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Vol 33 • No 05
$4.99
October 2020
Beware the Jacky Lantern!
Fishery Inspired Furniture Encounters with Death Tokens Fall Planting for Spring Blooms
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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 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 Darlene Whiteway 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
Subscriptions Customer Service Associate Kathleen Murphy Customer Service Associate Nicola Ryan
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, NS, NB, PE $45.99; ON $45.19; QC, SK, MB, AB, BC, NU, NT, YT $41.99. US and International mailing price for a 1-year term is $49.99.
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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tail end of research
Contents
OCTOBER 2020
34 Warnings Across the Waters Tales of ghostly appearances, premonitions, unsettling dreams and death tokens from old Conception Bay Dennis Flynn
46 Portraits and Portrayals With a recent acquisition, painter Nelson White has been discovered by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Jenn Thornhill Verma
68 Fluke Science The secret to tracking humpback whales is in their flukes. Lester Green
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96 Berry Bonanza A dozen tasty ways to enjoy this year’s berry harvest.
sweet takes
www.downhomelife.com
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Contents
OCTOBER 2020
homefront 10 I Dare Say A note from the editor 12 Letters From Our Readers A wedding in a dory, a return to a resettled home, and the discovery of long lost friends
20 Downhome Tours Downhome readers explore Alaska
12 dory I-dos
22 Why is That? Does eating turkey really make us sleepy, and how does food go “down the wrong way”? Linda Browne 24 Life’s Funny Jobs Today Sheila Trask
25 Say What A contest that puts words in someone else’s mouth
26 Lil Charmers Baby Berrypickers
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running a-fowl
28 Pets of the Month Fall Fur 30 Reviewed Denise Flint interviews Antony Berger about editing and compiling his mom’s stories in No Place for a Woman: The life and Newfoundland stories of Ella Manuel.
32 What Odds Paul Warford covers karaoke
features 40 Beware the Jacky Lantern The eerie light beckons, but you dare not follow. Dale Gilbert Jarvis 4
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40 turnip terror 1-888-588-6353
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awaken the senses
52 What’s that Fall Smell? The science behind the changing scents of the seasons and how they help us to interpret our world in some very important ways Linda Browne
58 Don’t Get Taken by the Fairies Be informed and prepared before you next head into the forest or over the hills of NL. Kim Ploughman
62 Sure Shots Featuring photographer Lorraine Winsor
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explore 72 Rockin’ the Rock A travel diary by Kathryn Erskine
76 Fogo Island Day Trip Calvin Perry October 2020
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Contents
OCTOBER 2020
82
outdoor spaces
home and cabin 80 Stuff We Love Locally Set Thanksgiving Table Tobias Romaniuk
82 Decked Out The planning and precision paid off on this patio project. Tobias Romaniuk 88 From Stage Head to Table The wharf-inspired hall table of Jerome Canning Tobias Romaniuk
92 Everyday Gourmet Andrea Maunder explains how to make Grilled Squash Tacos 106 Down to Earth Beautiful Fall Bulbs Kim Thistle 6
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114
a newcomer’s notes
reminiscing 110 Flashbacks Classic photos of people and places
112 The Ghosts of Nichols Pond Dennis Flynn
114 A Father’s Journey Elizabeth Batstone
About the cover These mouthwatering cranberry tarts are just one of a dozen delicious berry recipes in this issue. Turn to p. 96, get your apron on, and start sampling some treats!
Cover Index Beware the Jacky Lantern! • 40 What’s that Fall Smell? • 52 Whales by the Tail • 68 Berry Bonanza! • 96 Fishery Inspired Furniture • 88 Encounters with Death Tokens • 34 Fall Planting for Spring Blooms • 106 www.downhomelife.com
118 Best Day Trip Ever A last chance journey on a Newfoundland train Kenneth G. Pieroway 121 Newfoundlandia The Plant Hunter Chad Bennett
126 Marketplace 128 Mail Order 132 Puzzles 144 Photo Finish October 2020
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Sleepy after gobbling a Thanksgiving dinner? Here’s why. p. 22
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Take a journey on a Newfoundland train p. 118
Got a recipe? Need a recipe?
Digital Downhome
Join our Everyday Recipes Facebook Group!
Read Downhome anytime, anywhere on any digital device. Sample it for free on Issuu.com!
October 2020
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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
October 2020
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i dare say Behind this mask is a berry-eating grin.
Todd Young photo
Is there anything more amazing in nature than berries? Newfoundland might be “a rock,” but she grows some slew of juicy berries! Blackberries, blueberries, partridgeberries, cranberries, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, dogberries, serviceberries and bakeapples. From sweet to tart, from June to November, there’s a treat for everyone just there for the taking. Loves it. Berrypicking, as an event, a tradition, exists in everyone’s lived experience in Newfoundland and Labrador. Even in the capital city, I’ve seen people scouring Signal Hill and the trail to Cuckold’s Cove with their berry pail. I have memories associated with almost every kind of berry. Blackberries (crowberries) make me think of steamed blackberry pudding, and the way the berries would pop! in my mouth with every warm bite. Partridgeberries bring back the taste of Mom’s partridgeberry pie smothered in tin cream. Raspberries transport me to gravel pits and dodging wasps while picking berries off stalks taller than me. Wild strawberries remind me of my first trip to Bell Island and finding a meadow full of them. I always associate dogberries with Nan Stuckless because she liked them more than anyone I knew. And blueberries conjure up more memories than all the berries combined. With all those berries, we’re always looking for new, tasty ways to use them. In this issue, staff and family and friends shared some favourite berry recipes (see p. 96), while writer Kim Ploughman offers some sage advice to berrypickers about minding the mischievous fairies that are “known” to roam the woods and hills (see p. 58). And if that sends a delightful chill up your spine, you’ll be in the shivers with spooky stories by Dale Jarvis (p. 40) and Dennis Flynn (pp. 34 and 112), just in time for Halloween! Thanks for reading,
Janice Stuckless, Editor-in-chief janice@downhomelife.com 10
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WIN A DOWNHOME CARE PACKAGE! We’re looking for readers’ RECIPES to share in the December issue! Send us your cherished Christmastime (or other December holiday) recipe, and tell us how it came to be an annual favourite. We’ll choose the best ones for the December issue and enter them into a draw for a HOLIDAY CARE PACKAGE of goodies from Downhome! Send your recipes by October 20, 2020! Mail:
Email: editorial@downhomelife.com Downhome, 43 James Lane, St. John’s, NL, A1E 3H3
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East Meets West Wedding Here’s a photo from my brother’s wedding in Kamloops, BC, on August 1. They were supposed to get married in North Harbour, Placentia Bay, NL, but COVID19 prevented that. They decided to have a small, physically distanced wedding in Kamloops, with immediate family and a few close friends. My brother had a dory (called a flat in North Harbour) built for him several years ago and brought it back to BC in 2012. Since they couldn’t get married on our father’s wharf as planned, they decided to get married in the flat – appropriately named Newfie Pride! The groom is Curtis Eddy, formerly from North Harbour, and the bride is Wanda Carisse from Kamloops. Marilyn Crummey, Belleville, ON
Congratulations, Curtis and Wanda! It’s too bad you couldn’t come home for your wedding as planned, but you certainly made the best of it. “Home” is where the heart is. 12
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Raving About Rhubarb Hi there, from “far off” Wasaga Beach, Ontario! We have just started our subscription to Downhome – how excited we were to find a copy of your magazine in a hospital waiting room! Right away we phoned and ordered a threeyear subscription. We enjoy reading it from start to finish, but one food article stood out. It was about rhubarb [Everyday Recipes, June 2020 issue]. How lucky we were that a friend had donated armfuls of the “vegetable” to us. As a result, we have made the jam. How good it is – and all the ingredients were easy to find, if not already in our house. Everybody who has tasted it is delighted with the taste. As a matter of fact, many have asked for the recipe. At the same time, we loaned them one of your magazines (we hope it’s good for business!). Once again, many thanks and do keep up the good work. Ken & Marlene Hayes Wasaga Beach, ON
Welcome to the readership family! We hope you like this month’s recipes, submitted by Downhome staff and family and friends, and featuring a variety of delicious berries. We’re currently looking for readers’ recipes to share in the December issue. Anyone who has cherished Christmastime (or other December holiday) recipes that they’d like to share with readers and their families, please email us at editorial@downhomelife.com. Tell us a bit about the recipe and how it came to be an annual favourite. We’ll publish a collection of your recipes in the December issue. We need them by October 19, 2020! www.downhomelife.com
Downhome in India I recently sent a subscription to my friend in India. She loves reading about Newfoundland and would like to visit one day. Here’s a photo of her with your magazine. Carl Smith, Mount Pearl, NL
Thanks for sharing Downhome, Carl. Hopefully she’ll enjoy seeing this photo when she receives this issue.
TB is not a Virus My wife and I have been subscribed to Downhome for about 15 years now by a wonderful Newfie friend of ours. We arrived in Newfoundland in 1987, spent four years there and then moved to Ontario to gain Canadian qualifications, and have stayed there since. We read the magazine from cover to cover, and I love the puzzles. In your August edition, on both the contents page and in the article on tuberculosis, you describe it as a October 2020
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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: Corky Contest
Congratulations to Mary Vallis of Harbour Breton, NL, who found him on page 85 of the August issue.
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.
“virus.” It is not a virus (as COVID-19 is), but a bacteria (mycobacterium tuberculosis). Being a bacteria, antibiotics were developed to treat it, although it was quite drug resistant and needed regimens of multiple simultaneous antibiotics for success. We were able to treat TB long before antivirals became clinically available. Theo Lombard, Brantford, ON
Thank you for that clarification, Theo.
Thoughts After Reading I particularly enjoyed the August 2020 piece on Johnny Burke, the Prescott Street poet [“Newfoundlandia”]. Who could not be curious about the life and times of the composer of such signature Newfoundland tunes as the “Kelligrews Soiree” and the “Trinity Cake”? (I’d like to point out a mistake that was made in the author’s account: 14
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the Portuguese White Fleet of barkentines only fished on the Grand Banks between 1933 and 1973 – long after Johnny Burke’s time, and their hulls were painted white to remind German sub commanders of their neutrality during WWII). The piece had particular resonance for me for a number of personal reasons as well. I was born in 1935, into a family living at 5 Victoria Street (next door to the LSPU Hall). My father’s sister Madeline (Mad, a longtime clerk at the East End Stores and earlier at Wilansky’s) lived nearby on Prescott Street, about halfway up, on the west side of the street between Duckworth and Gower. Her husband was Tommy Dohney, a well-known entertainer and emcee for groups like the K of C and BIS during the 1930s and 1940s, and a longtime clerk at the Board of Liquor Control. Tommy seemed to be a fellow 1-888-588-6353
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very much modelled on an obvious hero of his, Johnny Burke… Another piece with particular resonance for me was that on TB [“The Toll of Tuberculosis”]. I still have haunting recollections of it, having had many relatives afflicted by the frightening deadly disease, some of whom died as recently as the late 1950s. Others spent long periods in treatment and recovery at the TB Sanitorium (the “San”) on Topsail Road. Thank you for the magazine. John P. Christopher, Via email
Thanks for reading, and for the clarification. While the Portuguese fished on the Grand Banks and called into port at St. John’s since the 1500s (it appears on a 1519 Portuguese map as Säo Joäo), they weren’t known as the “White Fleet” until WWII for the reasons you stated.
