Elisabeth
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affabletoaster.bsky.social
Elisabeth
@affabletoaster.bsky.social
2.6K followers 660 following 3.3K posts
Knitter, singer, reader, rider of bikes in Hfx, NS. Mum to Pebble & Rex (not their real names.)
🩷💜💙🚲🇨🇦 (she/her)

Reluctant urbanist (I love cities; I just wanna enjoy my life, not fight for it!)
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affabletoaster.bsky.social
Absolutely delightful I Light Hfx tonight. A little dampness can’t keep Haligonian cyclists from a shiny party.

It was lovely to see so many #BikeHfx people tonight! I managed to chat with more folks than usual tonight but I still missed a bunch of you. Hi!!!
A bike party outdoors on a rainy night in the quad at Dalhousie University. It’s the end of the night and the crowd in the background is starting to dwindle. In the foreground a toddler with red pants and a black raincoat is skipping around a paved area, jumping in puddles. The child is blurry with motion. A peek inside an Urban Arrow cargo bike rain cover. Two children are visible, mostly just their bike helmets. They’re bathed in purple and red light from the LED lights hung inside the canopy. The bike helmet in the foreground is light blue, with bike stickers on. The helmet in the background is orange-red and its wearer is hunkered down, dozing under a yellow Lark bike blanket.
November 9, 2025 at 2:38 AM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
Sooooo much! And so did I. There are a zillion reasons a Carrie wasn’t the right daily driver for us, but it was so fun to borrow for a few days!
A toddler sits in the basket of a teal R&M Carrie front-loading cargo bike. We are standing just to the right and behind him. He is wearing an orangey-red helmet and grey-green shirt and pants. His blue and black winter boots are propped up on the front of the bike basket. The black rain cover is installed on the bike, and it is raining.
November 8, 2025 at 7:20 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
Pebble, this weekend: Mom, if you were me you’d be spectacular!
A 6yo white girl is mid-swing on a playground jungle gym on a sunny Fall day. She is wearing her brown hair in two braids and has a purple and blue fleece hoodie and dark leggings, Converse All Stars on her feet.
October 27, 2025 at 1:09 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
This isn’t Dal campus, but right next door: The nook outside the NAB at King’s has lots of bike parking (weird racks, tho) and IME seems to be very secure. It’s out of view if driving by, but lots of eyes on it from passersby.
A map of the buildings and pathways near the intersection of Oxford St and Castine Way in Halifax, NS. There is a red star drawn over the spot the poster mentions.
October 27, 2025 at 11:37 AM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
Here’s Pebble in summer 2020 surveying Oxford St outside Tart & Soul from her Yepp Mini throne. 🤣

Our childcare commute that fall involved biking up Almon, and riding up that long, gradual hill without being able to put my weight over the front wheel was what got me looking into e-bikes!
A baby girl (maybe 8-9 mos old?) sits in a blue front-mounted infant bike seat on a sunny summer day. She is wearing a yellow shirt and denim overalls, blue sneakers, and a bright pink bike helmet. There is a little black frame for her to hold and her wee hands are gripping it. Her face is turned away from the camera, looking up Oxford Street in Halifax. The bike is on the concrete patio outside of Tart & Soul at the corner of Oxford and Coburg Rds.
October 18, 2025 at 1:27 AM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
Just took this old friend for a spin around the neighbourhood. I’ve been riding e-bikes daily for most of the last 5 years, and they’re great, but I need to take the acoustic out more often. What a pleasant, responsive, nimble ride! Not at all fancy, but still faithful.
A navy blue hybrid bike leans against a white range in a home kitchen. It has a silver-coloured Yepp rack on the back, black fenders, and a mount for a u-lock inside the triangle of the frame.
October 18, 2025 at 1:08 AM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
It’s here!!!

(It’s not lost on me that this book has arrived the same day as we pick up our new car. 🤦🏼‍♀️😅)
A white woman is sitting in front of a picturesque round window. She is wearing a cream cabled sweater and tortoiseshell cat-eye glasses. She is holding a hardcover book which is white with a yellow border. In the centre of the white area on the cover there is an illustration of a hanging traffic light overgrown with vines and flowers. The book is Life After Cars by Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon, and Aaron Naparstek.
October 16, 2025 at 12:51 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
Good job, SUV driver. You endangered a handful of children and a parent, then doubled down repeatedly on the dangerous driving. Delightful to share the road with you.
An intersection in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on a fall afternoon. In focus in the middle distance a red Hyundai Kona SUV has its right blinker on and is halfway through a right turn from Oxford St onto Chebucto Rd. The space they’re trying to move into is already occupied by a passing Halifax Transit bus. Out of focus in the foreground is the handlebar mount of the phone, and the helmet of the passenger on the photographer’s cargo bike.
October 16, 2025 at 12:22 AM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
I also have plastic Planet Bike fenders that can go with them. Used on the same bike, only light use, come with hardware.

