What did we do?

Well, let's see, on Saturday morning we left and drove south and east to Witless Bay.  Doesn't Newfoundland have some colourful place names?

We thought to go to an ecological reserve there, but weren't able to find it.  Newfoundland has great advertising for tourism, but not great signs to help tourists find their attractions.  It's possible that this reserve is only a maritime reserve.  The map shows a dotted circle out in the Atlantic that might be the reserve.

As we were driving down the peninsula toward Ferryland the sun came out for the first time since we arrived in Newfoundland and we enjoyed a beautiful summer day.

Ferryland was named by the Spanish who came fishing here in the 1500's, and the name (in its original Spanish spelling)meant something like "high cliff."

In 1621 Lord Baltimore sent a contingent of settlers to this site under the leadership of a governor, William (?), with a mandate to establish a permanent English colony.  Many of these folk were from the middle and upper class in England.  When the colony was successfully functioning and a "mansion" prepared, Lord and Lady Baltimore came with their family.  They stayed for only one Newfoundland winter.  I think it was 1628 -29.  They found it too harsh and went back to England.  Lord Baltimore than applied for land farther south and was granted the territory which later became the state of Maryland.  It was his son, the second Lord Baltimore, who established that colony.

The Avalon Colony was unusually well built, and the archeologists working there have made many interesting finds.  The colony faced a very protected harbour with only one entrance and an extremely well protected anchorage called "The Pond."  The other three sides of the colony were protected by a palisade and dry moat that encompassed a 4 acre site, situated on land sloping down toward the water.

The builders made use of the plentiful beach stones to construct a 14 foot wide, cobblestoned Main Street.  (I have a picture of that, but the pictures don't want to upload tonight, so I'll post it later, on a little separate post for tonight.)  Cobblestones were also used to create the floors of most dwellings, except for the "Mansion" which had a wood floor.  These were so well laid that, uncovered now by the archaeological dig, they are perfectly serviceable.  They included drains that led all the waste water and rain water down to the waterfront.

One of the most ingenious devices was the "town privy" which was down near the waterfront and connected to the bay, so that the tides cleaned out the wastes twice a day.  It didn't function perfectly, however, and many useful clues were left there for the archaeologists to discover in our time: a used shoe, bits of cloth, remains that showed the colonists suffered from scurvy and intestinal parasites.

They had a withy-fenced communal garden with raised growing beds, surrounded by black stone which helped heat the beds.  They had sheep and cattle.  But they never succeeded in growing wheat as the season is too short, and they had to import their flour from England, as well as many other supplies.

This was a prosperous, well-planned, well-built community that flourished until the French invaded and destroyed it.  I've lost that date now, but it was in the later part of the 1600's.  Later on it was re-colonized.

There was a reconstructed kitchen from a slightly later date where a friendly young woman demonstrated how bread was baked in a "Dutch oven" on the hearth.  We were all given a small slice to enjoy.

We had hoped to do the whole "Irish Loop"--the drive around this arm of the Avalon, and then visit the Salmonier Nature Park.  We looked at the map and decided to retrace our steps to Hwy 1, drive a bit west and south to the Nature Park, skipping the long drive around the peninsula.  Elaine had said that it was really just "more of the same" so we let it go.

There is an extended boardwalk, close to 3 km through the wooded park, and scattered alongside it are very large fenced areas that contain animals and birds in the process of being rehabilitated.  Several of them were either hiding in the shade, or not in their pens at all.  Most of them, except for the caribou, we've seen either in the wild on our travels, or even on our own property.  But it was good to go for a walk after all the driving we've been doing.

Back home we watched the first half of "Mrs. Doubtfire."  I saw it in a theater years ago, but I don't think Jim has ever seen it.  By 10 p.m. we turned it off to go to bed, but Jim was betting that Danny and Miranda get back together.  I've forgotten how it turned out.

Sunday--today, we left St. John's after thanking Fraser and Elaine for all they did to make our holiday here enjoyable.  If you get to Conception Bay South, that is the place to stay!

We spent the whole day driving, and arrived in Deer Lake around 4 p.m. where we stopped and had a roast beef dinner.  We drove on to Rocky Harbour in Gros Morne Park and were lucky to find a room at the Candlelight B and B. Tomorrow we hope to drive to the northern tip of this arm of Newfoundland and visit L'Anse Aux Meadows. 