Interesting Stories in July Issue I must commend your staff for the interesting stories of Newfoundland. Reading the story “Hero of the Great War” about Cpl. Matthew Brazil of Spaniards Bay: I knew the Brazils and many times passed their house going to mass at Spaniards Bay (I’m from Tilton). What a legacy the Brazils left on the small community. When I read on page 42 the favourite saying of Newfoundland when the taxi driver says “Okay, my ducky” [“The Canadian Dream”] – well, I nearly fell off my seat. In a store here in Grand Prairie, the clerk said “No, me ducky,” when I asked if I was in her way, and I said “What part of Newfoundland are you from, b’y?” It was Grand Falls area. And talking of Bristol’s Hope [“A Space for Trapper Tom”], I have a www.downhomelife.com
First Drink of the Season I snapped this photo of my boyfriend, Clifford Russell, enjoying his first taste of rum after we returned to his, now resettled, hometown of William’s Harbour, Labrador. We return every year from May to November to live off the grid and fish for crab, scallop, whelk and cod. Mallory Harrigan
William’s Harbour, NL That’s a well-taken photo, Mallory. With so many resettled communities in Newfoundland and Labrador, photos of them will become as scarce as their visitors. Anyone who has photos, present or past, from a now resettled community, we’d love to preserve them on our website for everyone to see and to publish them in the magazine to keep their memories alive. Submit your photo anytime online at Downhomelife.com; email it to editorial@downhomelife.com; or mail it to Downhome, 43 James Lane, St. John’s, NL, A1E 3H3. If you have information or a story about a former community, we’d love to read that, too! October 2020
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brother living there, Kevin Peddle! Keep up the great work. Downhome is a piece of Newfoundland while we stay home and be safe. Veronica Lunn, Grand Prairie, AB
Thanks for reading and keeping in touch, Veronica.
Just Discovered Downhome A neighbour in my apartment building recently gave me a June 2020 copy of Downhome. I had never heard of it and I’m so glad she gave it to me. I have read it from cover to cover, and I must tell you, I feel it is the best magazine I have ever read. It is so full of so much interesting information, I only wish I had discovered it years ago if it was around then. My husband was born in Digby, NS, but spent most of his life in Saint John, NB, where he completed his schooling. I was born and raised in Toronto, ON, but have been in the Maritimes many times
with him, but never to Newfoundland. My youngest grandson, who is 23, was in Newfoundland a few months ago for work. He said he really likes it there and hopes to go back sometime soon… Unfortunately, I won’t be able to go to Newfoundland because of my age and my health. I am 85 years old and not very mobile. If I were younger I would have taken on a three-year subscription… I can’t thank the people enough who put this magazine together. They deserve a lot of credit for so many interesting articles, especially all the recipes. Della Barnard, Kingston, ON
Nice to meet you, Della.
Found My Long Lost Friends I am so excited that three of my childhood friends were mentioned in the July 2020 magazine.
What is it?
I found this in the attic of our 1880s home and would love to know what its use was/ is. John Huddart, Twillingate, NL
We posted this on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and got numerous responses. We’re still not sure what the correct answer is (the editor is leaning towards pudding steamer), but here are some of the guesses: Cheesecake / springform pan Well bucket Cheese form Ice cream bucket Lunch tin 16
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All Smiles
This is how I feel every month when my Downhome comes in the mail. Thanks for the nice feeling. Dorothy (Dot) Larsen, St. Stephen, NB
On page 19 on that issue there is a Happy 90th Birthday notice for Edith (Richards) Collins, formerly of Port aux Basques and now living in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Her daughters – Mary Lou, Patricia and Susanne – used to visit their grandparents in Port aux Basques on their summer vacation. Their house was about 20 feet from our house, and their grandfather, William Richards, was my godfather. The girls and I often played together on the rocks near the seashore behind their house, and we were all best friends. Over the years we’ve lost touch, and I assumed the girls now had new last names, so there was no way to locate them via Facebook. It was just a few weeks ago that I was www.downhomelife.com
thinking about them, and suddenly they are mentioned in this magazine. I am going to leave my email address here and maybe we can connect once again. Thank you, Downhome! Joseph W. Roberts
Conception Bay South, NL If any of Edith Collins’ daughters would like to reconnect with Joseph, he can be reached by email: josephwroberts@bellaliant.net.
Remembering the Home for the Aged With reference to your “This Month in History” story of Thomas Sugg: the Home for the Aged and Infirm, where October 2020
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he resided in his twilight years, was not on Water Street. I do not know which came first, the Home or Victoria Park, but they coexisted for all of my formative years. The Home was located on Sudbury Street, next to number 34, my home. My mother, Effie Kendell, was senior nurse, and teacher for nurses in training, at the Home for many years. When it comes to Victoria Park, there is always some confusion. The site where Victoria Park is now located was originally the site for NL’s first Civilian Hospital and long-term care facility. This existed from 1883 to 1888. The hospital was closed and the land ceded to establish Victoria Park. The year 1861 saw the opening of a home for indigent persons on Sudbury Street. This building was commonly known as the “poor house,” and Sudbury Street had the unwanted distinction of being known as “Poor House Lane.” This building lasted until 1965, when it was replaced by Hoyles Home. My mother began working there as
soon as my siblings and I could be left in care of a live-in sitter. Needless to say, commuting to work was not a problem. I had the opportunity to meet many of the residents while I was growing up, and there were many stories to tell. I was 15 at the time of Mr. Sugg’s 110th birthday, and the thing I remember most is that, even with his age, his skin was baby smooth. The patients were made up of First World War amputees, polio patients and long-term care needs. Every patient had a story, and I was always intrigued and spellbound by their tales. Ted Kendell, Hammond, ON
Thank you, Ted, for that clarification. While Victoria Park today borders on Water Street west, it was on its southwestern border with Sudbury Street that the Home actually stood. And thank you for sharing your personal connection to the Home, Victoria Park and Mr. Sugg.
Dear readers, Would you like to comment on something you’ve read in Downhome? Do you have a question for the editors or for other readers? Submit your letter to the editor at DownhomeLife.com/letters or write to us at 43 James Lane, St. John’s, NL, A1E 3H3.
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Charlie’s Dream of Port Blandford If your idea of a weekend getaway includes a spacious cottage, stunning ocean views – and some furry Newfoundland Ponies to hang out with, Cathy Coveyduck’s place in Port Blandford is the spot for you. She and her husband, Jim Lewis, run Terra Nova Cottages, RV Park and Conference Centre. And though it has been a tough year on many businesses that depend on tourists, it sure helps to have a star attraction. Enter baby Newfoundland Pony, Charlie’s Dream (Reg # 906), who was born on May 3, 2020, in the height of the pandemic. His Dam is Valen’s Fancy (Reg. # 859) and Sire, the magnificent Dawson’s Star (Reg. # 651). The three of them make a pretty cute family and are permanent residents on the grounds of Terra Nova Cottages. ‘Charlie’ is like any foal – he’s curious, manages to get into a ton of mischief and, of course, loves attention. He’s also interested in making friends with their Newfoundland dog, Bear. Cathy and Jim are new to the Newfoundland Pony world and are amazed at how easy it is to keep them. “One pony, three ponies; it’s all good!” Cathy laughs. She is enjoying the unique world the ponies have opened for them at a time of uncertainty when the entire world is changing. “It is incredible all the people we’ve met through the Newfoundland Pony connections. Our world has changed for the better and we’re very grateful. We’re working hard to learn about this unique breed and trying to do our part to help them survive into the future.” For more information, visit www.terranovahospitalityhome.com or email C_COVEYDUCK@hotmail.com.
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homefront Downhome tours...
Alaska
Ancient Land Sabrina Francoeur poses in Sitka.
The area known as downtown Sitka today was settled more than 10,000 years ago by the Tlingit people. A standout feature here is Mount Edgecumbe, a dormant volcano that rises 976 metres above sea level and can be seen from Sitka on a clear day. In the Indigenous Tlingit language it is named L’ux, for “flashing” or “blinking,” which may describe how it looks when it’s erupting.
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Northcott Exposure
Harry and Jerry Northcott, their wives Judy and Lou-Anne, along with Ian and Heather Healey, bear the cold long enough for this souvenir photo on a glacier. There are more than 100,000 glaciers in Alaska of various sizes, and more than 600 are significant enough to be named. While you might think they would be too cold to support life, there are several insects, including “ice worms,” that live on the surface of glaciers.
Dream Come True
In 2019, at the age of 84, reader Mary O’Keefe of Tilting, NL, finally took her trip of a lifetime: a cruise to Alaska. Here she is in Ketchikan. Ketchikan, the southernmost community in Alaska, is famous for its totem poles. In fact, there are more of these carvings standing tall here than in any one location elsewhere in the world. While many of them are recarvings of older poles, there are original, untouched totem poles – recovered from nearby abandoned Indigenous settlements (Tlingit and Haida) – displayed at the Totem Heritage Center. www.downhomelife.com
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Expert answers to common life questions. By Linda Browne
Does eating turkey really make us feel sleepy? It’s that time of year again, when we gather around the table with our loved ones to enjoy good company, conversation, and lots and lots of tasty Thanksgiving treats. And for many folks here in Canada, that often means turkey. But if food is supposed to give us energy, how come gobbling up roasted bird often makes us feel so sleepy? Or… does it? The culprit usually blamed for this drowsy dilemma is L-tryptophan, which, according to a paper published in the International Journal of Tryptophan Research, is an amino acid that’s an essential part of our diet and a “critical component of numerous metabolic functions.” And it’s not just found in turkey, it’s also in chicken, tuna, milk, oats, cheese, peanuts, bread, bananas and chocolate. The body converts tryptophan into a vitamin called niacin, which helps create serotonin, which can be broken down into melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep. However, according to the US-based National Sleep Foundation (NSF) (a non-profit that supports sleep education, research and advocacy), tryptophan is one of many amino acids found in turkey and eating it doesn’t impact serotonin levels as quickly as one might think. 22
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“All of those amino acids compete to get transported to the brain. Tryptophan is one of the least represented amino acids in those foods, which means that it gets shoved out of the way by the others,” states the NSF on their Sleep.org website. From dressing and potatoes to other starchy veggies, if there’s one thing Thanksgiving dinner is loaded with, it’s carbohydrates, which helps tryptophan make its way to the brain. “Carbohydrates cause your body to release insulin, which removes all amino acids – except tryptophan – from your blood. That means that tryptophan has no competition and can enter the brain easily, boosting serotonin levels. So eating a snack that’s all carbohydrates will react with stored tryptophan in your body and give you a much bigger increase of serotonin,” explains the NSF. “You can actually 1-888-588-6353
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use this to your advantage by eating a light carbohydrate-centric snack before bedtime.” As the NSF explains, that desire you feel to hit the hay after a Thanksgiving
feast “probably has as much to do with the carb-loaded stuffing that you’re eating as it does with the turkey (not to mention the large portions of food, in general!).”
