ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!

All good Canadian Road trips start at Tim Hortons.India's beverage of choice, is a mocha ice capp.

music for the Road includes this lovely collection by those long haired punkrock boys The Ramones.

Across the street from the Tim Hortons in North Sydney, is this Chicken Place. we giggle everytime we drive by. Apparently they make the best chicken, we haven't tried it, so can't make comment. But we do enjoy the name.

India took some photos of our Island from the car, its kinda pretty you know

but then her icecapp ran out, and she was sad....after many hours we hit the causeway.

No more Cape Breton Island. We were Mainlanders now.

We stayed on the road til Amherst, where we had lunch at Duncan's Pub , the bruschetta was to die for, and they brought me my own pot of coffee.

we then continued on to Fredericton, our home town. It was a ninja visit, we told very few people that we were coming. And we managed to squeeze in a few adventures in NB before my asthma interfered.

It was 32 degrees celcius and humid, when the air conditioner died in my car. How Gross we felt!

HOWEVER-

The main reason for our trip, was to visit with our dear friend Les, and his family, before they head off to the west coast of Canada. We love Les, and Lisa, and Adrienne, they are family.

I met Les while I was at University, He too started out all textile artist like studying fabric surface design at the same school that I studied weaving and potting. He went on and studied printmaking and painting at NSCAD. We have spent most of our friendship in different cities, Me in Montreal, Him in Freddy, Me in Freddy, him in Halifax, then Vancouver, we were briefly in Fredtown at the same time two years ago, but then I left. I was thinking how sad that is, always in a different place. When Les and Lisa announced the move back to Van, I knew I had to go see them one more time. We had such a good visit! we finally met Lisa in person, and dudes, she is the cat's azzzz! We drank boxed red wine, and played with puppies, and talked about art, and got oodles of hugs, and ate good food. And now we miss them even more than before.

this is me and Les catching up on the snuggles!

and India and Adrienne are catching up in the way teenage girls do. yup, you see it in full colour folks, modern communication at its best, two couches, two laptops, three teenage girls. This is how they talk. They did eventually put away the computers and go out to the store for junk food and on a long explore of the neighbourhood. I wonder if they spoke???

On Saturday India and I hit the road again, to sell pots at a medieval event in Woodstock, about an hour away. It was fun, some pots were sold, some old friendships rekindled, and some fighting was watched. I took lots of pictures of the action, and a bit of video.

then we went back to Freddy for more visits with the puppies and their people

Dharma adopted India, and slept with her the whole visit. Just outside Camera's eye, there is a large black standard poodle snuggled at India's feet, and below the lovely Dharma on the floor is the Golden Doodle , Penny. We have dubbed India the dog whisperer.

this handsome fellow is Lamby. There were also two kitties, but we seem to have no photos of them.

we visited my old school, and there was a fantastic metalwork show on. The gallery was closing soon so we only snagged a few photos, wish we had more time to explore, but what we saw was stunning. The quality of work was top notch. I was much impressed. My photos do not do the work justice.

these pendants were a media exploration project made by first year students, in the first term of school.

these salt cast brooches were made by a first year student as well.

such great stuff from first year students. I am blown away I must say.

When we wandered down the hall from the gallery toward my old stomping grounds we found this-

when i was a student here, we pushed a ware cart out in this hall way, stuck pots on it, and hoped someone wanted to buy one. They have come a long way in the last sixteen years, it looks like actual paint on the walls, and real shelves to display pots. oh my how things have grown...

but some things stay the same no matter what

This one came home with me. I love it! and I drink out of it every day. It feels so good in my hand, it looks great with my lemonade in it, and, I suspect, though I have not yet proven, that it will work exceptionally well for Gin and Tonic on the Deck when summer hits. It was made by the lovely Chelsey Ann Fitch. Who aside from being a kickass potter, great mommy to Jacob, and all round cool gal, is also my cousin's daughter.

Despite a few glitches along the way, I declare the mother daughter road trip a rousing success. No major incidents occurred, everyone had a good time. There were puppies, and plans to visit the west coast are being hatched. I leave you with this lovely photo of the girly girl, and the godfather, saying goodbye.