Hammock #1
Found on the Bay of Fundy shore beside an off-the-grid cottage in a tiny Annapolis Valley fishing village where we spend a week in the woods without running water, indoor plumbing, a flush toilet, electricity and other what-you-think-of-as-essentials-but-really-aren’t.
Though I can tell you I missed a flush toilet.
But let’s not dwell on that.
Let’s cut straight to the hammock, where I spend several happy minutes despite a chilly drizzle. (It’s amazing how not having a flush toilet will automatically lower the luxury bar. Cold, damp hammock lolling felt downright hedonistic.)
Note: this hammock break is taken while fetching logs for the wood stove, which has to be kept running around the clock as it’s the only source of heat. It’s also where we warm water (from huge jugs that are brought in) to wash our faces and/or have a sponge bath. No shower facilities inside. Although there IS a shower outside. And by outside I mean a sort of lean-to at the edge of the forest, with a hook from which you hang a ‘bladder’ (a large bag of water that has either been left in the sun to warm, or filled with water warmed in a pot on the wood stove). It’s about 7 degrees most days. I have one shower while there. And, surprisingly, it turns out to be quite brilliant, staring out at the tides as I soap up and rinse off, albeit, quickly.
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Hammock #2
Halifax Boardwalk.
Glorious.
A few days later the wind picks up.
Do we care? No we do not. This town has heat AND indoor plumbing.
♥
Click on more Nova Scotia!
Nova Scotia: One Perfect Pot of Tea
Matilda Magtree 
Great pics! And aren’t you an adventurous sole? i don’t go anywhere where there isn’t indoor plumbing!
It’s definitely one of the sweeter amenities!
Hmm, shall I mention that we lived without a flush toilet for nine years, voluntarily? (It’s true that it lowers the luxury bar.)
The (very brief) experience of being off-grid really brought a lot to light (no pun intended) in ways I’d never considered, how casually we use things and how, really quite easily, small changes can be made to do without this or that. (Flushing excepted.) (Nine years? You surely deserve an award. That said, by the end of the week I was getting more and more used to it.) The best part was that tap on the shoulder as I found myself whinging occasionally about not having a light switch to flick on at night… the tap being a reminder that this details is hardly an issue when you have other means of lighting rooms. Solar lamps, flashlights, firelight, etc. Same with running water. It’s so much about finding new rhythms. Long story short I loved it and the setting was exceptional. I can (almost) imagine a life like this but it would certainly be a challenge, at least initially. I look around me now and think how ridiculously far away I am from that.
We have power – I couldn’t work without it and I’d probably feel too isolated here without the internet. But when the power goes out, which it often does here (lots of trees and wind near power lines) we love it – we can stay toasty warm, we can easily cook. It’s a slower, quieter rhythm. Peaceful.
I assumed you were here in the summer, but even our summer weather is better than that! When was your trip?
First two weeks of October. We had a mixed bag of weather… rain, wind, cold, blue sky sunshine… loved it all. (:
Might as well experience it all! :)
Astounding how addicted we are to running water…
Lovely shot of you in the shower!
Taken when I still have my sneakers and bathrobe on… you can see my feet.