Photos from Yesterday

Here are the photos from yesterday.  First is the facade of "The Rooms," and the shape that mimics the rooms where fish were processed is actually freestanding in front of the building itself.

Next we have the photo of the old Cape Spear Lighthouse:

The above is a photo a Cape Spear itself.  This rocky promontory is the farthest east point of the North American Continent.

And here is an original, and true Newfie joke:

While we were at Cupids, ready to go on the tour of the archaeology site, we came across a group of men, there were four of them, repairing a lawn mower.  Here's what they told us: That morning they decided the grass needed to be cut, so they got out this mower and started mowing.  It wasn't working well at all, so they figured they needed a new blade.  They turned the machine over and discovered that it had NO blade!  They found a blade in their storage shed, fixed the blade to the mower, and started mowing again.  There was a terrible racket!  They stopped the mower and investigated.  The blade was and inch too long!  They took that blade off and sent one of the four fellows to buy a new blade.  When we got there they were making their third attempt.  That blade wasn't on yet, so we don't know how this one time turned out!  We asked "How many Newfies does it take to change a mower blade?"  They laughed and replied, Four, but it's not done yet!

"The Rooms" and Cape Spear

Breakfast was served at 8:30 a.m. with Fraser and Elaine and two others: Glen, a retired policeman, and his wife Louise, from St. Alberta, Alberta.  They were at the end of their holiday in Newfoundland, and mentioned several places they found very worthwhile to visit.  We went to our room to plan our day.

I asked Elaine for her advice on our plans, as she gave such good pointers yesterday.  Her suggestion was to go right away to "The Rooms" in St. John's, then to Cape Spear, then, possibly, on to Petty Harbour and Ferryland, the site of the Avalon Colony.  So we set off at noon for "The Rooms."

"The Rooms" is a museum and art gallery housed in a marvelous modern building in St. John's.  The museum told the history of human habitation in Newfoundland, dealt with the native animals (no moose, as they are an introduced species), the fisheries, the Irish immigration, including how the English repressed them.  For example, there were laws that required anyone holding public office to take an oath of allegiance to the British monarch as the head of the church, which, of course, the Irish Catholics could never do.  In this way they were "legally" barred from holding public office.

"The Rooms" is quite new and a striking-looking building--very modern, but with a facade that pays tribute to "the rooms"--the name the fisher folk gave to the sheds where they processed the catch.

We had some lunch between 2 and 3 p.m. at the café there and it was excellent.  I had roasted red pepper soup and Jim had pea soup.  We both had the chicken cioppini, a round bun with a warm filling of chicken, cheese, greens, onions, sundried tomatoes and an aioli dressing.  So good!  I've mentioned before that we have often found the food in an art gallery or museum café imaginative and delicious and this was no exception.

We were well occupied at "The Rooms" until closing time: 5 p.m.  Seems early for a Friday evening, doesn't it?  Just before we left I was chatting with an elderly woman who came from Tallahassee, Florida.  She was there for her granddaughter's wedding.  "Seems kind of strange to me," she said.  "I'm a churchgoer myself, but to have a wedding here in the museum.  Well, I don't say anything, but don't you think it's strange?  At 6:45 tomorrow!"

We left St. John's and drove the short distance to Cape Spears, a national historic site, the point farthest east on the North American continent.  I took a 360º movie of the site on my Canon G10, but can't download any pictures tonight until the battery is recharged.

We followed the path down to the point and then took the boardwalk back to the parking lot.  There were so many wild flowers beside the boardwalk: buttercups and small irises, yarrow, clover, ferns and many kinds of wild grasses.  We were surprised to find it very calm, not windy.  Then we climbed to the old lighthouse, a kind of dumpy, square building, in the process of being restored.  There is also a newer structure that is still an operating lighthouse and looks much more like our idea of a lighthouse.

By then it was time to head "home" again.  We've enjoyed our time here so much, and there is still another loop around the Avalon Peninsula that we would like to drive, so we made arrangements with Fraser and Elaine to stay one more night.

The camera battery is still not sufficiently charged to download today's pictures, so I hope to post them tomorrow.  Good night for now!

