Downhome November 2019

Vol 32 • No 06

$4.99

November 2019

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Calendar Contest Winners Revealed Gearing Up for Spirit Song Indigenous Festival

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life is better Published monthly in St. John’s by Downhome Publishing Inc. 43 James Lane, St. John’s, NL, A1E 3H3 Tel: 709-726-5113 • Fax: 709-726-2135 • Toll Free: 1-888-588-6353 E-mail: mail@downhomelife.com Website: www.downhomelife.com Editorial Editor-in-Chief Janice Stuckless Assistant Editor Katherine Saunders Art and Production Art Director Vince Marsh Graphic and Web Designer Cory Way Illustrator Mel D’Souza Illustrator Snowden Walters Advertising Sales Senior Account Manager Robert Saunders Account Manager Barbara Young Marketing Director Tiffany Brett Finance and Administration Junior Accountant Marlena Grant Accounting Assistant Sandra Gosse Operations Manager, Twillingate Nicole Mehaney

Warehouse Operations Warehouse / Inventory Manger Carol Howell Warehouse Operator Josephine Collins Distribution Sales & Marketing Amanda Ricks Sr. Customer Service Associate Sharon Muise Inventory Control Clerk Heather Lane Warehouse Associate Anthony Sparrow Retail Operations Retail Floor Manager, St. John’s Jackie Rice Retail Floor Manager, Twillingate Donna Keefe Retail Sales Associates Crystal Rose, Emma Goodyear, Jonathon Organ, Nicole French, Elizabeth Gleason, Rebecca Ford, Erin McCarthy, Mackenzie Stockley, Marlene Burt, Marissa Little, Hayley Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Gauci, Beth Colbert, Kim Tucker, Heather Stuckless, Katrina Hynes, Tammy Keating

Subscriptions Sr. Administrative Assistant Ciara Hodge Customer Service Associate Kathleen Murphy

Founding Editor Ron Young

President & Associate Publisher Todd Goodyear

Chief Executive Officer/Publisher Grant Young

General Manager/Assistant Publisher Tina Bromley

To subscribe, renew or change address use the contact information above.

Subscriptions total inc. taxes, postage and handling: for residents in NL $39; AB, BC, MB, NU, NT, QC, SK, YT $40.95; ON $44.07; NB, NS, PE $44.85. US and International mailing price for a 1-year term is $49.00.

Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement #40062919 The advertiser agrees that the publisher shall not be liable for damages arising out of errors in advertisements beyond the amount paid for the space actually occupied by the portion of the advertisement in which the error occurred, whether such error is due to the negligence of the servants or otherwise, and there shall be no liability beyond the amount of such advertisement. The Letters to the Editor section is open to all letter writers providing the letters are in good taste, not libelous, and can be verified as true, correct and written by the person signing the letter. Pen names and anonymous letters will not be published. The publisher reserves the right to edit, revise, classify, or reject any advertisement or letter. © Downhome Publishing Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission of the publisher.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada.

Printed in Canada

Official onboard magazine of

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40

winning shots

Contents

NOVEMBER 2019

40 Sneak Peek Your first look at the winners of the 2020 Downhome Calendar Contest

64 Yurt Life This Codroy Valley couple has taken radical steps to live off the grid.

Ashley Miller

104 Soups On!

104 savoury servings

www.downhomelife.com

Take the chill out of fall with any of these 8 soup recipes.

116 We Will Remember Them A special salute to veterans, including a Newfoundlander who earned a medal during the Halifax Explosion November 2019

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Contents

NOVEMBER 2019

homefront 10 I Dare Say A note from the editor 11 Contributors Meet the people behind the magazine

12 Letters A surprise Christmas in July, a family touched by a tsunami, and a review of “Come From Away” in London

20 Downhome Tours Explore Florida with Downhome

22 Why is That? Why does eating asparagus make our pee smell, and where did the saying “talk a blue streak” come from? Linda Browne

24 Life’s Funny Belly Laugh Marie Clarke

25 Say What A contest that puts

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London love

pet pics

words in someone else’s mouth

26 Lil Charmers Junior Riders 28 Pets of the Month Fall Friends 30 Blast from The Past Remember Excursion Biscuits?

32 Reviewed Denise Flint interviews Tracey Waddleton and reviews her new book, Send More Tourists, the Last Ones were Delicious.

34 What Odds Paul Warford is a little comic in the Big Land 4

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36 Cheers to the Champion Labrador City business wins 2019 Downhome Cone Wars

features 50 Guide to Gulls Do you know your tickle-arse from your saddleback? Todd Hollett

82 new heights

58 A Place to Call Home What stories of resettlement taught me about belonging Sheri Strickland Doyle

70 No Stone Unturned Volunteers tend to graves of fallen Newfoundland and Labrador soldiers around the world Dennis Flynn

74 Patriotism and Pilgrimage Joan Kreibich can’t stay away from her beloved home for too long Kim Ploughman

explore 78 Spirit Song Returns St. John’s first and only Indigenous arts festival heads into its sixth year Wendy Rose

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catch the spirit www.downhomelife.com

82 Watch the Steps A visiting family couldn’t resist the lure of the Alexander Murray Hiking Trail, 2,200 steps notwithstanding.

Jamie Schmidt November 2019

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Contents

NOVEMBER 2019

100

layers of goodness

88 Little House on the Hill Daphne Tumlin tells how her grandchildren showed her the way home

92 Snow Day for Vets The people and the purpose behind the annual Snow Muster Sue McFadden

food and leisure 100 Eggplant Parmesan Andrea Maunder

112 Stuff About What do “Seinfeld,� a Chinese delicacy and a European fable have in common?

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120 war torn

reminiscing 116 We Will Remember Them A salute to NL veterans, featuring a poem, tender memories, flashback photos and a story of heroism during the Halifax Explosion

127 Newfoundlandia: The First Excursion Train Chad Bennett About the cover Soups are on the menu this month, the perfect comfort food and a tasty use for all those harvest vegetables. The recipes, provided by Chef Bernie-Ann Ezekiel at Academy Canada, begin on page 104.

Cover Index Cut the Power Cord • 64 Local Hero of the Halifax Explosion • 120 Fall Warm Up • 104 Calendar Contest Winners Revealed • 40 Spirit Song Indigenous Festival • 78 www.downhomelife.com

130 Between the Boulevard and the Bay Ron Young 132 The Lightkeeper’s Granddaughter Kim Ploughman 138 Mail Order 146 Marketplace 148 Puzzles 160 Photo Finish November 2019

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Meet the 2019 Cone Wars Champion p. 36

Do you know this hero of the Halifax Explosion? p. 120

Visit DownhomeContests.com November 4-18, 2019, and enter to win a copy of Commander Gander goes to Come From Away, a children’s book by Dawn Baker.

Visit DownhomeLife.com/calendar for your chance to win an early bird prize in the 2021 Calendar Contest.

(See details on p. 49)

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Submission Guidelines and Prize Rules

You could WIN $100!

Every reader whose PHOTO, STORY, JOKE or POEM appears next to this yellow “from our readers” stamp in a current issue receives $10 and a chance at being drawn for the monthly prize: $100 for one photo submission and $100 for one written submission. Prizes are awarded in Downhome Dollars certificates, which can be spent like cash in our retail stores and online at shopDownhome.com.*

Submit Today!

Send your photo, story, joke or poem to

Downhome 43 James Lane St. John’s, NL, A1E 3H3 or submit online at:

www.downhomelife.com *Only 1 prize per submitter per month. To receive their prize, submitters must provide with their submission COMPLETE contact information: full name, mailing address, phone number and email address (if you have one). Mailed submissions will only be returned to those who include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Downhome Inc. reserves the right to publish submissions in future print and/or electronic media campaigns. Downhome Inc. is not responsible for unsolicited material. www.downhomelife.com

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i dare say

Sometimes I’m ashamed to say I’m a Newfoundlander.

Jackie Rice photo

I mean, here I am, a dyed-in-the-wool bay girl and I’ve never been mummering. Never been squid jigging either. I was in my 30s before I caught my first cod or rode the Marine Atlantic ferry. A cod tongue has never passed my lips, and I’ve never made homemade bread (without a machine). I’m an embarrassment to my culture.

My only saving grace has been this magazine and all the people I’ve met through it. Thanks to readers and contributors, I’m not a total lost cause. Just recently, a reader left me a phone message about excursion biscuits, did I know what they were? Never heard of ’em. Facebook friends and my favourite folklorist, Dale Jarvis, to the rescue! Within a day I found out what they were and even where to get them (see “Blast from the Past” on p. 30). I also didn’t know what a tickle-ace was, other than it was a sea bird (and a local literary magazine). Our go-to wildlife expert, Todd Hollett, opened my eyes to that (“Guide to Gulls,” p. 50).

If it weren’t for Dennis Flynn and, more recently, an expat in Kamloops, BC (see “Nanny’s Statue” letter on p. 15), I’d know nothing about the woman behind a prominent monument in St. John’s. The newest phrase I learned? Baker’s fog. It’s as old as the hills and I was literally the only one in the room who didn’t know what it was. Thanks to my coworkers I now know what to call store-bought bread. Apparently it’s called “fog” because there’s nothing to it, unlike the beautifully textured and filling homemade bread.

So, thank you to everyone who has contributed in some way to making me a better Newfoundlander and Labradorian, and in the process, made Downhome a better magazine.

Thanks for reading,

Janice Stuckless, Editor-in-chief janice@downhomelife.com 10

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Contributors

Meet the people behind the magazine

Jamie Schmidt

Sheri Strickland Doyle

Eleven years ago, Jamie Schmidt traded his geologist career for a fulltime gig raising his two children, “watching them grow and trying hard not to warp them too much. It’s been quite the experience,” he says.

He also started a blog called A Crock of Schmidt. “It began with the urging of friends… who thought I was a good writer. My fatherhood stories would propel me to online stardom,” he says.

“Well, reality hasn’t been anywhere near what they, or I, dreamed it would be, but I persist.”

He and his wife and kids made the trek from their home in Calgary, AB, to Coffee Cove, NL, this summer to visit his uncle and aunt at their B&B. “My aunt is originally from Newfoundland, so it was a move back home for her.

My uncle, an Ontario boy like myself, followed with no hesitation. Their home, with the saltbox and lighthouse cottages they rent out, looked stunning in pictures and I just had to come see if for myself.” They also attempted the Alexander Murray Hiking Trail and its 2,200 steps. Turn to p. 82 to see how that adventure played out.

She grew up in Labrador, but Sheri Strickland Doyle’s close family ties on the South Coast of Newfoundland led her to buy a property in Milltown and, ultimately, write a story about resettlement and roots (see p. 58).

Her story begins in Pushthrough and the woman who would become her godmother. “I admire my godmother’s courage to have to pick up and leave everything behind,” Sheri says. “While much of this is a historical account, the experience of having to move away and recreate a feeling of home is one that many young Eastern Canadians can relate to, even today.” Sheri, herself, has lived in several provinces and currently calls Edmonton, AB, home with her husband and baby girl.

“There are a lot of heartbreaking experiences, and the rich history of outport life is something that needs to be remembered and shared. Whether it’s picking up a pen, recording a video for social media, or sharing a story around the table at Christmas, I think it’s important that we all commit to preserving the history and traditions of our communities any way we can.”

www.downhomelife.com

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Christmas in July “Newfoundland Style”!

Spending time in Newfoundland at every single opportunity has been a highlight of my life for the past 32 years. I’ve been totally spellbound and deeply smitten since I first disembarked the plane in Gander on August 29, 1987. So much so, that four years ago I purchased a 100-year-old saltbox house in Twillingate so that I would have a piece of this beautiful province to call my own. Since I am not yet retired, my limited vacation time inspired me to share “Twilly House” as a vacation home when I am not here, and the income would help sustain the plan to spend more time here in the future.

Time here is, well, that is profoundly difficult to adequately articulate. I will attempt to capture the experiences of my most recent adventure for a snapshot of the unsparing generosity and warmth of the people of Newfoundland I am privileged to call friends.

This past January was a particularly significant birthday for me, and it was my hope to celebrate the passing of this milestone with my favourite people in 12

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my “happy place,” and to celebrate a traditional Newfoundland Christmas in Twillingate. It was truly a desire to see this special saltbox home festively decorated for and experience the traditional NL celebrations that I’ve heard so much about. Sadly, unfortunate circumstances made it impossible to make that wish come true. I still celebrated my milestone in Alabama and Texas with a bang, but my visit to Twillingate would have to wait for July.

With my birthday in the rearview mirror, I arrived in Gander this summer with plans to go to Fogo for a night before driving to Twillingate and settling into the house for another blissful time in Hart’s Cove.

You’ve often heard of the wonderful people of NL and their unique generous hospitality. Well, my July “holiday” confirms everything you’ve heard. On July 17, as I approached Twilly House, I was puzzled. Something looked different. There was a wreath on the door, lit candles in every window, and through the front window I could see a fully decorated Christmas tree lighting up the living room.

My longtime friend looked at me and said, “Happy Birthday, Rose

Marie – it’s Christmas in July!”

I was totally and completely surprised! What a “time” we had! Friends and neighbours from Grand FallsWindsor to Twillingate gathered to share music, food, stories of old and even a visit from mummers!

The mummers pounded on the door so loud, I jumped. They boldly barged in and the traditional “Mummer’s Song” began to play with a few appropriate edits to provide a birthday version. It was a truly authentic Newfoundland experience that will never, ever be forgotten.

The house by itself causes you to feel wrapped in all the love it was filled with for many years by the John and Lucy Burton family. This gathering of friends old and new recaptured those beautiful expressions of love and celebration. I know that it will be relived in this heart as long as it continues to beat.

Is Newfoundland a great place to visit? There is no doubt! Better yet if you can find a spot to call your own.

Rose Coker Twillingate, NL

What a delightful story, Rose. Nothing beats the local hospitality.

Found on Facebook Nancy Simmons

Nobody is getting my turkey! Luke Moss certainly loves his animals.

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find corky sly conner Hidden somewhere in this issue is Corky Sly Conner.

Can you find him?

Look carefully at all the photographs and in the text of the stories. If you spot Corky, send us your name, address and phone number, along with a note telling us where he’s located. Your name will be entered in a draw and the winner will receive a coupon worth 25 Downhome Dollars redeemable at our store, or through our website.

Send your replies to:

Congratulations to Mary Edna Blundon of Conception Bay South, NL, who found Corky on page 106 of the September issue.

Corky Contest 43 James Lane St. John’s, NL, A1E 3H3

mail@downhomelife.com www.downhomelife.com *No Phone Calls Please One entry per person

Deadline for replies is the end of each month.

“Haul, Boys, Haul!”

I was just browsing through our copy of Downhome for September and came across the story about Tony Roberts and his boat building in Twillingate. I, too, am a boat builder. I built my first one in Whitbourne in 1972, and about 30 since then.

I launched a new 20-footer on July 27 of this year, probably my last because of my health. I launched it with a great community effort the oldfashioned way, same as my pop and dad did it: rolled her out on longers to the water to the singing of the “Jolly Poker.” A very large crowd turned out to see this event.

Ed Bishop Via email

That’s a fine looking craft, Ed. Thanks for sharing your story and photos.

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Nanny’s Statue I am writing on behalf of the Gushue family to add some details to your article published in June 2019 under the title “The Maid of Industry,” about Francis “Fanny” Quinlan.

Your article ended with “Fanny Quinlan went on to marry a J. Gushue of Whitbourne. Whether she ever modelled for other works is not known.” Your facts are accurate as we know them. She was a housekeeper for Charles Henderson, and he asked her to model for him because of her statuesque figure and her height of 5’11” (rather tall for a young woman in that day and age).

Fanny Quinlan was our grandmother. She went on to marry John Gushue (formerly of Bacon Cove), and together they had six children: Mary (Mame), John (Jack), Patrick (Pad), George, Francis and Phil (our father).

www.downhomelife.com

They have all gone now; the last to pass on was Uncle George in December 2001, six weeks after our dad passed away.

Fanny died September 26, 1922, predeceased by her son Francis (February 8, 1922). Their resting place is in the Roman Catholic cemetery in Whitbourne. Our dad, Phil, was her youngest child; he was only 11 months old when Fanny died.

Fanny’s legacy lives on in her 13 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and 14 great-great-grandchildren living in Newfoundland, British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Ireland.

They are all from her children George (three daughters) and Phil (six sons and four daughters).

Very little is known in our family history of how our grandparents met, courted and married. There are no wedding pictures or any pictures of

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Fanny. We would certainly like to invite any of the Quinlan family to add their story, as Fanny would certainly have had nieces and nephews.

Stories would have filtered down through their generations, I’m sure.

Because we do not have any pictures of Fanny, her statue was the only visual reference to her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and now her great-great grandchildren. As children, whenever we went to “town,” Dad would always drive by the railway station and make a point of showing us “Nanny’s statue,” as that is how we always did and still do refer to it.

There has been lots of folklore over the years as to how the statue came into existence. In the late 1970s, when my dad worked for Ozark Electrical, they were doing work in the Shea Heights area; Dad came across an elderly man (name unknown) who said as a boy he held the lantern for Mr. Henderson while he sculpted the statue. If this twigs any memories for your readers out there, we would love to hear of them. Thank you for still showing interest in “Nanny’s statue.”

Rosemary Gushue Henderson Kamloops, BC

If anyone has photos or stories to share with the Gushue family about Francis “Fanny” (Quinlan) Gushue, readers are welcome to email Rosemary at 59rosemary@gmail.com. Here (above) is Dennis Flynn’s photo of the Maid of Industry (a.k.a. “Nanny’s statue”) and a photo of Fanny’s headstone (top) in Whitbourne that Rosemary sent.

Tsunami Connection I enjoy reading your monthly magazine, would not miss it ever. Linden MacIntyre wrote about the tsunami around St. Lawrence and Lawn in 1929 [The Wake, reviewed in September issue]. My father, Capt. Byron Spencer, was sailing in that area when he and his crew noticed parts of buildings floating. They had no ship-toshore communication at that time. In the meantime, they noticed two men drifting on a rooftop and rescued them. Later, one man delivered a 16

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lovely black, leather rocking chair to our home in Fortune, in payment for the rescue. It was cherished forever till we sold our home.

Audrey Spencer Elliott Pembroke, ON

Thank you for sharing that story, Audrey. If other readers have family stories of connections to the tsunami or other major events in NL history, we’d love to hear from you. Turn to page 9 for easy ways to connect with us.

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The Brockervilles’ Ponies of Lawn, Burin Peninsula

There’s a little bit of heaven in the town of Lawn, which is located at the tip of the Burin Peninsula.

Max Brockerville has seven ponies there; four of them are Newfoundland Ponies. His love for the breed and his connection to them runs deep: “I live and die for them.” His mare, Max’s May, Registration #460, who is 23 years old, he has had since she was a baby. She recently gave birth to Maggie May. He and his wife Darlane also have Newfoundland Ponies Duff and Pumpkin.

