A VERY busy weekend!

Because it was the weekend, it was time for the monthly gathering of Nadine's special club - the Cape Breton Young Naturalists' Club.  Nadine and her friend Chantal just started it a couple of weeks ago, so everything's all new and exciting.  If you want to hear more about the club, you can listen to Nadine talking all about it on the radio.  Make sure your speakers are turned on! 

We stopped at the Farmers' Market to buy samosas and hot chocolate, and then we were off.  Nadine is a teacher, but her classroom is the whole outdoors.  I wish that every school could be like this.  She teaches kids the names of the different trees, what animals live in what kind of woods, and how to stay safe in the woods.  Today we were going to learn how to recognize some of the trees in Nova Scotia. 

Buying samosas at the market




At first I felt shy, but the kids in the club were so friendly that soon I knew everyone's names.  The first thing we learned was how to tell deciduous trees apart from coniferous ones.  Well ... I knew that was easy-peasy lemon-squeezy.  Coniferous trees have needles and deciduous trees have leaves.  Deciduous trees lose their leaves in the winter and coniferous trees lose theirs in the fall.

 

Oops ... it wasn't that easy after all.  We learned about a kind of tree called a tamarack.  In October its leaves turn yellow and fall off ... but it's still a conifer.  Oopsy ... trees are more complicated than I thought.  There is a big grove of tamaracks planted at the Mallorytown exit on Hwy. 401, but I never knew what they were before.  Look for them next time you drive to Kingston!  We also learned how to tell white pines from all the other kinds of pines.  Their needles always come in bunches of five, which is the same number of letters as in the word "white".  Can you please check out the trees in the playground at Vanier and tell me whether they're white pines or not?  Another tree I learned about was the balsam tree.  Nadine says that they make the very best Christmas trees, because they don't lose their needles the way other trees do.

 

All that talk of Christmas made me feel all excited and tingly inside.  I asked Nadine if she had any Christmas books I could read.  It turned out that she had all sorts of them.  I read them all to Léo while we snuggled up on the sofa.  (I didn't need help with any of the words except "Nicholas".  Did you know that Santa's real name is St. Nicholas?)    

I'm all ready to help decorate the tree!

On Sunday we picked out our Christmas tree.  It smelled all fresh and Christmasy.  It was a bit prickly to climb, but I managed.  It was my job to help string the Christmas lights so that they didn't get tangled.   Léo's papa is from Ecuador (that's where the picture on the wall beside the tree comes from), so some of the ornaments were  made from dough.

 

Just in case you're wondering what dough ornaments look like, they aren't like cookie dough or bread dough.  They're hard and look more like something made out of special clay.  You wouldn't want to eat them, either!  Here are two of Léo's ornaments.  I wonder if I could make something similar out of plastercine?  I think I'll go try.

 



Cape Breton Island

When I landed at Sydney, everything was grey and cold and wintery.  The big snowplows were just finishing clearing the runway.  All of a sudden, I felt butterflies in my tummy.  There was not one person in Sydney that I knew ... not one.  I wanted to go right back home to Brockville and crawl into my bed.  Since I couldn't do that, I slid back into my envelope, closed the flap again, and tried to take a nap.  Would Nadine like me?  Or would she be cross with me all the time, even when I was trying to be good?  Would she be on Facebook all the time like Aunt Ashley, or would she play with me?

 

Brockville to Sydney



Sydney Airport



Nadine, Léo, and me

I didn't need to worry.  When Nadine opened my envelope, she had the biggest, warmest smile I've ever seen.  The very first thing she did was make some hot chocolate for Léo and me.  I sipped it and told her how glad I was to be out of that envelope with people to talk to again.  It had been a long lonesome week!


A long, long time ago, before Nadine became a mom, she joined a wonderful youth program called Katimavik.  The Katimavik participants lived and worked in different places in Canada, and really got to know our country close up and personal.  Nadine stayed with Ms. Wright's family for a while she was getting to know Ontario.  Now I'm staying with Nadine while I'm getting to know Nova Scotia.

Unfortunately, the Canadian government cancelled Katimavik a couple of years ago.  The participants and host communities have all sorts of great memories, though.  I guess that my trip is sort of a one-person Katimavik program, although Nadine didn't ask me to do any work.  I just got to play. She isn't like Aunt Ashley at all!

After we'd had our hot chocolate, Nadine told me to unpack quickly, because we were going to a kaylee with Memère and Pepère.  Oh, no!  I'd thought that everybody in Nova Scotia spoke English; but I'd only been here an hour and these words definitely didn't sound English.  I guess I must have looked as confused as I felt, because Nadine explained that Memère and Pepère mean "Grandma" and "Grandpa" in French.  French?  In Nova Scotia?  It turns out that there are actually all sorts of people in Nova Scotia who speak French.  They're called Acadians.  Most of them speak English too.



I found a step-dancing partner my own size!

As for a kaylee (Oops ... Nadine just came in and says that it's spelled ceilidh), it's a music party.  Everyone gets together at somebody's house and they sing together and play different instruments and sometimes dance.  Memère (she's the lady sitting on the floor beside me) showed me how to do a bit of step dancing, but really I just wanted to listen to the music and watch the musicians.  Pepère asked me to sing or tell a story for everyone.  I was so shy that I tried to hide behind Nadine and her husband, but everybody was so encouraging that finally I told them the story of Le Chat et la Lune with all the actions.

Next up:  a meeting of the Young Naturalists' Club.  Nadine says that there's going to be a scavenger hunt.  I wonder how many young naturalists you have to find?
  


♪♫ I'm leaving, on a jet plane ...♫♫♪

 Here I am, all alone in the Canada Post headquarters in Ottawa, and there are butterflies in my tummy.  It's almost 8:00 p.m., it's dark outside, and there's nobody here to keep me company except my teddy bear.  I miss my friends at Vanier, I miss my stuffies, and I think I left my special blankie in my cubby.  I was so excited about going round the world, but right now it's just lonesome and scary.

Let's see ... what can I do?  I know!  I'm going to look at all my pictures, and then perhaps I won't feel so homesick.  Here are some of my favourite people at Vanier Public School.  Do you see Mr. Albers and me in the front lobby? I love the moustache he grew for Movember.

 



Mr. Albers and I are taking out the recycling.

Mrs. Lindsay came to help us get the hot lunches ready.  (She's the principal.  I know she's a principal and not a principle because she's my pal.)



I even miss the wombat sign on the planning room door!

This still isn't working very well.  I think I'm going to cry in a minute.  There's a big tear running down my nose.  Quick ... let me think of something positive.  I can think of one thing:  all the Grade 3s were at the pool today doing their final Swim to Survive class.  I wonder if everybody was able to swim without a lifejacket.  I was!  



Here I am at the pool when all the Grade 3s did our Swim to Survive course.

Now I'm feeling a bit better.  I think I'll make sure that everything's still packed properly.  

My very first passport





Aiden brought in a big envelope of Ontario pins for me to give to the people I stay with.

I packed clothes for summer and winter, clothes for dressing up and clothes for hiking ... but I forgot to pack my blankie, and I wish I'd packed a flashlight so I could read in my envelope.



Well ... I've stopped crying now that I've looked at my pictures.  I guess that instead of missing what's behind me, I'll change my thinking and focus on all the fun that's AHEAD of me.  Look out world - here I come!!!