Lee’s posterous

Folk Fest 2009 Day 2

 Waiting in the chute at the fest. The lottery is an experience for any
festival goer. They crowd in 500 people into a corral and give each
person a ticket with a band name and a number.

 I drew Steven Page # 21 but in line someone gave me the #1 ticket , I
figure how cool is that! However even better than that is when
someone wants to trade up. So here I am waiting to get in and lay down
a tarp. In case I forgot, the tarp is the space you claim on the hill
for the day in front of the main stage. You want to be picked first to
get the choice spot.

 Anyways, the atmosphere is pretty laid back friendly. Almost ready to go in.

 I went to stage 5 for a Set called in the tradition. Performing
Spirit of the West, Eivor, and Brebach. Geoff Kelly and John Mann led
the session. Eivor from the Faroe Islands. She has an incredible voice
and her music is like Enya. They finished the set with a large improv
.

 On Stage 6 we saw the Song catchers set. Chuck Brodsky, Neko Case, and
Kathleen Edwards performed. Chuck is every sense the traditional
storyteller and has even been Compared to Bob Dylan. Kathleen has
great songs for every age. Check out her Alphabet Song! Neko Case has
an amazing voice and her stage act is excellent.

 Mainstage was kicked off by The Wailers. Missing the legend Bob
Marley, the band carries on. The crowd loved the show so much that
they wanted an encore. However it was not to be. Neko Case was in
deck and she served up a good mix of rock and country. The last
performer Raul Mavo really made the hill shake with rocking tunes and
had everyone singing Twist and Shout. Closed out the show and am
resting up for a full day tomorrow.

 Till then, Lee

 Folk Fest 2009 Day 3

 Got to relax this morning as tom and Kathy did tarp run today. Made
it in time to watch Steeldrivers and Hangai.

 Hangai is a band from Mongolia. They play an interesting mix of
traditional throat singing with modern overtones. Steeldrivers are a
hard rockin bluegrass band from Nashville, Tennesee. Hangai played an
amazing song accompanied by the Steel drivers called the drinking
song.

 Met up with Tom on stage 6 for tHe tail end with Joel PlaSKETT.
STOPPED for a jumbo lemonade. Thanks Lemon Heaven!.

 Checking out Stage 3 with Hot tuna, Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir,
and Dauby Taure. A great session because all the artists Can really
jam! They were having a great time and so were we.

 Hangi n in the beer -tent with Tom which is great for finding out
about other Sessions.

 Watched Neko Case Rodney Crowel' and Sharon Jones and the dap kings.
Judging by the tweets Neko and Rodney were way too mellow. Sharon on
tie other hard was a ball of furious energy on stage. Just wish she
was on sooner as I was pretty beat. Check out the pics.

                                         

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Hey everyone!
 
As you may or may not know, Sharon and I had recently bought kayaks.
It is something we have been meaning to do over the last couple of
years and we finally bit the bullet and purchased some for ourselves
and the gear to o with.
 
Finally, we have had a chance to use the kayaks, with breaks in the
weather and our busy schedules. Actually a friend of ours who also
recently bought her boat gave us a call about going out to French Bay
for a nice paddle. We bundled up all of our gear and loaded up the
boats. (A learning process unto itself. I believe Sharon and I can't
do anything easily :) ). We head out to the provincial park boat
launch and wait for our friend. We expect to see her there first as
most of us who know us well know what kind of schedule we keep.
 
Anyways, we were quite suprised to arrive there and find that she had
not arrived. We tried phoning her but of course there was no cell
service where we were (Thanks Telus!). After about 40 minutes of
waiting, we hauled the kayaks down to the boat launch and made
ourselves ready to go.
 
Yesterday's weather was pretty overcast with some light drizzle every
now and again which made it perfect for all the fishermen to be out on
the water. It was a pretty funny sight to see Sharon and I trying to
get ourselves into these kayaks while boats were coming in and out of
the launch.
 
Once we were out on the water we had a great time! It was pretty quiet
even for how busy it was at the boat launch and paddling out in the
water was very relaxing. After an hour or paddling on the lake and
just trying to learn how to be better paddlers we turned back for
home.
 
We made it back to our house and phoned Tom, and he said that we were
in the wrong place entirely! We were supposed to meet at French Bay
but apparently where we launched at was a completely different place.
French Bay is closer to the ski hill. Anyways Kathy stopped by to find
out what had happened to us. Hopefully next time we will be able to
get together for a boat trip with her.
 
The only other news for us is that the flooring is starting its
install today. We are looking forward to that!
 
BTW the picture of the beautiful little girl with the sunglasses is
Rose. Her and Leah came up to visit one weekend and these are a few
pics a I snapped before they went to the beach.
 
Till next time!

                             

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Well, today we have begun the renovation to the front of our house
with our troublesome bay window. This is the infamous window that
spurred on all these projects this year and Sharon and I are pretty
excited to see it begin.
 
We managed to get our countertops put in and thank yout o everyone who
commented on the photos on Facebook. We are enjoying the countertops
and the updated look as well.
 
Our contractor, and his brother have been busy tearing out the years
of rot around the bay window and restoring everything so we can start
get some of our new windows put back in. We have two other contractors
ready to go to start helping out with our other projects so hopefeully
we can start enjoying our "new" house to its fullest.
 
We'll keep everyone posted with pics and everything else.
 
Cheers!

             

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Hey everyone!

       

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Well here I am sitting in the airport writing this last blog entry from Quebec City. What can I say about Quebec City that I haven't already raved about in earlier posts. First of all I'll apologize for the lack of posts. It was my intention to talk about the things Sharon and I had experienced that day but once we put in a full day around Old Quebec, we were pretty beat. I 'll post some more photos right now and  talk about some of the highights of our trip.

