A winter trip to the valley

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to go up to the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia for an afternoon with my dad. Well, he was running a clinic at the local university (as he does every second Tuesday), so I was able to have the truck for adventuring.

I usually make a few frenchys stops... for those of you who do not know what Frenchys is, it is a used clothing store with incredible prices. They are usually in wonderful condition and you can almost always find something awesome to go home with! I love Frenchys.

When I'm in the Valley I always have to stop by FOX HILL CHEESE as well, which is an incredible little cheese shop, which sells cheese *of course, and home made ice cream, gelatos, ooh SO much incredible, delicious stuff. I have my normal Italian Harviti which I get, but also the best squeakiest cheese curds ever.
While adventuring this time around, I was on my way to the 'look-out' to see the amazing view from ontop of a hill, looking over the whole valley...when I looked up into a tree and saw huge eagles, young and old roosting up in a tree over the road! So...of course...being my fathers daughter, I had to pull over the truck and get out with Hamish to investigate these incredible creatures! At one point in time I spotted fourteen stationary eagles! (there was more flying around at that time, I just couldn't keep track of them) It was so amazing, seeing their huge wing span just soaring through the trees.

On my way back from the look-off I stopped again to see the eagles because there were more in the tree over the road. As I got out, a few of them flew away... I wanted to photograph their wings from underneath *like the seagulls from Florida*. So I strategically placed myself under this one HUGE bird. But for some reason, he didn't want to budge. He just kept turning around, hiding his face from me....just at moments looking down and giving me the biggest glare ever! Which I did end up capturing with Hamish. If you can see it in the photo above. I was just keeping my fingers crossed he wouldn't get tired of being photographed and decide I was an easy dinner for his huge eagle family.

At the end of the day, after a pretty overcast cloudy day; the sun decided to peek out below the clouds as it was descending from high in the sky. With the low clouds and the brightness of the sun, it all created this light tunnel for the sun to bounce off everything in a bright orange and gold array. It was sooo beautiful. I felt like a moth to a flame. I hadn't seen the sun all day long, So I just had to go follow it.

Even though I needed to head back to the university to collect dad, I had to first follow the sun in the complete opposite direction to get my sunshine fulfillment. I could have just breathed it in. As I turned around the sky just kept getting better. It turned pinks and purples, and oranges and golds. I tried to take a picture from town as I was heading back, but the photo (top) doesn't do it justice. It was simply amazing.

At the end of the day, Dad and I drove home and enjoyed the fantastic starry sky. We both hadn't seen stars in that multitude in quite a while. So just absorbing how many stars there were out on the Valley highway was just so beautiful. I kept asking Dad if I could roll down my window to watch a glimps, then I would get too cold and have to roll if back up again, but ah. Amazing.

It was a really good trip to the valley. I just had quiet time, thinking time, time to just drive and let my mind soar....on the wings of eagles.

from a drifting feather.