The Neighborhood Pub

Last week our neighbors, Carolyn and Gordie, invited us over to their house for appetizers and mussels.  We had never had mussels before so it was a first for us.  They showed us how to eat them, using the shell of the mussel to grab hold of the next mussel, dip it in butter then slip it into your mouth. They were so good!!   Carolyn told us that she works at the neighborhood pub and they are very popular there.  It was a great night with lots of laughs, drinks, good food and great company.

On Friday night, Ron and I decided to take in the small town atmosphere and went to the local neighborhood pub in Kensington hoping to get more mussels.  They had turned an old railway station into the pub.  The tables were made from old wood and every table had a different old time salt and pepper shakers on it.  For napkins they had placed a roll of paper towels on each table.  At first I thought that it was odd that they did this, but it was pointed out to me by Ron that it made perfect sense.  If you needed another napkin, you didn’t have to wait for a waitress to come along before you could ask for one … it was right there.  All you had to do was tear off!  It then made sense to me too!

The walls of the pub were covered in old plaques with funny sayings on them. There were also historic facts posted on the walls as well, which made for some interesting reading while waiting for your food.  Carolyn was working that day and was our waitress.  She kept coming by and pointing out interesting people in the pub and telling us a little bit about them.  It’s no wonder that everybody knows everybody else in a small town.   She also had the owner of the pub come over to say hello to the “new people” on the island.  She was very nice. 

It was nice for the two of us to get out of the house and check out the local establishments.  One thing I can’t stress enough is how friendly everyone is here on PEI.  Especially if they know that you are new to the community.  They just seem to go out of their way to make you feel welcome.  I guess that’s one of the reasons we just love living here in PEI.

P.S. ... Just for your info ... they were out of mussels at the pub.  Boo!!  But the food we did order was very good.

The following photos were taken with our iPhones.  I apologize for the quality of the photos.

One of the signs in the pub.

Get me drunk & enjoy the show!

We agree with this sign.  That's why we are retired!

An old lobster sign

Cheers!

A Lupin painting.  Lupins are everywhere in PEI.

Caught you texting!

A wooden fish picture

Taking a photo of each other.  Do you think we are bored?

A panorama photo of the front of the pub.

Our Furniture Has Arrived!

The furniture arrived last week and we have been busy unpacking the MANY boxes that arrived.  There were 438 items in the moving trucks that needed to be unloaded.  It only took them 5 hours to unload all the items. They were really good.  Every item had a number on it.  They would come and tell me what number they had and I would mark it off on the sheet they gave me, then I would tell them what room to put it in.  Things went very smoothly.  Of course they had to bring the furniture on the coldest day of the year.  The temperature was -11c with a wind chill factor of -20c !!  With both doors needing to be open for the movers, the house got very cold!  I was in a sweater and my long bath robe as I marked off the numbers.

After the movers left, we took a look around the house to see what needed to be done.  Ron and I just looked at each and burst out laughing!  Where did all this stuff come from?  We were so happy that we had the garage built otherwise all of our things would not fit!

We have been unpacking for days and have finally got many of the rooms set up.  It looked nice to have all our things set up.  It was especially nice to not have to sit on stools and lawn furniture any more!  Unfortunately it only stayed nice for about 5 minutes, then we brought all the boxes in from the garage that had our Christmas decorations in.  All of a sudden our nice clean rooms were filled with boxes again!

We now have our Christmas tree up and all the decorations are spread about the house.  It feels like Christmas in the Huybers household. 

Christmas in PEI is pretty special.  Everyone really gets into the Christmas spirit.  All the houses are lit up with Christmas lights and lawn ornaments.  You can’t help but have a smile on your face while looking at them.  Several people around town have told me that if you really want to see Christmas lights you must go to North Rustico.  They really have great light displays.  We will head out there in the next week or so and I will make sure to take photos to share with you.  But that is for another blog.

Living Room Before Unpacking

Office before unpacking

Family Room before unpacking

Family Room before unpacking

Storage Room. Good thing it's BIG!

