To Long Lake

This morning, we decided to go take a look at Long Lake Provincial Park, the main access point for which is not even two miles up the road from our house. We've driven past it regularly for a year and a half, but never stopped. It's not really developed (there's no proper trail system or anything like that) but it's nice enough. Its greatest attraction, though, is its proximity to downtown Halifax. The park was busy this morning, mostly with dog walkers, but also lots of parents and kids. The lake itself is frozen pretty solid and a few hardy souls were shovelling an area of ice to make a skating rink. We'll have to visit more often - and certainly on hot summer days, it would be very handy for a refreshing swim.

Afterwards, we went to the Trident Café, which is probably my favourite café in Halifax. Not only do they have a fine selection of beverages, and ample free supplies of quality periodicals to read while you sip, but there is also a bookshop attached. The shop is small, but with a great collection of new, nearly-new and used books - I almost never go away from there without buying something. And so today I bought for a pittance a fine hardcover copy of Ladies of the Grand Tour: British Women in Pursuit of Enlightenment and Adventure in Eighteenth-Century Europe by Brian Dolan - yet another addition to my groaning 'unread' shelf.