Why do people say “it went down the wrong way” when we choke on food or water? Have you ever sat down to enjoy a nice big meal only to find yourself gagging and coughing moments later? You’ve likely heard the expression that your food has gone “down the wrong way” or “down the wrong pipe.” But what does that actually mean? “In general, swallowing is a very complicated process. We don’t really think about most of it, it’s just a reflexive, coordinated series of events. But there’s a lot of things that can go wrong that luckily rarely go wrong,” says Dr. Mark Borgaonkar, a professor of medicine at Memorial University and gastroenterologist with Eastern Health in Newfoundland and Labrador. When we swallow, we close our lips and our tongue pushes the food or liquid to the back of our mouth, or the pharynx. At a certain point, a number of muscles spring into action to get the food down into the esophagus (a.k.a the “food pipe”) and into the stomach. However, sometimes the food takes a wrong turn and enters the nearby trachea (windpipe) instead. When this happens, our gag reflexes get stimulated and we start coughing to try and dislodge the item. “There’s a structure called the epiglottis, which actually folds over the entrance to the windpipe... so that the food will go down where it’s
supposed to and not inadvertently go down into your windpipe,” Borgaonkar explains. However, sometimes the epiglottis doesn’t seal off the trachea the way it should, maybe because of a medical condition or a cognitive disorder. But it’s also a fairly common occurrence in individuals with no such underlying medical issues. It might happen if we try to talk while we’re eating, for example, or if someone makes us laugh while we’re swallowing. “If you ever think about it, when you’re swallowing you’re not breathing. But if you were swallowing and then intentionally tried to breathe, you can then force the epiglottis to come up and force the vocal cords to open. So you’re kind of overriding that natural process,” Borgaonkar says. To avoid the uncomfortable feeling of having food stuck in your windpipe, don’t talk with your mouth full and slow down when you eat – you know, like you were taught!
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
Jobs Today… This week my son and I were visiting some friends in Corner Brook that we hadn’t seen in a while. When they asked my son what he was doing now, he quickly replied, “Nothing, I’m a stay at home kid.” Sheila Trask Grand Falls-Windsor, NL
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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you e r a o h “W get o t g n i l l e t ” stuffedn?essey – Mike
Hen
Say WHAT? Downhome recently posted this photo (submitted by Russ Bennett) on our website and social media platforms and asked folks to imagine what this person might be saying to the turkey. Mike Hennessey made us chuckle the most, so we’re awarding him 20 Downhome Dollars!
Here are the runners-up: “Is there a party on the go? The chicken had just crossed and now I see you doing the same!” – Marie Smith “So dinner is at seven, but come early so we can get you well dressed for the occasion!” – Linda Saunders “Get out of the way or I’ll ‘gobble’ you up!” – Phyllis Clancey
Play with us online! www.downhomelife.com/saywhat
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homefront lil charmers
Baby Berrypickers Bakeapple Bounty This little one curiously checks out the berries that Poppy picked. Valene Stacey Point May, NL
Berry Bandit
Eleven-month-old Kai Neil is eating more berries than he’s putting in the bucket! Jillian Strickland Port aux Basques, NL
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Finger Food!
Six-month-old Kaleb Cabot of Churchill Falls is enjoying his first taste of bakeapples. Judy Willcott Churchill Falls, NL
Blending In
Bayley’s blue outfit goes well with the berries picked in her great-grandma’s garden. Lori Brooking Hickman’s Harbour, NL www.downhomelife.com
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homefront pets of the month
Fall Fur Field of Dreams
Xena enjoys a fall hike over the hills of Pouch Cove. Melissa Billard Pouch Cove, NL
Guarding the Gourd
Kevin the goldendoodle keeps watch over the pumpkin he picked. April Ryan Paradise, NL
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Sweater Weather
Ozzie is sitting pretty in this fall orange outfit. Mary Roberts Triton, NL
Stick Jackpot!
Axel, a one-year-old Husky-Lab mix, enjoys the forest for the trees. Leah Loder Massey Drive, NL
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homefront
reviewed by Denise Flint
No Place for a Woman: The life and Newfoundland stories of Ella Manuel Compiled and edited by Antony Berger
Breakwater Books $21.95
Ella Manuel was a woman unafraid of forging her own path through the world. The eldest daughter of a Lewisporte family firmly entrenched in the middle class, her background was anything but unconventional – and her life was anything but conventional. As well as an avid fisher, hunting lodge owner and worker for women’s rights, Manuel worked as a broadcaster and journalist. No Place for a Woman is a compilation of some her pieces, as collected and edited by her son, Antony Berger. It’s an eclectic mix of Manuel’s radio broadcast scripts, journals, letters and print publications. Berger keeps his own presence to a minimum, but a little more input and context would have been welcome. One doesn’t always know exactly what one is reading, and it can be a bit perplexing to jump from a personal reminiscence about a western Newfoundland character to a fairly detached report of an Arctic expedition by someone Manuel never met. The title of the book refers to one of the stories, which rues the generally held (for the time) belief that women didn’t belong on the river fishing for salmon (or anything else). But there’s a reason this collection is called No Place for a Woman that speaks to a greater, more ubiquitous inhibition. At one time people actually believed that the lighter timbre of women’s voices didn’t belong on radio. As a celebration and tip of the hat to a woman like Ella Manuel, who broke the rules regarding a woman’s place on the air, in the water and everywhere else, this timely compilation is most welcome. 30
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Q&A with the Author Denise Flint: Tell me about your mother in your own words rather than hers. Antony Berger: She was quite a free person. She was not the usual mother like the mothers of our friends, who were wonderful women, too. She was a fisher (she wouldn’t have liked that word – she was a fisherman), she was divorced, she was a single mother, she had remarried briefly. For Corner Brook in the ’50s she was a scarlet woman, the subject of a lot of talk and not a little gossip. I started calling her Ella when I was about 14 or 15 and she welcomed that, which gives you some idea of our relationship. She was blessed with good looks and when she was younger she had many boyfriends, and later in life she was always striking. She was not only a very early feminist, she was also a mentor to many younger women. She became well known for her trenchant opinions, but few of them appear in this book.
DF: What’s something surprising you learned about your mother when you were researching this book? AB: My father died when I was 11. He and mother had been divorced five years and we saw little of him, as he moved to Germany. When he died I wanted to find out more about him. I pestered Ella and she would say very little. She was extremely private and discreet about her life and her personal affairs, so it surprised me to find out that my father was a Jew. When I asked why I never knew, she said I never asked – but I never asked if he was from Mars either! Her www.downhomelife.com
records excluded anything unpleasant about my father or her second husband; she kept that part of her life very private.
DF: Was it hard growing up on what was probably, for the time, a bit of an unconventional trajectory? AB: Not at all! We had a wonderful childhood, my brother and I. There was lots of fresh air, we caught cod, chased bears and walked in the woods. In the winter in the US we had friends in school, and we both looked back on it as a wonderful childhood...
DF: Let’s change the subject. As an earth scientist, how optimistic are you about the future? What should we be doing? AB: The near future is a real worry with the pandemic, but I’m very optimistic. I’m convinced we will settle down with some vaccines. I don’t think this will be the last time. As far as climate change, when you’re studying earth history you realize the land is ever changing. The changes now are largely driven by human actions. People are greater changers on a short-term basis, but we still face natural disasters, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes that were always part of the natural background, and I’m sure my children and their offspring and their offspring will find a way to adapt – and I hope they’ll be a damn sight more careful than my generation has been. I’m a pessoptimist. Overall I have considerable confidence that we will survive and adapt to changing conditions, but it’s going to take one hell of an attempt... October 2020
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homefront what odds
sing like everyone’s watching By Paul Warford
The experience Michael Jordan is arguably the basketball player who ever lived. At the very was like trying to best least, his sneaker line proved to be a slam dunk. steer a car using After winning three championships and losing his father, Jordan retired so he could play minor canoe oars; try league baseball – to the bafflement of sports as I might, I critics the world over. But he didn’t care. He was chasing an old dream, one from his childhood couldn’t alter that existed before millions of Americans were my miserable encouraging each other to “Be like Mike.” Was he better at baseball than basketball? Well... no, trajectory. but he was pretty good. I’ve been fearless in front of crowds all my life. I can saunter onto a stage in front of you and your friends, and I can wing it and I’ll be fine. Others tell me I’m a good actor (though I think I still have lots to learn before I’d say that). I started acting as a kid, and though it made me feel great about myself, I wanted to be good at other stuff. I always admired musicians. In school, it was the kids in guitar lessons with Ken Snow, showing off their pristine Ibanezes and Fenders during recess, already able to play Soundgarden songs. How did they know to press their fingers hard enough and in the right places? I couldn’t understand it. While studying at Acadia, I was in awe of Shaun Burke, the mild-mannered guy from Cape Breton who lived in our dorm. I’d known Shaun a full year before I saw him perform at a studentrun open mic. He sang “The Stone” (Dave Matthews Band) so well it’d bring tears to your eyes. I felt as if Shaun had been hiding a superpower from me. I desperately wanted to sing well because I believed it would get me a girlfriend (though Shaun didn’t have a woman either, so maybe that theory wouldn’t have panned out). Almost 20 years have passed and now I sing in 32
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front of others, but only under one special circumstance: karaoke. I used to be ignorant; I used to hate karaoke. I thought if you can’t sing well, why would you make a bar of strangers listen to you? But I was missing the point. I’ll use stand-up to illustrate. I’ve seen a lot of people try their hand at stand-up comedy. A word I would use to describe newcomers is “raw” or “unpolished.” These aren’t meant to be insults; in fact, they’re almost compliments. The rookie is full of anxiety that has been leading up to this moment, and then it’s released in a combination of nerves and energy. Even if they do poorly, their set is honest. To use another expression, the person is “baring their soul” for a random collection of strangers, and to me that’s a beautiful thing. My friend Neil was in town last weekend. Though Neil has never touted himself as a singer, during our previous outing he’d done a killer version of A-Ha’s “Take On Me,” and The White Stripe’s “Seven Nation Army.” He’s nonchalant while singing – he even plays air guitar during solos. Meanwhile, I embarrassed myself with a Radiohead song that I simply wasn’t experienced enough to perform. I felt like I was bombing it and asked the DJ to cut the music after only 30 seconds, but he wouldn’t and so I had to keep going. The experience was like trying to steer a car using canoe oars; try as I might, I couldn’t alter my miserable trajectory. www.downhomelife.com
However, I learned something while sipping my beers and waiting for my next turn onstage: karaoke has a lot of “raw” performances. I was fascinated by the Jims and Bills and Emilys of the room, these seemingly reserved strangers I’d been eyeballing as they shot pool or ordered drinks. The DJ would call their name and they’d transform from ordinary patrons into singing sensations of enthusiasm, belting high notes at the ceiling while shutting their eyes tight, the crowd screaming their support along the way. One woman brought down the house with Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” – a difficult, impassioned anthem no karaoke performer should take lightly. When she finished, she walked off the stage, returned to her friends and sipped water through a straw as if nothing had happened. I hope I can sing like her someday. Michael Jordan eventually returned to basketball, and with the Bulls he won three more championships. However, his former baseball coach admitted that, with enough time, Jordan probably could’ve been playing in the majors. We all have a talent that comes naturally to us. For everything else, there’s practice. 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 October 2020
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features
Tales of ghostly appearances, premonitions, unsettling dreams and death tokens from old Conception Bay By Dennis Flynn
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Moving along the beaches
in Colliers, NL, surveying the aftermath of the monstrous January 17, 2020, winter storm, I spot remnants of old wharves and fences, and even debris from a derelict dory that was long submerged far away but returned as detritus of the depths upon the sea strand. My father, Tony Flynn of Colliers, hearing what unusual items had been tossed up with the waves, said, “The ocean is a strange and marvelous place like that. Old men around home were fond of saying, ‘What the sea takes away, it always gives back, but often not in the way you expect.’”
