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The book has been sent to the contest. My last art club session was yesterday. Tomorrow we leave for Spain. But first, one last post about the cruise on St. Lawrence River, which continues to bequite a highlight in our travels.

Greeters to Halifax, Nova Scotia. (I personally love the sound of bagpipes. They always sound so . . . eerie and haunting, full of "story".

Our bus driver and tour guide. Unfortunately, I didn't get his name.

Our fourth day out, we docked at Halifax, Nova Scotia and were immediately reminded of Nova Scotia's Scottish connection. Bagpipes and kilts everywhere. Even the tour guides met us in kilts, as two busloads set off for Peggy's Cove.

A wild an desolate place.

Desolate, yes, but beautiful.

A magical place where anything might happen.

And a warning of what could happen!

Official bagpipe greeter.

I did think it was a cold job on a foggy day like that.

But he kindly consented to a photograph with me.

Entry to the cemetery.

Directions to that section

And this is what met our eyes: there were rows and rows like this!

Some inscription were so  moving, like this one.

And this one, too.

But this onemoved me the most.

There were so many like this.

Just numbers. Heart braking!

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Bear with me while I post some more playful drawings I did in Nova Scotia, exploring simple shapes and sketchy line work.Trying to lock the composition in like puzzle pieces.

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Finally back in Toronto. I was beginning to feel quite transient toward the end there. I'm suffering from a bit of Holiday burnout and am trying to get things back to normal. I need to jump right back into work but I'm still catching up on sleep. I'd be sleeping right now if I could. I drew and read lots in Halifax and the train. The biggest shift in reading is rediscovering good, old fashioned adventure stories. Long my favorite kind of stories I've not picked one up in ages and discovered some new ones on the trip. R.M. Ballantyne's The coral Island being the biggest revelation.

There were some down points to the Holiday. The biggest being a friend in Toronto passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. I still can't believe it. But it was wonderful to see family and friends after a long absence. It left me feeling conflicted. As much as I like Toronto I've come to realize it will never feel like home. I've developed a theory that it has to do with water. Living by the ocean or by a river is great but a lake just sits there, it isn't alive in the same way as moving water is. I think I miss living waters.

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Halifax is steeped in history: from the Halifax explosion to most notably, (or in our opinion at least), the 300 people from the Titanic who are buried there.

But let’s back up a bit:

Once again, we opted for the more relaxed and easy shore excursion with the Halifax City Tour. It was on a huge tour bus so Kevin was comfortable and we saw much more of the city than we would have normally. Our tour guide was dressed in a kilt and frequently sighed in either boredom or exasperation as he told us about the history of his fair city.

It was both amusing and annoying.

We toyed with the idea of taking a shore excursion that included the city and admission to two of their popular museums, the Martime Museum of the Atlantic and the Halifax Citadel, but we changed our minds at the last minute because we’re not sure Kevin would have been able to handle all of that walking.

I’m glad now that we stuck with just the city tour. Because by the time we got to Halifax, the week was catching up to him and he was reaching the exhaustion point of no return (though I suspect he had already reached it by that time).

We got on our bus and headed to downtown Halifax.

The tour was very interesting. I’ve really enjoyed taking these tours because you learn so many interesting details about the city, details you might not have learned otherwise unless you Googled the city before leaving.

One of the things we enjoyed hearing about, was the Halifax Explosion.

The Halifax Explosion occurred on Thursday, December 6, 1917, when the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was devastated by the huge detonation of the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship, fully loaded with wartime explosives, which accidentally collided with the Norwegian SS Imo in “The Narrows” section of the Halifax Harbour. About 2,000 people were killed by debris, fires, or collapsed buildings and it is estimated that over 9,000 people were injured. This is still the world’s largest man-made accidental explosion.

The smoke stacks that you see in the above picture, in addition to being functional smoke stacks, symbolize the disaster that happened in the cove.

The tour guide told us that 24 short hours after the devastating explosion, a train carrying doctors, nurses and first aid supplies arrived from Boston to help take care of their wounded. As a way to show their appreciation, Halifax now sends Boston a huge Christmas tree every year.

In 1918, Halifax sent a Christmas tree to the City of Boston in thanks and remembrance for the help that the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee provided immediately after the disaster. That gift was revived in 1971 by the Lunenburg County Christmas Tree Producers Association, who began an annual donation of a large tree to promote Christmas tree exports as well as acknowledge the Boston support after the explosion. The gift was later taken over by the Nova Scotia Government to continue the goodwill gesture as well as to promote trade and tourism. The tree is Boston’s official Christmas tree and is lit on Boston Common throughout the holiday season.

See? Interesting stuff.

But it gets better.

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