Labour Day 2015

Labour Day on the East Coast is bitter sweet because summer arrived really late here this year so it feels like we're celebrating the beginning and end of summer at the same time.   I've spent most of the summer at our house on the East Coast which explains my lack of blog posts recently - when I'm here, I focus hard on client projects during the weekdays so when the evenings and weekends roll around I can really disconnect from work and savour our time here, whether its just hanging out at the beach or getting some projects done around our own house.

Our house in Nova Scotia is located on the South Shore and is in a very small fishing community where most of our neighbours are multi-generation fisherman.   The lifestyle here is extremely laid back and very low key, there is nothing fancy or pretensious about the people, the homes or the businesses here.  I find it an extremely refreshing environment to focus on design work and I am always overwhelmed with inspiration from the ruggid scenery around me.   Yesterday we were so fortunate to be invited by neighbours to join them on an outing to their fish camp on a nearby island.  It was a day that was nothing short of idyllic in every sense from morning to dusk, it was the kind of day that epitomizes all the things I love about the East Coast and a day that not many non-locals would ever get the chance to experience.  

We boarded a neighbours lobster boat and headed out to a nearby island where another neighbour has a camp.  The weather was picture postcard perfect,,,crystal clear blue sky with not a single cloud visible the entire day, the sea was calm and the air was hot!  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves but you'll have to just imagine the scent of the salt air, the sounds and tastes of the day…. 

Our destination was an island that is home to a dozen or so fish shacks that the local fisherman use as camps for over night fishing trips and also for family getaways in the warm months where they enjoy swimming and cooking everything over an open fire.  Which is exactly how we spent the day…

Fishing camps.

Outhouse.

Our ride.

Collecting driftwood for the camp fire.

The salmon is strung up on old seasoned cedar planks and cooked by the open fire, we roasted scallops on sticks, and ate them like marshmallows while the salmon cooked.

Time to pack up for the boat ride back..

The view through a knot hole in the wood door on the fish shack in the above photo, no filter, this is literally the peep hole view through the hole in the door.

Captain.

The island in the background, the sun setting on one of those days you never want to end.

Happy Labour Day!

All Photos:  Iphone, by Carol Reed