Max remembers when there were 145 Newfoundland Ponies on the Burin Peninsula back in 1985. “When the quads came on the market, the ‘Big Red’ especially, it spelled the end for the Pony. It was devasting,” he said. He does everything he can now to promote and showcase his ponies so the public can see just how trainable they are. He drove 700 posts into the ground himself and put up the wire fencing for the paddock. “It’s important for people to interact with them, for children to ride them. I explain how these ponies hauled wood for us and pulled kelp from the beach for our gardens. Newfoundlanders could not have survived without them. We owe them a great debt,” he added.

The Newfoundland Pony is known for its intelligence. “They’re easy to train; the same as a really good dog actually,” said Max. Working with his pony in the woods, he could load her up with wood and send her out to the road. “She knew the route.

And my brother was waiting for her; he would unload her and send her right back to me,” he said.

If you are interested in getting a Newfoundland Pony or learning more about the breed, please contact the Newfoundland Pony Society.

Top: A popular sight in Lawn last summer! Max and Darlane Brockerville moving their ponies to a new grazing site.

(May and Maggie and their new foals Queenie and Jessie May). Above Left: Max's May and her foal, Jessie May.

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Loyal Reader My mom has enjoyed your mag for many years.

My brother Tom renews it every year for her as a birthday gift. Her name is Ursula Chambers. She was born in Brig Bay and later moved to Blue Cove in the early 1950s. Mom is 93 years young, and about two to three months before her birthday she hints to my brother, “I hope someone will renew my Downhome magazine.” My mom reads the mag from cover to cover and sometimes back again, and loves looking for Corky and doing the puzzles.

Curt Chambers Via email

Nice to see you, Ursula. Thanks for reading!

Come From Away in London My partner and I live in Topsail, NL, and travelled to London and Oxford to visit family. We saw “Come From Away” on May 11, 2019, in London – a truly magical experience. There were many emotions felt throughout the evening, but first and foremost was immense pride… We held our NL flags throughout the performance and waved them during times of great applause – and of course at the end, when there was an amazing standing ovation (quite unusual for this venue, I was told).

At the end we were stopped by several groups of people who were touched deeply by the story, many planning to visit The Rock in the future.

The message I reiterated to the people we spoke to was that this story was completely real and factual, and nothing was added to make it more entertaining; the events unfolded exactly as portrayed by this remarkable cast. We gave our NL flags to two young boys from the UK whose parents we were speaking to at the venue.

Janet Humber

Topsail, CBS, NL Thanks for sharing your experience in London, Janet. From New York to Toronto to London, the cast may be different but the effect is the same. Everyone is deeply touched by “Come From Away.”

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homefront Downhome tours...

Florida

This Beach Rocks!

Dawson and Chloe Finlay are all smiles as they enjoy the day at Indian Rocks Beach. (Submitted by Dora Finlay) Locals and tourists alike have been flocking to Indian Rocks Beach since the 1950s and ’60s. The area underwent a massive tourism expansion, including the construction of the longest fishing pier in Florida and the Tiki Gardens – a Polynesian-themed park serving food and selling souvenirs. At its peak, it welcomed 300,000 visitors a year. Today all that remains is the Tiki Gardens sign on a parking lot entrance to the beach.

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A Day at the Beach

On their first trip to Daytona Beach, Bruce and Lilla Harvey of Gander, NL, took along their copy of Downhome for a leisurely read.

With its 37-km stretch of hard-packed sand, Daytona Beach has been attracting motorcycle and automobile racers since 1902. Daytona International Speedway, built in 1959, replaced the original Daytona Beach Road Course.

Vehicles are still allowed on some stretches of Daytona Beach, but with a strictly enforced speed limit of 10 mph (16 km/h), there’s not a lot of racing going on.

Papa Loves the Rolling Stones

Bob Hayley takes in a Rolling Stones concert in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. (Submitted by Kelsey Hayley, Bonavista, NL)

This Rolling Stones concert was the only Florida stop on their 2015 “Zip Code” tour. The Orlando Citrus Bowl, now called Camping World Stadium, was built in the mid-1930s as a Depression-era project of President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration. www.downhomelife.com

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Expert answers to common life questions.

By Linda Browne

Why does asparagus make our pee smell?

Have you ever eaten a side of asparagus with your dinner and went to the bathroom a little later, only to find yourself wondering why your pee smelled, well, a little peculiar? “Asparagus pee” is something that’s boggled brains for eons.

According to a 2011 paper published in the journal Chemical Senses, even Benjamin Franklin noted that “a few stems of asparagus eaten shall give our urine a disagreeable odour,” while French novelist Marcel Proust wrote that asparagus “as in a Shakespeare fairy-story transforms my chamberpot into a flask of perfume.” While the exact offensive odour of asparagus pee may be hard to pin down, the same paper mentions that some folks have reported “a sulphurous odour like cooked cabbage.” But why?

The culprit, says Andrea Petrowitz, a clinical dietitian with Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, Wisconsin, appears to be sulphur-rich asparagusic acid. She explains why in a piece on the Aurora Health Care website (an integrated, not-for-profit health care provider based in Wisconsin).

“When your body digests asparagus and breaks down asparagusic acid, it releases volatile components that are

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responsible for the foul smell of asparagus urine. This smell can develop within 15-30 minutes of eating asparagus,” she writes.

However, Petrowitz adds, studies show that only 22-50 per cent of people report having strange smelling pee after eating asparagus. Researchers have come up with two theories to help explain this, she notes. One is that some people’s digestive systems can’t break down the asparagusic acid to release the sulphurous compound that produces pungent pee.

The other is that “The DNA codeassociated nasal receptors that detect the specific compounds created by asparagus urine only exist in some people,” Petrowitz writes. In other words, everyone produces strangesmelling pee after eating asparagus, but not everyone can smell it.

While the jury is still out on which theory rings true (“Unfortunately, research regarding asparagus pee isn’t on

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the top of the priority list for scientists,” Petrowitz says), her advice is to keep chowing down – even if you’ve got to grab a clothespin for your nose later.

“This delectable veggie is loaded with nutrients and antioxidants that are healthy for your body,” she says, “even if it isn’t pleasing to the nose.”

Where did the saying “talk a blue streak” come from?

We all know at least one person who talks and talks incessantly, without ever seeming to stop for air. You might say the person “talks a blue streak.” But did you wonder why you’d say that?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase is a colloquialism that refers to “something resembling a flash of lightning in speed, vividness etc.” or something done “quickly or vigorously.” While it’s perhaps most commonly used to describe someone who speaks in a constant stream of words, people are also said to curse, swear or lie “a blue streak.”

“The underlying metaphor is from lightning,” says Mark Abley, author of the bestselling book Watch Your Tongue: What Our Everyday Sayings and Idioms Figuratively Mean, in an email to Downhome. But as for how the saying came about, Abley says that’s a tricky thing to pin down.

“In the Oxford English Dictionary, the world’s most authoritative source of information on the history of the English language, the phrase ‘blue streak’ is dated back to 1830, when a writer in a newspaper called The Kentuckian wrote: ‘To pass... with such rapidity as not even to leave a ‘blue streak’ behind him,’” Abley writes. However, in this instance, he says, the phrase didn’t refer to language of any kind, but was likely related to horse-racing.

“The next reference [which does refer to language] is from 1847, again in the United States, so it’s safe to say this is an American coinage dating from the 19th century,” he adds. (That reference comes courtesy of New York literary magazine The Knickerbocker: “…interspersing his vehement comments with a ‘blue streak’ of oaths, which gave a terrific effect to his denunciations.”)

There are other references to the phrase over the years, including a mention in Richard Raine’s 1968 book, Night of the Hawk (“I was talking a blue streak, my expression like thunder.”) And in 2002, the outlandish Weekly World News tabloid reported on a potty-mouthed parrot: “The 8-year-old parrot swore a blue streak in a public park where a large number of children were playing.”

“What’s complicated is that the two meanings (talk fast/swear profusely) have been in existence together since the 19th century. I don’t know if one has been more dominant,” Abley adds.

Regardless of its origin, it seems this colourful expression is here to stay.

Do you have a burning life question for Linda to investigate?

Turn to page 9 for ways to contact us. www.downhomelife.com

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homefront life’s funny

Belly Laugh My three-year-old niece, a very bright little girl, was sizing up her mother’s friend, who was heavily pregnant. After a few moments of staring, the expectant mum noticed and told my niece she had a baby in her belly. Without missing a beat, my niece said, “You shouldn’t eat babies.”

Marie Clarke Kingsley, Australia

Do you have any funny or embarrassing true stories?

Share them with us. If your story is selected, you’ll win a prize! See page 9 for details.

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no one – g in r e m m u m “I loves fins!” f u p e r a e w s s Cuff will gue – Robin

Say WHAT? Downhome recently posted this photo (sent in by Janet Purchase) on our website and Facebook page and asked our members to imagine what the bird might be saying? Robin Cuff’s response made us chuckle the most, so we’re awarding her 20 Downhome Dollars!

Here are the runners-up: “And then she said, ‘Sleep on the beach ’cause you’re not setting a feather back in this nest.’ All because I had my eye on the nice firm fish that young widow two nests over had just caught.” – Tina Townsend “How about let’s catch an Eagles concert this weekend?” – Cindy Meadows “Brrrrrrr! My claws are frozen. Wish I had a pair of feather boots.” – Sylvia Squires Hall

Want to get in on the action?

Go to www.downhomelife.com/saywhat

www.downhomelife.com

“Like” us on Facebook www.facebook.com/downhomelife November 2019

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homefront lil charmers

Junior Riders Ready for the Big Fire These cousins and friends check out the shiny red fire truck that is ready to go into action if needed on this Bonfire Night.

Ashley May Frenchman’s Cove, NL

It’s How He Rolls Oliver Keeping enjoys the nice fall weather with a ride on his quad.

Dana Banfield Burin Bay Arm, NL

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Adorable Explorer Henry’s wheelchair gets him where he wants to go as he explores Newfoundland and Labrador with his family. This day he’s on Signal Hill.

Scott Clowe Ferryland, NL

Tailgating Tourist Jovi van Wyk takes a break from picking mussels on the beach during her first visit to Newfoundland and Labrador.

Erica Leriche Channel-Port aux Basques, NL

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homefront pets of the month

fall friends

Pup Portrait With a name like Dash, this pooch probably didn’t pause to pose for long.

Mandy Healey Grand Falls-Windsor, NL

Sitting Pretty This was Thumper, 18 years old and enjoying a fall day in the garden.

Vicki Kell Cupids, NL

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In the Moment This is Izzy in her happy place, a little river in Holyrood where there are lots of ducks, squirrels and other wildlife to chase!

Lorna Yard Witless Bay, NL

Puss on the Prowl Willy looks like he’s stalking prey as he strides across this mat of leaves.

Shannon Hawkes Torbay, NL

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homefront

Remember Excursion Biscuits?

Recently we had a reader call the Here are some of the Facebook office and ask if we knew what “excursion biscuits” were. She said she used to eat them as a child and later she fed them to her own kids. We didn’t know, so we asked the people we always ask when it comes to Newfoundland and Labrador curiosities: Facebook and folklorist Dale Jarvis.

Turns out, Dale hadn’t heard of them either, but we’d piqued his curiosity and he went looking for information.

He soon came back with links to Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative that contained scans of old newspaper advertisements for Excursion Biscuits dating back to the 1800s, and an index card from the files of the Dictionary of Newfoundland English, on which was typed: “Excursion (biscuit). The size and shape of hard tack, but not as hard, and very slightly sweet.

Trouters, hikers, picknickers, school children would generally have a cake in the pocket to eat between meals. [see ‘scursion bread].”

If you want to try it, Purity makes a version of it called “Sweet Bread.”

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responses we got to our question about Excursion Biscuits: “Sweet bread and excursion are the same. I have a package sitting on my counter right now. Love this sweet bread!” – Frances Newman “We knew them as pilot biscuits growing up…” – Larry McCarthy “Fadder always had one in my pocket as a kid when we went in the woods. Just in case we got separated.” – Mike Pickett

“We had plenty of excursion biscuits when we were in Belvedere Orphanage…”

– Theresa McIsaac Fleming “My mother called the sweet bread excursion bread, too. Probably because you could take it on an excursion or trip and it wouldn’t spoil.” – Rosalie Stephenson Evely “We used to call it sweet bread and it didn’t make our teeth bleed like Hard Bread did… funny what you remember, eh?” – Winnie Anthony-Moores 1-888-588-6353

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homefront

reviewed by Denise Flint

Send More Tourists, the Last Ones were Delicious Tracey Waddleton Breakwater Books $19.95

Tracey Waddleton’s debut collection of short stories, Send More Tourists, The Last Ones Were Delicious, deserves to be purchased for the title alone. But if that’s not reason enough, there are many more – the stories themselves. Some are full blown mini-novels, some are small vignettes and others are more like character sketches for a larger piece.

And this leads to one of the best things about the book: the variety of characters, plots and settings Waddington has assembled.

Teenaged Krista envisions the entire life trajectory of her son while waiting for the pregnancy test results; Mr. Moriarity spends his days in a nursing home carefully and dispassionately cataloguing his regrets; Carrie turns tricks to save for a trip to Russia – but first she needs to learn how to swim. One story is about a bank robbery and another is about a slowly disintegrating telephone book. A lot of the stories end in death, either explicitly or implied. A lot of the stories are about death all the way through, with characters toppling like ninepins or at least coming very close.

Nonetheless, they aren’t particularly morbid (with one possible exception). Waddleton has a nice way with the language and knows how to use it effectively. Individual sentences are as pleasing to read as entire stories.

Not every story is going to resonate equally with every reader. But that’s okay. There’s bound to be something to please in this eclectic collection.

And if there isn’t, well, apparently it tastes like chicken. Just saying.

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Q&A with the Author Denise Flint: What is it about the short story format that attracts you?

Tracey Waddleton: I read a lot of short stories, so maybe you write what you read. They’re little compact little worlds. I just find it very satisfying because they’re easy to read – it’s my favourite medium to read.

DF: How did growing up in a small, relatively isolated town affect your writing trajectory?

TW: Maybe if I was in the city and had

access to malls and cinemas I wouldn’t have read as much. I think I was the youngest person in Trepassey to have a library card. We had two channels on TV that blinked in and out. Maybe isolation makes you dream. There’s no distractions there outside of the weather.

DF: You’ve got to explain that title.

TW: I stole it. It’s a really popular saying you can see on mugs and T-shirts in tourist shops throughout the world.

The title story involves driving and different kinds of problems, and I was in New Brunswick and saw this mug and thought it was hilarious, and I thought it summed up the book: a series of mishaps.

DF: Do you have a favourite story?

TW: I think Russia is my favourite. I

don’t know why. It’s based on some dreams I had when I was younger and is extrapolated from there. So many of us are trying to get out of Newfoundland and it can be hard. I like its bleakness and I have an idea of St. Petersburg as being cold and bleak.

I’ll go someday. www.downhomelife.com

DF: Do stories come to you fully formed, or do you start with an image or an idea?

TW: I start with an image or an idea

and let it follow the trajectory until I get an ending or what seems like an ending. I never have any idea where it’s going; although sometimes halfway through I get a pang of the ending and have to work towards it, but I never start out knowing.

DF: Lately it seems like every third book I review is a collection of short stories. Do you think this might be a new trend generally, or is it a Newfoundland thing?

TW: Alison Munro won the Nobel

Prize [and Lynn Coady won the Giller the same year], and so maybe the idea that short stories don’t sell as well is changing and people who write them [feel] more confident. People have shorter attention spans with the Internet, especially millennials. I think there’s probably been a lot of closeted short story writers; they’re just finding their way onto the shelves. Winning the Nobel Prize for short stories was a big deal.

DF: What’s next?

TW: I’m working on a novel. That’s not my preferred medium, but it’s something I tried to write as a short story and it got too big for its britches.

I’m [also] working on a stage play for Liz Story. I’m really excited to get a footing in the theatre. Hopefully next year there’ll be some performances. It all depends on funding.

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homefront what odds

little comic, big land

By Paul Warford

Colin Hollett is a fellow comedian and Labrador! longtime friend. Along with Brian Aylward and Michael Lynch, three were due to cross the What a place! country for theirthe annual comedy tour, but Colin’s was getting in the way. He needed rest They have all spleen and the lads needed a quick substitute for the the sand – did shows still scheduled to take place. So, the guys Skyped me from a hospital room while I checked you know that? IDs at work, asking if I wanted to fly to Goose

Bay the following morning.

Twelve hours later and there I was, past security with disheveled hair and baggy eyes, taking a video of myself while I waited for a side of bacon I’d just ordered. Content is king, and I wanted to give show-goers something to watch since Colin is so great at posting online. I felt both groggy and excited as I picked at the breakfast meat and took pictures of Lynch doing yoga at our gate.

Labrador! What a place! They have all the sand – did you know that? While Newfoundland beaches are all smooth rocks suited for skipping and painting, it’s hard to find a few grains to crowd between your toes. In Goose Bay, sand lines the streets as if the town lies at the edge of a desert. Locals crossed it on ATVs, passing the languid traffic that rolled along the main drag.

Next day, Lynchy grabbed our rental before Brian and I were awake. What a sight to rise to!

I’ve rented plenty of vehicles – sedans and compacts mostly. So I wasn’t expecting a half-tonne truck with a four-foot aerial rising from its rear like a cowlick. The pearl-white pickup had a reflective yellow line running horizontal along its sides and, for some reason, it featured a large square on the driver’s door with the number 87, as if we were meant to enter a baja race or a demolition derby. At least now we could blend in with most of the other pickups we’d seen since

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we arrived. I guess it’s hard to get KROCK all the way up here in Labrador without one of those antennas.

Churchill Falls was next. I’m used to towns that have buildings, but not towns that are in buildings. Churchill Falls is a big ol’ building with a curling rink, grocery store, the theatre we were performing in and the hotel we were sleeping in. For those unfamiliar, the town comprises Nalcor employees, and the place felt like a sleepaway camp for entire families.

Residents told us to check out the nearby falls because they were “open” for the first time in a while. Floodgates needed to be released in order to relieve pressure (or something) and this didn’t happen often, so we were encouraged to check out the cascading water. Sadly, we woke to heavy rain, so we didn’t want to brave the hike in our sneakers and show shirts. We also missed the bears at the dump, which we were told to see. The brunos congregate there to sniff through the old chip bags, and I’m told they swarm like gulls. Personally, I wanted to see a tableau where gulls are replaced by bears. I’ve often looked at the filthy birds in the McDonald’s parking lot and wondered, “What would that look like if they were all replaced by black bears?” Of course, when viewing bears at the dump, you want to stay inside your vehicle, so we could have done that in the rain, but the other two had seem them last year and we were eager to press on to Lab City. www.downhomelife.com

A little too eager, maybe. Lynch piped up from the driver’s seat to say we were low on gas. I glanced the gauge and saw we still had an eighth of a tank. I figured we had 30 kilometres left before reaching town, so I waved off his concerns. Brian did, too.