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He continues, “There used to be lots of stories about folks who died at sea, for instance, returning to the land as spirits to let loved ones know they had passed. There was even a very old song around Colliers that I learnt from my mother, who learnt it from her mother, meaning it went back a long ways.” Called “Your Daddy’s Ship” or “Many a Tall and Gallant Ship,” it had 34 or 35 verses, Dad estimates, and told of a sailor’s death token coming to his son in a dream.
2013, about what was believed to be a spectral warning from a departed family member that possibly saved a life. “This happened to my grandmother over 50 years ago, and she always maintained it was a true account of what occurred… When I was growing up, I remember that she was noted for taking being truthful very seriously, so as kids we believed that Nanny never lied. I can only relate what she said, since I never witnessed it personally, but she often told me of a particularly sudden
As she walked over to close the door and screen, she almost had reached out to touch it when suddenly a young boy, dripping wet, came walking up the steps and raised his hand to halt her. “I don’t remember it all, but one verse where the child is describing the token visit to his mother and her response went, ‘Oh, I dreamed last night I saw my dad holding his hat in hand. And these words he spoke, “God Bless you both,” as he sailed from Newfoundland. Now your daddy’s ship, my gentle boy, it is sunk beneath the waves, and it’s many a tall and gallant ship sails over your daddy’s grave.’” I’ve collected a number of stories like these over the years. Joseph Conway, a native of Colliers who resides in Ontario, wrote to me in 36
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strong thunder and lightning storm that came up in over the harbour in Colliers. When the winds and rain came heavy, she discovered that the front door was ajar and the metal screen on the old-fashioned storm door was wide open.” His grandmother rushed towards the door to close it, but was stopped in her tracks by something very strange. “As she walked over to close the door and screen, she almost had reached out to touch it when suddenly a young boy, dripping wet, came walking up the steps and raised his hand to halt her. He didn’t speak 1-888-588-6353
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but was shaking his head in a clear warning of a single word. That word was ‘NO!’ Grandmother instantly recognized this young boy as her first grandson, Gary, who was drowned at the age of seven beneath a wharf in nearby Conception Harbour some years before. Shocked at the apparition she hesitated, frozen in fear, and that simple gesture probably changed her life forever. Before she knew what happened, a bolt of lightning suddenly hit the screen door! It flashed and sparked and danced all around the entrance. Grandmother said that if it weren’t for that moment’s hesitation, she would have had her hands on the metal and never would have lived to tell the tale. As for that little boy, she never saw him after. Apparently, he just gave a sad little smile and turned to walk away into the darkness.” Other spirits were not issuing any warnings but, perhaps, merely passing through and visiting familiar haunts one last time. Robert Keating of Conception Harbour, age 84 at the time, shared this WWII-era tale with me in February 2019. “Now I’m not sure how much there really is to it, but back in those times some people believed in a thing called a token (or a death token), which supposedly was a sort of a ghostly copy of a person travelling great distances to visit a loved one or a special location around the moment or shortly after when the actual person passed away. It was
seen as a premonition that news would come shortly of an untimely death. I can’t say if that was actually the case or not, but I often heard my mother tell the story that one time during the Second World War she and my father were walking out from her parents’ house in on Healy’s Pond Road, in an area of Conception Harbour known as The Pinch. When they got to a low rise called Curran’s Hill [near the present day ballfield], they met a sailor walking in the road.
When they got to a low rise called Curran’s Hill, they met a sailor walking in the road. They spoke to him and he didn’t answer…
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They spoke to him and he didn’t answer, which was pretty strange in those times, since everyone was very friendly in a small place like that. My mother said to my father later that night, when they were discussing the odd incident, that she thought for sure it was Bill Costello, who was very well-known to her since his home was just across the road from where they lived. The next day they asked around and nobody else had seen or knew anything about a sailor walking in around The Pinch that night, so they kind of forgot about it. October 2020
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Of course, a few days later shocking word came that made them remember the encounter. It turns out the ship that Bill Costello had been serving on was torpedoed somewhere overseas and he was lost at sea.” The general consensus was that it was his token the young couple saw taking one last visit to The Pinch before heading on his Final Voyage to wherever sailors gone down at sea find their ultimate rest.
days, that Mike had been killed on the job.” John Dawson of Kippens, on Newfoundland’s west coast, shares a most unusual premonition tale that has a familial connection for him, but was also famously included in Cassie Brown’s book of the 1914 sealing disaster, Death on the Ice. I spoke with him about it over the phone in 2015. “I was born and raised in Bay Roberts in Conception Bay North,
Tom hung on and in a dream he was visited out there on the ice by the vision of a young girl… she pleaded with Tom to hang on as her father was on his way on the vessel Bellaventure to save him. Robert has another similar story about a construction worker who died sometime in the 1940s in New York. “Well there’s another one that Lil Wade, who lived down the harbour in Conception Harbour, often told me. The district nurse was boarding with Lil, and she was doing Lil’s hair this day when a knock came on the door. They went out to answer and there was nobody there, but there was a man jumping over the fence up by the barn. It looked just like Lil’s husband, Mike. Now as it happened, Mike was working away in New York. The next day Lil got a message, I guess a telegram in those 38
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and my father was John M. Dawson as well, but most people would have known him as Jack Dawson or Farmer Jack,” he began. “One of the stores Father told quite often was about his cousin, Thomas Dawson, who had served as one of the Masters of the Watch on the ship the SS Newfoundland during the great sealing disaster of 1914, where 78 men perished.” His father heard this story firsthand from Thomas himself. While stranded on the ice floe, Thomas would encourage his crewmates to keep moving by beating a path through the snow and ice for others to follow. He did this for hours 1-888-588-6353
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on end in a blinding snowstorm. “This would have been very difficult work, as the person out front gets the full blast of the weather and expends a lot of effort. He’d also fallen through the ice into the water a number of times, so his feet and legs were soaked and eventually froze. Over time it all took a heavy toll, and he had to lay down on the ice to take a rest.” Fearing that he might die there of exposure, his crewmates stacked dead bodies around him, to help shield him from the weather. “Whatever the reason, Tom hung on and always maintained that in a dream he was visited out there on the ice by the vision of a young girl. He recognized her as the daughter of his good friend, Abram Parsons of Bay Roberts, and she pleaded with Tom to hang on as her father was on his
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way on the vessel Bellaventure to save him.” Robert continued, “While Tom suffered frostbite and would eventually have his legs amputated, he lived on to be rescued. In a strange coincidence, or perhaps in a striking conclusion, it was indeed by the vessel Bellaventure, and it was actually carrying his good friend Abram Parsons, who was one of the ship’s officers. It was exactly as the girl who came to him in a dream claimed it would happen.” Do you have any stories of ghostly apparitions or visits from death tokens? Share your story at Downhomelife.com/submit; or email it to editorial@downhomelife.com; or write to Downhome, 43 James Lane, St. John’s, NL, A1E 3H3.
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features
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Have you ever seen,
off in the distance, a strange bobbing light, looking like a wisp of burning paper or maybe like the light from an old-fashioned lantern? If you have, you might have spotted the eerie spirit known in Newfoundland and Labrador as the Jacky Lantern – and you’ve been lucky enough to live to tell the tale. People all around the province have reported strange little balls of light appearing over marshes, roadways and bodies of water. My late father-in-law, George Jones, saw one as a boy in Brigus, Conception Bay. George Jones was born in 1934. His family was from the Riverhead area, and the old house foundation, rock walls and root cellar of the Jones family can still be seen today. He encountered the Jacky Lantern while out walking one night with a friend. “We were walking on Englishtown Road,” he told me. “We were walking out, and we seen this feller ahead, like a little Jacky Lantern. He was only about the height of the fence.” The “little feller” was a small ball of light, red in colour. It appeared on the roadway in front of the two boys, and then crossed over the road in front of them. “When we got out, he came along and crossed over, over the fence and across the marsh and went on.” The boys watched it for a while before it vanished. The road is still there today, along with the marsh. If the Jacky Lantern is still there, his light has not been seen in a while. Mysterious lights have a great tradition in Newfoundland and Labrador, appearing in times of danger and sometimes followed by a tragic incident. They have been reported flickering over marshy ground and churchyards. Follow the Jacky Lantern at your peril: it often appears specifically to lead travellers astray, into bog holes or over cliffs. Such lights have been seen for centuries and were known in Latin as ignis fatuus, or “false light.” Many people know them as Will-o’-the-Wisps. Our name for the sprite was brought over by settlers from West Country England, where Jacky Lanterns still haunt the Devon countryside. Here, it was also known as “Jack www.downhomelife.com
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The Lantern” or “Jack o’ Lantern,” while around the capital city of St. John’s, it was known historically as a corpse candle, and as a corpse light in the community of Harbour Grace. Back in 1986, Andrew Parsons of Lushes Bight was interviewed about the phenomenon. A veteran of the First World War, Parsons was in his 90s at the time of the interview, but his memory of a strange light in Lushes Bight was quite clear. “There used to be a light in our bay, a weather light – a Jack o’ Lantern they used to be called,” said Parsons. “We used to see that one quite often. I don’t know what that was. He was a big light; he was as big as half a barrel… “I’ve been right near it,” he recalled,
“and we had one man, Albert... He was coming down from Pilley’s Island, and he saw it out there, a quarter of a mile ahead of him. He knew all about the light. He had seen it lots of times, and he took chase after it.” “I’m catching you now, to see what you is!” the man was said to have exclaimed. The Jack o’ Lantern, apparently, had other ideas. “The light went ahead of him fast,” explained Parsons. “He couldn’t catch it. Oh, I’ve seen that lots of times, but it hasn’t been seen lately.” I figured if anyone would know of more recent encounters with the Jacky Lantern, it might be Edwin Bishop of Heart’s Delight-Islington:
Pre-Pumpkin Jacky Lantern In the early part of the 20th century, the wandering ball of light known as a Jacky Lantern also gave its name to the lantern carried around by mummers at Hallowe’en. It was made of a scooped-out turnip with a face carved on it and a lighted candle inside. Nicole Penney is a folklore archivist at the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive. She carves a turnip at the end of every October. In part, she does this in memory of her pop, Raymond Russell, who grew up in Bloomfield, Bonavista Bay, in the 1930s. “It was around Hallowe’en,” she remembers, “and we were probably picking out a pumpkin, and he said, ‘We used to carve a turnip!’ I thought he was pulling my leg, even though my pop didn’t joke around like that.” She asked her grandfather to explain the process, and ever since, she has carved one or two spooky turnip spirits for the holiday season. 42
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a painter, boatbuilder, snowshoemaker and, most importantly for my quest, storyteller. “Have you ever heard stories of a Jacky Lantern, a little ball of light?” I ask him. “Yes,” he says, “and I’ve seen them!” When Edwin was young, in the late 1950s, he used to jig squid to earn a bit of pocket money. Late one Sunday night, he and his friend Colin borrowed an old punt and made their way to the Northern Point ground, just outside the harbour. As they jigged for their squid, they saw a
strange light in the distance. The boys didn’t pay it much attention until it came very close to the stern of their boat and hovered there. Nervous, they rowed off to the bottom of the harbour. The light followed them – large, round and orange, but not glowing – and sat there about 20 feet off. “We pulled up anchor and headed for home,” says Edwin. Remarkably, it wasn’t his only encounter with the ball of light. He also saw one hopping from fence
How to Carve a Turnip Step 1. Pick a turnip. “Get a smaller turnip, not a huge one, and cut the top off like you would with a pumpkin.”