Mostly just looking to get tires & fenders out of my shed, so if you can make getting them to you easy I’m happy to just pass them on.

Pics!
Two black bike 26x1.75 tires lie on a black asphalt driveway. They have reflective sidewalls and metal studs. See next pic for text detail. Close up on portion of two black bike tires as they lie on a black asphalt driveway. They have reflective sidewalls and metal studs. Text on side: Schwalbe Active Winter K Guard 3. Two plastic Planet Bike bike fenders lie on a black asphalt driveway. The hardware needed is in a plastic baggie taped to one of the fenders.
September 30, 2025 at 10:25 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
“Can’t leave the park, Mom, the tree is in the way!”
A little boy with dark brown hair stands at the edge of a playground on a sunny fall afternoon. He is wearing green sweatpants ands a blue long sleeved shirt, as well as blue Crocs. A black bike with a child seat on the back is visible in the background. The boy’s back is to the camera and he is pressing his front into the trunk of a tree in the center of the frame. The tree stands between him and the bike, “preventing” his departure.
September 30, 2025 at 12:07 AM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
Wilfred the Porch Skeleton has lots of adventures with us. Here are a few. Even our Amazon delivery driver keeps Wilfred involved in the fun.
A plastic human skeleton kneels in a messy living room. A child is standing behind it, holding the skeleton posed in such a way that it is pushing a pink doll stroller with a red T-Rex plushie sitting inside. A young white girl with brown hair is holding the skeleton upright in a residential washroom. She has placed a pink toothbrush in the skeleton’s hand and is helping guide it to the skeleton’s mouth. A poseable skeleton statue sits at an old wooden school desk in a home. On the desk in front of the skeleton sits a book called HUMAN BODY BOOK. A skeleton statue sits in a red Adirondack chair on a porch of a white house . An Amazon delivery bucket mailer rests on the skeleton’s lap.
September 29, 2025 at 1:03 AM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
Wilfred is our porch skeleton. He hangs out on our porch Sept through Novemberish, and sometimes returns for other holidays. He’s been a buddy of both our kids since they were babies. Here he is riding our old Babboe cargo bike.
A plastic human skeleton sits astride a Babboe front-loading cargo bike in a residential driveway during golden hour on a fall afternoon. It is wearing a teal child’s bike helmet.
September 28, 2025 at 9:23 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
When we got home from the park yesterday Rex didn’t want to get out of the bike. He hunkered down for a little rest.
A 2yo is relaxing in the bucket of an Urban Arrow cargo bike on a sunny afternoon. He is wearing burgundy sweatpants, a navy blue T-shirt, and an orange bike helmet. He is kneeling on the floor of the bucket, with his head resting on the upholstered seat.
September 28, 2025 at 1:14 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
We’re cleaning out part of our basement and found some poster board, which we gave to the kids to do whatever they wanted.

Here’s what Pebble came up with:
“Stop macing bad choysize pes mer” (“Stop making bad choices please mayor”).
A 6yo child is standing in a kitchen holding up a handmade light pink posterboard sign covering her torso and face. She is wearing black pants and turquoise unicorn socks. The sign reads “Stop macing bad choysize pes mer.”
September 27, 2025 at 8:44 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
We’re back, baybeee!

It was fun to ride a different bike for a weekend, but it feels so good to get our Urban Arrow back again. #cargobike
A black Urban Arrow front loading cargo bike is parked in a residential driveway on a sunny afternoon. There is a colourful floral sticker on the side of the bucket of the bike. A young girl is perched on the front of the bike, showing a peace sign with her fingers. A dark grey car and a red SUV are partially visible behind the bike. Trees and power lines rise in the background.
September 23, 2025 at 10:14 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
Haha!

As of this evening I’m going incognito while the bike is in the shop. 🥸
A 6yo in a light teal bike helmet, pink sweatshirt, and black leggings poses behind a dark teal Tern HSD with a child’s chair on the back. The bike is in a paved parking lot in front of Halifax Cycles in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
September 18, 2025 at 10:09 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
Waiting single file at Almon & Connaught this afternoon, I notice a driver pull up very close behind me. Then even closer. I turn and look.