When I saw a sign saying 50 km to Lab City and noticed our needle was now in the red, I realized Lynchy was definitely right. But Brian and I remained casual. These guys with their trucks will all have gas cans – someone will stop, top us up, and we’d still roll into town with hours to spare.

That is exactly what happened. The truck coughed its last as we eased to the shoulder, and the first truck we saw – a blue monstrosity – pulled in behind us. The fellow recognized Mike and Brian. Sure enough, he had a large gas can that he seemed to pull from his pocket. He politely declined a picture, but he gave us all his spare fuel (thank you, Christopher) before rolling past us towards the town.

We followed behind him with the Big Land flowing past our windows. I stared into the tree line of pines and birch, and strained to see the beasts in the wilderness, hiding in the country, still untamed.

Paul Warford began writing for Downhome to impress his mom and her friends. He writes and performs comedy in Eastern Canada.

Follow him on Twitter @paulwarford November 2019

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When you get talking to Brenda Tobin, it quickly becomes clear how her business won over the public vote in our summer 2019 Cone Wars: Search for a Soft Serve Hero contest. She loves her customers and they love her back. The first thing she and her partners did when they found out their soft serve had been voted best in the province was plan a “customer appreciation day” to give out free ice cream and loot bags.

Brenda and her business partners – her son Trevor, his wife Krissy and Brenda’s husband, Ed Dyke – have been operating Tobin’s Convenience on Hamilton Street in Labrador City since 2015. They have two other businesses in town as well: Tobin’s Mini Mart and High North. At Tobin’s Convenience, Brenda says they stock “everything from a clap of thunder to a baby’s fart!” Of course they sell pop and chips, bars and beer, lottery tickets and smokes, but they also sell homemade pizza, cold plates, sandwiches and other meals from their own kitchen, plus sweet treats from their bakery.

“This store is also known for the

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candy,” Brenda says. “We have a large selection of retro candy.”

(Think Gold Rush bubblegum nuggets, black licorice pipes and BB Bats – the first candy on a stick.)

And like a good neighbour, Brenda says if a customer comes in looking for something they don’t have in stock, such as tea bags, “I’ll go out back and grab a couple of tea bags and give to them, to hold them over… Or it could be a half a cup of sugar or a bit of spice, it could be anything...”

Customer service is key to the business, and Brenda says her staff deserves a lot of credit for their success and good reputation. They are friendly, efficient and generous.

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Proud owners of Tobin’s Convenience: l-r: Trevor Tobin and his wife Krissy; Trevor’s mom, Brenda Tobin, and her husband, Ed Dyke.

“Our staff decided from day one to donate all their tips,” Brenda says.

“Since we’ve been opened we’ve probably given back about $6,000 to the community.” They’ve funded the food bank and the women’s shelter, local schools, Lions Club, hospital auxiliary, Scouts, Girl Guides and others. And at the end of the school year, Tobin’s Convenience donates certificates to the youngest graduates. “The school passes those out to all the little kindergarteners and they come in and we take their card and we give them a free ice cream.”

www.downhomelife.com

Speaking of ice cream, what is it that makes Tobin’s Convenience soft serve the best in the province? “The ice cream that we serve here is just so creamy and thick… I don’t know even how to explain it. People just really, really love the ice cream here,” says Brenda. At the height of summer, there could be six girls working behind the counter serving ice cream to customers from Labrador City, Wabush, Churchill Falls and Fermont, Quebec.

They have two soft serve machines, and Brenda admits that one makes the creamier soft serve that folks rave about. It’s the older one that came with the business that Brenda and her partners bought. That store had been around since the 1980s, and was also known for amazing ice cream. “We spend a fortune making sure that we keep it serviced because it produces such good ice cream.”

The soft serve machines are quiet now as the outside temperature dips and summer treats fade to memory.

But come April, the ice cream will flow again and folks will flock to Tobin’s Convenience, 2019 Cone Wars Champion, to enjoy the best soft serve in Newfoundland and Labrador.

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The band may be new – their first

concert was this past August at Music in the Sound in Terra Nova National Park – but the members are beloved entertainers that many of us have followed for years. The Irish Descendants, The Punters, The Fables, Celtic Connection, to name a few of their past gigs. Just imagine what all that experience and talent sounds like together on one stage. They don’t just rule – they Reign.

Larry Foley

An award-winning singer-songwriter and bandleader from Placentia, NL, Larry’s 25-year career includes forming The Punters and 8-Track Favourites.

Larry has also hosted several radio shows and is creator and host of “This Old Guitar” on the Eastlink cable TV network. Weaned on Irish traditional music, raised on country and driven by rock and roll, Larry is a versatile singer and player. He lives in St. John’s with his wife, Regina, and their four children – Kieran, Greta, Nora and Daniel – along with their Labrador retriever, Molly.

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Larry Martin

Larry began playing music in his early teens – around the same time he started cod fishing with his father. In 1990, he co-founded the Juno award-winning group The Irish Descendants, with whom he recorded six albums and toured Canada and internationally. Larry is originally from Grates Cove, Trinity Bay, NL, and currently lives in St. John’s. He and his partner, Rose, have three grown sons.

Ronnie Power

Ronnie Power, a native of Bay Bulls, NL, took his first guitar lesson in Grade 3, using a borrowed guitar. In 1990, he was a founding member of The Irish Descendants.

After many successful years with them, Ronnie formed The Cobblestones. He currently plays with The Celtic Connection and Ceiligh. He also released a solo album with a popular title track, September Sky, in 2006.

D’Arcy Broderick

D’Arcy Broderick has an unmistakable traditional Irish singing voice and can play the fiddle, guitar, mandola, banjo and mandolin. Born in Bay de Verde, NL, D’Arcy’s music career began with Sons of Erin in 1982. He later joined the band Irish Coffee, then co-founded The Irish Descendants in 1990. Later, D’Arcy helped found Celtic rock sensation The Fables. More recently, D’Arcy performed with Middle Tickle and co-owned a popular St. John’s bar and eatery, Shamrock City.

Will Broderick

The youngest member of the group, Will’s first instrument was the bodhran. His keen style of drumming has him very much in demand on the local scene across the genres – trad, country, rock and roll and more. Will made his live drum debut at the age of 13, alongside his father, D’Arcy, in Middle Tickle. He was invited up for one song that turned into a seven-year gig.

Interested in seeing Irish Reign in private concerts on a beautiful cruise ship, sailing around the Caribbean on the best vacation ever?

Turn to page 98 for details and booking information on the 2020 Downhome Music & Friends Cruise. www.downhomelife.com

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And the Winners are...

Just when we think

we’ve seen Newfoundland and Labrador from every angle, readers gobsmack us again with their stunning photos of landscapes, seasons, wildlife and overall essence of this incredible place. It’s why, after more than 20 years of running this annual contest, judging the photos is still a favourite time of the year for Downhome staff. It wasn’t easy to choose, and we reached out to the public for help on the final one, but we are proud to present the 2020 Downhome Calendar photos.

Each of the 13 winners will receive 10 copies of the calendar and a one-year subscription to Downhome magazine. In addition, a random draw from the 13 winners netted one lucky person the grand prize: a free trip for four adults with our contest sponsor, O’Brien’s Whale and Bird Tours. Congratulations to the winning entries, which you can preview on the following pages, and to the winner of the O’Brien’s boat tour, Tanya Northcott! And be sure to read right to the end, where weannounce the launch of the 2021 Calendar Contest and the prizes you can win!

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January Winner Hopeall Sunrise Lee Gilbert, Green’s Harbour, NL

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November 2019

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February Winner Nightlife in Twillingate Julian Earle, Twillingate, NL

March Winner Twillingate Fly-by John Huddart, Twillingate, NL 42

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April Winner Sable and Beaumont Relaxing in Ramea Jeanette Carter, Ontario

May Winner Puffin Picking Irises in Elliston Barb Dauncey, Calgary, AB www.downhomelife.com

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June Winner Calm Evening in Rigolet Eldred Allen, Rigolet, NL

July Winner Summer in South East Bight Tanya Northcott, Ottawa, ON 44

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August Winner Bonavista Horses Lisa Butler, Gander, NL

September Winner Days Gone By in Fortune Harbour Steve Spracklin, Bowmanville, ON www.downhomelife.com

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October Winner Fox at Maberly Nicole Florent, Kingston, ON

November Winner Petty Harbour Sunrise Sheldon Hicks, Portugal Cove, NL 46

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December Winner Tillie in her Santa Hat Nicole Watson, Kingston, ON

Winner by Popular Vote Nice Day on Clothes in Dunfield Bernice Goudie, St. John’s, NL www.downhomelife.com

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We’re wasting no time preparing for the next Downhome Calendar, . . . and neither should you!

Submit your favourite photos of scenery, activities and icons that best illustrate the down-home lifestyle. We’re looking for a variety of colourful subjects – outports, wildlife, laundry lines, historic sites, seascapes, hilltop views, and so much more – and photos from all four seasons.

And you could win right away!

Downhome staff will select four Calendar Contest entries submitted during this month of November to be put to a public vote at www.downhomelife.com.

The photo that receives the most votes will be turned into a postcard. The lucky photographer will receive 10 postcards and $50 Downhome Dollars, gift certificates that can be used like cash to purchase products from Downhome Shoppe & Gallery locations and online at www.shopdownhome.com.

What are you waiting for?

Submit today, using one of these ways:

by mail: Downhome Calendar Contest 43 James Lane St. John’s, NL A1E 3H3 online: www.downhomelife.com/calendar Must be original photos or high quality copies. Digital photos must be at least 300 dpi, files sizes of about 1MB. We can’t accept photocopies or photos that are blurry, too dark or washed out. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope if you want your photos returned.

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features

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e tin beach blank sandthe sun bea r u o y t u o d a ur as you spre . As you take out yo se by. ic clo n d ic e p h rc seaside lone gull pe love a bite,” a e c ti o n u wich, yo robably ing would p u kindly throw it th r o o p e h “T yo ourself, and now what’s hapk you say to y u o y rcing s. Before a few scrap ting ear-pie s it m e is d ir b of it pened, the by a dozen d e in jo is cnd screeches a of them looking expe ll a – friends u. tantly at yo

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Nervously guarding your meal, you check out this hungry looking gang of what are generally called seagulls. You notice that they are not all the same; some are larger than others, some have bigger bills and different colour patterns.

Are they even the same kind of birds? Not exactly.

Gulls, of the scientific family Laridae, are a large, diverse group of birds, of which seven call this province home. All gulls are powerful fliers, and males are generally larger than females. They are not picky eaters, will scavenge on just about anything and have no problem taking advantage of food sources provided by humans at restaurant parking lots, beaches and landfills.

Here’s a handy guide, so next time you’re surrounded by these hungry scavengers you’ll be able to pick out your stalkers in a lineup.

Herring Gull Larus argentatus

A large gull, 60-66 cm long with a wingspan of 120-155 cm, these heavily built gulls have long, powerful yellow bills with a red spot on the lower mandible (beak segment), pink legs, and feet that may be yellow or bluish.

They are white overall with a pale grey back and upper wings. The wingtips are black with white spots called mirrors and a white rear edge.

The eye is pale yellow and ringed with yellow or orange. www.downhomelife.com

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Habitat and Range These are the most familiar and common gulls throughout North America. Herring gulls can be found in most habitat types including open water, intertidal pools, shallows, mud flats, landfills, agricultural areas, picnic and fish processing sites, beaches, parking lots, airport runways, islands, marshes and inland waters. They will often nest on man-made structures.

Diet The diet is varied, including marine invertebrates such as squid, mussels, zooplankton, crabs and sea urchins; and fish such as capelin, smelt and herring. It also includes insects, eggs and chicks of smaller birds, carrion, human waste and handouts.

They will drop hard-shelled prey, such as mussels and clams, on roads or rocks to break the shells and gain access to the soft bodies. One individual in Paris, France, was observed bait fishing by dropping bits of bread on a pond surface and attacking the goldfish that surfaced to feed. The gull did not eat any of the bread, which indicated its intention to use the bread just for luring the fish.

Black-Headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus

These small gulls are 38-44 cm long with a 94-105 cm wingspan. The breeding adults, named for their dark brown hood, have a pale grey back with black wing tips. The bill and legs are maroon-red. Winter adults lose the hood, except for a small dark patch behind the eye.

Habitat and Range These gulls are colonizers from Europe and fairly common winter visitors to Newfoundland, where there are also a few small breeding colonies. Records of their visits to North America began to increase in the mid-1900s, with the first breeding attempt discovered in Newfoundland in 1977. The current North American population is estimated at 40 breeders and 400 non-breeders.

They are ground nesters that prefer coastal marshes, reed beds, rivers,

Field Marks and Where to See Them You’ll know them by their large heavy bill, light grey back, pink legs and barrel-chested appearance. They are found almost anywhere.

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bogs, grasslands, swamps and islands. In winter they primarily inhabit sea coasts, estuaries and bays. They are rarely seen far from the coast.

Diet These bold and opportunistic omnivores eat insects, worms, fish, mice, berries, seeds, garbage and carrion.

Field Marks and Where to See Them The white leading edge of the wings, in flight, and the dark hood are good identification features. Good spots to see them are around Stephenville Crossing, where there are known breeding sites, and around St. John’s, where more than 100 are seen annually during the winter.

Black-Legged Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla

Local Names Tickle-ace, tickle arse, tickle ass and fairy bird These small gulls, 37-41 cm long, have a wingspan of 91-105 cm. The head and body are white, while the back and wings are grey with solid black wingtips. The legs are black, but some individuals have pinkishgrey to reddish legs. The yellow bill is small and unmarked. In winter, they acquire a dark-grey back neck collar and smudge on the side of the head. www.downhomelife.com

Habitat and Range This species is a pure seagull that nests in large colonies on inaccessible sea cliffs, offshore islands and sea stacks,wintering far offshore. It will occasionally nest on seaside man-made structures and shipwrecks.

Diet These birds feed in flocks at the water’s surface on fish and marine invertebrates.

Field Marks and Where to See Them Look for their black legs. Large nesting colonies can be easily observed at Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve and Witless Bay Ecological Reserve.

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Habitat and Range These common gulls are comfortable, and often congregate, around humans. They frequent garbage dumps, parking lots, beaches, docks, wharves and freshly ploughed fields. They are common in coastal areas; however, many will live their entire lives inland, never seeing the sea, and they’re the gull most commonly encountered far away from coastal areas. They also frequent urban/suburban areas, estuaries, mudflats, harbours, water reservoirs, lakes, ponds and streams.

Ring-Billed Gull Larus delawarensis

Local Name Pond Gull A medium-sized gull, 45-49 cm long with a wingspan of 122-124 cm, it is white overall with a silvery grey back and wings that are black tipped with white spots. The short yellow bill has a dark ring near the tip. The legs are yellow and the yellow eyes have red rims.

The head is streaked brown in winter.

Diet Ring-bills are able to thrive on almost any source of nutrition: fish, insects, earthworms, rodents, eggs, grain, human garbage, dates, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, as well as french fries and other discarded, or unattended, human foods.

Field Marks and Where to See Them The black bill ring is a good identification feature, and they can be seen on almost any parking lot in the province.

Iceland Gull Larus glaucoides

This medium sized gull, 50-64 cm long with a 115-150 cm wingspan, is relatively slender and lightweight.

The adults are overall white with pale grey back and wings; the wings are variable in colour, typically grey to white. The bill is yellowish-green. In winter the adults have brownish smudging on the head and neck. The legs are pink at all ages.

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Habitat and Range Breeding in Arctic regions of Canada and Greenland, but not in Iceland, they prefer coastal cliffs and forage close to shore on beaches, lawns, agricultural fields and landfills, but are less attracted to dumps than other gull species. They over-winter in Atlantic Canada.

Diet The diet is mostly made up of fish, but includes mussels, snails,

Glaucous Gull Larus hyperboreus

This is the second largest gull, 55-77 cm long with a 132-182 cm wingspan.

Adults are white with a very pale grey mantle and yellow eyes. The head is streaked with brown in winter. The wingtips are translucent grey to almost white. The bill is yellow with a red spot near the tip of the lower mandible.

Habitat and Range This gull winters along the Atlantic coast. Breeding in North America occurs from the northern coast of Alaska and east to Labrador. They prefer marine and freshwater coasts, tundra, offshore islands, cliffs and ice edges, and are www.downhomelife.com

zooplankton, carrion, offal, garbage, eggs and young of other birds, some plants, algae and berries.

Field Marks and Where to See Them They are smaller than similar gulls and have lighter grey upper parts.

They can often be spotted in bays during winter, mingling with local gull flocks.

rarely seen inland. In winter they may be seen in freshwater lakes, agricultural and urban areas, and at landfill sites.

Diet These gulls are active predators that readily attack seabird colonies, eating any unprotected eggs and chicks. They also eat marine invertebrates, fish, small mammals, carrion, human waste and vegetation, and will steal from other gulls.

Field Marks and Where to See Them Their large size and translucent wing tips are good identification features.

They can be seen during winter in bays and landfill sites mingling with other large gulls.

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Habitat and Range These gulls are found along the Atlantic coast and on the Great Lakes. They are found in rocky and sandy coasts, estuaries, lakes, ponds, rivers, fields, moorlands, landfills, parking lots, runways, piers and wharves. Their preferred nesting sites are isolated, predator-free areas such as small islands, rocky inlets, saltmarshes and barrier beaches.

Great BlackBacked Gull Larus marinus

Local Name Saddleback gull, saddleback, black-backs The largest member of the gull family, black-backed gulls can be massive: 64-79 cm long and wings spanning 1.5-1.7 m. Adults are white overall with dark grey to black upper parts, pale eyes and pink legs. The yellow bill is massive and distinctive with a red or orange spot near the tip of the lower bill.

Ivory Gull Pagophila eburnean

Local Name Ice partridge This small white Arctic gull measures 43 cm long with a 94-cm wingspan.

Adults are bright white with a yellowtipped bill, black eyes and black legs.

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Diet These apex predators are opportunistic feeders and very curious.

They’ll investigate anything they think they can swallow. Human refuse makes up more than half their diet locally. They will also predate fish, squid, crabs, starfish and other echinoderms, crustaceans and mollusks, nestlings and fledgling birds, and birds’ eggs. They have also been observed eating terrestrial animals such as sick lambs and rats. Alternate food choices include berries and insects. They are also kleptoparasites: they steal food from other birds.