Step 2. Hollow it out. Option 1 - “You get a big spoon, and you scoop the insides out by going around and around inside. You can eat the turnip raw, right from it! Pop said it was the best treat in the world. It’s very time consuming, but it’s kind of nice; you can do it while you are watching a scary movie, and have a treat!” Option 2 – Use a power drill. “You take the top off of the turnip, and get a power drill with a larger drill bit and gently drill the turnip’s innards out.” That sounds like a scene in a horror movie, right there.
Step 3. Carve a face. Use your imagination, and carve the Jacky Lantern of your dreams (or nightmares).
Step 4. Light it up! “I just put a tea-light candle in there, which is battery-powered. It looks really scary and creepy.” Nicole prefers the hand-carving method because, as her Nan Russell would say, “you don’t want to waste your turnip.” Nan recommends using the leftover turnip guts to bake turnip puffs, which are now part of Nicole’s annual ritual as well. www.downhomelife.com
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The light would rise up about 20 feet, and would then burst, shimmer and change colour to red. People in the area were so used to the strange happening that they paid it no mind at all. post to fence post in Heart’s Delight. “Someone said, ‘Look at the light up by Jack Brake’s house.’ Sure enough, there it was, looking like it was on the fence,” he tells me. “We watched for a while, and all of a sudden it seemed to hop to another part of the fence. It moved a couple of more times until it was right on the fence over by Sarah Crocker’s house.” When he went in and told his father, he said right away, “It must be Jack o’ Lantern.” It was rumoured that a number of people had seen it around that time. It turns out that many places in the province have been host to a Jacky Lantern over the years. Gale’s Island in the Codroy Valley was home to lights that were seen, on and off, for around 25 years. A ball of light would appear, which would hover close to the ground for some time. The light would rise up about 20 feet, and would then burst, shimmer and change colour to red. People in the area were so used to the strange happening that they paid it no mind at all. In the early part of the 20th century, a man in Shoe Cove Bight, near La Scie, saw a light coming in from the water. He watched the light come 44
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in, and when it came close, it moved parallel to the shore, just the same as if it were a man with a lantern in his hand, walking on the water. Fishot Island on the northeast side of the Great Northern Peninsula is known as the location of a Jacky Lantern; so is Big Island (Fergus Island) in Bay Roberts. The waters off Sound Island, Placentia Bay, are said to be the location of an unearthly red glow, which would appear under very specific weather conditions. A swampy section of land near Come-By-Chance Point is associated with tales of “Jack-olantern” fires, a mysterious bobbing bit of fire known at times to lead the unwary to their doom. Even St. John’s was said to harbour a Jacky Lantern: folklorist and educator Tonya Kearley-Russell spotted one a few years ago when she lived on Monkstown Road. She saw the light in the exact same area her grandmother had seen one years before, when she was in service as a girl. To be safe, if you do see a Jacky Lantern, keep your distance. I would hate to have you pixie-led off a cliff, or into a bog, never to read my stories again! Happy Hallowe’en! 1-888-588-6353
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With a recent acquisition, painter Nelson White has been discovered by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.
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A painter in Newfoundland and
Labrador made national headlines when the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the Ameri‐ can Indian (NMAI) acquired one of his paint‐ ings earlier this year. The painter is Nelson White, a Mi’kmaw member of the Flat Bay First Nation Band (No’kmaq Village) in Flat Bay, on the west coast of the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador. The painting is a portrait of Ellsworth (Al) Oakley Jr., an American veteran of the Korean War and an Elder from the Wampanoag Nation in New England. Originally from Massachusetts, Oak‐ ley now calls Eskasoni, Nova Scotia home.
[Top] Tukien “Awaken” on display at Grenfell Art Gallery in Corner Brook [Above] Painter Nelson White in his home studio www.downhomelife.com
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Aptly titled “Veteran Elder,” the 24‐by‐24‐inch oil‐on‐canvas por‐ trait pays tribute to a man who has spent a lifetime in service of others: as a paratrooper, serving his country; and as Supreme Sachem (Chief), serving his people. The painted portrait extends the efforts of Drifting Goose, Oakley’s traditional name, by granting his story a permanence in one of the most extensive Indigenous art and artifact collections of its kind. In doing so, the portrait cements the role Oakley served in military history. Just as Native Americans in the United States have a long and proud tradition of military service in their country, so, too, do Indigenous people in Canada. For Nelson White, having a painting acquired by NMAI also creates a lasting legacy. “You cannot overstate what a significant acquisition that is, to have his work included in an internationally relevant collection,” says Matthew Hills, director of the Grenfell Art Gallery and curator of the Memorial University Art Collection. “As a curator, someone who cares for collections, it means Nelson’s work exists in perpetuity.” Nelson’s legacy-making has been a long time coming. Over the last six years, he has dedicated more time to painting. “I’ve always been interested in being an artist and artwork,” says Nelson. “I’ve always painted, but I took a bit of a U-turn and I worked in pro-sports for a long time.” Early in his career, Nelson attended the Visual Arts program at what was then Bay St. George Community College in Stephenville, NL (now the Bay St. George Campus of College of the North Atlantic), and later the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. Before turning more attention to painting in 2014, Nelson had another life in sports administration, working with Can48
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ada’s national junior hockey team and the Calgary Flames. He also worked in the non-profit world. Feeling pulled in too many directions, Nelson asked himself (at what he says was a “fairly advanced age”), “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Painter was the answer. And when Nelson White put more energy into being a professional painter, the world reciprocated. Today, his work exists in public and private collections throughout Canada and the United States. A 2018 residency at The Rooms, the largest public cultural space in Newfoundland and Labrador and home to the provincial art gallery, boosted the painter’s career. “I think the most important thing was my acceptance into the art community here,” says Nelson, reflecting on the residency, which named him as the first Indigenous artist-in-residence at The Rooms. “I showed a bit in the United States and across Canada, trying to build up a little bit of a resume outside the province with the attitude that here, I was just one of many, but if I was somebody who’s doing something outside, that might get a little bit of attention, and it seemed to work.” 1-888-588-6353
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Nelson White’s painted portrait called “Veteran Elder” features Ellsworth Oakley Jr., an American veteran of the Korean War and an Elder from the Wampanoag Nation in New England. That sentiment of having to make it elsewhere before you’re truly accepted here – whether real or imagined – is one to which many creative types from NL can likely relate. “People love [Nelson’s] work nationally, but I think people don’t understand the significance, or how great some of the visual artists are that we have in this province,” says Matthew. Even with a piece acquired by the Smithsonian, Nelson knows he must keep putting in the work. “You can’t rest on your laurels. At no point am I ever going to foresee the day I say, ‘I made it.’ I don’t even www.downhomelife.com
call myself an artist; I’m a painter. I’m interested in painting and doing the work,” he says, adding the weight of art rests with the viewer. The Rooms residency offered Nelson the time and space to be seen and do the work. Just like at his father’s place in Flat Bay, which Nelson says is like Grand Central Station, passersby frequently popped in to his studio to say hello. The proximity of his studio to the washroom may have encouraged a steady stream of pedestrian traffic, says Nelson, a joke most revealing of his humility. Nelson’s father, Calvin White, is a respected Elder who received the October 2020
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Order of Canada in 2019 for his 50 years of advocating for the recognition and rights of the Mi’kmaq people in NL. Among his achievements, Calvin White fought to create the Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation – an important step in preserving and celebrating Indigenous identity here.
Nelson White’s “Medicine Man” portrait features Dr. John Nick Jeddore, a neurology resident at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Identity is a central theme in Nelson’s paintings, too. He refers to himself as a “representational painter,” interested in “documenting the changing cultural landscape” of his people. He does so by displaying Indigenous people in modern settings, recasting views – often misrepresentations and stereotypes – of what it means to be Indigenous in the world today. 50
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That theme was the focus of the four pieces Nelson painted during his residency, which informed his collection called, “Eymu’tiek,” the Mi’kmaq word for “we are here.” Nelson’s current exhibit – featuring 18 works and called “Tukien,” Mi’kmaq for “Awaken” – continues the focus on identity. Tukien opened in early August at the Grenfell Art Gallery on the west coast of Newfoundland, near where Nelson grew up. “There’s no Mi’kmaq word for ‘woke,’” says Nelson, but that’s the intention. He describes the exhibit (which at the time of this interview was slated to move on to the Confederation Arts Centre in Charlottetown, PEI, in October 2020 before touring other parts of the country) in this way on his website: “The work is a representation of Indigenous peoples from an Indigenous perspective. Sometimes that representation includes specific, identifiable symbols and sometimes it does not – because the figures within the paintings define their culture on their own terms and what it means to be native today in a contemporary setting.” “I wanted to do a series of large portraits of Indigenous people, a lot of them my friends who are cool and interesting,” says Nelson. “I want to start the conversation about what it means to be native. I want people to see that these people are doctors, they’re lawyers, fashion designers and musicians, and that all of these cool people exist who are Indigenous. If, when you see the show, you go, ‘Oh, wow, I didn’t think there 1-888-588-6353
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were Indigenous neurosurgeons,’ well, maybe that’s a conversation you could have with yourself.” The neurosurgeon reference is to Dr. John Nick Jeddore, a neurology resident in the faculty of medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Jeddore is featured in the “Tukien” collection portrait called “Medicine Man.” Another portrait, called “Movement,” features Angela
“It’s an intimate experience,” Nelson says of portrait painting. “You’re spending a lot of time with a person even if they’re not in the room. You’re studying their face, their hairline and eyes... You’re thinking about them a lot. I’m very cognizant of who I paint because I know I’m going to be spending weeks with them.” Once “Veteran Elder” is unveiled to the public at NMAI (it’s still to be
“What it means to be Indigenous, that’s
a difficult question,” posits Nelson. “It’s part of your identity. It’s the same as what it means to be Canadian, what it means to be a Newfoundlander.”
