Flowers At Our Front Door

The daffodils are gone and the tulips are losing petals but there is some gorgeous colour emerging!

Mary Btownless' daughter Ruth helps hang paintings

Mary Brownless placing a painting

Rod Mackay's Show at Mahone Bay Comes Down

Authentic Folk Art

Appeared this week to advertise the products of an ice cream store on Montague Street.

The Bluenose Berth

The Bluenose II departed Lunenburg Harbour yesterday at noon. This photo was taken that afternoon. As you can see there is not yet a deluge of tourists.

Varnishing The Main Mast

Lunenbburg Foundry Workers

The latest acrylic painting. Somewhat sharper and more detailed in the original painting. Will try for something other than grab shots when I put these new paintings on my web site!

Lunenburg is (at last) Open For Business

Quite a number of precautions are taken to protect one-day sailors.

Lunenburg Harbour West

Showing the view across the boom of the Bluenose II with the wheel house from an antique power driven fishing boat at right. The buildings in the innermost harbour belong to the Lunenburg Foundry (mentioned earlier). The Fisheries Musem is out of sight at right in the middle distance. Beyond it is the concrete landing wharf given over to commercial inshore fishing boats. ARBCO is a marine related industry located to the left of the foundry and the golf course lies (out of sight) beyond it! Will try to detail this inner harbour as time passes.

The Bluenose In Lunenburg Harbour

Ruth and I had a tempest in our coffeepot this morning and our cups ranneth over! In consequence, I made an early morning visit to the Historic Grounds gourmet coffee shop, and on leaving took this reference view of a nearly empty harbour which will be interesting to compare with the situation this summer. That's the public wharf in the centre with a ticket booth for four of the boat tour operators in the small red building facing the parking lot. I notice that tour boat signage has appeared on the fence in front of the Bluenose, so guess it won't be long before the town overflows with visitors.

At the Lunenburg Foundry

This Victorian business (1891) still operates using some of the original equipment and methods of casting. They are very much into creating huge propellers for ocean going craft but also have a line of ornamental wares. They also build boats and refurbish them. Have a look at their web site?
http://www.lunenburgfoundry.com/

I am currently embarking on a series of paintings treating workers at our waterfront.

East End of Bluenose Drive

Moving away from the public wharf area one sees this sort of building. Although the slope of the land in somewhat less here that further west, all of these buildings have one more story on Bluenose Drive than on Montague Street in the next block north. This street does not terminate with the trees seen in the distance but takes a right angled turn to join Montague Street just in front of the Railway W#harf which we mention elsewhere.

The Historic Grounds Coffee Shop

Watchers at the waterfront prefer the advantage of that top back deck facing on Bluenose Drive where they can enjoy gourmet coffee!

This photo indicates the general lay of the land: Lunenburg is situated on two huge drumlins! Notice that the blue and white building is seemingly single story where it aces on Montague Street, but there are a couple of others on the waterfront side. A steeply pitched staircase (at left) takes customers and tourists between these commercial/industrial streets. Bluenose crew members are seen taking a lunch break on that precipitous hill. Other commercial buildings along this stretch are also larger than they seem at the front entrance because of the lie of the land.

Another Sure Sign of Spring

Commercial buildings have been tightly sealed to this point in time. Today the doors along Bluenose Drive are opened to catch the breeze on a plus 20C day. This shop specializes in making steel scallop drags.

Activity At Lunenburg Public Wharf

Here's what is happening on the far side of Bluenose Drive. The tour boats are now almost ready to operate. The Eastern Star (1) has been removed from her plastic winter shell. A motor cruise tourer (2) has been set to go for about a week but haven't seen any early clients. A harbour tour craft is out on sea trials. The Bluenose II is still the scene of some tidy up work but notice that the furled top gallant sails are in place and she has her flag set. As yet, there are no tours and no short range trips for tourists. The crew says she is scheduled to leave this Thursday if all goes well! If not she will sail no later than Friday in order to meet commitments on the U.S. seaboard in the coming month.

Also On Bluenose Drive, Lunenburg

A broad parking lot separates the wharves of the waterfront from Bluenose Drive. On the northern face of that avenue one finds numerous inns, b&b's and restaurants. Because of the slope of the land many of the buildings here have basements which open on Bluenose Drive. Three restaurants stand in a row just across from the Fisheries Museum: The Rumrunner, seen behind the "police paddy wagon"; Big Reds showing a foreground verandha and The Grand Banker (not seen).

Big Red's Family Restaurant used to be the Lunenburg Town Jail, hence this peculiar structure at the backside of the building. This is actually a whimsical bit of applied art: The paddy wagon doors open and close on bags of detritus and waste from Red's food operations. All of these buildings have exposed backyards, seen by every tour bus which comes to town, so some innovation is required to hide garbage!

Bluenose II

The foggy, foggy dew this afternoon. But the crew continues to tighten lines, haul up canvas and install the crows nest shown here.

New Acrylic Painting

A worker aboard the Picton Castle last summer.

The Dory Shop

As a reminder: Here is the Dory Shop, where all these craft are built. The single builder says that these rowboats have a somewhat narrower profile when they are created for the racing circuit.

For the full story visit:
http://www.doryshop.com/index.html

Another Harbinger Of Spring

Seen just below the bowsprit of Bluenose II. Lunenburg is a traditional home of the International Dory Races now only a few months away. A few hardy souls put their racing craft in the water a month ago but hauled them ashore after the exercise. Now at least a couple of these locally built craft are in the water full time.

This two-part affair starts in Gloucester, Massachusetts "Winners of these elimination races will represent Gloucester and the United States in the second half of the International Dory Race series in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia on Aug. 19." This year will mark the 55th running of these events. For more see http://www.gloucestertimes.com/sports/local_story_216143409?keyword=secondarystory

Trot In Time

Another sign of spring is the reappearance of the horse and shays which provide guided tours of Old Town Lunenburg.

The Eastern Star

The Bluenose is not the only sailing ship under refit at the public wharf, The Eastern Star is a tour boat tied up at the eastern face of this wharf. As you can see she is still under wraps! Here a workman standing in a fibreglass canoe is doing s0ome rennovation on her.

New Acrylic Just Completed.

This one is a little larger than usual, eleven by fourteen inches.

Lunenburg Gallery Hop

This is the weekend of the big local gallery hop and a benefit show at the Lunenburg Opera House. While I have had my share of past glories in the Nova Scotia art world I am not a part of the current scene. I have been under represented since coming here a year ago. Unfortunately, the local galleries are largely private one-person or one-family institutions. The Lunenburg Art Gallery is restrictive in its own right; but that's a personal opinion! For the moment, I do not show there.

The swordfish, hanging from a nearby power pole, were created at the Lunenburg Forge. As mentioned elsewhere, the two owners of that eleven-year old business have folded their tents and moved to Mexico.