Field Marks and Where to See Them They are bulky and imposing looking with a large, powerful bill. No other North Atlantic gull has a black back and wings. They are widely distributed and can be found almost anywhere.

They are short necked and stocky.

Habitat and Range Only rarely seen south of the Maritime provinces, this gull breeds in the Canadian Arctic on rocky islands and cliffs and is usually found on or near pack ice, spending the winter on the ice. These gulls are often spotted on the east coast of the 1-888-588-6353

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island and occasionally appear in northern sections of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and interior Labrador. They are protected as an endangered species in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Diet The diet is composed of fish, crustaceans, rodents, eggs and small chicks. It is also an opportunist that will scavenge seal and porpoise carcasses. Sometimes it follows polar bears and other predators and feeds on the remains of their kills.

Field Marks and Where to See Them Their ghostly white colour and pigeon-like shape are good identification features. Found most often on pack ice in the Davis Strait, Labrador Sea, Strait of Belle Isle and northern Gulf of St. Lawrence, they have also been recorded in the St. John’s and Lewisporte areas.

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Fresh sawdust was still blowing across the

floor of their new bungalow when Ruth Priddle and her children stepped off a schooner in Milltown, Bay d’Espoir on June 16, 1969. It was just after noon.

With a bit of money from the government resettlement program, the family left the now-abandoned fishing settlement of Pushthrough in Hermitage Bay to start a new life in a new town.

Mrs. Priddle’s husband and son had already left Pushthrough in the spring to start building the new home in Milltown. Day by day, the bungalow took shape across the dirt road from the saltbox home my father grew up in with his 12 siblings.

The new house was painted dory buff – a common yellow paint used for fishing boats. In the small, dory buff house Mrs. Priddle, my godmother, raised her own children and formed a bond with my grandparents, her neighbours, Amelia and Stan Strickland. www.downhomelife.com

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The Priddle family built this home in Milltown after they relocated from Pushthrough Sheri Strickland Doyle photo My bond with Mrs. Priddle also grew over the years. I made it a point to visit my godmother on many summer trips to the South Coast, whether I was living in Labrador, New Brunswick, Toronto or Alberta. Visits with Mrs. Priddle are still a fascinating story time, topped off with hot cups of Tetley and trays of peanut butter balls. At 92, she has left the bungalow and now lives independently at the local seniors complex.

When I bought her bungalow as a summer home for my family a few years back, our conversations quickly drifted to the home’s past and stories of resettlement.

Pushthrough of the past Young Eastern Canadians like me know a bit about relocating. Leaving it all behind and moving west for work and new opportunities has 60

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been a way of life for a lot of us.

Being in possession of the Priddle home is like owning a piece of history. Every Newfoundland home tells a story, and if the wooden walls of an island bungalow or saltbox could talk, they would tell stories of heartbreak, resettlement and family.

Music and friends. Saltwater joys.

The walls of this house were held together by handcut wooden beams brought by boat to Milltown from the original Priddle home on the rocky shores of Pushthrough, about a 30kilometre boat ride away.

In the 1960s, the only way to get to Pushthrough was by boat. There were no roads, no modern electricity networks and no flush toilets. Water for drinking, boiling and washing was hauled from a nearby well in buckets and carried more than a kilometre home. Groceries, mail, tools, 1-888-588-6353

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Above: Pushthrough in the 1960s before resettlement. The old Priddle homestead is on the bottom right, with the top left window shuddered.

Conrad Hiscock photo

Left and bottom: Mrs. Priddle and her children in Pushthrough before resettlement. Photos courtesy of the Priddle family clothing and other supplies were delivered by coastal boat a couple of times a month, if the weather allowed for safe passage. A doctor came to Pushthrough monthly on a boat from the nearby community of Hermitage.

Everything was done by hand. Mrs. Priddle would scrub clothes and diapers on washboards, and pots of soup and porridge were stirred on top of the woodstove – the only source of household heat. Homes were lit by kerosene lamps at night. Household linens were sewn and embroidered into intricate designs from flour sacks. In the winter, socks, mittens and petticoats were www.downhomelife.com

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sewn and knitted by the fire.

Mrs. Priddle would tuck heated bricks into her children’s beds in the absence of sufficient woodstove heat.

The summers were spent growing vegetables and catching fish in preparation for the harsh winters. It all sounds like the makings of a Victorian novel, but this was home life in 1960s outport Newfoundland.

Resettling to Milltown brought the promise of running water and more modern amenities. The Newfoundland government’s resettlement programs from the 1950s to 1970s saw thousands of Newfoundlanders relocated from their family homes to more populated and easier-to-access areas, sold on the intention of better services for the population.

Some people from Pushthrough relocated to Bay d’Espoir, an attractive area for work with recent hydroelectric projects and forestry jobs.

Others relocated to Hermitage, St. Albans, Gaultois, Burgeo and other nearby communities.

While the promise of running water, roads, electricity and life-saving medical services was an obvious advantage to resettling to a new area, the rich traditions, relationships and homes of these close-knit communities were the casualties.

Luckily, my visits with Mrs. Priddle were proof that the memories and oral traditions of these places were very much alive through storytelling.

Questions about black-and-white photos of forgotten places turned into conversations about musical nights, fishing trips, community soup suppers and holiday traditions.

Memories that are shared can last forever.

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in Pushthrough was the lack of medical services. She lost two children there. One baby died of SIDS at Christmastime at three months of age; another passed away at seven months old from measles, along with several other children in Pushthrough before treatment could arrive on a coastal boat.

Coming to Milltown, the Priddles left behind the graves of their lost children. They also said goodbye to neighbours, friends and the home they knew. The last Pushthrough family was resettled 50 years ago.

The empty village now sits alone on its rocky home, the cemetery a remaining marker of what was.

The move to Milltown With hard work, the single-level house in Milltown would grow into a welcoming Newfoundland home.

The family got to work sowing their gardens, and the hill behind the new house became an impressive vegetable plot growing potatoes, onions, carrots and beets. The rich soil in Milltown was a welcome addition to the blossoming property, a contrast to the rocky soil in Pushthrough.

Water was soon piped into the home from the Strickland Mill. Hens were heard clucking in the yard and fresh eggs kept coming into the kitchen. The family soon enjoyed their first meal in the home – a fresh chicken cooked in their new woodfired oven. The children ate their first ice cream cones thanks to stores now within walking distance.

The crawl space under the home served as a root cellar to store vegetables over the winter months, cozied up next to the occasional batch of fresh home-brewed beer.

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Mrs. Priddle, the author and her daughter Maeve in 2019 Photo by Conor Doyle Generations later, the home is a place to make new memories. The flooring and curtains are new, and while the walls are painted a fresh coat of smoky blue, they are still held together by the thick, resettled wood from Pushthrough. Although we have moved many times, it feels like a second home to me, my husband and daughter.

As we work to clear brush in parts of the old garden, the berries, crab apples and plums are ripe for the picking to make preserves or to snack on. While they may not be stored in a cellar anymore, I’m sure they taste as sweet as they always have.

Visits to the summer house are all about exploring. Like Mrs. Priddle’s www.downhomelife.com

children, my baby, Maeve, also enjoyed her first ice cream cone in Bay d’Espoir, this time at Lee’s Convenience. Maeve was also excited to see a hen pecking around a neighbouring garden, down the same dirt road our families have walked on for generations.

Whether we are boiling a cup of tea for neighbours or hosting a BBQ for the Stricklands in August, the door is always open. The home will continue to be a place of love and belonging, as it was years ago when the Priddle family resettled here.

They say home is where the heart is. Mrs. Priddle and her little house taught me that your home is what you make it.

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No indoor plumbing, no television, no electricity – no joke.

Chris and Melissa Battiste recently traded these basic amenities, plus their modern home and just about everything they owned, for a life they say is less stressful and more meaningful. This summer the couple erected and moved into a yurt – a circular dwelling style that dates back to ancient Mongolia – on their 10-acre property in the Codroy Valley. If all goes according to plan, the couple and their dog, Baloo, will call this off-grid structure home sweet home year-round.

And it really is a sweet home, both inside and out. Tucked away in the woods in a secluded corner of their sprawling property, the average highway driver would never even know it’s there. A footpath meanders its way through the forest, over bridges across streams and up stairs to the final walkway leading to their humble homestead. “Welcome to our Yurt” reads a rustic driftwood sign a few steps from their front door. Inside, the beautiful wooden latticework (a staple of yurt design) is decoration enough, alongside personal photos, books and a print of Max Ehrmann’s www.downhomelife.com

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famous poem, “Desiderata.” A window at the top of the yurt offers a view of the stars as they fall asleep in their hammocks (which they swear offer a better night’s sleep than a traditional bed.)

Although the yurt itself (purchased from a company in British Columbia) took only a few days to assemble, achieving their simplistic, off-grid lifestyle has been years in the making.

“This was something we always wanted to do,” says Chris, originally from Port aux Basques, NL. (Melissa hails from Alberta.)

The couple originally planned to wait until much later in life to live their off-grid dream, until a neartragedy put a push on their plans. In 2011, Chris was driving to his thenhome near Cold Lake, Alberta, when his truck hit black ice, left the highway and smashed into a pole. So brutal were his injuries, the accident report actually stated he died at the scene.

“Doctors don’t know how I survived or recovered to the point I did, but I did,” says Chris, who spent the 66

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following three months recovering in hospital. In addition to a broken elbow, a broken jaw and a cracked skull, Chris sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI), forcing him to medically retire at age 37. Doctors told Chris, a former computer programmer, that he could mitigate the effects of his TBI (which include difficulties with comprehension and maintaining focus) by living as stress-free as possible. It was this unconventional “prescription” that spurred the couple to move forward with their plan sooner rather than later. They packed up and moved to the Codroy Valley in 2012 and, little by little, started simplifying.

Less is More

In preparation for their massive lifestyle shift, the couple went through several stages of purging their belongings. With roughly 314 square feet of space, their yurt can only hold so much. Not only was the process easy, it was enjoyable, they Continued page 68 1-888-588-6353

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Melissa, Chris and Baloo on the deck around their yurt say. In fact, the more items they let go, the more free they felt.

“I like what Brad Pitt said in the movie [Fight Club]. It’s a stupid quote, but it makes sense. He said, ‘The things you own end up owning you.’” Chris continues, “If you think quads and cars and iPhones make you happy, it will make you happy.

But it’s a short-time high.” True happiness, he now believes, can’t be derived from material things. And these days, all it takes to put a smile on Chris’ face is a walk in the woods, the sound of a trickling brook, or a simple cup of tea.

“It’s perspective,” explains Chris. “[When] my jaw was broken, I couldn’t really have a cup of tea easy. But the minute the wires came off my jaw you would not believe how good that cup of tea tasted. And now I still hold on to that feeling.”

Work to Live

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work to be done – quite the opposite.

There are the regular chores: firewood to cut, preserves to can and water to fetch from the brook. Clothing is washed in a small, manual washer and hung to dry.

They’ve also started growing their own food, with ambitious plans to eventually produce and forage 100 per cent of what they consume.

“We have tomatoes, basil, rhubarb, thyme and dill; just a few little things until I get a real garden set up,” says Melissa, who plans to build a greenhouse. (They eat very little meat, and when they do they prefer wild game they can source themselves: moose, rabbit etc.)

A trained cabinetmaker (and a “jill of all trades,” according to Chris), Melissa takes the lead on most major projects. She’s currently building two sheds – one for firewood and one for tools – and has plans for a root cellar.

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did. That means reading by the light of a kerosene lantern, cooking in a wood-fired oven and, yes, going to the outhouse. But for Chris and Melissa, these aren’t hardships; they are reminders of their independence.

But of all they’ve achieved so far, they are especially proud to have severed ties with electricity.

“I would never touch that again,” Chris vows. “I just hate to see what electricity is doing to the environment and to people’s pocketbooks here in Newfoundland.”

Not to mention, when post-tropical storm Dorian swept through the province in September, knocking out power to many on Newfoundland’s west coast, it was life as usual for Chris and Melissa. They had no power to lose.

That same weather system, which

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walloped the Wreckhouse area with winds in excess of 150 km/h, provided an excellent test for the Battistes’ new home. It survived unscathed.

“If you think about the physics of the yurt, the reason the Mongolians had it so long is because it’s round and when the wind hits it, it just goes around it,” says Chris.

Of course, winter will bring its own challenges, and the Battistes say they are eager to meet them head on. They know their rustic way of life isn’t for everyone, but they hope their story inspires others to take small steps towards simplifying, for a taste of the true joy they feel every single day.

“Considering I got a pretty bad brain injury, I love my life – I love it.

It’s peaceful and it’s zen,” says Chris.

“I’m getting to do exactly what I was born to do.”

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Volunteers tend to graves of fallen Newfoundland and Labrador soldiers around the world

BY DENNIS FLYNN

The hot Egyptian sun

beats down on the markers in the Cairo Military Cemetery as a tall stranger walks solemnly between them. He pauses at several graves of young men who died over a century ago, men he couldn’t have known and is not related to. He utters a few solemn words before the “Last Post” and the “Ode to Newfoundland” are played and photos are taken. Finally, he reaches into a pocket, retrieves a few plain beach rocks and tenderly places one upon each grave.

It’s a scene retired Major Michael Pretty, volunteer member and president of the Newfoundland and Labrador-based Trail of the Caribou Research Group Inc. (TCRG), has repeated hundreds of times in many places around the globe. This registered charity aims to raise awareness of the accomplishments and sacrifices of Newfoundlanders

Right: Major Michael Pretty places a Newfoundland beach rock at the grave of a Newfoundland soldier in Egypt.

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Members of the TCRG at Dadizele Military Cemetery, Belgium, July 2016.

Left to right: Glenn Squires, Penney Squires, Eric Bartlett, Linda Bartlett, Begind Linda Dirk Vandenberghe from Dadizele, Steve Campbell, Doug Copp, Sue Copp (kneeling), Heather Pretty, Michael Pretty and Labradorians in military conflicts and peacekeeping missions over the past 100 years. Pretty points out that in the First World War alone, more than 10,000 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians fought in the armies and navies of Newfoundland, Canada, England, USA, Australia and South Africa – and many of them never made it home alive.

The day I meet up with Pretty, a native of Corner Brook, NL, we are in All Saints Anglican Cemetery in Pouch Cove, NL. The 57-year-old veteran rests his hand upon a new headstone that casts long shadows both on the grass and local history.

“This is the grave of Edward Baldwin of Pouch Cove, who died in 1927.

His original headstone had broken into multiple pieces, and around May of 2018 we became aware,” Pretty explains. The TCRG worked with the Baldwin family, the Town of Pouch Cove and the Anglican Parish to install this new stone, with all the original information, free of charge to the family. Pretty adds, “What is 72

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particularly unique about this stone is that Edward’s sons – James, Uriah and Horatio – are all named on the headstone, but they are not actually buried here in Pouch Cove.”

The three brothers died fighting in WWI and their bodies were never recovered. They served with three different militaries, for three different countries, and died in three different battles. Horatio served with the Canadian military; Uriah joined the Royal Newfoundland Regiment; James was in the US Navy before joining the Royal Irish Fusiliers.

“They all died without a known grave. So when this project of the new monument was completed, we had a very moving ceremony to unveil it with the cooperation of all parties,” says Pretty.

Bringing Home to the Fallen As of September 2019, TCRG volunteers had personally funded visits to 18 countries to document the final resting place of 2,021 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who died as a 1-888-588-6353

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result of service in WWI. Then there is the added touch of bringing an actual piece of “home” to those who never returned.

Major Michael Pretty at the restored gravesite of Edward Baldwin in Pouch Cove that also honours his three sons killed in action during WWI. “I get a bit emotional about this every time I tell the story, so please forgive me,” Pretty begins. “When we visit a fallen soldier anywhere in the world with a connection to this province, we take a photo of the grave, we document the details and the condition, and we play the ‘Ode to Newfoundland’ and the ‘Last Post’ at every single grave. We also leave a beach rock from the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador for every fallen soldier. A piece of home comes to them, wherever they are, to let them know home has not forgotten them.”

The story of how they chose the simple, yet powerful symbol of a www.downhomelife.com

beach rock is inspirational in itself.

Years ago, Pretty received an email from a nine-year-old boy who was researching how the first combat casualty of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, Private Hugh Walter McWhirter of Bay of Islands, was transported to the war with the rest of the “First 500” aboard the SS Florizel. McWhirter was killed September 22, 1914, on the Gallipoli Peninsula and is buried at Hill 10 Cemetery in Turkey.

“Years later, during a chance encounter, I learned the boy revisited Turkey with his family [his father was a Turkish immigrant to NL], and he took beach rocks from the Burin Peninsula and placed them on Hugh McWhirter’s grave. I was deeply moved by the gesture, so it is because of that boy’s thoughtful act of remembrance that we continue to take beach rocks to all the graves of Newfoundland’s fallen soldiers, wherever we find them.”

Pretty says, “If anyone knows of any soldier who does not have a grave marker, or if they have a headstone or some type of memorial but it is in disrepair, please let us know at TCRG. It does not matter who the soldier is or where they are located in the world; if they have a connection to Newfoundland and Labrador, we would love to know about them.”

Also, at the family’s request, the TCRG will put a granite footstone, free of charge, on the grave of any veteran whose headstone doesn’t already mention their service. It is through this and all their other outreach efforts that the TCRG carry on with their mission to leave no grave unvisited, no soldier forgotten and no stone unturned.

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Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have to take flight from The Rock, for one reason or another, they always leave something behind. More often, than not, it is their pining hearts.

Joan Kreibich (nee Kelly), a NL expat now residing in Colorado, USA, has been away from home for more than 60 years. But like many expats, Joan has a homing instinct that brings back to her favourite place on the planet – Newfoundland – at least once a year.

Although born and raised in Stephenville, Joan typically pilgrimages to Port au Choix on the Great Northern Peninsula. That’s where her family sprung from and where she still has close family members.

“Newfoundland, and in particular Port au Choix, has always held a special place in my heart,” she confesses. “It’s where my heartbeat began.” www.downhomelife.com

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Joan estimates that she has returned to Newfoundland and Labrador more than 55 times since she first left in 1959 for Minnesota, after marrying an American serviceman based in Stephenville. On most of those trips “back home,” Joan ensured her four sons (Rick, Kenneth, Glen and Paul) were in tow.

“I always made sure I brought my children home, as it would have been a sin and a shame not to,” Joan says, stressing that “it was something I was adamant about, even when money was scarce.”

She says the pilgrimages home were not just about keeping herself connected to her roots, but to create those familial and cultural bonds for her children.

“You owe it to your children to pass your heritage on,” she says.

She’d tell them as they visited 76

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Top: Joan Kreibich and her partner David Burnett pose on Signal Hill overlooking St. John’s, NL. Above: David was thrilled to try cod fishing during his first trip to NL. 1-888-588-6353

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homes and communities, this is where “you belong.”

