No sooner had our girls weekend ended when the weather turned. We ended up coming home early because it was too windy to do our final fall closing of the Beach House duties.

While we were in PEI enjoying our great fall weather, Justin and Shannon hosted friends and family at our place!

So excited to have been able to host some of my friends at the Beach House. Wonderful weather, lots of laughs, Farmer's Market, Brickhouse Brunch and an amazing first game of the World Series - second game not so great. Thanks Mary-Ann, Nancy, Christine and Kate for a fabulous weekend - thank you to Adrian for his great bartending and waitering skills.

We are so lucky to live where we do. While we desperately need rain, our fall has been spectacular. While enjoying our hot tub the other night we were mesmerized watching the chipmunks and squirrels get ready for the winter. The sunflowers that were planted near our retaining wall were the draw, and we were able to watch the squirrels run along the top of the wall, climb the sunflowers and retrieve the small seed heads. They also diligently worked to gnaw through and release some of the biggest flowers full of seeds. Sadly I didn't have a camera - and I was able to catch a picture of one of them the next evening, and a shot of some of the mess they left behind.
I can't tell you how much fun it was - more than 30 minutes of entertainment. Especially watching one squirrel try to figure out how to take home a flower full of seeds that was almost as big as he was. He tried many different routes before finally finding a way!

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend and following 5 days with friends, Mary and Steve from North Carolina. Such a treat to have them visit. We had so much fun, we forgot to take too many photos! We explored the area together and did a wine tasting and overnight trip to the Valley. Huge thank you to, my friend Lisa, Best in Class pie baker for the third year in a row in Mahone Bay, made us an amazing apple pie for Thanksgiving Day. I got some lovely Thanksgiving decorations from Svenya's pop-up store in Lunenburg too! The weather was wonderful, and we enjoyed many laughs.

What an amazing weekend in Mahone Bay. I had the pleasure of volunteering at the Pie Baking Contest on Saturday and the Faerie Tea on Sunday. Wow - my friend Kate Cocks organized both events and both were highlights of the festival. Mahone Bay is filled with talented and creative women and the best of them was on display on the weekend. The pie contest continues to grow and this year was the first, surely not the last, Faerie Tea. The creative bar is so high in the community. It was humbling to spend just a bit of time as a day of volunteer.
50+ pies, in 5 categories, Apple, Blueberry., Strawberry, Tree Fruit and Fall Harvest - plus Best in Show. For the third year in a row, our friend Lisa Rhuland walked away with the top prize, Best in Show. No small feat, three years in a row, with a different pie each year, apple, pumpkin and this year's winner Blueberry. Additionally the church had a baked bean luncheon during the pie contest - so many people volunteering to make our community the wonderful place it is. Apologies, didn't get many photos because I was working.
The Faerie Tea was amazing, I got great photos before folks arrived so they don't tell the tale of how successful this event was - more than 160 folks enjoyed tea and sweets, made headbands and wands. It was wonderful to see the Dads and daughters, the wonderful kids all dressed up as faeries and how much fun everyone seemed to have. The decorations, planning, food and so on were all over the top!

What an amazing day.  It was beautiful if a tad cool. The Inn at Bay Fortune was quite a drive from North Rustico and we set out at 1pm. We had to go via Charlottetown where we stopped to pick up knives we were having sharpened followed by a coffee for the road and some scarecrow viewing. 

The Feast at Inn at Bay Fortune starts with a self-guided tour of the farm, followed by a Farm Lecture on seed to seed culinary farming. After the lecture we got to enjoy a number of different offerings - food booth style. All cooked with fire. Wonderful tacos, tune, porkbelly, radishes, chicken hearts, oysters and more oysters and the most wonderful smoked salmon. Each station was manned by one of the many chefs at the Inn. The chef's come from all over the world and this year eight countries were represented. At 6pm we all met on the lawn outside the restaurant for a toast and then enjoyed dinner, family style, at long tables. The Inn also has two sommeliers. It was a magical evening from start to finish.

Adrian - thank you so much for a wonderful, delicious and memorable birthday!