Miracle Gladue, better known as Miss Chief Rocka, a dancer-choreographer many will recognize from touring with the native producer and DJ crew, A Tribe Called Red. Nelson often has Tribe in rotation on his iPod while painting in his home-basement studio in the Rabbittown neighbourhood of St. John’s. He paints at a table, preferring a flat surface to an easel, and is often painting by 8:30 a.m. most days. His studio cat, Sami, lounges nearby, while his English bulldog, Higgins, hangs out at the top of the stairs. Nelson paints portraits from photographs, asking his subjects to choose what they wear. “It’s a reflection of them,” he says. But together they’ll discuss various poses. Nelson will then use a half-dozen reference photos to inform his painting, starting with sketches on paper, then doing a preliminary drawing, which he’ll use to outline and complete his oil painting. www.downhomelife.com
decided whether it will feature at their New York City or Washington, DC location), onlookers will have their own time with Oakley. (The connection to Oakley, by the way, also came through a friendship: Nelson is friends with Oakley’s daughter, Nancy). Nelson White’s portraits do more than profile a person (though that is powerful in and of itself, as seen with the Smithsonian acquisition). His portraits challenge preconceived notions about what it means to be Indigenous. “What it means to be Indigenous, that’s a difficult question,” posits Nelson. “It’s part of your identity. It’s the same as what it means to be Canadian, what it means to be a Newfoundlander. It’s how you grow up. I hold my community very close to me. It formed who I am, my reflections and my beliefs. Being Indigenous is an honour and it’s also part of who I am.” October 2020
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THERE’S NOTHING LIKE THE AROMA of a wild rose in bloom after a summer’s rain and the sweet scent of pine trees during a crisp autumn stroll through the woods. Scents colour our world and they’re all around us. Smell is an important part of how we interpret and understand our world, and it’s inextricably linked to our memories and emotions. During this time of year, for instance, many of us associate that fall scent of musky leaf piles with back to school, which can bring up either positive or negative emotions, depending on the person and their experiences. Just as we can see and feel the change in the seasons, we can smell them, too. But what we smell and when we smell it also depends on our culture and geographic location (snow is as much a spring scent to those who live in Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, as the cherry blossoms that bloom in www.downhomelife.com
British Columbia the same time of year). All around us at any given time, organisms are releasing molecules that stimulate the olfactory nerves in our nose, which then send information to our brain so we can identify exactly what it is that we’re smelling. The molecules in the air that give rise to aroma change throughout the seasons and the temperature affects the way they move. During warm and humid conditions, for instance, aromatic molecules move through the atmosphere more quickly than when it’s cooler, at which time they are slower moving and so there are fewer of them in our breathing space. October 2020
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SPRING & SUMMER SMELLS During springtime, we’re bombarded with smells that include flowers in bloom, which release a bouquet of aromatic molecules. But you might also associate this season with an earthy smell that comes from a variety of chemical compounds. One of these is geosmin (which comes from the Greek words for earth and smell), which is produced by streptomyces bacteria. “These bacteria are abundant in the soil. And as soon as the humidity level starts to go up, these bacteria go into overdrive... and they start to release these molecules that have a really earthy scent to them. And in fact, these geosmins, they give rise to the earthy taste of beetroots and a lot of root vegetables,” explains Dr. Chris Kozak, a professor in the department of chemistry at Memorial University. Geosmin, Kozak says, also contributes to petrichor, which is the scent that arises just before or during a rain shower. The term, coined in 1964 by Australian scientists Isabel Bear and Richard Thomas, comes from the Greek petra meaning “stone” and ichor, which, in Greek mythology, is the blood that flows through the veins of the gods. The oils from plants seep into the rocks and soil, and when the humidity rises and the rain hits the dry ground, the odour molecules get displaced and the oil gets released into the air, imbuing it with a distinctive scent. Sometimes, that rain might be accompanied by a thunder and lightning storm, which brings its own unique scent. When lightning strikes, 54
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The familiar smells of summer including rain and lightning, flowers and cut grass are each caused by their own unique chemical mechanisms.
Linda Browne photos
Kozak explains, the oxygen in the air (O2 or dioxygen) can get split into individual oxygen atoms, which can then combine with the dioxygen to form ozone (O3), “which everyone knows from the ozone layer, and that protects the planet from UV radiation,” he says. “Ozone has a very distinct smell… 1-888-588-6353
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so, for example, before a thunderstorm, if there’s thunder and lightning coming in the distance, we can smell that ozone in the air, which eventually rises up and enters the upper atmosphere.” Another smell that we commonly associate with the warmer months is the strong, sweet scent of a freshly cut lawn. Grass, Kozak explains, is made up of cellulose, oils and fats. “When the grass is cut, bits of the interior of the blade of grass are now exposed to oxygen, and that again triggers enzymes to start digesting the fats to try to heal the cut surface, to prevent any disease from entering the grass. So it’s the same thing as if we get a cut on our skin. We bleed, it turns into a clot, our body is trying to protect the laceration from getting [infected],” he says. Fatty acids, including linolenic and linoleic acids, Kozak adds, are broken down by enzymes, turning them into smaller molecules which can more easily evaporate from the surface of the grass. “And these molecules then start to oxidize a little bit and they get turned into what are called aldehydes. And aldehydes are very, very fragrant. So most of the smell that comes from fruits, a lot of the smells that come from flowers, they come from aldehydes… so they have that green grass smell.”
Fall & Winter Aromas When the air turns cooler, the leaves begin to transform into a brilliant display of red, orange, gold and brown before eventually cascading down to the earth. As they start to decay, bacteria tries to break down their components – including sugars, www.downhomelife.com
cellulose and lignins – into smaller molecules. “What they’re doing is they’re releasing these things called terpenes and terpenoids, which are very, very fragrant... turpentine comes from the word terpene, and it’s got that classic sort of resiny smell. Some of these terpenes are called pinenes because
Fall leaves release a variety of odours as they rest on the ground. They are also fun to play in. Dora-Leigh Eddy photo it smells [like] pine. Others are called limonene because they’ve got a bit of a citrusy smell to them,” Kozak says, adding that fungus also feeds on the decaying matter, which contributes to the familiar fall aroma. During the winter, a quiet calm descends upon the earth and the scent of woodsmoke fills the frosty air. But really, Kozak says, what we’re noticing at this time of year is the absence of smell. There are less October 2020
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The smell a person experiences when they say ‘smells like snow’ can change from location to location. If you live near an ocean, you may smell seaweed and sulphur. Nola Snyder photo aromatic molecules in the air because of the colder temperatures, and less things to smell in general (especially when compared to a season like spring). However, there is one interesting aroma to note. “Just like with ahead of an impending rainstorm, if you’ve got snowfall, we get this increase in humidity in the air, [which] allows more of these same scent molecules to travel to our nose. So therefore, we get a heightened sensation, which is what we associate with the feeling of ‘smelling like snow,’” Kozak says. What snow smells like to an individual, he adds, depends upon their location. For example, if a person lives in a big city and there’s pollution in the air, their nose will pick it up since the snow allows some of the pollutant molecules in the upper atmosphere to come down. If you live near the coast, the snow will contain hints of seaweed and sulphur. “So to say ‘smells like snow’ really 56
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depends on where you live,” Kozak says, “because the snow sort of amplifies any small amounts of aromatic molecules in the atmosphere that are present.”
Scents & Sensibility The act of smelling is a chemical, biological and psychological process. When we sniff in odour molecules, even before our brain can label the particular scent, there’s a quick, hedonic response (which tells us whether something is pleasant or unpleasant). “Smell really is designed as a danger sense. It’s a sense that can alert us to danger from a distance, because odour molecules can travel thousands of feet from a source and can tell us that there’s something in our vicinity that we should stay away from, or perhaps something that we should approach,” says Dr. Pamela Dalton, a cognitive psychologist and member of the Monell Chemical 1-888-588-6353
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SMELL impacts our emotions and mood at any
given time. Which odours bring about positive or negative feelings depends upon an individual’s personal experiences and their reactions to them.
Senses Center in Philadelphia (an independent, non-profit, scientific institute that conducts and publishes research on taste and smell). “But then you match that with past experience and this is where your own idiosyncratic smell memory comes in. And if you are living in the same place that you’ve lived in since you were a child, there are going to be repeated smell experiences that reinforce those smell memories.” Smell, Dalton adds, impacts our emotions and mood at any given time. Which odours bring about positive or negative feelings depends upon an individual’s personal experiences and their reactions to them. “So the person who likes the smell of roses, for another person, whether they’re allergic or they first experienced them in a negative context, that won’t be a pleasant smell. I have certain scents of summer in my garden that are very positive for me – some of them are my vegetable garden: the smell of tomato leaves or the smell of basil and herbs that I grow. But for someone else, they may have no association with that,” she says. While we may not appreciate the aroma of everything that we come www.downhomelife.com
across in our lifetimes, our sense of smell is one that we should never take for granted. Regardless of how busy you may be or frustrated you feel, you should always take time to stop and literally smell the roses (or whatever you find pleasant). “When somebody loses their smell on a more permanent basis, one of the things they report is a sadness about not being able to experience the world that they didn’t even realize they were picking up on. They may not have realized that when they hug their daughter or son or their husband or wife or a friend... the smell of that person is another piece of who they are, another piece of that connection. Or that walking into grandmother’s house, it always smells the same way when you go over there for dinner; it’s something that is very rewarding to you. And when you lose that ability, you can get very depressed about it. So it’s not trivial,” Dalton says. “Most people would think that of all the senses you would want to lose if you had to pick one, it would be smell... but the reality is you would miss more than you think you would if you lost your sense of smell forever.” October 2020
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As fall days descend
upon the land, it’s time for folks like Nans to take their salt beef buckets out on the wild bogs and barrens, hoping to fill them to the brim with a bounty of berries. But, ah, let’s hope those bursting buds of delight are the only things Nan comes upon. Newfoundland folklore is filled to the salt beef bucket with stories of encounters of the fairy kind while roaming the berry terrain; and it is still very much a living tradition. Fairy and ghost stories have been around since the dawn of time; and when settlers from Europe (particularly from Ireland, Scotland and West Country England) came to settle Newfoundland, the fairies came along for the ride to a new place with all its coves and crevices. And across the centuries, their presence and interactions with our ancestors enriched our province with fantastic fairy lore, particularly on the predominantly Irish-settled Avalon Peninsula. Fairies were touted to be up to all sorts of shenanigans. Tales abound of people abducted by the fairies and coming back changed, aged beyond their years, crippled, blind or gone mad. www.downhomelife.com
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In her 1991 book, Strange Terrain: The Fairy World in Newfoundland, folklorist Dr. Barbara Rieti gathers many of the fairy tales shared orally through the years. It’s the go-to book on fairies in this province and won the 1992-93 Raymond Klibansky Prize, awarded by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. These tales range from substituting changelings for human babies and luring travellers through the forest with magic music, to fairies dancing in a circle, abducting people for long periods of time and, of course, playing tricks. What do they look like? Here in Newfoundland, fairies come in all shapes and sizes of children, adults, glowing lights, whirlwinds and even animals. Some stories describe these small people as fallen angels or devils, and others seem to identify them with witches and ghosts. Rieti concludes: “The fairies are the ultimate strangers and serve as metaphor for all that is strange, not only in nature but in other people.”
Fairy precautions Fairies are at their mischievous best with berry pickers, entrancing them with music and then leading them astray for days; or as Rieti warns, “They play tricks and lead you over the edge of a cliff.” So if you know someone itching to pick some plump berries this season, arm them with some of the known fairy lore, including vital precautions. (Of course, Nans would be all too familiar with this information, as they come from a time 60
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when fairy chatter was all the rage.) The first thing for any berrypicking journey is to always carry some bread in your pocket. It could be used to appease the fairies: an offering in exchange for one’s escape. In addition, Rieti explains that bread was seen as rather holy and, as such, could send fairies skedaddling for the hills: “Bread provided a talisman of domesticity (and culture) against the perils of the wilderness.” 1-888-588-6353
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Legend has it that nothing will grow on fairy grounds as they are quiet, spooky places where anything can transpire. Another traditional charm against the fairies is to turn an item of clothing inside out – be it Nan’s homeknitted sweater, her head scarf, her socks or her pockets. The idea is to confuse the “little people” or “little fellas,” as fairies are referred to in this province. You can layer on the protection by stringing a five-cent piece (with a hole the centre) around your neck. Silver helps keep the fairies away, or so the story goes. Do not speak about or mock the fairies – they can hear you (except on Mondays). If you do encounter any fairies, don’t ask them too many questions or explicitly thank them – it places you in their power; but gratitude and appreciation are fine. www.downhomelife.com
And keep watch for signs of fairy habitat. Fairy paths and fairy grounds are places to be avoided for fear of disturbing the fairies. Legend has it that nothing will grow on fairy grounds as they are quiet, spooky places where anything can transpire. Allegedly, in the Conception Bay North area, there’s an ancient fairy ring – a circle of 13 massive beech trees surrounding barren ground, where fairies have their meetings, of course. Now that you’ve been informed and forewarned, take your berrypicking buckets and head into the woods and over the hills. Odds are if you meet Nan on the marshes, like you, she’ll have her socks on inside out and bread in her pockets. Just in case. October 2020
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sureSHOTS Featuring photographer Lorraine Winsor
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Having to limit
her travel to Newfoundland and Labrador this summer was no big deal for Lorraine Winsor. This is her favourite place to explore.