Lots of History

We woke up a 7 this morning, after a good night's sleep.  Had a lovely breakfast with Fraser and Elaine and their two other guests, Laurie and Vince from Ottawa, she a part-time teacher and he a structural engineer.  Very interesting to meet new people and converse over breakfast.  We relaxed in our room for the morning.  I had time for a vigorous walk.

Around noon we left for a drive around the north part of the Avalon Peninsula. Today was another overcast day with showers.  Driving through Conception Bay South we passed Tiny's Bar and Grill.  We hadn't overshot yesterday--we didn't go nearly far enough!

Elaine had recommended stopping at Brigus and Cupids, and we're so glad we followed her advice.

At Brigus is the Hawthorn Cottage Heritage Site.  This house was built in the 1800's.  Captain Robert Bartlett was born here.  He became a very famous sea captain, in the tradition of his family, and also an Arctic explorer and world reconized expert on the Arctic.  It was he who helped Peary on his journey to the North Pole.

Apparently he was a very opinionated, irascible man who could drive his underlings mad, but by the same token was able to carry out amazing accomplishments.

He commanded The Karluk, a ship commissioned to explore the "Northwest Passage" from the west, around Alaska and into the Arctic.  It was a poor ship and became stuck in the ice.  He made sure all his men were safely housed in igloos and then, with one native companion, walked back 700 miles through Siberia, across the Bering Strait to Alaska.  From there he organized a rescue expedition and retrieved his men.

CBC had an excellent program about him in its series "Life and Times of...."

His grandfather Abram, also a sea captain, had men bore a tunnel through rock to his wharf on Conception Bay in 1860.  They drilled holes in the rock with hand tools and used only black gunpowder, not dynamite, to set off the blasts.

Bob Bartlett died in New York City (sorry no date) of pneumonia.  His spinster sisters inherited Hawthorn Cottage from him and supported themselves by opening a famous and well respected Tea House in Brigus.  They, too, were full of spunk.

From Brigus we went on to Cupids where there is an Archeological Dig, unearthing the site of a "plantation" started in 1610 by Governor John Guy and 39 colonists of the London and Bristol Company of Merchant Venturers.  This is noted as the birthplace of English Canada.

We had an excellent guide for our tour of the site: a young man named Justin, very knowledgeable and pleasant.  Here he is showing us the graveyard that was uncovered quite by accident, and only after a huge pile of dirt had been deposited on it from the dig site.

John Guy kept meticulous records, but knowledge of the exact place was lost for years.  Recently an archaeologist became interested and was able to find the site through Guy's careful description.

Many foundations have been uncovered, slag from a forge, this small graveyard, and the cellar, chimney base and a cobblestone floor of the main house.  The cobblestone floor is within the foundation outline of the main house.  This shows that their domestic beasts were kept inside the house--both to protect them at night and to provide heat to the settlers who slept on the second floor.

We passed up on an opportunity to visit the Archeology Museum in favour of driving further north up the peninsula.  Route 70 more or less follows the coastline, a narrow two lane road, continually curving, dipping and rising.  We had hoped to get all the way to the norther tip of the Avalon Peninsula, but the weather was deteriorating and the scenery was more of the same.  So at Kingston we turned around, and at Victoria we caught Route 75, a much newer, faster highway, south to Highway 1, called the TCH (Trans Canada Highway).

After supper at Smitty's in Mount Pearl we drove back "home" in thickening fog.

This has been a very interesting day.

A Long Day

Today was a long, long day.  Mainly because there was no real break from yesterday.  Our flight left Calgary at 11 p.m., so that was already a long day.  We both found it difficult to sleep on this flight for a number of reasons: we were cramped in a fairly small space--this was not a spacious plane; someone nearby coughed severely all night (at least it seemed like all night); a baby nearby wailed occasionally; dawn arrived by 3 a.m. (Mountain time), but appropriate at 6:30 a.m. in Atlantic Time.  By the time we landed in St. John's we were pretty bleary.

It was shocking to see the foggy, wintry-looking scene as we landed.  I had dressed according to the time of year and Alberta's weather: sandals, skirt, short-sleeved top.  When we left the terminal we could see our smokey breath of the air.

After picking up our luggage (just a small bag each) we phoned our B and B and were told we could come right away, drop off our bags and refresh ourselves--maybe we wanted a nap?  Our hosts, Fraser and Elaine Inkpen, are gracious and friendly, and our room (actually the master bedroom) is great.