A driver is pulling up next to my rear wheel. She catches my eye and bewildered frown and *wags her finger at me*, then pulls up even further & *wags again*.
A shot from the photographer’s shoulder height, from above, of a red car and black bike on a street on a sunny afternoon. The front right headlight & bumper of the red car are nearly even with the rider’s saddle, eclipsing the rear wheel entirely. The distorted perspective of cell phone picture makes the distance look larger than it is, but even in the photo the car is remarkably close to the bicycle.
September 17, 2025 at 10:56 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
Wrote to the construction company with decals on the first truck.
Email sent to marketing@lindsayconstruction.ca Hello! Yesterday afternoon I was biking my young daughter home from school, northbound on South Park, when we encountered a vehicle marked as belonging to Lindsay Construction parked in the bike lane. Please see the attached photo. Please ensure that your employees know that bike lanes are there to protect vulnerable road users from vehicles (like large pickup trucks), and it is not acceptable or legal to stop or park in them for any length of time. Instead, my small child and I were forced to mix with buses and swift-moving traffic in a place that should have been safe. I see on your website that you “build relationships.” Please consider the kind of relationship this builds in your community. Best wishes, Elisabeth
September 10, 2025 at 1:35 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
On our trip home from school yesterday, two commercial vehicles blocking the bike lane/path in two different places. #bikehfx
A residential street on a sunny afternoon. It is South Park St in Halifax, northbound after Inglis St. The photographer is astride a bike, but is riding in the street next to the partially protected bike lane, since a light grey pickup truck marked as belonging to Lindsay Construction is blocking the bike lane. A paved multi-use path, separated by grade and a grassy margin from the busy road to the right, on a sunny afternoon. In the distance ahead of the cycling photographer you can see a decked-out commercial out utility truck (it is not clear what their business is) parked inside the path, facing the rider.
September 10, 2025 at 9:14 AM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
A dad, a toddler, their luggage, and two violins (full size and 1/10th size) on an ebike.
A white man with red hair and black glasses stands astride a black RadCity ebike on a sunny day, on a sidewalk in a residential area. He is wearing a teal helmet, a green T-shirt, and jeans. He is wearing a near-white backpack backwards, on his chest. On the back of the bike there is a blue Yepp Maxi child seat with a toddler in it. The toddler is wearing a red helmet, teal shirt, and navy pants. A black violin case for a full-size violin is strapped onto the front rack with a bungee net. A much smaller violin case for a much smaller violin is strapped to the back of the child seat.
September 9, 2025 at 12:33 AM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
When your younger brother gets ahold of your helmet and fills it with trucks.
A pink youth-size hockey helmet with metal face shield lies upside-down on a wooden floor. Inside the bowl of the helmet are several toy monster trucks and a Mr Potato Head kids’ meal toy.
August 31, 2025 at 1:16 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
Rex fell asleep after consuming a particularly good book en route to the grandparents’ place.

(We got to see @envirojen.bsky.social & @cgeroux.bsky.social on the way as well, once we realized they had spotted us and were trying to say hello! It’s much easier to greet friends on bikes!)
A toddler is sleeping soundly in his black carseat inside a car. He is wearing blue sweatpants with green dinosaurs on them, and a light blue t-shirt. His face, arms, and torso are entirely hidden behind an open hardcover copy of Kate Beaton’s /Shark Girl/ book. A few tufts of his straight brown hair drape over the top of the book.
August 30, 2025 at 5:31 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
Oops, forgot the picture!
A male cyclist is stopped at a red light on a sunny morning. He is on a black ebike with a blue Yepp Maxi seat on the back. There is a high vis yellow shape on the back of the child seat. The cyclist is wearing a violin in a hard case strapped across his back. In the foreground a toddler is sitting in the front of an Urban Arrow cargo bike bucket. The child is wearing a blue T-shirt with a T-Rex on it, and an orange bike helmet.
August 30, 2025 at 5:23 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
Part eleventy-billion-and-one.
#BikeHfx
A photo of a bike lane outside the Dalhousie Student Union Building on a(nother) sunny day. The photographer stands in the bike lane. Green flexposts “protect” the part where the photographer stands (the front of her black Urban Arrow is visible in the bottom of the frame). Ahead of her, in the area of the bike lane with no flexposts, two cars can be seen, parked.
August 27, 2025 at 8:46 PM
affabletoaster.bsky.social
WhY dOn’T cYcLiStS uSe ThE bIkE lAnE, pt eleventy-billion.
A bike lane on University St in Halifax, NS in front of the Dal Student Union Building on a sunny afternoon. The photographer stands in the lane, and a van with a trailer is parked directly in front of them. There are green flexposts “protecting” the portion of the lane where the photographer stands, but the van’s trailer blocks the continuation of the lane (which has no flexposts.) A sign next to the trailer indicates the “protected” portion of the lane is a no stopping zone, the area where the trailer is parked is a no parking zone, and the area is also a tow-away zone. A bike lane on University St in Halifax, NS in front of the Dal Student Union Building on a sunny afternoon. The photographer stands in the roadway, getting a shot of the two cars and one van+trailer parked in the bike lane. There are green flexposts “protecting” the portion of the lane farthest from the photographer, and one of the cars is parked neatly inside that “protected” space. The other two vehicles & trailer fill the portion of the lane that does not have flexposts. In the distance another car can be seen parked in the bike lane in front of the Rowe Management Building.
August 27, 2025 at 12:46 PM