“My husband and I travel all over the province in our motorhome looking for amazing scenery shots, and they are not hard to find in this beautiful province of ours,” says Lorraine. “[Gordon] and I love to walk the hiking trails, searching for icebergs, moose, foxes, eagles, owls, puffins, anything nature presents.” This summer, Lorraine and Gordon joined the throngs of people who flocked to St. Vincent’s to watch the whales put off a show. While she has great memories of the day, she missed the “shot of a lifetime.” She laments, “I had just put my camera away and two whales breached, side by side, near the beach.” Her cameras of choice are her Nikon P600 and Nikon P900 with wide-angle lens. What she captures with them is boundless: lighthouses, root cellars, sunrises, sunsets, wild animals and more. Top of her list, the thing she will travel almost any distance to photograph, are icebergs. “They are gigantic mountains of white, pristine and perfect, a sight to behold,” she gushes. Yet her favourite photographs are www.downhomelife.com
personal ones, “including some of my husband landing 25-30 pound salmon on the Lower Humber River. What a thrill it is to witness this!” she says. A Paradise resident for 35 years, Lorraine was born and raised in St. John’s, in a family of 10 children – seven girls (including her twin, Louise) and three boys. She recalls her childhood photographer hero who piqued her interest in the practice. “My sister Mary’s husband, Bill Sulley, was a photographer with the Daily News and the Evening Telegram many years ago. I was really impressed when I would see him with his camera slung around his neck and a smile upon his face. I will never forget him,” she says. “He passed away at the young age of 40.” Photography has turned out to be something of a family trait, from her brother-in-law to Lorraine, to her child and grandchild. Says Lorraine, “Our son was an avid photographer. He passed away at the young age of 45, and my beautiful granddaughter has a keen interest in photography as well. I guess I must have passed down my love of art to them.” October 2020
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The secret to tracking humpback whales is in their flukes. By Lester Green
The most memorable moments of our 2020 staycation started at the wharf in Little Heart’s Ease, when my wife, Helen, and I set out on the water in our 18-foot open boat. We cruised around the Southwest Arm area in search of the humpback whales rumoured to be feeding on the capelin sculls. Reports were encouraging, with whale sightings a week earlier off Sunnyside and Winterton. I was watching the capelin seiner, Eastern Endeavour, as it shot its purse seine around a large school of capelin near Gooseberry Cove, Trinity Bay. Helen was busy trying to catch cod on her new fishing rod in the shallow water near the rocks below Western Head. Our companionable silence was broken with the sound of a breaching whale as it leaped forward into the air. It landed with a thunderous splash and sent up a spray of white foam.
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Javier Cotin photo
Helen quickly reeled in her line. I pushed down the throttle and headed towards Green Island and the playful humpback. The whale’s pectoral fin was waving above the water as if to say, “Here I am. Over here.” As we got near, I eased back the throttle and cut the engine. We kept a safe distance away and I used my telephoto lens to zoom in and capture numerous images of the whale feeding on capelin. We watched it until it eventually dove deep and out of sight. We returned to port feeling blessed to have witnessed this migratory visitor to our local waters.
NO TWO FLUKES ALIKE
The annual migration of humpbacks from their winter tropical calving grounds to their summer feeding www.downhomelife.com
waters off the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador has been well documented. Yearly data collected by researchers and whale watchers provide information on migratory routes of these gentle giants. The secret to tracking a humpback whale, I recently found out, lies on the underside of its tail, which it prominently displays during its dives below the surface in search of food. The whale’s tail, also called its flukes, like our fingerprints, is unique to each individual humpback. No two flukes are exactly alike. Ted Cheeseman is co-founder of the international group Happywhale, which collects and catalogues photos and information on marine mammal sightings submitted by groups and individuals throughout the world. By encouraging people to submit photos and information on whale spotting, October 2020
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researchers are able to track individual humpbacks as the animals migrate the world’s oceans in search of food and calving grounds. Photos of the underside of the flukes are especially useful, Ted says. “It can help with identification of individual humpback whales, and when the submitter includes information such as the date, location and feeding behaviour of the whale, the information is invaluable.” Submitted images are compared against a global database of more than 40,000 individual humpbacks using artificial intelligence-based image recognition to quickly and accurately find any matches to known whales. If your whale is known, you will be notified with a link to the whale’s sighting history. If your whale is unknown, he or she might be new to science! The sighting reports are pinned on a map, and the information displayed with each pinpoint includes the submitter’s name or group name, a photo of the whale’s fluke, and the date and location of the sighting. Allied Whale, a similar group of researchers in the North Atlantic,
began in 1977. Located at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, it has successfully built a database of 8,000 humpback whales. Allied Whale and Happywhale have collaborated since Happywhale began, extending the reach of a powerful tool to understand the health of whale populations.
CHASING OUR WHALES ONLINE
The day after our Green Island encounter, we saw on Facebook that humpbacks were seen off Capelin Cove feeding on, fittingly, capelin. We headed out for a look. Our main goal was to capture more images of whale flukes. Off Capelin Cove we discovered that the whales had moved farther along the Southwest Arm shoreline. The capelin were swimming towards the spawning shores of Long Beach, and the hungry whales were in pursuit. I cut the engine and heard the sounds of breaching whales and observed several boats off Hodge’s Cove. Cranking the engine, I pushed the throttle down and we were soon
A screen shot from Happywhale.com showing the two reported sightings of whale NA-3085 off Newfoundland, 40 years apart! 70
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Right: Humpback off Gooseberry Cove, NL. Lester Green photo Below: Ted Cheeseman, co-founder of Happywhale on a recent visit to the Antarctic. Scott Davis photo
skimming over the still waters. We shut off the motor at a safe distance from the whales. In the silence and beauty of the reflective waters, we could see the spouts of mist followed by the distinctive gushing sound of spray. Several whales were observed slapping their pectoral fins and flukes, indicating a pod of whales in a feeding frenzy. Over the next few hours, I took more than 200 pictures. Back home, I loaded the memory card into the laptop and we browsed through the images, choosing the best ones of flukes to upload to Happywhale.com. Within three hours, we received an email from Ted Cheeseman. Three of www.downhomelife.com
our whales – NA-7217, NA-3085 and HW-MN0100474 – were in the database. We were surprised to learn that NA-3085 was last recorded in 1980 by Memorial University researchers off the south coast of Newfoundland – making this whale more than 40 years old! Finding this online database and contributing to science has added another level of enjoyment and wonder to whale watching for us. We encourage everyone to be a citizen scientist and help the Happywhale cause. Submit your humpback photos to see where your whale may have been or keep track of where it might be spotted next. October 2020
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We stowed away,
American refugees, on an overnight ferry to the safety of Canada, and the beauty of Newfoundland and Labrador, in particular. Although it was an escape, the “Meanie Mom” still insisted on it being educational. The kids were dubious, but soon realized learning is an adventure – especially on the Rock. Where else could you be a hands-on amateur archeologist, even finding a ring at the 17th-century site of Ferryland? Or go to the Johnson Geo Centre and be immersed in the Titanic and actually feel like you were on it – without, you know, the negative results? (Also, Dad got some “awesome” Labradorite at the gift shop!) Or see the world’s largest flume tank at the Marine Institute? And those scavenger hunts running up and down the hilly streets of St. John’s to find the house, school and pub used in “Republic of Doyle”? For a reward of brownies or lemon cupcakes at Rocket bakery? So worth it! Left: Author Kathryn Erskine (right) and her husband and children at Cape Spear Above: The kids digging a lesson in archaeology at Ferryland www.downhomelife.com
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We were all enchanted by whales, and our animal-loving daughter adored the seals at the Ocean Science Centre and the wide variety of animals at Salmonier Nature Park. She even obligingly lay down next to whale jaw bones in a museum so her brother could take a photo with some perspective. We loved it all, from the giant moose on the road to the tiny, shimmering capelin in the waves. Drives were punctuated with lots of ocean and lake stops while listening to Farley Mowat’s The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float and traditional music like Great Big Sea. Dad’s rendition of “O Canada!” was excellent (he has perfect pitch). Mom’s less accomplished singing of “Ode to Newfoundland” was not. “Mom, stop! That’s some painful!” our son said, internalizing local dialect. Beaches galore, and even pottery being fired in the sand! And all kinds
of discoveries and imaginary adventures for kids. Our extrovert son braved the chilly water for impromptu swims with new friends. We even snuck in a quick trip to France, but the kids decided the Rock was more fun, and not just because they were seasick. Look how happy they are at Cape Spear [opening photo], the easternmost part of North America... until they had to return to their new reality in another part of America. Please let us come back! We still haven’t seen the 500-million-year-old fossils at Mistaken Point, or Newfoundland ponies (ponies!), or any Viking settlements, not to mention the Veiled Virgin. As an author myself, I can’t help mentioning a mystery/romance novel I’m currently reading by local artist and author Carolyn Morgan entitled Unveiled, about the Veiled Virgin. Having attended St. Augustine’s Junior High (way back in the
The author’s daughter poses for scale alongside whale jaw bones in a NL museum 74
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Are those capelin they see rolling in on the beach? ’70s, as Kathy Dobbs), I remember hearing, talking and reading about the Veiled Virgin to the point I feel I actually saw her “live,” but I think I’m imagining that. So I have plans to go to the convent and see the magnificent marble with a friend when I’m next in St. John’s. There is still so much to learn! And yes, the kids will eat fish (more kinds than cod), love scrunchions and have a hankering for Tunnock’s. Their parents would like to thank the staff
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at the Sheraton Newfoundland Hotel for their humour, their graciousness and the microwave. Also, the parents have added “my darlin’” to their vocabulary, so thanks for that, too. We all miss the Rock! Author’s note: The preceding is actually a compilation of two trips to Newfoundland, 10 years apart, so there’s some poetic licence in melding the two. But the events are true, and we thoroughly enjoyed all of it.
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I’ve come to realize
in my adult life that there is so much of Newfoundland and Labrador that I’ve never seen. On every visit back there now, I make sure I set aside time to explore new areas. Growing up there, I remember Fogo being mentioned in the song, “I’se the B’y,” and it’s been on my bucket list to go there for some time. So on our visit back in July 2019, we made it one of our day trips. We were pleasantly surprised at all the beautiful scenery.
