

 

Destination Fox Harbour is actually a Tall Ship – a very modern one, that had Jeff wishing he could win the lottery, but even that wouldn’t buy this ship.

 

 

In the evening there was a fantastic fireworks display, from a barge out on the water. We went onto the roof garden at the hotel and had a front seat to observe the pyrotechnics. 

All in all, quite an adventure for us Glen folk.