“It was my children’s right to be taken back to this ocean, to their people, to get to know them and to love them… it was that simple.” She avows that, if possible, she would do it all over again. “The sheer joy the children got from these visits was worth every face on the earth; and it was a joy for me to see them connect with their relatives.”

She stands in a field of flowers with her arms outstretched, the open North Atlantic Ocean in the background.

David says he is “in awe” of Joan’s longstanding dedication to Newfoundland, a place she hasn’t lived in for most of her life. “She always wants to go ‘home,’” he marvels.

Though he, too, has been captured by the Newfoundland lure. “The first time I went to Port au Choix, I fell in

“You owe it to your children to pass your heritage on,” she says. She’d tell them as they visited homes and communities, this is where “you belong.”

While all her grown children still live south of the border, Joan says they still talk about their trips to Newfoundland and the many memories they made there, in the land of their ancestors. One of them, Kenneth, has even returned over the years with his own children so that they can form their own bonds with their ancestral home.

Now, at the age of 82, Joan continues to be gobsmacked by what she feels is the magic of Newfoundland and Labrador. On her recent trip, she eagerly travelled (with her partner of 20 years, David Burnett) across the island, and took in the many sights and sounds of such places as St. John’s, Cape Spear, Petty Harbour, Quidi Vidi and Bonavista. In one of her vacation photos, Joan is on Signal Hill on a warm, sunny July day. www.downhomelife.com

love with it,” he admits. “It felt like home.”

David remarks that travelling across the island enriched his love for the province. “It was such a special treat to be shown around by Joan’s relatives, meeting new friends and seeing the joy in her eyes at revisiting these places she hadn’t seen in years,” he says. And he was tickled pink when he got to try cod fishing in Bonavista Bay during the food fishery. “I love fishing, so to be able to do so while visiting Newfoundland with Joan was pure pleasure for me.”

Joan hopes to continue returning home as long as she is able. “I’d like to keep on with the joy, keep coming home, as long as I can… It’s an awesome life here, the best anyone could ask for.”

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All photos Jennie Williams

THIS MONTH, Indigenous culture takes centre stage in St. John’s, NL, as musicians, artists, storytellers and more meet in the city for the sixth annual Spirit Song Festival.

It’s a beautiful, inclusive celebration that has grown by leaps and bounds in just a few years.

“Our first year had six different acts in one show – this year we have 10 acts in three different shows, so it’s all very exciting!” says Jenelle Duval, the arts and culture coordinator with First Light (formerly the St. John’s Native Friendship Centre).

In 2013, when Spirit Song launched, “we didn’t see many festivals or events dedicated to showcasing NL’s incredible Indigenous artists,” Jenelle explains. “Spirit Song became a way for Indigenous artists to see themselves on the stage and to get the community excited about performance and the arts.”

The first festival was three showings of the same show at LSPU Hall, plus two workshops and a community feast.

“It has evolved and changed so www.downhomelife.com

much since its humble beginnings, and has become a way for Indigenous artists from all across the country to join us in St. John’s,” Jenelle says.

Some of those artists have included Terrance Littletent (Kawacatoose Cree Nation grass/hoop dancer), Twin Flames (First Nations/Inuit folk-rock), Eastern Eagle (a men’s Mi’kmaq drum group), Possesom Paul (dancer/choreographer of Wolastoqey Nation in New Brunswick), Michael R Denny (Mi’kmaq traditional singer), Strength of the Drum (St. John’s first Inuit drumdancing group) and Robin Benoit (Miawpukek First Nation shawl dancer), just to name a few artists.

Last year, their fifth anniversary, was a big one for the Spirit Song Festival. “The main stage was November 2019

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Scenes from past Sprit Song Festivals in St. John’s. The event incorporates music, storytelling, art, learning workshops and more – all of it celebrating Indigenous culture. magical as a room of 500 people sang along to the Twin Flames at the First Light Centre for Performance and Creativity. To see St. John’s pour so much love in one space and have such a large circle of support was incredible,” she recalls.

Chelsey June and Jaaji of Twin Flames recall their 2018 showcase.

“We were honoured to be a part of the Spirit Song Festival. St. John’s has a very special place in our hearts,” they wrote via email to Downhome. “We instantly felt welcomed into the community by the amazing staff and fellow musicians.

We are grateful to see a place where our Indigenous people can find community. We hope to come back again someday.”

New year, new lineup The 2019 festival will be held at several locations in the capital city November 21-23. There are three shows at different venues, and six workshops held at First Light and Eastern Edge Gallery.

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Kids and DJ Kookum at The Rockhouse; Jeremy Dutcher at The Arts and Culture Centre; and The Jerry Cans, Michael R Denny, Eastern Owl, Wape’k Muin and more at the Spirit Song Gala.

The Knowledge Share Series boasts a number of workshops, such as braiding with Megan Musseau, a songwriting workshop with The Jerry Cans, a throat-singing workshop with The Blake Sisters, Pow Wow dancing with Possesom Paul, sweetgrass basket weaving with Burlington Tooshkenig, and a Kojua workshop with Michael R. Denny, at various locations including Eastern Edge Art Gallery and First Light Centre for Performance and Creativity.

“It seems that as time goes on, and the festival builds its reputation, we have ever-increasing community support, more excitement, more volunteers, and more artists eager to take part,” Jenelle says.

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getting involved and showing interest in local Indigenous culture.

“Indigenous arts and culture is experiencing a powerful resurgence and reclamation in NL and all over Canada,” Jenelle says. “We are in the midst of a beautiful awakening that can be seen in the work that is being created by artists. It is powerful and impactful and in response to the many different realities that Indigenous people are living. Indigenous artists are expressing important narratives that are both celebrations of beauty and calls to action.”

She continues, “Many people from all walks of life are taking notice and www.downhomelife.com

are being called in or invited to be a part of that. In Newfoundland and Labrador, we see the growth and success of Indigenous-led organizations and initiatives such as First Light, People of the Dawn Friendship Centre, Petapan, To Light the Fire and The Sweetgrass Festival. Indigenous arts and culture is becoming more visible. So it makes sense that there is more involvement and more appreciation.”

“Spirit Song Festival is a great opportunity for us to showcase the vibrant Indigenous culture that is present in St. John’s,” First Light board president and community elder Emma Reelis adds. “It is the first and only Indigenous arts festival in St. John’s, and we hope to continue to grow it and raise awareness of our culture.”

For anyone considering experiencing the festival or local Indigenous culture for the first time, this writer can attest that the community is very accepting, welcoming newcomers with open arms.

“All of our events are all-ages and free... because we want this to be accessible to everyone, and we want to see everyone,” explains festival coordinator and technical whiz, Natasha Blackwood of Hartery Music House, also Jenelle’s bandmate in Eastern Owl. “It has always been our belief that reconciliation between communities can be achieved through the arts, and we encourage all people to please come check it out.

Take in a show, register for a workshop, learn something new!”

Get the latest on the 2019 Spirit Song Festival at www.firstlightnl.ca or follow First Light NL on Facebook.

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travel diary

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THE ROCK,

Newfoundland’s apt yet endearing nickname, is like a giant neon sign flickering towards mainland Canada beckoning geologists to come. After my uncle and aunt moved back to her home province some years ago, it was only a matter of time before I packed up my own family (my wife and I are both geologists) and went for a visit.

We arrived at their postcard-worthy, seaside home in the quaint hamlet of Coffee Cove at the tail end of a threeweek camping adventure through the Maritimes. After warm greetings and some long overdue catching up, we set about planning our three days around Green Bay. One can visit a new place, but you don’t truly experience it until you explore it. For us, that included an afternoon hike on the Alexander Murray Trail, a trek highly recommended by my uncle but not without warning.

Stairs, he said. Lots and lots of stairs.

I was hesitant. My body has proven more lemon than show model over the years, and with two kids in tow, aged 11 and eight, our tolerance for difficult hikes is limited. Still, the lure of splendid vistas tugged. A quick web search sealed the deal; Alexander Murray was a geologist.

A Scot born in 1810, Alexander Murray worked as a geologist on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean before www.downhomelife.com

Alexander Murray

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Corner Brook Falls

settling in Newfoundland in 1864, having been named the Geological Survey of Newfoundland’s first director. Among Murray’s notable accomplishments is the first geological map of the island. Fittingly, the geological club at Memorial University in St. John’s, NL is named after him.

Spending an afternoon discovering a trail honouring The Rock’s first rock hound was a proposal I couldn’t resist, stairs notwithstanding. We packed our gear and drove west to King’s Point, a lovely town at the terminus of the southwest arm of Green Bay known for its humpback whale pavilion and pottery shop.

It was a beautiful midweek afternoon when we reached the parking lot at the trailhead of Alexander Murray Hiking Trail. The place was nearly deserted save for a couple of vehicles presumably belonging to fellow hikers. The trail office was closed and not a soul could be found in the picnic shelter or bathrooms. Perhaps 84

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these stairs were scarier than I had imagined.

Undaunted, we familiarized ourselves with the trail thanks to an information sign affixed to the railing out front of the wooden office building, grabbed our pack and camera, signed the guest book and headed out onto the trail.

The Alexander Murray Hiking Trail is shaped like a lasso. With a total length of eight kilometres, the spoke of the lasso runs 1.35 kilometres from the trailhead to Moose Barrens.

From there, the remainder of the trail forms the 6.08-kilometre loop peaking at Haypook Summit some 350 metres above sea level. Only the short branch trail to Corner Brook Falls deviates from this otherwise perfect lasso analogy. Oh, and there are stairs – 2,200 of them – which is why Moose Barrens has a rest platform.

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up to the scraggy, bog-like Moose Barrens isn’t especially arduous. It alone makes for a nice, relatively short walk with Grouse Brook a handsome companion at one point.

Rather, it is the loop where the rest platform becomes essential; first as a staging point to decide which direction you will take around the loop and second, as a place to collapse and confirm your continued presence in this corporeal realm upon return from the summit.

We made it to Moose Barrens with little trouble; gazed at the faint image of the flagpole on Haypook Summit; found a hidden geocache; refuelled with hiking community favourite, the granola bar; and huddled up to determine which direction we would go. It was clear that encircling the entire loop was not in the cards. And

with waterfalls in either direction, we were torn. Ultimately, we agreed that the trek to Corner Brook Falls was the shortest and thus our preferred destination.

As fate would have it, this choice came with the most stairs, including a prolonged, steep set down into the gorge in which resides Corner Brook Falls. The descent to the falls was intimidating. My quads wailed in disbelief as we headed downward after so much upward.

At the bottom, a platform with picnic table and bench offered a gorgeous view of a modest waterfall cascading off ancient grey and red rock into a clear pool of water. It was beautifully stark, and we scampered off the platform to get as close to the falls as possible and just live in the moment along with the dragonflies.

Haypook Summit from Moose Barrens

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Looking back on the ascent to Haypook Summit

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Atop Haypook Summit

Having rejuvenated our souls, we ambled back up the stairs to the main trail where another decision awaited.

Having come that far, and despite weary muscles, it seemed foolish not to continue onwards to Haypook Summit for what promised to be a spectacular panorama.

The remaining ascent required, yup, more stair-climbing. But as we progressed along the tundra-like ridge approaching the summit, the views grew broader, inspiring us onwards.

Finally making it to the top, we gratefully rested on another wooden platform beneath a Canadian flag flapping in the wind that cooled our strained bodies. The view was incredible, particularly to the north where aged mountains, rounded and weathered, indiscriminately covered www.downhomelife.com

in vegetation, embraced the icy, blue Atlantic Ocean.

Of course, we had to get back.

Another decision confronted us; continue onward and experience the entirety of Alexander Murray Trail or double back the way we came. The latter was shorter and the path we quickly agreed upon; stairs notwithstanding, once again. Sadly, or maybe ideally, this decision left Roswell’s Falls and Gull Brook Falls unseen and reason to come again.

Exhausted, a bit frazzled, but rewarded nonetheless, we returned to Coffee Cove where I shared our adventure with my uncle while recuperating on his back deck with a welldeserved fermented beverage. When I asked how he had survived the hike, he chuckled. He’d never done it. Too many stairs.

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If you

are travelling along that stretch of highway 80 between Whitbourne and Old Perlican, NL, you will pass right by a beautiful saltbox house sitting atop a cliff overlooking Trinity Bay. Except for the size, you might think it had been built there 100 years ago.

In 2018, my two grandchildren – Iris, then 11, and Felix, then eight – asked to go to Newfoundland, the place they had heard so many stories about. So we went: grandchildren, grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles.

The children couldn’t believe that there were streets that bore our family name and that we were related to so many of the people who were

buried in the New Chelsea cemeteries. They couldn’t believe that often when we walked past a house, a window opened and a friendly greeting was shouted.

We spent lots of time that summer fishing, hiking, playing in the brook and walking in the forest. When Iris and Felix walked into the cool, green wilderness they had no trouble seeing the fairies, the gnomes and the

Above: Sandy Button poses with the grandkids and the replica saltbox house he built.

Top Left: The replica house sits on the corner of the original home’s foundation. www.downhomelife.com

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Felix and his cousin Blake draped in flags for the house moving parade

elves. They acted as though their ancestors were still alive and talking to them from the other side. They carved into a tree trunk and etched into stones the names of their greatgrandparents, Hedley and Ida Belbin, who had walked these same woods. They built a shrine of stones and sticks for the spirits of their ancestors to visit after they returned to southern California.

Before they left Newfoundland, Iris asked my cousin, Sandy Button, to build a replica house like the one where I had once lived. In July 2019, we returned to New Chelsea and the first thing I saw was a beautiful replica of my old house: a standard saltbox design with a porch, pantry, parlour and kitchen on the first floor, 90

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four upstairs bedrooms and the iconic slanted roof on one side. The only brick in the house was the chimney; the rest was just wood and nails.

The original home I lived in had been perched on a rock on the top of South Side Hill for 100 years overlooking the New Chelsea harbour.

Iris wanted to place the replica house directly on the spot where the old house had stood, sitting four-square to the wind, with a 300-foot vertical drop to the ocean. And she wanted a parade and a ceremony to commemorate the event.

So we gathered family and friends, loaded the 36” x 28” two-storey house onto a truck, wrapped Felix and his cousin Blake in Newfoundland flags, and using old pots, sticks and spoons for music, we marched along the Pond Path to the site of the old homestead singing “God Guard Thee Newfoundland” as we went.

After we placed the house on the only remaining corner of the old foundation, the adults drank some Screech as an homage to our heritage and told the children old-time stories.

Later, I remembered that my ancestors had held a strong personal myth, which maintained that Newfoundlanders were happier than people anywhere else on Earth because they belonged to the place where they were born. Then it came to me that I could claim that myth as my own. I am a thread of love and DNA that connects the past, the present and the future, and that will bind us across the miles from here to eternity. I felt as though I had awakened from a long, deep sleep. The grandchildren had been the unwitting custodians of my childhood.

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The people and the purpose behind the annual Snow Muster

BY SUE MCFADDEN

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Like many great outcomes, it all started with a simple conversation.

One day, Steve Hurley, a retired veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and also an avid snowmobiler, was sitting around with some buddies and he wondered aloud, “Why don’t they do a snowmobile event for veterans?”

Steve began his army career as a teenager, serving in the 2nd Royal Newfoundland Regiment with postings that included countries of the former Yugoslavia and Bosnia.

After 16 years, he says, he was dealing with PTSD and was considered unfit for further active duty. Through Veterans Affairs Canada, however, he received training as a peer support coordinator and subsequently worked for several years with fellow veterans from Port aux Basques to Gander.

All photos by Michael McCarthy

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Left and bottom: Last year’s Annual Veterans’ Snow Muster included a midday stop at Trapper’s Lounge in Howley for a hot lunch.

“After five more years,” Steve says, “I’d done my time and I retired.

Sure, I still have my dark days… everybody’s got the same symptoms, but everybody’s story is different.”

Fast forward several more years and he’s now carrying that same attitude of acceptance and determination into co-organizing the Annual Veterans’ Snow Muster, a snowmobiling event presented by the Newfoundland and Labrador Snowmobile Federation (NLSF) for veterans of the CAF and their supporters.

Held each March, the event will be marking its third year in 2020. It’s a day of snow, food, camaraderie and fun that is free to vets, with a nominal fee of $25 charged to non-vets.

It’s not a fundraiser, but rather an www.downhomelife.com

occasion held by NLSF and a volunteer committee to celebrate snowmobiling and give something back to our veteran community.

“My main goal is to get people out in comradeship and bring them together to make awareness that there’s many Newfoundlanders out there that are vets,” Steve explains.

Tony Sheppard, general manager of NLSF and a CAF veteran himself, agrees. First and foremost, he says, the Annual Snow Muster’s purpose is to give something back and, “to get people out, basically, to meet and greet, to see old friends and make new ones.”

The function’s first year saw 80 participants, most of them veterans.

Word spread and last March more than 200 people enjoyed the second annual event. It was co-hosted by the Junction Trail Blazers snowmobile club in the Deer Lake area. Registrants came from Ontario, PEI and Nova Scotia, as well as from all over Newfoundland and Labrador.

Though not recommended as an event for small children, last year’s numbers included sledders aged 12 to 87. Some had never snowmobiled before. As part of the cause, dealers make snowmobiles and helmets available to veterans who don’t own a machine but want to participate in the day.

“The amount of support and kind of donations we receive is incredible,” Tony says. “And that includes November 2019

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Riders prepare to head out for a day of snowmobiling last March with members of the Junction Trail Blazers snowmobile club.

donations to the online auction. We had items coming in from all over last year.”

The online auction took place over four weeks and every cent made was donated by the NLSF on behalf of its members, volunteers and staff to the NL Command of The Royal Canadian Legion. Last year, it totalled $2,000 and was earmarked by the Legion to support programs available to Newfoundland and Labrador veterans and their families.

A run-through of the day The day of the ride starts with a coffee and pastry sign-in, where people check in, have a warm drink, socialize and prepare to ride together in groups of 15 or 20 sleds. A safety training component is included, particularly for those who haven’t ridden before. Faster snowmobilers head out first, while those who prefer a more leisurely pace wait to join 96

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the last groups.

“The main problem in snowmobiling is between the seat and the handlebars,” Steve laughs. “You know what I mean? Think about it.” Hotdogging (stunt driving) is not tolerated at this event. “Snowmobiling to me is the scenery, the surroundings.

The country you see while on a snowmobile is amazing, second to none.”

Halfway through the ride, everything stops for a hot trail lunch. Last year it was subsidized by the Junction Trail Blazers and took place at Trappers Lounge in Howley.

After the second half of a beautiful ride, participants moved on to the Deer Lake Legion, Branch #3, for a banquet that included a hot supper, door prizes, greetings from Steve and a welcome from Premier Ball (who also took part in the ride), followed by a dance with live music from west coast group Uncle Harry’s Band. Again, donors and sponsors made this part of the event happen, including the Branch #3 Legion 1-888-588-6353

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itself and Westwood Suites in Deer Lake, who paid for the band.

