Hotel life - Week 9

We're at the end of week 9. It seems insance that I have lived at a hotel for over 2 months now, when you think that there are just over 4 weeks in a month. The good news, which I have already shared before, is that our time is now coming to an end soon enough. Next weekend will be my last post for hotel life updates--and I might have to start with mandatory self-isolation updates from London after that to help me find things to do during that 2 week period after we arrive 😆

Meanwhile, we found out about somewhere else we could go for a short road trip outside a city. We've been running out of ideas since we want to try to find new places and don't have the ability to stay overnight anywhere else, so we can't really go to far. But a friend of mine posted some photos from Carvel the other day, which is a hamlet in Parkland County. It looked really lovely, and as it's close to Stony Plain, we figured we might stop in at the pioneer museum to look around. Unfortunately, it ended up being closed, but we did get to see Carvel itself. We stopped in at the General Store, which we thought might still be running as a more traditional general store, given the size of the hamlet--only about 7 households lives there. But It was mainly a place to sell locally made soaps, linens, old-fashioned candies, clothing like cotton nightgowns, and a variety of interesting creations like birdhouses made with old license plates from different provinces in Canada. There was even an old, moss-covered wooden bench for sale--for only $75! I wouldn't buy that--I grew up spending my summers at my grandparents' farm and know that old wood eventually rots--moss is growing on it because it's moist, and it isn't usable other than to just watch it disintegrate. So some of the stuff for sale there was weird, but most of it was really nice. My husband decided to try a shaving cream from there that I now love as of today after he tried it. It smells so good--like freshly cut firewood that got wet in the rain, just like the outdoors, but somehow is still sophisticated. And it's subtle--not the Axe body-spray smell we've come to associate with teenaged boys that don't know any better! 

Surrounding the general store are beautiful garden--not professional type ones, but the kind you would see in someone's yard. While there appears to be a private residence area of the store, and you can tell this is someone's garden with some raised beds for vegetables, you can walk around and look at the garden. There happened to be a cat relaxing in the shade behind the garden, and when I went to try to pet it, it didn't run away like I expected it to. It seems to love people--any people! It started purring right away and nudging my hands and licking--just like my own cat does to me but would never do to a stranger. It was a little bonus of our visit to the hamlet.

About an 8-minute drive away is an antique store called Useful Things. It's not quite in Carvel but pretty close, and the mailing address is there. It was quite a lovely store--not cluttered like someone with a hoarding problem storing junk and not all real antiques. It's on the farmyard in an old barn, on a lot near the owner's house. And when you walk in, they have a number of quality pieces, but it's really well laid out, and there aren't too many thinks, just a comfortable amount so that you can really see the things. There was a lot of nice furniture there--a dining table that was sturdy and solid wood--absolutely beautiful, and only $400! If only we weren't moving!

Anyway, I do recommend taking a trip out there sometime. We didn't end up getting to see the pioneer museum in Stony Plain because it's closed on the weekends, but it was still a worthwhile drive. I'm sure the museum will still be there when we move back.