Birdfeeder Traffic

 

This hummingbird has taken possession of the feeder and chases all others away.

FROST!

 Temperatures dropped into the 20s overnight last night which meant frost this morning.

The bleeding heart got the worst of it.

Look how it looked before in my header and below on Sunday.

Now - I don't know whether I should trim it back or not. Tom, what do you advise?

In other news, the white iris that Vicki Lane sent me last year has buds.

I imagine I find other casualties of the frost as I work in the garden later today.

Halifax

 Why did we select Halifax to visit in May you may wonder?  

1. We had United credits from 2020 when we planned a visit to the Grand Tetons but had to cancel because of Covid.

2. In 2023 that United credit would only fly us as far as Halifax because of inflation.

3. We wanted to visit a nice small town and not be dependent upon a car to see the sights.

4. Friends recommended Halifax as a nice city to visit.

Our flight was out of Boston Logan airport and the best way to get there was to leave the driving to Dartmouth Coach service.  It was almost a 3 hour trip.  We left home at noon on Tuesday the 9th, caught the bus at 1:00, arrived at the airport at 3:40, got through security using TSA precheck for the first time (what a breeze that was), had an early dinner, boarded the plane at 5:30 for 6:05 departure, lost an hour because Halifax is one hour ahead, and arrived at the airport at 8:30.  But the airport is a half hour from town so we had a cab ride to our hotel -The Westin Nova Scotian - arriving sometime after 9:00.

Now go back to the map above showing the driving time between Boston and Halifax.  If we didn't have that United credit it would have made more sense to drive and see more sights on the way instead of the insides of airports and airplanes. But we needed to use the credit so that decided it for us.

The Westin Nova Scotian is one of three historic hotels in Halifax.  Built in 1930 in seaport district it was one of the first  Canadian National Railway hotels built across Canada.

Below the building to the right of the portico is the train station and there's an entrance to the hotel in that station.  

Our room on the 5th floor looked down on the station.

Being in a corner room we would also look out to the harbor.  Here it is a dawn.

The town is quite walkable and the waterfront board walk is lovely.  Here's my attempt at a panorama photo.

We are happy we made the trip and experienced Halifax.

More to share in another post.  Stay tuned.

Been Away

 and while I was gone

flowers appeared,

trees leafed out,

hearts bled,

grass grew long and was mown for the 2nd time,

the hillside filled with color,

and the ferns and hosta showed up.

We were in Halifax, Nova Scotia for three nights last week.  More on that another time.