The Guidebooks Lied

According to my guidebook, the average high temperature for July in Halifax is 23 C, or 73 F. So I’m expecting rain, some sun, mostly comfortable temps. Wrong. It’s hot. Yesterday the waitress at lunch told me it was supposed to get up to 30 degrees. I had to tell her I didn’t know what that meant, but that it was hot. Looking at my little cheater card that I now see that 30 C is about 86 F.

Before you send me protests, I am aware of two things:

1. 86 F does not sound that bad to those of you who have been suffering temperatures in the 90s or even 100s. This is true. However, did I mention my dorm room is not very well air-conditioned? And I have no control over the thermostat?
2. Yes, I am aware that the guidebook listed the average temperature, and as a teacher I am aware of the definition of average. However, the title got your attention, didn’t it?

Before I finish whining, the Canadian dollar is now up to 96 cents US. This might be good news for you Canadians (economics is not my strong suit, so if it’s not, I apologize), but for American tourists it’s a bummer.

Moving On
Okay, “waaaaaah” session over. I really do like Halifax. It’s a city, with all the conveniences that entails, but not too big of one. Size-wise the downtown reminds me of Indy a bit, although older and perhaps not as clean (not filthy, but we really do have a clean city). The hills and older buildings remind me a little of Edinburgh, but just a little. Halifax has its own unique charms.

I’m starting to get my days a little mixed up. Is it Monday? Tuesday? Wednesday? I already blogged about Monday’s daytrips, so I’m on to Monday’s spinning and Tuesday’s doings.

Monday night I finished spinning the Dorset, plied it, and skeined it.



Getting better, but as I plied I could see that I was not all that consistent in thickness. Of course, by Monday night I was hot and tired, so I wasn’t in the best state for spinning.


I used my Lazy Kate for plying. This is a box with rods for the bobbins, which allows you to ply directly from the bobbins, instead of winding the yarn into a ball and pulling yarn from both ends.



I had no niddy-noddy or skein winder, so the keyboard tray worked just fine to wind the yarn into a skein.

Tah-dah.

I Love FRED

Did I mention yesterday (Tuesday) was hot? I did laundry in the morning at the dorm, then shopped at the Dalhousie bookstore (clothing, not books!) and walked down to Spring Garden Road, where I caught FRED. FRED is a bus (Free Rides Everywhere Downtown). I love FRED. He’s free and takes you up all the hills you don’t want to hike.

He took me a two blocks from the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, where I had lunch at the Cheapside Café, then wandered the museum for most of the afternoon. No pictures allowed, so you can check out their website if you want. The most interesting part was the Maud Lewis gallery, but the Treasures of Ancient Egypt exhibit wasn’t bad either. My one complaint (I seem to have a lot this post, don’t I?) was that the gift shop didn’t have much in the way of museum catalogues or postcards from the collection. If you don’t allow pictures, shouldn’t there be more of that kind of thing available?

After supper I returned to the dorm to spin. I got started on it earlier in the evening, so I seemed to do better. I spun the Blue Faced Leicester from Gaspereaux Valley Fibres. There was less of it, so it didn’t take very long.

This looks pretty good. I can still see the inconsistencies when I look at it, but I’m a perfectionist and control freak. (I can hear you all thinking, “really?” I can hear the sarcasm. I know you’re out there.)

I finished spinning around seven and decided to go outside to cool off. It was nice outside, so I went over to hang out at the Student Union (knitting) and then wandered around the campus a while.

The designer of Dalhousie’s library obviously subscribes to the same school of design as IU’s. That would be the Let’s Make the Library the Ugliest Building on Campus School of Design.

Most of the other buildings look like this.

Or this.

I have decided to get things done in the dorm room in the mornings, when it’s cool, and spend the evenings elsewhere. Then I can come in around dark and lie under the air conditioning vent, which is conveniently over my bed. So this Wednesday morning I’ve typed up the blog and I’m off to spin before I begin the day. I’ll post later today at the Internet café.