The next Annual Veterans’ Snow Muster will be held in the Corner Brook area in March 2020, cohosted by the Western Sno-Riders snowmobile club. Steve is one of those looking forward to the event and spending time with his brothers and sisters in arms. “We don’t shake hands, we hug. I met new guys last year on the veterans ride and, to me, that’s what it’s all about. It’s one of my main reasons for taking part in this thing,” he says.

What gives him motivation, he explains, is his belief and knowledge

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that we’re all living our lives of freedom now because of the veterans who came before us. When asked if he has any regrets over the career he committed to when, as a teenager, he jumped on the bus at an Irving station with a brand new uniform in his duffel bag, he replies with a firm negative.

“I didn’t do it for nothing. I did it for my country and I would do it again tomorrow. I’d do it with pride.”

For up-to-date information on the 2020 Veterans’ Snow Muster, visit the NLSF website: www.nlsf.org.

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food & leisure the everyday gourmet

Eggplant

Parmesan

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the everyday gourmet

By Andrea Maunder

Andrea Maunder is the owner and creative force behind Saucy & Sweet – Homemade Specialty Foods & Catering.

www.downhomelife.com

I’ve always figured when the fast

food places adopt a food trend, you know it’s hit mainstream. It means they’ve done their research and determined there’s enough demand for it to be worth investing all the resources into changing menus, marketing, advertising, distribution and training. That’s a big commitment for international chains, isn’t it? So when I see more vegetarian and vegan options in restaurants and bakeries now, I think it’s fair to say the movement towards more plant-based eating has become part of the collective consciousness.

Folks have their reasons for leaning towards a plant-based diet, from personal health to their love of animals to planetary and environmental concerns. Whatever your reason – you don’t really need one – including more plant-based meals in your diet is a good thing. They taste delicious, are generally more affordable than meat and pack loads of nutrition.

Whether you are new to veggie meals or regularly enjoy them, I have a recipe that delivers all the satisfaction, flavour and textures we crave. And this Eggplant Parmesan is lighter than the traditional recipes: I don’t fry the eggplant, but do a double-bake process, which makes it crispier and with a fresher texture. It’s very lightly sauced to help retain some of that gorgeous crispy crumb texture. I will offer you the option to make this dish completely plant-based, or use dairy cheese, as

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you wish. I admire the dedication of my vegan friends, but I am a cheese lover, so I do put it in this dish when I make it. And for those who need or desire gluten-free, this can easily be made gluten-free by whizzing leftover gluten-free bread in the food processor for the crumbs and swapping gluten-free panko.

I adore eggplant, and its satisfying texture works really well in this dish.

But if you’re not a fan, you can certainly substitute zucchini and just follow the same directions.

This recipe serves eight, so you could have lots leftover to freeze in individual portions, for quick, delicious meals on the go.

Eggplant Parmesan 3 large eggplants, about 5 lbs total (if smaller or baby eggplants, buy weight equivalent) Up to 2 tbsp kosher salt Up to 4 cups breadcrumbs 1 cup panko breadcrumbs

1 tsp fresh pepper 2 cups Parmesan cheese (or vegan cheese shreds such as Daiya mixed with 4 tsp nutritional yeast and 1 tsp kosher salt) 3-4 cloves garlic

4 tsp dried basil

1 bunch fresh basil, leaves and tender stems only (about 1 1/2 cups loosely packed)

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tbsp pine nuts or sliced almonds (opt.)

2 tsp garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp onion powder

Approximately 3 cups tomato sauce

1/2 tsp chili flakes (or more to taste)

2 cups shredded mozzarella (or vegan cheese substitute such as Daiya)

Up to 3/4 cup olive oil

1 tsp kosher salt

Preheat oven to 400°F. Remove and discard stems and slice eggplants lengthwise 1/2-inch thick (skin on or off, your choice). Sprinkle each slice lightly with kosher salt on both sides and set in a colander in the sink for 1015 minutes while you prepare the breadcrumbs and pesto. This softens the eggplant and removes any bitterness. Rinse, drain and pat dry with a tea towel.

Prepare breadcrumbs: Combine breadcrumbs, panko, 1/4 cup olive oil, dry herbs and spices, salt and pepper. Stir in one cup of the Parmesan (or vegan cheese mixture). Set aside.

Make pesto: In food processor or mini chopper, whiz together fresh garlic with 1/4 cup of the olive oil; add basil and purée until combined. If using nuts, add now and whiz again until puréed. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add more oil or a little water if needed to get it to blend. You want a spreadable paste consistency.

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Line a very large baking pan (or two if needed) with foil and brush with oil. Brush patted-dry eggplant slices lightly on both sides with pesto and coat each side with breadcrumbs. Press down so the breadcrumbs adhere. (If you don’t use all the crumbs, freeze the remainder for later use. Great coating for almost anything.) Lay slices on baking tray(s) and bake for 20 minutes, flipping them over after 10 minutes.

They will be golden brown, crusty and fragrant.

Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Brush a large lasagna pan with olive oil and spread a very thin coat of tomato sauce on the bottom – just 5-6 tbsp or so. Arrange slices of eggplant to cover the bottom. Cut pieces to fit, if needed, to make an even layer. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the remaining cup of Parmesan (or

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vegan parm mixture), drizzle tomato sauce over top but don’t smother the slices entirely. Then sprinkle on 1/3 of the mozzarella (or vegan shreds).

Add another drizzle of sauce. Repeat two more layers and be a touch more generous with the sauce on the last layer so that it doesn’t dry out in the oven. End with the mozzarella on top of the last layer.

Bake 45 minutes until bubbling.

Let stand a couple minutes before serving. Makes 8 good-sized portions. Another delicious meal with any leftovers is Eggplant Parm Sandwiches! Split and toast a large crusty roll, spread a little tomato sauce on both sides, place some eggplant parm in the middle and add slice of mozza, provolone or vegan slice, if you like. I like it hot or cold.

For hot, simply microwave the eggplant parm first.

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everyday recipes.ca

As fall sets in with longer evenings and cooler temperatures, we all start having warm thoughts. Nothing warms the body and soul better than a steaming bowl of homemade soup.

Chicken Noodle Soup 1/4 cup butter 6 chicken breasts, diced 2 cups onion, diced 1 cup carrot, diced 1 cup celery, diced

1/2 cup green onion, sliced thinly 1 bay leaf 16 cups strong chicken stock 1 cup egg noodles, uncooked Salt & pepper to taste

Heat butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add chicken and cook until meat is cooked through. Add next five ingredients and sweat until the onions are translucent. Add stock and bring nearly to a boil. Add noodles and simmer gently for about 15 minutes.

Season to taste and serve hot. Yield: 4 L

All of our recipes are brought to you by the fantastic foodies in Academy Canada’s Culinary Arts program, led by instructor Bernie-Ann Ezekiel.

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Spicy Sweet Potato Soup 2 4 3 3 8 1 1 6

cups sour cream tsp grated lime zest tbsp butter cups onions, diced cloves garlic, minced 1/2 tsp ground cumin tsp crushed red pepper flakes tbsp fresh ginger root, grated

8 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed 14 cups chicken stock 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter Salt and pepper to taste 3 limes, juiced 4 large roma tomatoes, seeded & diced 8 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

In a small bowl, stir together the zest and sour cream to make lime sour cream. Set aside in the fridge. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook for about 5 minutes, until softened. Add cumin, red pepper flakes and ginger. Add sweet potatoes and chicken stock. Bring just to a boil and reduce heat. Simmer for about 20 minutes. PurĂŠe the soup and whisk in the peanut butter. Season to taste with salt & pepper and heat through. Just before serving, stir in the lime juice, tomatoes and cilantro. Top each serving with a dollop of lime sour cream. Yield: 4 L

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Corn Chowder 1/2 cup bacon, diced 2 tbsp butter 2 cups onion, diced 1 cup carrot, diced 1 cup celery, diced 2 cups corn kernels

1 bay leaf 2 tbsp fresh garlic, minced 1/2 cup flour 12 cups vegetable stock, hot 1 cup potatoes, diced 4 cups whipping cream, hot

Heat a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat and cook the bacon until it starts to become golden. Reduce heat to medium and add butter. Add next six ingredients and sweat until onions are translucent. Add flour and mix thoroughly.

Add stock gradually and allow to thicken completely (5-7 minutes). Add potatoes and hot cream, and allow the soup to gently simmer over low heat until potatoes are tender.

Season to taste and serve hot. Yield: 4 L

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Chicken Soup 2 4 2 1 1 1

tbsp olive oil chicken breasts, diced cups onion, diced cup carrot, diced cup celery, diced cup turnip, diced

1 bay leaf 2 tbsp fresh garlic, minced 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves 1 can diced tomatoes 1 gallon chicken stock Salt & pepper to taste

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan over high heat. Add chicken and cook until the meat starts to become golden. Reduce heat to medium. Add next six ingredients and sweat until the onions are translucent. Add thyme, tomatoes and stock. Bring nearly to a boil and then simmer gently for about 15 minutes.

Season to taste and serve hot. Yield: 4 L

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Butternut Squash Soup 3 tbsp olive oil 1 cup onion, diced 1/2 cup carrot, diced 1/2 cup celery, diced 3 tbsp fresh garlic, minced 1 tsp cumin, ground

1/2 tsp ginger, ground 4 cups butternut squash, diced 1 cup white wine 12 cups chicken/vegetable stock, hot 4 cups whipping cream, hot Salt & pepper to taste

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add next seven ingredients and sweat until the onions are translucent. Add the wine and turn heat to high. Add the stock and bring just to a boil, reduce heat and simmer gently until vegetables are cooked through.

PurĂŠe soup until smooth. Add the hot cream and season to taste. Serve hot. Garnish with sour cream and croutons, if desired. Yield: 4 L

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Beer & Cheddar Soup 1 1/2 cups diced carrots 1 1/2 cups diced onion 1 1/2 cups diced celery 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tbsp hot pepper sauce (like Tabasco) 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper 1 tsp dry mustard 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp black pepper 3 cups chicken broth

2 cups beer (Guinness is nice) 1/2 cup butter 1/3 cup flour 2 cups milk, warmed 2 cups whipping cream, warmed 6 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, grated 1 tbsp Dijon mustard 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 4 cups popped popcorn for garnish

In a large saucepan over medium heat, stir together carrots, onion, celery, garlic, hot pepper sauce, cayenne pepper, dry mustard, salt and pepper. Pour in chicken broth and beer; simmer until vegetables are tender, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat. Meanwhile, heat butter in a large soup pot over medium high heat. Stir in flour with a wire whisk; cook, stirring, until flour is light brown, about 3 or 4 minutes. Gradually stir in milk and cream, whisking to prevent scorching, until thickened. Remove from heat, and gradually stir in cheese. Keep warm. Stir beer mixture into cheese mixture. Stir in Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Taste and add more hot pepper sauce, if desired. Bring to a simmer and cook 10 minutes. Serve with popcorn. Yield: 8 servings.

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Fall Harvest Soup 1/2 cup butter 2 cups onion, diced 1 cup carrot, diced 1 cup celery 1/4 cup fresh garlic, minced 2 cups zucchini, diced 2 cups butternut squash, diced 8 large button mushrooms, diced 1 green pepper, diced 1 red pepper, diced 1 cup corn kernels

2 tsp black pepper 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves 1 tsp fresh rosemary leaves 2/3 cup flour 3/4 cup white wine 7 cups vegetable stock 2 cups whipping cream, hot 2 tomatoes, diced 2 cups kale, chopped Salt to taste

Melt butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add next four ingredients and sweat until onions are translucent. Add next 10 ingredients and continue to sweat until zucchini starts to soften slightly (about 7-8 minutes). Add the flour and stir to combine.

Cook for 3 minutes. Add the wine and vegetable stock gradually while stirring. Cook until the liquid reaches its maximum thickness (about 5-6 minutes). Turn heat to low, add the cream, tomatoes and kale.

Simmer gently for about 5-7 minutes, or until soup is hot. Add salt to taste and serve hot. Yield: 3-4 L

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French Onion Soup 3 tbsp olive oil 12 cups onion, sliced thinly 1 bay leaf 3 tbsp fresh garlic, minced 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves 2 tbsp flour

1 cup red wine/sherry 8 cups chicken stock 8 cups beef stock Salt & pepper to taste Shredded parmesan Croutons for garnish

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan over high heat. Add onions and cook until they are wilted and start to caramelize. Reduce heat to medium. Add bay leaf, garlic and thyme. Cook 5 minutes. Add flour, mix thoroughly, then add the wine. Add the stock and bring just to a boil, reduce heat and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

Season to taste with salt & pepper. Laddle hot soup into ovenproof serving bowls. Top each with a handful of croutons and about 1/4 cup of cheese. Put under the broiler just long enough to melt cheese. Yield: 4 L

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food & leisure stuff about

Soup Book publishing company Chicken Soup for the Soul was born in 1993 from a book of the same title by motivational speakers Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. That book, rejected by big New York publishers, sold 11 million copies.

The Chicken Soup series includes more than 250 titles that have sold more than 100 million books in more than 40 languages, and the brand now includes pet food, TV and movies, and apps.

The Soup Nazi character made famous on TV’s “Seinfeld” and played by Brooklynborn actor Larry Thomas was inspired by a real soup vendor in New York. Iranianborn Al Yeganeh operated Soup Kitchen International from 1984-2004. His soups are now sold under The Original Soupman brand.

“I’d know him boiled up in a pot of soup.”

– Newfoundland and Labrador saying that describes how you’d recognize a certain person anywhere.

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Campbell’s famous condensed soup was invented by Dr. John T. Dorrance, a chemist and nephew of the president of Joseph Campbell Preserve Company (as it was then called). He developed the method for removing excess water from soup in 1897, and tomato was among the first five condensed soups.

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Soupy Sales, the American comedian famous for his 1950s-60s TV show and pie-in-the-face gags, was born Milton Supman. His first name comes from his family nickname, “Soup Bone.” His brothers were nicknamed “Ham Bone” and “Chicken Bone.”

Since it opened in St. John’s, NL, in 2002, the Soup Kitchen in the Jimmy Pratt Memorial Outreach Centre, located below the George Street United Church, has served more than 80,000 meals. The Soup Kitchen serves breakfast every Monday and hot meals every Friday.

Bird’s Nest Soup, a Chinese delicacy, is made from the nest of the edible-nest (or white-nest) swiftlet.

This Asian bird makes its nest using its own saliva. Edible bird nests are among the most expensive consumable animal products on the market, fetching sometimes more than $6,000 per kilogram.

“Stone Soup” is a popular European fable that demonstrates the value of sharing. In it, a stranger convinces poor townsfolk to chip in whatever scraps they can spare and makes a pot of nutritious soup to feed everyone. In other cultures the same lesson is told as button, nail, wood or axe soup. www.downhomelife.com

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reminiscing

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Why I Wear a Poppy

By Garfield Seaward

For all the men and women who went overseas to fight I wear a poppy to remind me to not forget their plight I wear it to remember all the folks who died for me For rich and poor, for young and old, so we could all be free For Normandy, for Passchendaele and the Battle of the Somme Where soldiers fell like dominoes on the Beaumont-Hamel run Those same young soldiers days before had laughed and sang and loved Who now lay screaming out to God, while drowning in their blood.

The legless vets on sidewalks, begging for their bread With all their pain and troubled minds, wish they themselves were dead.

So when the big day rolls around, stand up and do your bit Pin a poppy on your chest to show you don’t forget While on Remembrance Day this year, I’ll wear in my lapel A poppy that is large and bright, for those who went through hell.

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we will remember them

Great War Portrait

“This is a photo of my grandfather Thomas Ford (sitting), from Jackson’s Arm, NL. The other soldier (I believe from a Scottish regiment) was killed in the war. Name unknown,” writes the submitter.

Ford joined the army on August 1915, at the age of 27, and served with “C” company of the 28th Division of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in the First World War. Kevin Harnett Zephyr, ON

Far Away Photo

Ralph Rowe of Winterton, Trinity Bay, NL, posed for this photo in uniform in 1940, and sent it home as a postcard from Portsmouth, England.

Norman Rowe Via DownhomeLife.com

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Post-War Wedding

This is Bramwell Fifield of Triton, NL, with his British war bride, Mille, on their wedding day. He had enlisted with the Overseas Forestry Unit when he was 18. He and Mille had three children together before he died in 1962 at the age of 39.

Justine (Vincent) Thomas South Brook, NL

Old Wartime Postcard

“This is my father, Michael Byrne Sr., who served with the Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit from July 26, 1940, and was honourably released from his contract on July 17, 1945. He is from Conche, NL,” writes the submitter. “The postcard was sent to Mrs. Will O’Neill and says ‘We’ll have a good drink when I goes home. Cheers.’”

Mildred Byrne-Mahar Port au Choix, NL

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we will remember them

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George Critch

was born at Shoal Harbour (Cavendish), NL on November 20, 1892, to Garrett Bryant and Jessie Critch. His father died when he was a child. His mother married James Dodge in December 1898, and moved the family to Northern Bight, where George was raised with two stepbrothers, William and Eli, along with two stepsisters, Violet and Annie.

In October 1914, George signed his enlistment papers, completed his training and sailed overseas aboard HMS Carthaginian. He underwent intense naval training on HMS Vidid at Devonport Able Seaman George Critch Courtesy of Melvina Eddy before he was deployed to HMS Alsatian.

After two years at sea, followed by a two-month furlough back home in St. John’s at HMS Briton, Able Seaman Critch was assigned to the Canadian Navy. He was with HMCS Niobe in Halifax the day that no one in Canada has ever forgotten.

Critch and five other members of the Canadian Navy were oblivious to the events that were about to unfold in Halifax Harbour on the morning of December 6, 1917. They were immersed in their work supplying air by hand pumps to two navy divers in the water. They were completing repairs on a dockyard pier when they were suddenly

Left: Destruction at Halifax Harbour. National Archives Canada photo 1-888-588-6353

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Medal awarded to Able Seaman George Critch. Courtesy of Roy Critch struck by a pressure wave from a massive explosion.

The disaster was a direct result of human error in directing ship traffic in the harbour. This miscommunication led to the departing Norwegian ship, Imo, colliding with arriving French vessel, Mont-Blanc. The Mont-Blanc was heavily laden with munitions destined for overseas.

There was no special protocol for passage of ships carrying dangerous cargo, and this likely led to the collision of the two vessels.

When the two ships struck, the impact caused the benzol barrels stored on deck to leak. Sparks from 122

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the grinding metal ships ignited the benzol, setting off a fire that led to one of the greatest manmade tragedies to occur in North America during the First World War – the Halifax Explosion.

