A July to Remember

 July is still taking up space in my brain like an amazing painting that changes every time you look at it or a book you read and uncover something new the more you think about it.  If it were a painting it would be full of color, movement and chaos.  If it were a book, it would be one of those multi-generation stories with a cast of characters coming in and out, lots of action sprinkled with some of life's major events, a bit of humor, some high emotions, several different perspectives, all set in a rural beach community.  It was a July I want to remember and fondly revisit in years to come.  

The month started, as it always does, with the annual Canada Day celebration.  This year it was a scorcher!  Go figure.  Some years we are wearing jeans and rain jackets, but this year it was sunscreen and shorts.  I hoped it would be a promise of things to come.  With the warm weather and the cool rain we got in June came a bumper crop of black flies and mosquitoes.  Win some, lose some.  We dealt with them as best we could.  

The first visitors, other than the black flies and mosquitoes were our daughter, Kelly and her two boys, ages 2 and 5.  The quiet calm of the farmhouse shifted to the energy of little boys chasing each other around the house and the many requests for stories to be read or Legos to be built or games to be played.  This will be the summer I heard the words, "Where's my bat?" and "Where's my batula (spatula to those who don't speak Thomas)".  If he wasn't running around the house with his bat he was cooking with his "batula".  Early in his visit he had his own pots and pans and a real spatula to "cook" on his plastic tub stove.  It was one of those things I want to remember forever!  That and his constant requests for Bampy aka Grampy.  "Where's Bampy?"

Cooking up a delicious treat I am sure!

We had two weeks to get into a rhythm with the 5 of us eating meals, taking trips to the beach, taking shifts at nap time, lots of stories, bedtimes and other socializing. The time was also spent with the upcoming wedding in the back...or front of my mind.  

Before the wedding though, we celebrated a life together.  My Dad's last living sibling, Aunt Lennie, passed away in June, and her memorial was in July.  Many of us at the shore were unable to attend...airfares were out the roof...that little soccer tournament called the World Cup drove up prices.  We improvised and had a live stream viewing at the farmhouse.  It was a lovely service and hearing the stories from her grandchildren was so special!  With another generation passing away those of us in the next generation are faced with the reality of becoming the "old" people.  Funny...I don't feel old until I look around me at all of the kids, and their kids and I remember being that kid...and having my kids...who now have their own kids.  This place is unique like that, we are surrounded by not one, not two but three or four generations all summer and it gives us a perspective we don't get in our other lives.  At least not as up close and personal as it is here.  Anyway, three generations watched the memorial of the fourth generation.  We told our own stories and shared many memories together.

Quickly the beach filled up with one family after another, the days got busier and the impending arrival of the rest of our family forced me to prepare instead of lounge on the beach or play several rounds of golf...the stuff that usually fills my day.  I also know, oh so well, that no matter how much I prepare physically or mentally, I will not be prepared.  

Here is a little video mash-up of July highlights to give you a taste of Nova Scotia life in July.

  On July 25th the rest of the family started arriving.  The number at the table went to 8 and then to 16 over the weekend.  We had to scramble around the farmhouse to find enough chairs to seat everyone at the table.  Having 16 people at the table felt like a cafeteria at summer camp every night.  We all gave it our best efforts.  The house was definitely a beehive of activity for the next ten days!  Those ten days felt like 3 weeks in one respect and like one week in another.  We got lucky with amazing weather, beach time, golf, full-fledged wedding preparation and quality family time.  It was a beautiful, exhausting blur.  

Something that still sticks in my mind from that time was a question from my brother.  At one point on the wedding day, he looked around and asked me, "When you bought this place, did you ever think it would be like this?".  I looked around at the crowd made up of all my children, their spouses and their children, all of my siblings and their spouses and several nieces and nephews and their significant others in awe.  I answered, "No, but I hoped it would be.".  We never could have imagined a day like July 29, 2026.

On July 29, 2026, our son Michael, married Aubrey, at the farmhouse.  It was a small intimate wedding.  The evening began with dinner for our extended family of lobster rolls, salads and assorted pies made by family for dessert. Then the ceremony, outside, to family and a few close friends from along the beach.  It was so special to see them take their vows on the lawn with that fresh air we all grew up loving.  I have always thought this would be a beautiful place for a wedding and it certainly was!  What a brave woman he married to agree to have a wedding in a place she had never been to before!  True faith.  He loves it here...now she does too. 

They said, "I do"

Farmhouse flowers

The ceremony

The family!
All 16 of us!

 

The last few days of July were consumed with "The Games"!  An exhausting, exhilarating, three days of activities.  As if a wedding was not enough of an event, let's just dive right into 3 days of planned competitions...we got this!  I've said it before and I will probably say it again, "I love the games...but they are exhausting in so many ways."  Maybe I am too invested...   We did win The Games, so not complaining too much.  

All in all, July was a month to remember!  August was halfway over before I felt like I could take a deep breath and have a seat. Why is it the summer seems to go that way.  Starts off slow in June with variable weather and periodic glimmers of hope.  Kicks into gear in July and the pace steadily picks up all month into August.  Things finally start to slow down in mid-August until all of the sudden the beach is empty and it is all over.  The days get shorter, the trees start losing their leaves and the finality of, yet another summer, looms on the horizon.  Stop it already!  I am not ready.