We dropped off our things and I changed to warmer clothing.  Jim was able to check on his stocks, and we enjoyed tea, coffee and even a muffin each.

Around noon we left and went looking for Tiny's bar and café in Conception Bay to have a meal.  We must have overshot, as we never did find it, and ended up at Jungle Jim's instead.  Jim ordered a stirfry and I had a chicken quesadilla, both of which were excellent, but arrived after a long wait of 45 minutes.  Seemed unnecessary, as there were very few customers there.

It was when we set out to explore the coast of the Avalon peninsula from Conception Bay to Pouch Cove that I realized I had left the camera at the B and B!  Chalk it up to a lack of sleep!  But we enjoyed the drive and felt we had seen some of the real Newfoundland, taking small back roads.

I was amazed at how many new houses there were along this route!  This area seemed quite prosperous.

Houses here are painted in a distinctive pattern, often with fairly bright colours, blues, rusty reds, mossy greens, etc.  But whatever the colour, the trim around the doors and windows, on the porch railings if there are any, on the fascias and especially on the typical upright trim boards on the corners of the house, all that trim is painted a contrasting colour, usually somewhere between a pure white, through all the shades of yellow and right through the beiges and tans.  This almost universal colour scheme gives a distinctive local flavour, one which we enjoyed.

After reaching Pouch Cove we headed back toward St. John's intending to visit Signal Hill, a National Historic Site.  We don't have a detailed map of St. John's but figured that if we headed into that area of town we'd surely see signage directing us to Signal Hill.

By the time we were out the other side of St. John's and on our way back to the B and B we realized that we had missed Signal Hill somehow.  We turned around and headed back, this time helped by a sheet of directions from the B and B.  Even with those directions we had trouble finding it and stopped to ask directions.  Come on, Newfoundland!  Help your tourists find these great spots by some adequate signage.

The Visitor Centre at Signal Hill was very worthwhile and enjoyable, with displays and a good film.  We arrived just at the tail end of a "tattoo," a reenactment of a military drill, with performers of a pipe and drum corps in true period costumes.  (This is where I really wished I had the camera with me!) How fortunate for them the costumes were oldfashioned wool, as the wind, combined with wet weather, was pretty cutting on that exposed site.  Actually, that gave a good insight into the miserable conditions that the soldiers, signalmen and their families endured here in those old times.

We then visited the Cabot Tower at the top of the hill, the site where the first trans-Atlantic wireless signals were received by Guglielmo Marconi, an historic event that revolutionized the transmission of messages from overseas, previously handled by transAtlantic telegraph cables.  There was an excellent display with lots of information, some of it a bit comical.  When the main cable company heard of his achievement they sued to stop him.  They could see the end of their cable's usefulness.  He was on his way to New York to set up a wireless station there when the governor and premier of Nova Scotia met him and persuaded him to locate his station in Canada.

It was about this time, around 5 p.m., that we both ran out of energy and decided to call it a day.  We found a Tim Horton's on the way back to the B and B and had some heartening chilli.  Arrived "home" by 6 p.m.  Jim gave up the struggle by 7 and is already sound asleep.  I seem to have gotten a "second wind" and will read and knit for a while.

All in all a long, long day, but a good beginning to our holiday and our experience of Newfoundland.

Just a Quick Note

We are leaving late today for a holiday in Newfoundland.  We've never been there and are looking forward to a good tourist experience.

Yesterday Jim, S. and I picked, shelled, blanched and froze over 10 pounds of green peas, about 9 pounds of fava beans, four quarts of strawberry freezer jam, 4 quarts of raspberries.  This morning I froze another two Ziplock large bags of raspberries.  We've been eating corn of the cob all week, and regretfully leave the rest of it to S. and her family.

So, what with all the last minute activity I haven't had a chance to post some interesting things.  One of them a "Yarn Tale," which I hope to get to yet.  To add to the already full schedule, my computer went down last week Thursday.  Dear Son #2, the tech guy, spent an hour on the phone with me on Saturday trying to fix it to no avail.  So it's put away for now and will go back to London Drug when we come back from our holiday.  I'm pretty sure it's fixable, and I'm hoping for the best.  We did do a full backup just one month ago.

