Kayaks in Breakwater Park

A local sports store was inviting people to try out canoes and kayaks in the park today, and they had a great turnout.



Everywhere I looked, people were happily paddling up and down. What a hoot!

On My Way Home from the Hardware Store

Sketchers' Law #256 -- If you come across a bunch of town criers doing their thing in Market Square, you must stop whatever you're doing and draw. Click here to see them in action.



I love this sketch. I was drawing so fast that she ended up with one hand ringing the bell and two hands (!?) holding the scroll.

Where There's Smoke

The traffic in our town has been going this-way-and-that for weeks--dodging construction zones and accidents and streets that are still blocked off after the parking-garage collapse. So when the power went off on Princess Street the other day, things really turned into a three-ring circus.



Some sort of transformer caught fire under the sidewalk--not just once, but twice! Things are back to normal, now. But if you take a deep breath as you come around that corner, you can still smell the smoke.

Copper Sunday

This morning I stepped out of the local coffee shop into the path of a parade. Eight hundred cadets--most of them in scarlet uniforms--were marching across the bridge from the military college to attend church services in town.



This tradition has been going on for 130 years. In the old days they used to throw pennies into the collection plates, making as much noise as possible. Nowadays, they behave more decorously. But they still call it Copper Sunday!



My photos and sketches don't do it justice. Eight hundred is a lot of cadets! When they stopped in front of City Hall to receive the "freedom of the city" from the mayor, they filled the whole street, six deep. Cameras were clicking like mad and my sketching pen was going a mile a minute, trying to capture that impressive sight!