Colourful Nova Scotia

For this week’s Hooked on Fridays blog party, I’m hooked on colour. But not just any colour—Nova Scotia colour!!

Everywhere we went on our trip to Nova Scotia, we were surrounded by colour – colourful houses, colourful landscape, and colourful people :-) Here’s just a sampling of colourful Nova Scotia – starting with houses and shops in every colour of the rainbow (and more!!) First off  is the B&B we stayed at in Lunenburg, Pelham House Bed & Breakfast…

And one of their resident orange cats, Ben. He likes to hang out in the room we stayed in :-)

Lots of charming old buildings with amazing architecture and detailing… like Lunenburg Academy:

Red…

 

I love this boat builder’s house with the bright red door…

Orange…

Yellow…

This green building in Lunenburg is my absolute favourite. It’s a kitchen store and cooking school called Cilantro.

When I told the store owner that I love the green & blue exterior, she told me that opinion among the residents of Lunenburg is divided — some love it, some hate it. How can anyone hate such a bright and cheerful building?! Even the bags and tissue paper they use to wrap your purchases are blue and bright green :-)

 

Blue…

And my favourite, purple!!

This one was a drive-by shooting in Halifax, so it’s kinda lopsided…

This house was just down the street from our B&B in Lunenburg…

Captain Samuel Knickle had it built for his wife in 1890.

I love the detailing around the doors and windows…

 

And I love, love, LOVE this turquoise & purple building. It’s the Amos Pewter store and workshop in Mahone Bay. I now officially want a turquoise house with a purple door & window trim :-)

 

This purple building next door is their warehouse:

Love the bright yellow & purple chairs and doors on this beautiful house…

 

Lots of colourful front doors (click on any door to see a larger image)…

These three doors are from Fleur de Sel (a restaurant in Lunenburg), a bakery & coffee shop in Mahone Bay, and the wrought iron gate is between Cilantro and the orange building next door:

 

This is one of the most intriguing doorways I’ve ever seen. It’s the entry to the B&B we stayed at in Halifax called The Pebble.

And this is the yellow-green door that opens to the most colourful shop in Luneburg, Out of Hand.

Inside Out of Hand… love that purple floor!!

The yard behind Out of Hand… aren’t the fish Adirondack chairs fun?!

I had to take a picture of the purple bike :-)

Out of Hand sell lots of colourful crafts handmade by Nova Scotia artisans. Like this Memory Bracelet designed by Mary Maureen that I bought:

And the resident dog, Oreo!!

I hope you can handle a bit more colour, starting with some pretty flowers…

This is a power box in Halifax. Much better than the typical green box :-)

A blue boat in Blue Rocks and an old blue car in Lunenburg…

Fantastic fiddler Anna Ludlow playing at the Seafood Festival in Lunenburg…

And finally, this lovely & colourful lady is Ruth Wells…

We met her at the Picton Castle store in Lunenburg.

Picton Castle is a training tall ship based in Lunenburg. I’m going to write a post about it soon, because it’s an amazing ship with an amazing story.

Picton Castle’s most experienced crew member—besides Captain Dan Moreland—is Chibley the cat. In 2004, Ruth toured the Picton Castle during the  Tall Ship Festival in Lunenburg. When she met Chibley, she decided that Chibley had a wonderful story to tell about her life aboard the Picton Castle. But Chibley doesn’t how to type… so Ruth helped her out, and now Chibley has not one but two books:

Ruth can give Chibley a run for her sailing money. Ruth told us that her husband came home from the boat show one year and asked her to go back and look at a boat with him. She was apprehensive, but loved the boat as soon as she stepped on it. And a month or so later, that exact boat belonged to her and her husband.

They sailed together for many years — they were gone for nine years at one point, just the two of them and their bunny :-) They sailed to Colombia, because Ruth’s  husband had heard that the best emeralds come from Colombia, and he wanted to buy her one.

They had their personal spaces on the boat that they would go to if they needed space from each other. Ruth went to the bow, her husband went to the stern.

Now Ruth’s husband has Alzheimers and doesn’t remember the wonderful time they spent together on their boat. But Ruth doesn’t let it get her down — she’s happy and thankful that they sailed when they were able to, and she has wonderful memories of their trips together.

Besides helping Chibley write her two books, Ruth does volunteer work and has helped send books to children around the world — a percentage from the sales of Chibley’s books go to purchase educational supplies for schools in the South Pacific and South Africa. Many of these supplies are delivered by the Picton Castle and her crew—including Chibley—on their voyages around the world.

So are you hooked on colourful Nova Scotia now too?? :-) Sail on back to Hooked on Houses to see what all the other colourful bloggers are hooked on this week…