tigers and spiders

So another wedding anniversary has come and gone. Our celebration of the occasion has been similar for the past few years.  We typically choose a Nova Scotia town that we rarely visit and spend the weekend there at a local inn.  Preferably a haunted inn.

This year, our town of choice was Annapolis Royal.  A town that spent centuries as the focus of a tug-of-war between England and France.  A haven for ghosts, one would expect.  And perhaps it is.  But I was unable to find an inn with an attached ghost story.  We did, however, end up staying at an inn across the street from an old graveyard adjacent to the town's historic fort.  And discovered that evening graveyard ghost tours were held there regularly.

I was delighted.

Until I learned that they were available only Mondays through Thursdays.  Mondays through Thursdays!  Once I recovered from my disappointment and disbelief that no tour was available on weekends, we explored the graveyard on our own.  And the following day, we wandered through the nearby botanical gardens.  Where I was quite naturally drawn to the bright orange tiger lillies.

And the spider flowers.

But the weekend was not entirely without an eerie touch.  The mosquitoes were terrifying.