Weekend wrap-up Take 2

Now for Take 2 of my whirlwind weekend… After the craft festival in Lunenburg, Marsha and I headed up to Mahone Bay for the Home & Garden tour. I thought the tour would take an hour or two, but it ended up taking five hours! There was so much to see and lots of really nice people to talk with. Interior photos weren’t permitted, so unfortunately I can’t show you everything that we saw. But there’s still a lot to see :-)

We started the tour with the stops that were within walking distance . Our first stop  was a wonderful vegetable garden grown by Charlie. We picked up a few growing tips from him:

1. Planting marigolds in your veggie garden is supposed to keep bugs and slugs away from the other plants.
2. Always water tomatoes from the bottom, never the top.
3. When you plant your tomatoes, add calcium to the soil. A friend of his uses a handful of powdered milk :-)

From there, we wandered over to the Mahone Bay Centre for a snack. We saw some cute houses along the way that I wished were on the tour! Hopefully next year…

 

I absolutely adore the turquoise and bright green trim on this house – I wouldn’t want to have to paint it though!

  

When we passed by the house with these roses, the owner was just returning home from a walk with his dog. He saw us taking pictures of the roses and told us that the evening before, a young man around 20 had rung his doorbell and said he was on his way to visit his girlfriend and asked if he could cut a few of the roses to bring to her. Pretty sweet!

After our snack, we headed to the Mahone Bay wharf and checked out Wawaloon (Wild Black Bird). Originally launched as a fishing schooner in 1946, Wawaloon was converted to a pleasure sailing schooner in 1953 and won a race in 1961. Her current owner is planning to enter Wawaloon in schooner races this summer.

From there, we drove a bit out of town for the next house. I wish I had a better picture of it, but I was so preoccupied with taking in everything, I didn’t think to take a picture till we were walking back to the car. This house is about 165 years old, but has lots of updates inside – including a home theater in the basement.

Across the road from the house is a wharf and this beautiful brand new boat that had literally just arrived.

Next up was Cape House Vineyard. The original house was the section on the left. It was built in 1765 by the Ernst family and is probably the oldest surviving house in Mahone Bay.

We were kind of bummed that the inside of the house wasn’t included on the tour. But then our frowns turned upside down when
the lady from the property next door asked Marsha who her hairdresser is. We walked over to her house so she could write down the hairdresser’s name and number. She invited us into her house – which is gorgeous! – and on our way out I noticed a basket of haskap berries on the porch. I asked her if I could try one, and OMG, it was YUM-MY!

The lady went back inside and came out a minute later with freshly made haskap squares for us to try. Thumbs up! Marsha and I both left with a container of berries. (On a side note, I went back two days later to buy more haskap berries, and happened to show up just in time to try a freshly baked key lime haskap muffin :-) I loke this taste-tester job!)

OK, so next up was this house overlooking Mahone Bay. It looks old, but was built in 1999. The interior is really nice, but for me the most memorable thing about it are the dolphin cut-outs along the upper trim on the veranda. I meant to take a close-up shot, but yep, I forgot.

I don’t have a picture of the next house – it wasn’t very exciting from the outside, and the inside was kind of outdated. It’s been home to only two families since it was built in the 1880s – the Kedys until 1972, and then the Davisons bought it and have lived in it ever since. They raised their six children and a small menagerie of animals in the house. It’s obvious that this house has been very loved :-) The dining room has a cool wood floor that looks like a quilt.

Our last stop was Cricket Hill. From the outside, we expected a traditional cottage-style interior.

But boy, we were way wrong! The inside is dark and carpeted and there’s stuff everywhere! Lots of Scottie knicknacks (the owners have two Scotties), books, antiques… it’s a shame that the antique pieces don’t have enough space to really shine.

The backyard is a total contrast from the inside of the house. There are beautiful flowers blooming everywhere and and everything looks so bright and happy and cheerful.

 

I love, love, LOVE this charming little greenhouse filled with red geraniums.

   

See the huge grapevines that are almost as tall as the house? They started out as three little plants that the home owner bought for a few dollars each.

And that’s the tour. Hope you enjoyed it!