Tuesday 20^th November

This morning we were on a mission to get those lamingtons ready for the lunch, so Bob and I formed a production line to dip the cake in the chocolate, roll in coconut and then place them on a rack.  It is near impossible to come to the end of the batch without having coconut in the chocolate however Bob is much neater at doing this than me.  He remembers watching his mum do it ever so many years ago and must have paid attention to the process.

We took the completed lamingtons to the luncheon and joined many others at this weekly event which draws many people from Amherst together.  A few older ladies commented that the cakes reminded them of Mocha Cakes which are rolled in a white icing instead of chocolate.

As it was our second last day in Amherst we visited the museum, which we found to be small and not too overcrowded with information.  The attendant gave us a very informative talk about the history of Canada and the importance of four local men who were part of the Fathers of Confederation. The Confederation was the process whereby the Federal Dominion of Canada was formed on 1 July 1867.  The United Province of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick united to form the new Dominion. Immediately after union, the United Province divided into two separate provinces, Ontario and Quebec - so three colonies became four provinces.

The First Nation people in this region are known as the Mi’kmaq and there was a display of some of their work.  One piece in particular drew my attention, it was a basket crafted from porcupine quills.

We had fun upstairs in the museum where there were many hats and shoes which begged to be modeled. A beautiful display of the Nova Scotia fibre arts included some intricate cross stitch pieces primarily from one woman – and a very clever on at that.

Tuesday night John and Aileen returned home so that we could spend our final night with them.  We ordered a take-out meal and just relaxed, had a few wines and caught up on some NCIS episodes.