Halifax Harbour Sea Music Festival: September 4-5, 2010

For all intents and purposes Halifax is and always has been about the sea. It was therefore not a surprise when I read that there would be a sea music festival on the Waterfront this weekend.

I was a little worried that the festival might have been cancelled because of Hurricane Earl's untimely appearance on September 4, but with the calm weather following the day afterward I walked down to the harbour to enjoy a few hours of "sea chanteys, fo'c'sle songs (a fo'c'sle is short for forecastle, which is where the crew of a merchant ship stays while on board), stories and fun", as the festival's website advertises.

One of the Festival's main sponsors is the excellent Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which is committed to preserving all things sea and ship related. I visited the Museum back in May during my cross-Canada travels and thoroughly enjoyed my experience there, so it was nice to be able to come back again. Come autumn I will attempt to make a more official Ea-pea posting on the MMA (what an unfortunate acronym, for the Museum that is), but for now I will get back to my thoughts on the Festival.

Of course if you like sea music then you would have certainly enjoyed the performances. However, the most interesting part in my opinion was not songs themselves, but rather the explanation of what the songs meant and/or how they came about or why the performer chose to perform them. The explanations made the event not only entertaining but educational as well. Here at the Ea-pea Dave series of blogs (more are coming after I move to other provinces) we're (and by "we're" I mean I'm) all about education, so I liked that.

(Costumed period re-enactors knit a shirt and a scarf/sweater [?], respectively. I wasn't aware that orange plastic balls were around in 1749 though.)

Hurricane Earl: September 4, 2010

In a previous post I had shown a picture of my preparations for the upcoming hurricane. In 1997 Hurricane Juan tore through Halifax and left most of the city without electricity or water for a week. Fortunately that was not the case for me this time.

While 200 000 residents in Nova Scotia, including me, did lose their power during the storm, the hurricane itself actually touched down 85 km south-west of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, meaning Halifax and its residents were spared the worst of the damage.

The 130 km/hr winds still broke a few branches around Halifax, and whipped around the hanging street signs near my home. Fortunately though, I did not lose my water as I had feared, and the power was returned to my neighbourhood only 9 hours later - which is fairly quick considering some of my Halifax friends have been told it will be Monday before their homes are back up and running.

(The calm after the storm. The irony is that no cars are driving through this normally busy intersection the morning after the storm, yet during the storm it was full of its normal unpleasant jerkfaces honking their horns as though somehow it is the fault of the driver in front that people who honk horns and/or yell at intersections are giant losers.)

Special Announcement: Hurricane Coming

Hurricane Earl's arrival in Nova Scotia tomorrow may possible lead to a loss of power/phone/Internet service for the next 4 days. Ea-pea Dave's Terra Nova may be out of commission until Wednesday or Thursday. I'll be back with more great adventures/history when the Internet comes back on.

Random Halifax Picture #11

Nova Scotians are bracing themselves for hurricane Earl, which is set to touch ground in the province some time tomorrow. I was told that the last time a hurricane hit Halifax the power and water were out for a week. The newspapers said this week the power/water might be out for 72 hours, and since Nova Scotia is in the midst of a stifling heat wave I prepared the above collection of 29 Litres of water (plus a few water bottles pushing the total over 30 Litres) just in case.

The best part is I did not buy a single one of these bottles; they were all found on the street or in garbage cans. I then took them home and washed them out several times with soap and water, and then refilled them. This means that I reduced waste, reused the bottles, and after the hurricane I will recycle them. I have used all three Rs at the same time with this move; I rule!