Of course, beyond the fact that being in Quebec City is like being in Europe. The food is fantastique! There are many restaurants to try out here and they are all within walking distance of one another. For pizza, go to La Pizz in Place Royale, for breakfast try the hip cafe/club Cosmos. For a great dining experience try Grafitti, it is easily recommened by tourists and Quebecers alike.

The shopping in and around Old Quebec is fun and atmospheric. For all of the history on the Plains of Abraham and the origin of Canada as a nation, you must go to the Discovery Centre near the Citadelle in Old Quebec. There is a great presentation and museum depicting what happened in this historic city.

You must take a carriage ride around Old Quebec and the driver we had Robert was great and very informative.

Its getting near time to board the plane back to Alberta and I'll probably post some more pics of our vacation.

The next saga will proabably be about our ongoing house renovations.

Till then...

           

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We have been all over quebec City and it was great! There is such an incredible amount of history here.  We took a bus tour around Old Quebec and learned about its history as a fortification for the French. Quebec means where the river narrows and the city is located on the narrowest point of the St. Lawrence River. This meant that the French could control the main waterways into Canada. Their cannon could easily sink ships attempting to cross into Quebec.

This didn't mean the French would hold onto the area indefinitely. The English came and decided that they wanted the territory as well. The English camped outside of Quebec city near the Ile d'Orleans. An island outside of Quebec City, which was given to seigneurs (landlords) for farming. The British over the intervening months prior to the battle on the Plains of Abraham starved out the French before the furious 20 minute battle. The leaders Montcalm and Wolfe both died on the battlefield.

Coincidentally, the battlefield is a 2 minute walk from our B&B. During the years it was used for military exercises, became a golf course,and finally a memorial park.

We visited Beaupre (nice field in English). Along the way we stopped at Montmercy Falls, which is taller than Niagra Falls. I got as close as I could but Sharon became the main photographer for that portion of the trip. The falls are quite incredible and there is a huge snow mound which you can actually walk onto.

In Beaupre itself we went to Chez Marie. Its a bakery housed in a 300 year old home which you can get some delicious maple butter. Also most people who live in the area farm and tap the maple trees for sap.

From Beaupre we visited Albert Gilles Musee de Cuivre (Copper Museum). In this place, we saw some amazing artwork being created by the Gilles family. The Gilles family is responsible for a lot of the copper, gold,and silver work done at the Basilica de Ste. Anne.

This church looks like it could have come right from France complete with courtyard. It is a beautiful building and well worth a visit if you appreciate this kind of history.

We went to Ile de Orleans and went on a short tour therre to see the old farms which have been running since the founding of Quebec. Now it is more for larger estates but the island is still mainly used for farming..

Sharon and I were able  to meet up with an old family friend. She took us out to dinner at a little restaurant called Rouge et Blanc which allows you to bring your own wine for dinner. It was a fantastic meal and we muddled our way through the conversation between French and English. Andree was great and I tried to use as much French as I could to make myself understood to her partner Denys. They were nice enough to give us a tour of Old Quebec at night and gave us some maple butter and coronets.

By the way if you are nice enough, I'll share some with you.

Till next time...

                 

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Martin Sexton Comes to Town

We started off the trip with a slow start, but we finally managed to get going. Once we freshened up we made our way over to the Winspear Centre to watch the Martin Sexton concert. If you ever get a chance to see Martin Sexton, it is well worth the price of the ticket. He has a powerful voice and some serious guitar skills.

His opening act was another Bostonian by the name of Chris Trapper.He is another acoustic guitar specialist that had some beautiful tunes. He spent a few gigs with Great Big Sea and helped them write sea of No Cares and you can definitely hear that sound in his music. He has a number of really great songs but among my personal favourites were the Birthday Song and Keg on my Casket.

Day 2: We've arrived...

After a very early morning, we rolled out of bed and made our way down stairs to check out. I startled myself to find someone passed out in the hallway. He was just sleeping in the hallway and if I wasn't paying attention (not hard to do when you are still pretty foggy), I'm sure I would have run him over.

Sharon and I are both suffering from head colds. I thiink I'm just getting over mine and Sharon is in the midst of hers. It made for an interesting flight. I think we must have had a combat pilot for our flight from Edmonton to TO because the landing was rough and then plane swerved for a couple of seconds as if to avoid something. I always seem to have this kind of luck when flying here.

Still no luck in finding a free hotspot to connect to. I'm too cheap to pay for a connection. 9.95 for a day at this airport. Thanks but no thanks. If I could buy 24 hours to use at any airport without being locked in to a subscription maybe I'd consider it but since most of my travel involves layovers of a couple of hours here and there doesn't make it much of a bargain for me.

Day 2 Part 2- Finally in QC

We have arrived in QC and have decided to enjoy our little jaunt away from our B&B. This is Sharon standing in front of the sign. Its a nice place in a trendy area of Upper Quebec not far from Old Town.

We went to a great restaurant called Oh Pino!

It was a fantastic meal and capped off what was a long day. Tomorrow we have a full tour of Quebec City and hopefully we will meet up with a family friend Andree.

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Today we enjoyed a fantastic fish fry with friends. There was a lot of prep involved with the meal cutting up potatoes for home made chips and getting the fish together for the meal. Of course there is always the mad dash to clean up the house to get it ready for your guests. Whenever we get together for a meal it is always a feast with our friends. There are some really talented cooks among our group of friends. On the menu today was a lovely cranberry salad with asian dressing, a baked brie and spinach dip with pumpernickel for appies. Of course, there was the fish and chips that Sharon and I contributed and I hope it was up to snuff. For dessert we had creme brulee with chipoltle, ice wine, and coffee. Also a caramel pecan sundae ice cream cake was served.

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