Wishing Stones Studio & Gallery

Well, it may have been a very short Season end of July to end of September but it was awesome, all the same. I really enjoyed seeing the full-time islanders and seasonal islanders who were able to be here this summer. And I loved seeing so many people from our own beautiful province exploring their own ‘backyard’ and scratching Tancook off their ‘places to visit’ list. It was truly an emotionally overwhelming year thus far, with Covid and all the tragedy here in Nova Scot...ia and around the world ... and then all the wonderfully generous donations that poured in to the Wishing Stones fundraising campaign. Because of all of that I spent most of the spring and half of the summer in tears; heartache, heartbreak and profound gratitude and love for this amazing place which we call home. I am beyond thankful to all of you who offer constant support and cheering-on and for making this community so amazing I am calling today my last official day of season 12. Gallery renovations will continue this fall and next spring and thanks to all of your donations I will be able to make the space bigger and better for everyone to enjoy As always, I will open the door throughout the off-season for anyone who would like to borrow books, movies or games. And if you are driving by today, please pop in and say hi! Cheers, everyone!

Well, this doesn’t look like a fun forecast for next week. Hurricane Dorian (last September) walloped Tancook and made a mess in the gallery. I was not expecting the building to flood, as it hadn’t in the 40+ years I’ve been here. But with the sea walls pretty much destroyed, I will be preparing for flooding each time we have severe weather in the forecast. Wishing Stones will be open today and tomorrow, but I will be closed Sunday to go off island for supplies and I will rem...ain closed on Monday to roll up rugs and lift furniture. If this forecast is accurate, I will keep the gallery closed a bit longer (hopefully not for a major clean-up ) In any event, I hope everyone stays safe and dry as Teddy makes its way through. Cheers, everyone!

Fun, Funky, Functional Gallery renovations so far have given Wishing Stones a new floor in the middle section of the building. The old floor, built about 100 years ago, was made of Hemlock boards fastened to the joists with square nails. The new floor is made of freshly harvested, rough-milled Hemlock 1 X 8’s. Instead of throwing out the old Hemlock boards, some of which still had a bit of life left in them, I decided to remove the nails, run them through a planer and reu...se the beautifully distressed wood for other purposes. So far I’ve built a shelf with a beveled mirror on a floor board backdrop and a serving tray with silver spoon handles. I will be making more fun, funky and functional pieces and they will be for sale at the gallery this month. Whatever I make from any sales will go toward more building renovations this fall and next spring. Thank you all for your generous renovation donations this summer. I am beyond grateful for all the support Cheers! Hillary

Not only can you find island history preserved at Wishing Stones ..... Bonny’s jams and jellies are fresh and fruity. Large jars are $6, small are $4. The Best!!

Looking for some baked goodies? Cookies, tarts, breads and more from Kathleen’s Kitchen are once again available at Wishing Stones. Kathleen also takes orders!

It was lovely to see all the friends and summertime visitors who dropped in yesterday on my first day open for the season. There are more and more visitors coming to the island now and as much as I love to welcome people from all around the world to Wishing Stones, I have to be careful, like everyone else, about Covid-19 and the possibility that it will come to Tancook one day. Let’s keep working together to stay healthy

Wishes for Wishing Stones I honestly do not know how to adequately thank everyone who has donated to the gallery’s Go Fund Me campaign or brought donations to me at home. Your kindness and generosity has given the gallery building a new lease on life. I am overwhelmed with emotion every time a donation comes in and I am very excited to see the building come back to life, bigger and stronger for everyone to enjoy. My dream has always been to rebuild the portion of the buildin...g that used to be the grocery room when it was a general store. This room could be used by the community for anything; artisan workshops, yoga classes, rug hooking sessions, meetings, family gatherings, etc. Whatever anyone wishes! It will be a pleasure to have a space to offer. Rebuilding the grocery room will not be something that will be tackled this summer, as the ferry is due for refit and we won’t be able to get a large lumber shipment here until it comes back in service. But maybe later in the fall or even next spring will be the right time. In the meantime, David and I have already completed a major repair job; we replaced the floor in the central part of the building. The original joists, which were close to 100 years old, were in need of some TLC and a few needed to be replaced. We worked diligently on David’s shifts off from the ferry and rebuilt the framework for the floor ... beefed up some of the original joists, hung new ones where needed and replaced a rotten sill. And then, with the help of our amazing friends Mike Trenchard, Amanda McLean and her two boys Carson and Connor, my kids Zachary and Rhiannon and my mother, Martha, we hauled the freshly-milled 1 x 8 hemlock floor planks from the ferry on a Thursday and David and I started laying the floor two days later. Now the floor is completely rebuilt and it looks amazing!! I need to go off-island for a few supplies tomorrow (Monday) but will be opening the gallery on Tuesday the 28th. If you are in the neighbourhood, please drop in for a visit! I will be thrilled to show you what your donations have made possible so far

My heart is overflowing with gratitude for this magical place and all the amazing people who make it what it is. Seventy-two people gathered at Wishing Stones l...ast night in the spirit of Christmas, kinship and friendship. The wines and cheeses and all the other homemade foods were amazing! What a party!! Thank you, everyone, for another wonderful year in the gallery. Cheers!

As long as Mother Nature cooperates (and keeps her sea water in the cove between now and then ) there will be a Christmas wine and cheese at the gallery on Christmas Eve eve

Finally have all the cleaning, rearranging and sorting of books, furniture and museum pieces done It’s been a busy couple of weeks, but Wishing Stones has never looked better! Thanks once again to my awesome cleaning crew and for the community donations to bring the space back together again.... So much gratitude

It’s hard to tell that there was several inches of murky, swampy sea water on the floors of the gallery 6 days ago. Hetty and Ward and Patsy gave me area rugs to make this room cozier and Deidre and Warren gave me a sweet little papasan chair and now the games room is once again comfortable and functional. Thank you to everyone in this community who has once again made the gallery what it is today. I am grateful beyond words

Hello all. I have been so preoccupied with other things that I completely forgot to post that the live music will not be happening at the gallery today I wasn’t sure if I’d have the gallery cleaned up and ready for people by today, so I cancelled the band earlier in the week. I think they will come in the spring and play ... hopefully hurricane season will be behind us by then ... Sorry for all the changes of plans

Putting things back together room by room. My sweet friends Verta Rodenhiser and Brenda Siteman brought me a beautiful area rug yesterday to replace one I lost when the library flooded. Still have to shelve a few books and move a few others around, but the library is looking cozy again ... and its clean!

For the first time since the 1960’s (or even before then) the gallery building flooded during a major storm. Hurricane Dorian hit NS as a category 2 storm and the tide was high at the peak of the storm’s intensity. Our sea walls are not adequate anymore. For years they have had huge sections that are damaged and have big, open gaps with boulders missing and cribwork/breastwork torn apart. The high waves and sea surge just spill across the road now in so many places that floo...ding will soon be the norm for those of us along the shoreline roads. The sea wall being built was what ended the flooding of the gallery building, way back when it was the general store. Elmer, the previous store owner, told me how the sea wall was such a welcome addition to Southeast Cove because it kept the stormy seas at bay. This was my first experience with the gallery flooding, and unless the sea walls are given some attention I’m sure it won’t be the last. On a more positive note, the museum pieces that were in the flood waters seem to be OK and the silt and mud left behind on every floor resulted in a huge clean-up effort and the gallery, library and museum rooms are cleaner than they have been in years! Lol Here are some before and after photos, and a few pics of the damaged sea walls ...