Day 212 – Pretty and Prickly

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July 30, 2016 – Today was day two of my vacation, day one of Kirk’s, so we eased into it slowly with a late morning brunch followed by a visit to the Harmony Arts Festival. It’s amazing to me that I never even knew this festival existed until two summers ago, and we’ve lived in the North Shore for over 20 years!

But we are rarely in town this weekend. So that’s probably why.

The festival is filled with wonderful things that I wanted to purchase – jewellery, pottery, beautiful textiles, fabulous paintings, woven willow wreaths.

But I showed restraint.

Besides, the festival is on all week….I can go back…I can still acquire that pretty Raku pottery I have been coveting for a few years…. 🙂

There are free outdoor movies all week, and live bands playing on the waterfront, that’s enough of a reason (excuse) to go back and visit again, and a gain.

After we completed our circuit at the festival we went for a wander along Ambleside Beach and watched all the dogs enjoying the off-leash park, frolicking at the waters edge, some plunging in after a stick or a ball thrown by their owner.

There are worse places to call home than here. There are worse things than having a vacation at home. I love this place. And Ambleside is such a lovely place to ….well….”amble”! The beach, the dogs running around like lunatics, the duck pond, the shaded paths through the trees…it’s a wonderful spot and I love to come here and remember Mom, it’s where she always wanted to go walk when she came to visit, because of the dogs, of course.

And I love this really cool art installation right down at the beach. It’s mesmerizing to look at, and a little bit weird.

As we circled back through the trees a crow watched us with concerned eyes, concerned blue eyes. He was a baby, freshly out of the nest, his eye colour and his short stubby tail giving away his young age. The bellowing adults above us also were a giveaway…. A woman on the inside of the fenced off dog area expressed concern that a dog might get it, so I went back and shooed it off the fence and into the bushes on the other side of the path, where it was better concealed. THAT made the adults angry and I was waiting to be attacked from above.

But they didn’t, they just yelled at me all the louder until I backed away from the now hidden fledgling.

It’s funny how when you say you’re on vacation for a week, everyone asks where you are going. Why would I go anywhere in the summer, here is so fabulous. Here is the place to leave in the middle of winter when it’s grey and dismal and the sun doesn’t shine for months on end. Here is the place to leave when the fog rolls in for 29 days straight. Here is the place to leave when the precipitation in a month equals what another area might see in an entire year.

But here is an awesome place to be when the summer weather is at its finest. Being a tourist in your own town, when your own town is a world destination, that’s a pretty dun thing to do.