Kitchen before unpacking

Bailey trying to understand what's going on

Starting to unpack

Finally a living room

Our cozy living room

Downstairs Family Room

Storage Room. What a mess!

Good thing we built a garage!

Decorations going up!

A Christmas Village

The house on the left is called Kensington House.

I thought this was MY Christmas stocking!

The Christmas Tree

A few Christmas decorations

Does it look like Christmas?

Christmas at the Huybers!

Santa Claus Parade!

As anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE Christmas!! So this was a must!

After unpacking all day we thought that we would take a break and go to the Kensington Santa Claus Parade.  The little town of Kensington is just 4 minutes from our home.  It has all the amenities that we need, a post office, bank, gas station, Tim Horton’s, grocery store, pharmacy, gift shops and more and yet our house is in a country setting with wide open spaces and a wonderful water view.  We love it!

We had a light dusting of snow during the day which only seems right for the Santa Claus parade.  It snowed like a blizzard but only with the tiniest of snow flakes which barely covered the grass.  It was pretty to watch it come down.  Our neighbors were putting up their Christmas lights when it started to come down.  They persevered through the blizzard and managed to get their lights up.  It looks really nice.

When we got to Kensington Ron thought it best that we get a hot chocolate at the Tim Horton’s.  I must admit it went down good.  He said that you can’t go to a Santa Claus Parade without a hot chocolate. The snow had stopped but there was a crisp nip in the air. 

The parade started with the only Kensington police car leading the way (I told you it was a “small” town).  J  It was followed by several floats that were all lit up with Christmas lights.  Several “Elves” were handing out candy canes along the way as they walked along side of their floats.  There weren’t any marching bands playing … something that I missed … but we did have a float blasting the music of “The Grinch” with the Grinch himself dancing to the music.  He put a smile on everyone’s face.  Then as several more floats passed by the man of the hour came upon us … Santa Claus has arrived!!  He arrived on the Town of Kensington float.  As quickly as the parade started, it was over.  It was short and sweet but really good for a small town parade. 

It was great to attend the Kensington Santa Claus parade.  It felt like we were part of the community.  It’s a small town atmosphere where everyone knows everyone else.  I’m sure in the next year of living in this town we will know everyone too. It’s a pleasant but slow moving kind of environment.  It is exactly the kind of life style we were looking for in our retirement years.  Life is good!

Our Police car leading the parade

Kent Hardware Float

Credit Union Float

Scotiabank Float

A Manger Scene Float

Santa's Workshop Float

Lit up Float

Frosty Float

A float from French River

The Grinch Float

I think he looks cold

Support Our Troops Float

Our Local Radio Station "Spud Fm"

Santa Arrives on the Town of Kensington Float

Good Bye Santa!

It’s Done!

Well the garage is done … almost.  All they have to do to it now is put the outside lights on (that we have to go out and buy), put the gutters on and finish building up and flattening out the dirt around the garage.  The car is now being parked inside the garage.  Actually … the garage is so big you can fit four cars in it!  It is much bigger than what I thought it would be.  When you look at the garage and then the house it is hard to tell which is bigger! J Oh well … better too big than not big enough!  I’m sure Ron will be quite happy with the extra room for his workshop!

Today I got a little worried.  I looked outside and what did I see? … some little tiny white flakes drifting down from the sky.  It looked rather cute as it started out slowly but then it picked up quickly!  It was like a flurried blizzard! All I could think of was how they should have delivered our furniture yesterday!!  Luckily enough the snow stopped and left as quickly as it came.  It didn’t even stay on the ground.  They are calling for more snow flurries tomorrow with temperatures of -11c.  What did I get myself into!!  It should make moving the furniture into the house interesting.  We will have to leave the double front doors to the house open the whole day as they bring things into the house.  I will have to make sure that I am bundled up in many layers of clothing as all my winter clothes are being delivered.  I hope the weather man is wrong and it turns out to be a beautiful sunny day. 

Keep your fingers crossed that at least it is a dry day for moving!

Color matches well

Hard to tell which is bigger