At the dock where the Niobe crew had been working, the resulting wave killed five of the six sailors who were manning the air pumps. The fate of the two divers was in the hands of an injured and shocked AS George Critch.

When he realized the divers were still in the water, the adrenaline rush gave Critch the strength to make his way to the collapsed rubble of the pump house. He squeezed his way under the debris and located the pump that, thankfully, was still in working order. Lifting the wreckage with one hand, he began working the pump, which normally required four men to operate, forcing air down the tube that saved the divers. Chief Master-at-Arms John Gammon, who was in command of the dive crew, had also survived the blast and assisted the divers onto the badly damaged dock.

For his heroic deeds, Gammon was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. Able Seaman George Critch was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal (Naval).

Six months after returning to home to Northern Bight, George married Alice Smith of Gooseberry Cove. She knew the pain of war. She had lost one brother, Luke, on HMS Laurentic and suffered the mental anguish at home, alongside her mother and 1-888-588-6353

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Seaman Robert Smith and Able Seaman George Critch. Courtesy of Shelley Smith younger brother, Jim, while waiting for the safe return of her other four brothers.

An article in the Evening Advocate on January 12, 1920, describes their December 22 wedding. All the groomsmen had served overseas, reminding us that many families in the Southwest Arm area, where more 1-888-588-6353

than 100 men served their country, were affected by the Great War. On November 11, take a moment to reflect on the Halifax Explosion, which history records as one of the greatest tragedies of the entire war for Canadians. Thousands of lives were lost in this civilian disaster – not overseas, but here at home.

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we will remember them

Teardrops on the Table

By John Bickham, Harbour Grace, NL

As a child in my day, one of the highlights of our existence

was the family get togethers on special occasions. My dad’s family consisted of three brothers and one sister, while my mom had three brothers and eight sisters. Mom’s brothers moved away to Ontario after the war and only came home on rare occasions. One aunt married an American and moved to the US. That still left eight sisters and husbands within walking or driving distance, so get togethers were a regular bash. This one bash, when I was about seven or eight, stands out in my mind because it gives me a clearer understanding of our veterans.

Just as it was getting dark, the clan started to arrive. As always, they gathered in the kitchen first, until it got too crowded and the men retired to the living room where the card table was set up. The conversations were light at first, about the weather, or who got a new horse to use in the woods this year; everything that could be talked about with me and my sister present.

Bedtime came too soon, at 8:30, and us kids were sent to bed. My bedroom was directly across from the kitchen and I waited until Mom shut the kitchen door, satisfied that I had finally fallen asleep – not likely! After a few hands of 45’s, I could hear my 124

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aunt bring in a plate of sandwiches to the menfolk and return to the kitchen, shutting the door.

By this time, the bottle of dark rum had made several passes and the card game had become more intense, with the first few fists to the table as the five was slammed on the jack. Aha, finally my time to make a move!

I slowly and soundlessly got out of bed and sneaked out into the hall on hands and knees. I remember the coldness of the canvas flooring creeping through my pjs. I made my way to the archway that separated the hall from the living room. When the coast was clear, I scrambled into the room and hid behind the big ol’ 1-888-588-6353

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I heard my uncle’s voice, different than his usual jovial tone as he related a terrible event he had endured while serving and how he still carried with him the scars of that episode that were not so easily seen by others. Then the others began relating their experiences that they had kept locked away for so long. comfy chair in the corner.

Secretly listening to the good fun and guffaws all were having while playing cards, I was delighted to be so clever and so good at hiding. Or was I? Like other times I’d hidden here during parties, one uncle left a small bottle of Coke and a plate of sandwiches untouched by the side of the chair, within easy reach of my little hands.

As the night wore on, the card playing slowed down as conversations picked up. Almost all present were WWII veterans. They had served in the army, navy, air force and merchant marine, so it wasn’t long before they were recalling the people they had served with, boats they’d sailed on, planes they’d flown, places they’d been while serving. It all seemed so exciting, and they even joked about some of their experiences – not in any great detail, just ordinary military life that offered relief from the horrors that they had endured. I was enthralled when they spoke of places like Normandy, France, Italy – mere words that I had only read about – and described the hedgerows of Belgium, the fields of Flanders and 1-888-588-6353

the cobblestones of London.

I heard my uncle’s voice, different than his usual jovial tone as he related a terrible event he had endured while serving and how he still carried with him the scars of that episode that were not so easily seen by others. Then the others began relating their experiences that they had kept locked away for so long.

My uncle took what was left in the bottle and dispersed it to all those present. He stood up, held his glass high, and solemnly said, “To all who pay the price.” All rose and did the same. I saw a tear build up in his eye, roll down his cheek and splatter on the green cardboard top of the card table. If I could see that table today, I’m sure the imprint of that teardrop is still there, as it is on my heart.

Fast forward 50 years or so. As a member of the Canadian Army Veterans (CAV: army, navy and air force veterans who are motorcycle enthusiasts), I was at a get together following a day of riding with veterans and supporters. It was a gorgeous night with little wind and warm temperatures. All was well in the world, and the pressures of everyday life seemed November 2019

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As the elixir was passed around, veterans began speaking of their time in service: where they had lived, places they had been, people they had served with. Suddenly I was back in my hiding place behind that big ol’ comfy chair, listening to my uncle reminisce about his time in service to this country. so unimportant at that time. We lived for the moment; no worries, no stress.

We were all enjoying a few “wobblies” and gathered around a makeshift outdoor table of delicious snacks – everything from crab to sandwiches, fresh shrimp, lobster, and an array of biscuits and cheeses – laid out on a “tablecloth” of green tarp. After a few drinks a fire was lit in the pit, and many of us were drawn to its warm glow.

As the elixir was passed around, veterans began speaking of their time in service: where they had lived, places they had been, people they had served with. Suddenly I was back in my hiding place behind that big ol’ comfy chair, listening to my uncle reminisce about his time in service to this country.

One veteran spoke of an instance that seemed to be the defining moment of his military career, something that he carried with him and very rarely spoke of. I watched as he spoke, his eyes stared into the fire as if he were reliving it. As I gazed at him, I could see my uncle, who was also a large man with greying hair, a 126

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receding hairline, a wrinkled face and middle-age spread. No longer were they young and robust men of muscular build, who could walk or run for miles, or fight their way through dense hedgerows.

Everyone around the fire wore a black vest with the insignia of a dispatch rider on their back to honour those who had ridden before them.

Most had lapel pins embedded in the front of their vests or pieces of coloured ribbons pinned to their chests. Every pin or ribbon held a special significance to those who wore it. The vests were windworn from countless miles driven either from the exuberance of freedom or for some charitable event.

As the fire died down to embers and those present were about to call it a night, someone said “one last drink for all.” As I poured my drink, an arm with drink in hand was lifted and the words “to all who pay the price” were uttered. As I looked around, I saw a tear in the eyes of our veteran swell up and roll down his cheek and splatter on the green tarp tabletop. Yes, teardrops on the table for those “who pay the price.”

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Early Magic: The First Excursion Train

by Chad Bennett

The first locomotive to touch our soil sailed in through the Narrows of St. John’s harbour. In 1881, the SS Merlin carried the hope of a brighter day and the promise of magic.

Excitement held the town warm. It was a companion at every table, enlivening the crackle of a potbelly stove. The London Tavern sang and danced a merry tune as William Burge and his bowler hat held court.

“How many miles, Mr. Burge?” Kip burst in from the stables.

“Is my horse seen to?”

“Yes sir, Mr. Burge, brushed down and fed.”

“In that case,” Mr. Burge began, “twenty miles of road and 10 miles of rail are complete. By this time next year the line will most likely reach all the way to Holyrood.”

“Will they run next summer!?” Kip blurted out. Usually a reserved boy, the eight-year-old couldn’t contain himself.

“Rumour has it, Kip me lad, that there could be an excursion train to Topsail as early as June.”

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“Wow! Can anyone go?”

“Anyone that can pay and gets a ticket in time.”

“Oh,” said Kip, like a boy who has just realized that this new wonderful thing will cost money. “How much?”

“I’ve heard that double tickets will cost eight shillings and singles, five.”

The boy’s face fell as he moved to walk away.

“Kip, just a moment. There’s someone I’d like you to meet.” Mr. Burge shared some knowing glances and grins with the fellows. “This is Professor Bennett, the St. Bon’s music instructor and band master. When the first trains start to run, Professor November 2019

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Kip felt the thrum of growing pressure within the engine. It didn’t feel like a machine at all but a living thing, breathing fire, smoke and steam. A flush of fear soaked up his spine.

Bennett will accompany them, leading bands. He will need a few people to help him with the equipment. I thought you might be interested.”

The boy froze like a statue.

“Of course, you would need to go on the train for the whole journey.

Do you think you’d be able?”

The boy’s eyes saucered, bouncing from Bennett to Burge. “YES! I mean, yes sir, I can do it, I can definitely do it. What is it again?”

Laughter overflowed the room.

“You’ll do fine, Kip,” said Professor Bennett. “Now you’d best attend to the stables.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.” Off he ran.

“A good lad, that,” said Bennett, leaning back into his club chair. “Tell me, Mr. Burge, will you be on that first train?”

“My good professor,” Burge grinned through his eyes framed by heavy brows, “I may be as excited as our young stable boy. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

The Evening Mercury on June 20, 1882, contained an advertisement.

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returning at 7 p.m. sharp. Tickets sold in a flash. More than 300 passengers, and Professor Bennett would lead not one, but three bands.

Kip turned up at 6 a.m., with the sun just burning off the cobwebs of last night’s fog, terrified that the train would leave without him. He wasn’t alone. Hundreds had already turned up: railway staff, passengers, band members – but mostly spectators whose numbers were swelling.

Pushing through the crowd, Kip saw the train for the first time, the #1 Engine!

The brand new engine was purpose built for the Newfoundland Railway

by Hawthorne-Leslie in Leeds, England. It gleamed the way only new, freshly cleaned and polished metals can. Kip felt the thrum of growing pressure within the engine. It didn’t feel like a machine at all, but a living thing, breathing fire, smoke and steam. A flush of fear soaked up his spine.

“Kip! Over here!” Professor Bennett waved, signalling him to begin loading the equipment.

Once everything was loaded aboard, Kip found a seat by an 1-888-588-6353

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opened window. The shunting of the cars had filled the boy with wonder and not a little terror; nerves gripped his chest as he gripped his seat.

The professor glanced at his pocket watch. “Everyone make ready, on my mark.” The train gave a long, confident whistle before sending another ripple of energy through the train.

“Here we go!”

A cheer went up from within the train and a roar of applause from without. “We’re moving!”

Kip forgot his fear and poked his head outside, watching the big wheels beginning to turn, the thumping heartbeat increasing. The band came in right on time. The passengers cheered the crowd and the crowd cheered the passengers, waving giddily to one another, as the train pulled away from Fort William toward what would become Empire Avenue.

To the left, the great houses of Merchants Row; to the right, small farms, a forest and the distant wilderness of Mount Scio. The town soon disappeared, and the train was passing sparkling rivers, deep blue ponds and fields of wild berries. The intoxicating fragrance of evergreen 1-888-588-6353

forest wafted in through open windows. Old men forgot to be stodgy and remembered boyhood tunes as newsagents in shiny buttoned uniforms wheeled through the train with baskets of oranges and other sweet treats. Kip had never been this far from home, never travelled this fast, never realized just how many brooks and streams there were. Every corner brought a new discovery.

Less then an hour later they arrived in Topsail. Picnickers took tea, explorers trekked the woodland and beachcombers strolled the shore. The bands played for the lively dancers in the field, and the dining car served salmon and roast pheasant for diner and supper respectively. The Newfoundland Dining Car had begun its legendary career.

At 7 p.m. the train was starting for home under the golden sunlight of a late summer’s day. Upon reaching St. John’s, the Star of the Sea hall hosted a Grand Bonnet-Hop dance, where the bands continued to play into the small hours and a rising sun.

This has been a re-imagining based on real events.

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reminiscing

between the boulevard and the bay

relics and souvenirs

By Ron Young

I wrote this poem years ago, when I was still a cop in Ontario. This time of year, as we all do, I pause to think about our veterans and their sacrifices, during the war and in their lives after. Some of them knew what they’d lost and some, like Jimmy Joe, didn’t. I’m not sure which is the worst tragedy.

The old man known as Jimmy Joe keeps the medal he won years ago when he was shot down over Bordeaux beside the picture of his first love, Flo next to his bed on the old bureau which often to his friends he’ll show when they visit his room in the tenement row She’s beautiful they tell him so as they drink his wine watch his face glow when he tells how she starred in a Broadway show

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And any day now he plans to go to live with her in her chateau They all pretend that they don’t know she married a clerk from Scarborough and lived with him in a bungalow until she died twenty years ago If you can’t be a great person, be a good one. – Ron Young Ron Young is a retired policeman, published poet and founding editor of Downhome. ron@downhomelife.com

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life is better The Fighting Newfoundlander monument in Bowring Park, St. John’s, NL Perry Howlett, Goulds, NL

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reminiscing

Precious and poetic memories of the Cape Bonavista lighthouse

By Kim Ploughman

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Author Shannon L. Alder wrote, “God built lighthouses to see people through storms. Then he built storms to remind people to find lighthouses.” But what if the Great One constructed these beacons of light to also create golden childhood memories and inspire old souls?

Grace Butler Difalco spent a lot of time visiting that “house which is perched practically on the sea.” The writer and poet knows and feels all too well the power the Cape Bonavista lighthouse had on her formative years and, at the age of 72, the intoxicating pull it still has on her life and her words. “It is here the ageless spirited dance of her waters brings chills to my flesh and peace to my soul,” she says.

Cape Bonavista separates Trinity and Bonavista bays. The lighthouse on the Cape is a provincial museum now, but for generations of fishers it was their only connection to land while they sailed the dangerous seas off the Cape’s high bluffs. Built between 1841 and 1843, it is the fourth oldest lighthouse in the province. It operated for more than a century before the light went dark in 1962. (It was replaced by an automated electric light on a nearby steel skeleton tower.)

It was here that Grace’s grandfather, Hubert Abbott, and his wife Sarah (nee Jestican) were lighthouse keepers and forever changed their granddaughter’s life. They inspired her spiritual journey whilst setting her soul on fire with love and creativity for the sea and for lighthouse culture.

A dedicated lighthouse keeper Grace recounts that her grandfather was only 18 years old when he was hired to operate a foghorn on Cape Island just off Bonavista. Hubert was there for six years, until a destructive storm hit in 1919.

Recalling the infamous storm story, Grace relays, “Imagine living on a little island in the middle of the Atlantic and one morning, while sitting down to breakfast, you suddenly feel sea water rising all the way to your knees.”

The storm hit with ferocity, crashing 45-metre-high waves into the tiny dwelling, severely damaging it and endangering 1-888-588-6353

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They were trapped and alone.

Hubert’s family survived the storm, but the danger it had posed convinced the government to move the family to mainland Cape Bonavista.

From there, Hubert was in charge of the beacons and a new fog alert.

“Free from isolation, but still in a place where the forces of nature brought many challenges, he took great pride in protecting our people of the sea with whom he shared an unspoken bond,” Grace says. She notes that in the quarter-century he worked there, her grandfather incredibly did not take a holiday, nor any time off. “To his family and friends, to his job, to the fishermen and anyone who needed him, he was dedicated and loyal, generous and loving to the very end.”

Where memories were made

Cape Bonavista lighthouse keeper Hubert Abbott the lives of the lighthouse keeper, his wife and their two small children, just one and two years old. The 180-step wooden footbridge that connected the small island to the mainland across a wild, open inlet was too rickety to chance an escape.

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An author of many inspirational verses, poems and three books, including Echoes from the Heart and Winds of Time, Grace is a Canadian poet renowned for her simplicity of language and descriptive images.

One of her poems, “Keeper of the Light,” was set to music and performed for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip during their 1997 visit to Newfoundland and Labrador: “And the ghost of my grandparents linger very near, the stillness seems to whisper their voices in my ear...”

Grace’s first memory, at the age of six months, took place at the Cape Bonavista lighthouse. “While I certainly don’t remember anything more about that day, I vividly remember playing with the glass locket around my mother’s neck as 1-888-588-6353

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Overhead view of Cape Bonavista. The red and white lighthouse is a provincial museum now, but it was home to the Abbotts for more than 20 years. she stood on the front steps with Aunt Una for Uncle Joe to take a picture of us,” she recalls.

She says that from a very early age, she felt the rhythm of Cape Bonavista. “This place became the theatre of my youth; the sea was my violin, my dance and choir all rolled into one, and I had a seat in the mezzanine, known as the headland.”

She adds about her childhood at the Cape, “This was our playground, our Disney World without the crowds and entrance fees; and where, in spite of steep slopes and cliffs, we felt free and safe.”

Her most poignant and golden memory, she recalls, was a calm summer night when she was 10 years old and sitting on the steps leading to the lighthouse. “The moon was on fire in the dark velvet sky and I could 1-888-588-6353

hear the lullaby of sleepy ripples drifting up from the ocean.” Her grandfather appeared and asked if she would like to see the moon up close through the telescope. “With the strong hands of my grandfather holding steady the lens, he allowed me to step, spiritually, into the presence of God and the vaults of heaven.

I didn’t see God with my eyes, but I saw him with my soul.”

Christmas and giving at the Cape The Abbotts were not just lighthouse keepers, they were community givers. “Stories of their generosity are endless. Giving was a 12-month experience, not just during Christmas,” Grace says.

She recounts that the American November 2019

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army base, which was operational at the Cape, had many homesick young men who became part of the Abbott family. “For Christmas dinner, food was often prepared for 20 or more.

The more the merrier – that was always true for my grandparents.”

Grace shares another story about the time her grandfather walked all the way from the light into town in the pouring rain. He was anxious to get back home and snuggle into his brand new, comfy long johns. However, when he returned he found out there would be no such thing. Sarah informed her husband, matter-offactly, that she had given the garment to a visitor earlier in the day. “It was a natural thing for her to do.

Whether food, clothing or shelter, the Abbotts saw to it that these needs were met,” says Grace. “Their giving was another kind of lifeline.”

Soulful connection to home Now living in Torbay, Grace regularly makes the three-and-a-halfhour drive to visit her hometown. In her poetic literary style, Grace remarks of her journeys, “When I visit Cape Bonavista, memories drift across the waves to me and I feel spiritually connected with those whose blood still warms my veins; and who made that blood run cold with tales of spirits’ voices drifting through the fog and ghost-like images haunting the narrow and lonely paths.”

She describes Cape Bonavista as a “place of refuge for all who love the raw beauty of nature.” Yet her spirit is also weighed down by a certain melancholy – the dearth of fisher136

November 2019

men and boats off the Cape. “Their absence upon this power of nature is unnatural,” she states, admitting that it “causes an emotional storm” within her.

