Jiggety Jog.

 I'm sorry to leave Haliburton, I've made some great new friends, loved my wee apartment in the woods with deer and turkeys wandering by, and loved stuffing more jewellery knowledge into my brain each week.  However, I spent an enjoyable week traveling home.  Mostly great weather for sightseeing, we saw lots of snow geese in Quebec, the very swollen St. Lawrence River, a bit of old Quebec City (yum - pear juice), and the Musee de Beaux Arts: what an interesting building!, a huge exhibit of work by Marc Aurele Fortin (how tragic his final years were), and a VERY impressive collection of contemporary Inuit art.  http://www.mnba.qc.ca/Home.aspx

Crossing the river at Quebec city, we drove east as far as Mont-Joli before turning south.  Very pretty along that last stretch, and we found some authentically squeaky cheese curds to sustain us.  Spent another night, unremarkable, in Dalhousie, and then drove on to Cape Chignecto in Nova Scotia to hopefully see the dramatic tides and sculpted cliffs.  Disappointing drive as far as Advocate Harbour, but the cliffs were worth the trip, and the tide did come in quickly.  Very beautiful from there on to Truro.

 Spent a couple of days visiting with family, took a couple of local jaunts.  One to Pomquet Beach where we saw two of the 40 remaining pairs of piping plovers in Nova Scotia.  Boy they camouflage well against the sand; incredibly hard to photograph!  I did get to hold a wee chickadee as he recovered after stunning himself flying into a pane of glass.  Wonder what kind of concussions little birds live with....

 Came home on one of the new ferries.  Mixed verdict on that: the boat was nice and new and clean, but they "didn't have enough staff on", so we all had to occupy only one of the lounges with tvs and recliners.  It would've been nice to retire to a quieter and less crowded place to get some sleep.  And I'm still ready and able to gripe at length about them abolishing the dorm-sleepers which were affordable and comfortable for a night crossing....  ANYhoo... took a couple more days coming across the island and now I'm home sweet home!

In jewellery news: I've been watching the price of silver climb about a dollar a day for a while now (its up around $48, from $30 in January of this year, and $15 in January of last year).  It leads me to think about incorporating more alternative materials into my designs.  Maybe I'll look into the coloured cement that some people are using, or bezels of brass and copper on more rustic stones.  I have made some earrings of bronze in anticipation of tomorrow's craft fair.  I find bronze has a bit of an exotic cachet in the minds of some people, and it sure has an appealing hue.  I've spent today preparing the packaging and photographing those pieces.  If you are in the St. John's area tomorrow, drop down to the YayDay! MayDay! fair above the new Rocket Bakery (where Auntie Crae's used to be).  Admission is free, cash sales only, 10am - 5pm.  I'll be working on a fine Byzantine chain at my booth if you'd like to see how that's done.  Hope to see you there.