On Sunday Jim preached in Granum.  We left at 6:30 a.m., since it's a 3 hour drive.  We had a fine time with the folks there, and after the second service went to see our dear friend Hilda, who is now 90 years old.  She is a care home and becoming very forgetful.  She did know us, and we visited with her for about an hour.  Fortunately I had taken along scrapbooks that I made of two cruises that she and I went on in 2001 and 2003.  They were very useful in keeping some conversation going.

When we were about to leave I said, I'll just use the washroom before we go.  I left them and Hilda turned to Jim and said, "She's getting bigger, isn't she?" with a spreading motion of her hands, and that same sparkle in her eye.  It was the old Hilda back again for a few moments.  As soon as we got in the car to drive away, he told me, and we both had a hearty laugh over it.  (It's true!)

Personal Note: Linda S., I lost your email address when the computer went down.  If you send me an email, I'll have it back again!

Veggie Tales

On Monday we enjoyed the first corn from the garden.  See how the cobs cluster at the bottom of the stalk?  I've never seen corn like this.  Earlier I said that it was called "Variety" but that was an error.  It's name is "Vitality."  Today we've picked another four cobs for dinner.  It's a bicoulored corn, and has very sweet kernels on its rather short cobs.

I took another picture this morning to show how short the stalks are.  It's from a low angle as I used the self-timer, but I think it still show quite well how short the stalks are.

Another interesting sight in the garden these days
is this bed of asiatic lilies.  I'm not sure why they were planted in one of the raised beds.  Perhaps we had too many of them for planting in pots to sell.  They looked so beautiful when massed together like this.  There's another massive planting of these lilies over next to the raspberry patch.  I need to get out there to take a picture too.

These masses of lilies are great for cut flowers.  They make beautiful bouquets that are quite long lasting.  You just need to be very careful around them because their pollen is a terrifically potent orange powder.  If you get it on your skin or clothing it will stain deeply.  The only way to get rid of it is to avoid getting any water on it, but just brush it gently off--preferably outside so it doesn't drift down onto the floor!

Another feature of the garden this year is this frame full of pots of tomatoes placed in the middle path through the beds.  Jim trimmed these plants radically, cutting off all the upper foliage a few weeks ago and placed them here where they would be watered along with the rest of the veggie garden.  Because they were trimmed that way, they been quite quick to produce ripe fruit.  On Tuesday I canned six pints of tomatoes for use in soups, stews and chillies this coming winter.

Today I dealt with the remaining tomatoes that had been picked that day.
There weren't too many, but I tried something new with these.  Canned tomatoes always have so much "water" in with them.  So this time I took the pan of boiling cut up tomatoes and put them on the colander, draining out most of the juice.  The two bottles on the left were packed that way.  They still have lots of "water" on the bottom of the jar.  The jar on the right was what was left and rather than just throwing it out, I canned it with lots of "water."  I think I'll put it through a strainer when I open it and use it as tomato juice.

There were also lots of Roma tomatoes and

several of these little cherry tomatoes.  I decided to cut them up and dry them in the dehydrator.  For these little cherry tomatoes that was too much of a hassle.  I won't do them again this way.  We'll just try to eat as many of them as we can.  But the Romas make pretty nice sliced tomatoes for drying.  Here's the tray full of slices, ready to be dried.

I'm not in the habit of using dried tomatoes in my cooking, so I'll have to

start looking for recipes that call for them.  I'm thinking maybe some carmelized onions and these dried tomato slices on foccacia bread would work out well.

Because it's plenty warm these days--real summer weather at last with temperatures in the high 20's C, or high 70's F--I didn't want to run the dehydrator in the house for 10 hours, so I placed it on this little table just outside

the back door.

Also from the garden lately: beets (and beet greens), oodles of sugar snap peas, enough lettuce for our whole town!, onions, raspberries, strawberries, new potatoes, turnips.  I picked a bucket of sugar snap peas a few days ago, took pictures of the vines, the peas in process (taking off the strings) and in the frying pan with a little olive oil, a dab of sesame oil and some sesame seeds.  I was going to blog the whole process, but lost the pictures when I prematurely cut off the download from the camera.

Here's to the wonderful fresh food we can enjoy this time of the year!