Basil puts down the newspaper. “This has to be a joke,” he laughs. “Are you seriously telling me that if I had arrived here last Sunday that I couldn’t have gone to the mall?”

“That’s right Basil. Nova Scotia has always opposed Sunday shopping, but the laws the provincial government have used have been at odds with other legislation and they have even created regulations without legislative approval. The Supreme Court ruled against the Sunday Closing Act yesterday and the Premier is going to comply.”

Basil and I spent the rest of the day in the workshop. When we first met he told me he didn’t know what woodturning was. “Does it run on Mac or PC?” he asked. At the time I thought he was kidding, but after some of the dafter questions he asked today, I think not.

So I showed him how I screw a block of wood on to the lathe and then with the wood spinning I use gouges to cut the wood to leave a nice round bowl. Basil snaps a picture of me for his album.

“That looks easy enough,” says Basil, “no problem for a talented donkey like myself. I’ll make some bowls for you tomorrow.”

Tags: nova scotia, river john, basil, where is basil, travel, tourism, sunday shopping, canada