Commenting on the lighthouses of today, Grace minces no words.

“Today, our lighthouses are nothing more than open coffins where we can view the death of a vibrant and crucial way of life. Relics and pictures allow us to travel through pieces of century-old history, giving us the opportunity to walk not as the keepers walked, but where they walked, and to romanticize the danger and hard work while treading the hallways and the stairways.”

Back on Cape Island, where her grandparents lived before that fateful storm, the only residents now are puffins, which Grace describes as a “tourist’s dream and who have no need of rickety-old bridges or any fear of being swept out to sea.”

Still, for Grace, the dance between the earth and the sea out on the Cape, where the light still shines, is where her heart belongs and where she feels most content. The Cape Bonavista lighthouse and the timeless opera of the ocean will always be the beacon and the magnetic lure that guide her home.

“Always and forevermore, Through memories so dear I’ll ride again in summer wind In days of yesteryear; O’er jaded cliffs to shining swell Along the rocky shore Keepers of the red and white I ride with you once more…”

– “The Lighthouse Keeper” by Grace Butler Difalco 1-888-588-6353

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life is better Kayaking in Placentia, NL Norman Purchase, Whitbourne, NL

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pg. 30

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Qty.

Item #

Description

Service Guarantee If you are not completely satisfied, please let us know. We will exchange any item in resaleable condition. Sorry, no returns on earrings, books, CDs or DVDs. If you do not receive your order or it is damaged upon delivery, please let us know within 3 business days. Overnight delivery available: please call for details. Product prices and shipping costs may be subject to change without notice.

Delivery Time 3-5 days NL, NS & NB. 7-10 days Central and Western Canada. 2-3 weeks USA. Guidelines set by Canada Post.

Size

Colour

SUB TOTAL Shipping & Handling USA add 15% (+ Shipping)

TOTAL

*

Tax (your provincial sales tax )

Price

$17.00

Shop online for more selection Visit: shopdownhome.com

Please complete your order form carefully. Please send this form along with payment to the address at bottom, or fax to 709-726-2135.

Send to: _______________________________________________________

Address: ________________________________________________________

City: __________________________ Province: _____ Postal Code: ________

Telephone: _____________________ E-mail: __________________________ Gift Service Information

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City: __________________________ Province: _____ Postal Code: ________

Gift Card to read: _________________________________________________

Payment Info : ❒ Visa ❒ Amex ❒ MasterCard ❒ Cheque/Money Order

Please make cheques payable to Downhome Incorporated and send to Downhome, 43 James Lane, St. John’s, NL A1E 3H3 Toll Free: 1-888-588-6353 • Fax: 709-726-2135 mailorder@downhomelife.com • www.shopDownhome.com

NL, NS, PE, NB 15%; ON, 13%; BC, AB, NT, YK, NU, SK, QC, MB, 5%

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THREE BEDROOM OCEAN FRONT HOME Surveyed Land Daniel’s Harbour, Northern Peninsula Photos available $65,000

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Announcements

Downhome Real Estate Wallace & Florence Cribb Married in 1951

Celebrating their 69th Wedding Anniversary on November 12th Both born in Harrington Harbour, Quebec they have been living in Toronto for almost 70 years.

2 Children, 9 Grandchildren 146

November 2019

Ad prices start at $50 for a 1 column x 1 inch colour advertisement. This size fits approximately 20 words. The smallest size of advertisement with a picture is $100 for a 1 column x 2 inch advertisement.

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December 2019 Downhome Ad Booking Deadline October 18, 2019 www.downhomelife.com

November 2019

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puzzles

The Beaten Path

Norman Purchase photo

By Ron Young

Block out all the letters that are like other letters in every way, including shape and size. The letters that are left over will spell out the name of the above community in letters that get smaller in size.

K

E

G T p

n

Q

D

J

S L

B

T

m

J

Z

U

x

G

E

Q

R K

A

U

B

n

Q

C

L

m

L

T

N

G

B

T G

E

n

D

p L A S J L U A L x R Q T m K A T p

T E

B

O S

n

S

A p T S

R

A S Z G

R

R S

D

p G T

Z J B E

x

p

Last Month’s Community: Bay Bulls 148

November 2019

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Sudoku

from websudoku.com

8

6

4 8 6 9 2 8 1 6 7 4 1 9 1 9 3 2 1 5 9 7 6 3 2 9 1 3 8 4 3 Skill level: Medium Last month’s answers

?

Need Help

Visit DownhomeLife.com/puzzles for step-by-step logic for solving this puzzle

www.downhomelife.com

9 8 1 3 2 5 4 6 7

3 7 2 6 9 4 1 5 8

4 6 5 7 1 8 9 3 2

7 5 6 2 3 9 8 4 1

8 3 9 4 7 1 5 2 6

1 2 4 8 5 6 7 9 3

5 1 3 9 8 2 6 7 4

2 4 8 5 6 7 3 1 9

November 2019

6 9 7 1 4 3 2 8 5 149

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Downhomer Detective Needs You After more than two decades on the Urban City Police Force, Downhomer Detective has come home to rid Newfoundland and Labrador of a new threat – cunning thief Ragged Rick. A real braggart, the slimy criminal sends DD a blurry photo of his surroundings plus clues to his whereabouts just to prove he’s always a step ahead.

DD needs your help to identify where in Newfoundland and Labrador Ragged Rick is hiding out this month.

Use these 5 clues to identify where Ragged Rick is now: • Name reflects several islands in a small outport • Located in Notre Dame Bay • Connected to Newfoundland by ferry • Settled in the mid-1800s • Will be resettled Dec. 31, 2019

Last Month’s Answer: Goose Cove

Picturesque Place NameS of Newfoundland and Labrador

by Mel D’Souza Last Month’s Answer: Conne River 150

November 2019

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In Other Words Guess the well-known expression written here in other words.

Last Month’s Clue: Nary a soul comprehends the disturbances I have witnessed In Other Words: Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen This Month’s Clue: In the case that you damage the thing, you are compelled to purchase said thing In Other Words: ____ ______ ___ ____ ____ ___.

A Way With Words BAN / ANA

Rhyme Time A rhyming word game

by Ron Young

Last Month’s Answer: Banana Split

1. A wetter RV is a ______ ______

This Month’s Clue

2. A noisy bunch is a ____ _____

WEAR LONG

3. To select footwear is to ______ _____

ANS: ______ __________

Scrambled Sayings

Last Month’s Answers 1. choose your news, 2. crow’s nose, 3. hare pair

by Ron Young

Place each of the letters in the rectangular box below into one of the white square boxes above them to discover a quotation. Incomplete words that begin on the right side of the diagram continue one line down on the left. The letters may or may not go in the box in the same order that they are in the column. Once a letter is used, cross it off and do not use it again.

’ H H E B B T R F R O T S O U R W R

’

A A D G A A H E E F I A C D E G G O E E E I B T N E R M L E E R I I N T L V L M T R R S S L N S N N M S Y S S S T T O R

Last month’s answer: Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in. www.downhomelife.com

November 2019

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Rhymes 5 Times Each answer rhymes with the other four

1. sign 2. behaviour 3. bottler 4. MRI 5. organizer

_______________ _______________ _______________ _______________ _______________

STUCK? Don’t get your knickers in a knot!

Puzzle answers can be found online at DownhomeLife.com/puzzles

Last Month’s Answers: 1. pored, 2. bored, 3. stored, 4. toured, 5. lord

Tangled Towns

by Lolene Young Condon and Ron Young

Sound out the groups of words below to get a familiar expression.

For best results sound the clue words out loud!

Attire Reap Hairs Enter _ ____ ______ ______ Airy Ledges Purse Sun _ _________ ______ Last Month’s 1st Clue: Hole Summon Greedy Hence Answer: Wholesome ingredients Last Month’s 2nd Clue: Up Era Shoot Answer: A parachute

Unscramble each of the five groups of letters below to get 5 Newfoundland and Labrador place names.

1. GVRAESUM BORUHAR 2. MILLRACEVAN 3. DECKFRONTIER 4. DONGPREENS 5. KSERCAL DAHE Last Month’s Answers: 1. Rocky Harbour, 2. Norris Point, 3. Trout River, 4. Sally’s Cove, 5. Cow Head

A nalogical A nagrams Unscramble the capitalized words to get one word that matches the subtle clue.

1. HARD BY IT ~ Clue: not a suit you’d get married or buried in 2. ICY IT SOUR ~ Clue: it’s hard on cats 3. DO TIRE ~ Clue: she can make a long story short 4. NECK CHI ~ Clue: a scaredy cat of a different species 5. CAR RACKET ~ Clue: gives us the run around Last Month’s Answers: 1. trespassers, 2. agriculture, 3. haunted, 4. traffic, 5. mystery 152

November 2019

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Four-Way Crossword F o re Wo rd s • B a c k Wo rd s • U p Wo rd s • D o w n Wo rd s

By Ron Young

Unlike regular crosswords, in Four-Way Crossword each letter is not necessarily related to the letter in the adjacent row or column, but is part of one or more words in some direction.

1-6: panic 1-61: horn 1-91: extolling 3-23: colour 6-9: ascent 6-96: salvation 8-28: pigpen 10-60: leave 10-100: section 11-31: strong drink 14-11: ursine 14-19: lungful 14-20: respire 14-34: snake 16-18: devour 18-20: that one 19-49: rabbit 21-24: erase 23-25: female deer 24-44: hardwood tree 26-28: 24 hours 28-30: bark 28-48: yearning 30-28: compensate 40-37: region 31-36: cope 33-35: hen-peck 37-57: become sick 46-41: cosmetics 46-50: prospector 50-20: sexual assault 53-3: delicate 53-23: mind 53-51: golf start 55-15: beer 55-95: hermit 55-52: tardy 56-59: design 56-60: sow 57-77: backtalk 61-66: brewing www.downhomelife.com

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device 64-66: pan’s pard 66-69: fatigue 68-88: tabloid 70-66: deserve 71-74: length unit 72-52: born 72-92: new 73-53: feline 75-77: pinch 76-96: charged particle 77-80: stride 79-77: headwear 79-99: fire 81-61: louse egg 81-84: close 86-90: harmonium 90-88: old horse

91-96: rule 91-100: authorities 93-43: abandon Last Month’s Answer

F ORM I I M I AR N I ARD A T I KA LOV E L I P A T A S AGA S I GU B T NOE L A GE N E R

DA B L EGD E KA E L C I BO I NR P KEOU EMO T E EMA P HON A T I O

November 2019

E L B A I T O G E N

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The Bayman’s

Crossword Puzzle 1

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by Ron Young

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19 22 24 26 31

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45 154

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ACROSS 1. “A nod is as good as a wink __ _ blind horse” (2 words) 4. The old ___ – sleep paralysis (colloq) 5. before 6. 50 states, collectively (abbrev) 8. “I’d know him boiled up __ _ pot of soup” (2 words) 10. “Ladies ___ League Fight” by Peter Francis Quinlan 11. Ptarmigan (colloq) 18. fast dance (colloq) 19. transgressor 20. each (abbrev) 21. “When _ ______ upon the smile on Mama’s face” (2 words) 22. black 24. “Stunned as me ____” 26. falsehood 28. Tib’s ____ – Dec. 23 29. identification (abbrev) 30. acknowledgment of debt 32. untidy state (colloq) 35. pairs with bolt 36. past 37. another _____ in your belt 39. __ Eliot – poet 40. lose control 41. opposite of northwest 42. post office (abbrev) 43. traps 45. gave medical assistance 46. Eastern Daylight Time (abbrev) DOWN 1. “They congregate here on ___ ____ ______’ ground” 2. “In a leaky punt with a broken ___ ’tis always best to hug the shore” 3. long time 7. _____ mail 9. Toronto’s CFL team www.downhomelife.com

11. Flipper ___ – Good Friday favourite (NL) 12. “Lukey’s rolling out his grub, a barrel __ _ ___ ___ a ten pound tub” (4 words) 13. Registered nurse (abbrev) 14. provokes 15. rural route (abbrev) 16. deceased 17. Garfield to his friends 19. trap-fishing boat 23. baby goat 25. “I am leaving on the _______ tide, now Mother, don’t go cryin’” 27. “When the boats came in from fishing, _ __ to meet my dad” (2 words) 31. Logy Bay-Middle Cove-_____ Cove 33. Nan’s husband 34. fisherman’s shed 38. emcee 40. sat (colloq) 41. __ Anthony 42. Pikes Arm (abbrev) 44. Edward to his friends A R N S E A H E R L U S N N E I N O F F N L D S H E A M A U G K U P L B U L

ANSWERS TO LAST MONTH’S CROSSWORD S H O R A A E P A R T T I N R R S I E O A L P E V A N C L B I R

E R R O R I D L O S T A P U F E R N R D S

A R G O S

V E N E D O E D R D S I T E F I N S I R A N E M O D E N

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DIAL-A-SMILE © 2019 Ron Young

Pick the right letters from the old style phone to match the numbers grouped below and uncover a quote which will bring a smile to your face.

_ _ _____ __ 3 2 86874 83

__ 69 __ 28

___ 843

___ 496

_ __ _ ___ 8 36 3 464

_______ 6224463 __ 47

___ 843

_______ 6224463

Last Month’s Answer: Some people are like clouds. When they go away, it’s a brighter day.

©2019 Ron Young

CRACK THE CODE

X

Each symbol represents a letter of the alphabet, for instance =M Try to guess the smaller, more obvious words to come up with the letters for the longer ones. The code changes each month.

_ _

OD

_ _ _ _ M _ _ _ _ _ ZQQDX i zxB

_ _ _ _ _

fnHZO M _ _ _

XRxO _ _ _ _

7 Ht t

t

_ _ _ _ _ _

_ _

OBzCfx _ _ _ _ M

Ln H ZX _ _

Zx

7H _ _

Zx

_ _ _ ZQO

Last Month’s Answer: A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.

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Food For Thought

© 2019 Ron Young

Each food symbol represents a letter of the alphabet. Find the meanings to the words then match the letters with the food symbols below to get a little “food for thought.”

equal = tiller =

_ _ _

hero =

_ _ _ _

shudders =

wV I Yo]a

desires =

_ _ _

tl

_ _ _ _ _

_ _ _

q co i V c _ _

tq

i Y Vawnq c _ __ _ _ _ _

lYnpoIl

renowned =

_ _ _ _ _

eV c

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

copoI

_ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

i q c lo c t

_ _ _ _

i Ioow eYo c

_ _ _ _ _

}oo]l

_ _

Vc _ _

tq

_ _ _ _ _ _

}Vaqyl

_ _ _

q co

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

nawy]lo

_ _ _ _

lqVI

Last Month’s Answer: Wisdom does not necessarily come with age.

Sometimes age comes alone. www.downhomelife.com

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Different Strokes

Our artist’s pen made the two seemingly identical pictures below different in 12 places. See if you can find all 12.

ERN AND COAL BIN AT A CARD GAME WITH FRIENDS

Last Month’s Answers: 1. Roof; 2. Outboard motor; 3. Ern's arm; 4. Ern’s trousers; 5. Life jacket; 6. Door; 7. House; 8. Hood; 9. Longliner; 10. Taft; 11. Ridge; 12. Coal Bin. “Differences by the Dozen”- A compilation of Different Strokes from 2002 to 2014 (autographed by Mel) can be ordered by sending $9.95 (postage incl.; $13.98 for U.S. mailing) to Mel D’Souza, 21 Brentwood Dr., Brampton, ON, L6T 1P8.

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HIDE & SEEK COLOURS

The words can be across, up, down, backward or at an angle, but always in a line.

ALABASTER AQUAMARINE AZURE BURGUNDY CANARY CHAMPAGNE CHARCOAL CYAN DENIM EBONY EGGSHELL FUCHSIA GOLDENROD GUNMETAL INDIGO LAVENDER MAGENTA MAHOGANY MAROON

E Y E B W T B Q A O M B I U L T F C

L N N H G B E L V J S H B G O M A W

W A I O M O A L R B P M M U A E P M

N E O R B B L K R S P L A T I N U M

I B W C A E S D G A A Z N M K P G B

Q E B S R M I E E U C L B A H K E I

SCARLET TAUPE TURQUOISE UMBER VIOLET

PERIWINKLE PLATINUM RASPBERRY RUBY SAGE SALMON Z C R D H V M S Z T A D S H L B M A

Last Month’s Answers

O T T U Q A A Z J N H S M R I J C G

www.downhomelife.com

S E Z D D E H U Y G R P B O H H S J

R A E P U A T C Q M M O A O N G N K

C S U Y R A N A C A A C D N J K B Q

E L K N I W I R E P J H M R G I Q U

L Y X C Y J L S C E A C O U Q M T S

F Y Q F S A T V M D C F M O A Y I D

S L E H G I P N N A L Z G D S C S M

B D L H V U I V H D T I N G X P M Y

H X A G Y O O T I G T A Y V L Q S P

I C O K O R Y K D K N C K D E S U N

T N C H M O C K A Z N M S Y A Y E P

M T N R E S H J R S S D H I V R S U

Y U C I S B A N G B E L L Y E L Q G

Q U N B U F Y M M N E G U D R N S H

F S M A H R W C G F L Y X V E P M S

M Q L M I C E P Q V M C V H N N R L

Y G E Q A W A F P T G C L N X U Y E

K A U W E O M N I I H I J X T I E S

L R R Q R E N A A A A K A P T N B Q

P P I A Y R M X E U B N W Q E B V N

L U A N T S E V M V I O X E E T R T

E U P R G K Y L G B M X V C Z R O Y

T L F Y L Y T M S H E Y S H K L A V

L I V S A A Y Z C W M L J A S Q W B

T B X Q L M I K N C M A E C K V G F

A O M F C J N N L Y A N E N Y B S D

D B F E I Z U D A F N G A G W S P D

L L E H S G G E E O I I N N W Y I I

D L U G A R C W E X S Q H A N N G F

E P G L C G N N M R I X K S Y N C O

R A S P B E R R Y S N C D Y Q T X P

D E K S T Y U I U D S E N H P K J Y

R H C T U L G S S H A W B O C M U D

B P V I O L E T H D E A E C B V C H

E I M M U L F H R N W J A R T Y U H

J A N N Y Q E I N W O T S E O U J M

S A G E T J C C I B D O R F H H R A

K S G V Z M K N H F B A Y M A N O C

C P L E A V U G Y U Y S A B B I M Z

November 2019

N H O S I V O T A T N I P P E R I T

G O X U N I H T A J U H K C A W T A

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photo finish

Free Show &

Front Row Seats

“What a way to bring in a new month [of September] – with an amazing Northern Lights display over town,” writes the submitter. “She lit up the whole sky for hours.”

Timothy Collins Labrador City, NL

Do you have an amazing or funny photo to share?

Turn to page 9 to find out how to submit.

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