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Above: (From left) Baxter and Gloria Bishop, and Gloria and Calvin Perry on the ferry to Fogo Right: The first sign that they’d arrived at their destination
Below: A sample of the many locally made crafts for sale as souvenirs I was staying at my sister’s cabin in my hometown of Laurenceton. Along with Gloria (my wife) and Gloria (my sister) and her husband, Baxter Bishop, we set out on our excursion. We made our way to Farewell and boarded the ferry to Fogo Island. There was lots of seating space inside, but we climbed the stairs to the upper deck where we could sit and feel the cool, gentle breeze coming off the ocean and enjoy the spectacular view along the way. The “Welcome to Fogo” sign came into view when we arrived at Fogo Island. Fogo is just one of several communities on the island, including Stag Harbour, Seldom and Joe Batt’s Arm. The island is larger than most 78
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people would expect. After dropping in to the tourist centre for some information, we set out to explore the island. The drive was mostly along the seashore. Around every turn the landscape changed, exposing the beauty in the typical Newfoundland houses, sheds, boats and birds, as well as the rocky shoreline. Among the highlights we’d planned 1-888-588-6353
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to see was the Fogo Island Inn, which has become a world-renown landmark. As we were driving along it came into view: a beautiful expanse of a building rising out of the horizon. We stopped at the property entrance, where we were met by an attendant at the arrival centre. We were told there was no parking next to the inn, but there was a shuttle that would take us there for a tour. We were pleased to get inside the building to see the amazing décor and view the special displays in the Art Room. We took a walk around the grounds before the shuttle returned us to our vehicle. Another landmark is Brimstone Head. It towers high and is visible for a long distance. It was especially important in the past for guiding
sailors home from the sea. It’s interesting to note that it’s considered one of the four corners of the earth by the Flat Earth Society. Fogo Head is another high hill (rock) towering over the landscape. There’s a foot trail leading to its peak. I expect the view from there would be very impressive, but I’m thinking it’s not for the faint of heart. There’s a large craft store near there, where you can browse an array of Newfoundland and Labrador crafts and souvenirs. The day passed all too quickly. We stopped at the Cod Jigger Restaurant for a delicious meal, only to realize that time was running short and we had to make a mad dash to catch the ferry. It was the last crossing for the day. We made it just in time and were last to pull on board and settle in for the sail back. It was truly an amazing, picturesque trip. Put it on your bucket list. I’m confident you won’t regret it. Since it opened in 2013, the upscale Fogo Island Inn has been a major attraction on the island.
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HOME and Cabin
stuff we love
by Tobias Romaniuk
Locally Set Thanksgiving Table NICELY MADE NAPKINS Brindy Linens, in Brigus, NL, uses a block printing process to place artistic designs on cloth napkins. Each print begins with a drawing, which is then used to create a block carving used for printing by hand. The result is functional art. Brindylinens.com
SERVE UP STYLE A handmade serving tray from a local craftsperson is a great way to add a bit of flair to your table setting. We’re particularly fond of the crackled glaze work of Alexis Templeton, a ceramic artist with a studio and shop in downtown St. John’s. alexistempleton.com
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HANDMADE TABLE Gathering around the dinner table to share food and stories is one of life’s sweet pleasures. What if your table had a story, too? Furniture makers are everywhere, from the hobbyist to the professional. Check out the work of Gary Bursey, a furniture maker in Long Beach, NL. Garyburseyfurniture.ca
CRAFTED CANDLES Candles in a flower arrangement look beautiful as a centrepiece and, when lit, create that intimate ambiance. With seasonal scents like apple pie and pumpkin spice, Foggy Island Candle Company’s creations can help set the mood and get your guests’ mouths watering as soon as they step in the door. Foggyislandcandles.ca
ANTIQUE CHAIRS Antique chairs have an undeniable character and warmth, with their patina and years of wear. From family heirlooms to new-to-you from yard sales, thrift stores or antique shops, there are so many ways to find antique chairs that suit your style. In St. John’s, try poking around Rosemill Antiques or Habitat For Humanity’s Restore.
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The planning and precision paid off on this patio project
STORY & PHOTOS BY TOBIAS ROMANIUK
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“I wanted everything to be perfect from the ground up,”
says Garrett Murphy, owner of Perlicade Construction. We’re standing in a Mount Pearl backyard, looking at the latest Perlicade deck project as Garrett explains the build process for this multi-level patio. The house attached to this deck sits in a cul de sac subdivision built about 20 years ago, says the homeowner, and the wooden structure was beginning to show signs of rot. It was time for something new.
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Garrett’s interest in carpentry goes back to his childhood and time spent with his pop, who showed him how to use a handsaw and other woodworking tools. When it came time to study for a career, though, Garrett chose naval architecture, not carpentry. Then the work dried up and Garrett returned to school, this time to study carpentry. He spent a few years getting hands-on experience in the building trades before starting Perlicade in May 2018. The company is currently focused on outdoor living products – fences, decks, sheds and the like – with plans to expand into other areas down the road. Although boat decks and house decks don’t, on the face of it, seem to have that much in common, Garrett has found his previous career training and experience useful, especially when it comes time to sit at the computer and design a client’s project in AutoCAD, the industry standard 84
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To combat the near-constant wind coming off a nearby pond, Garrett built a corner privacy wall for windless barbecuing and topped it with wide, white composite planking. Mitred corners give it a polished look.
The railing system is also composite and virtually maintenance free, as is the skirting. In an effort to be budget-conscious, the skirting is non-perforated soffit, a material normally used under roof eaves.
software for drawing construction plans. Describing himself as being particular, Garrett takes obvious pride in his craft, pointing out seamless mitre joints that give the deck a refined look. Although he does it for himself – a job well done is one to be proud of – he also realizes that quality craftsmanship will lead to helpful referrals as he works to build his company brand. “I’m just trying to do good work for all the clients I have now and working on my name,” he says. www.downhomelife.com
The two-level Mount Pearl deck is built with composite materials, which require virtually no maintenance and, for this particular brand, come with a 25-year residential guarantee. The deck boards are manmade using plastics, wood particles (but it’s not particle board) and other materials to engineer a resilient surface with a wood look, complete with a grain pattern. Composite boards, says Garrett, won’t crack, splinter or decay like their solid wood counterparts. The upfront cost is higher than a pressure treated deck, but if one October 2020
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needs to justify the expense, consider the savings of never having to buy another can of stain. Using premium materials, and the promise of a long-lasting deck, is all for naught if the foundation isn’t properly prepared, though. To prevent movement from frost heaving or ground settlement, Garrett placed the deck on concrete pilings poured into four-feetdeep holes to reach below the frost line. Before digging any holes, Garrett laid out a string grid to plot the locations of deck posts and to ensure everything would be perfectly square. To help with the groundwork and landscaping, he brought in fellow tradesperson Adam Whitten of ArcForce Industries Inc. In an effort to ensure the pressure-treated wood substructure would last as long as the composite deck boards, Garrett taped every joist with a waterproofing membrane that prevents water 86
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from pooling on the joist and seeping into screw holes. Water getting into the wood, explains Garrett, is what leads to rot. The new patio’s deck boards are unmarred by screw holes. To achieve this look, Garrett used boards with grooved sides to accept clips that attach to the underlying joists. It’s a system as secure as screws or nails, but doesn’t react well to excessive deck movement, which is why the structure sits on pilings rather than deck blocks. Before any work was done outside, Garrett met with the homeowners several times to learn how the family uses their deck, what they did and didn’t like about the current deck, and the look they wanted for their new outdoor space. Those conversations informed his design, build and
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material decisions, including an agreement to build the deck smaller than the previous 24 x 36-foot incarnation. The new structure measures 20 x 20 feet, with an eight-foot top section and 16-foot lower section, both 20 feet wide. This carefully crafted build – the corners are mitred, the screw holes are plugged, the fasteners are invisible, and the lights are built into the stair risers and wall – is a reflection of Garrett’s focus on construction best practices and doing a job the right way. With every job, he is pushing to raise what people view as an acceptable standard of work. “Why can’t we be better than good enough?” he asks, as he stands in front of the patio that is a testament to his refusal to settle for anything less than excellent.
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HOME and Cabin
Photos courtesy Jerome Canning
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The wharf-inspired hall table of Jerome Canning BY TOBIAS ROMANIUK
JEROME CANNING leans over the side of an under-construction rodney in the Winterton Wooden Boat Museum boat-building shed, drill in hand, as he guides his student, Max, through the process of attaching the gunwales. Jerome figures this is around the hundredth boat he’s had a hand in building. So yes, he’s a boatbuilder. But he’s also a furniture maker. And that’s what he’s talking with me about as he oversees some of the last bits of building this boat. Each summer, Jerome relocates from St. John’s to Winterton to work as the boatbuilder-in-residence. Last season, he’d taken an interest in the local stage heads – for the nonmariners among us, that’s the wharf that extends out beyond the small shed we call a stage – and decided to draw one.
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Jerome sought to replicate it to scale in a technical drawing. He was particularly interested in Gerard Piercey’s stage head and took measurements in preparation of drawing it over the winter. But things change. Like how one day a tree is standing and then, a storm later, it’s laying on the ground – which is exactly how
that drew inspiration from wharves and stage heads. Of particular interest to Jerome was the undercarriage, known as cribs or ballast lockers. “So anyway, I drew it,” says Jerome, this time talking about the hall table inspired by stage heads and their ballast lockers. He thought of the slab, which would dictate the
“I’m going to try to let those elements come into whatever I build, whether it’s a boat or, in particular, furniture.” Jerome ended up with a fairly wide live-edge slab of locally grown maple that had been sitting in his garage ever since the tree’s run-in with Hurricane Igor and an Alaskan chainsaw mill. “I said, ‘You know what? That could be the top of a hall table.’ And I used as the theme the ballast locker and the wharfs,” Jerome says. By this time, the idea of drawing the stage head, to include every detail, all of it to scale, had faded, replaced by thoughts of a hall table 90
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length; its intended home in the relatively narrow confines of a hallway dictated its depth. Treating the top as the decking of a wharf, he decided everything underneath would have, in some way, an element of the lockers. And it wasn’t easy. “There was a lot of shagging around because it wasn’t working at first,” Jerome says. So he stepped back, all the way out the front door, and then re-entered. “I said OK, it’s going to be a hall table… So what are they putting in it? 1-888-588-6353
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They’re going to put a few keys, a bit of mail, odds and ends like that that’s in their pocket.” With this sense of purpose in mind, Jerome again sat at the drawing table and worked out the details of the piece. The ballast locker inspiration is subtle, but can be seen in the box joints and how the corners resemble the interlocking corners of a locker, or how the red pieces of wood under the box are slanted in tribute to the askew longers seen under many a stage head. An inlay is planned – but as of the time of writing is still in the conceptual stage – for the hall table that will likely show a seaside scene of stage, wharf and water. Much of the furniture that Jerome builds contains a nod to his Newfoundland roots: the hand barrow influence of a previous hall table, or the morse code of a recent hutch, or
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the chair with its oversized netting needle for a back. “This is the place I’m from, this is the stuff that all my life I’ve been looking at,” he says. “And my interest in architecture, my interest in tools, my interest in building boats – I’m going to try to let those elements come into whatever I build, whether it’s a boat or, in particular, furniture.” Unlike the boats Jerome builds, with their multitude of curves, much of his furniture tends to be straightlined, in the tradition of Greene and Greene, architects and furniture designers who worked in the Arts and Crafts style. He’s also influenced by the vernacular architecture of Newfoundland, much of which features basic forms. “I chose the straight lines for furniture, so far,” says Jerome, “because I like it being basic like our buildings, like our cribs.”
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HOME and Cabin
the everyday gourmet
Grilled Squash
Tacos
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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.
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Enjoying foods in their season is a sensible way to eat, since they are at their peak of flavour and nutrition, and likely have contributed less to the carbon burden by having travelled a shorter distance to get to you. Even better if you can shop at local farmers’ markets and food stands. While I do try to practise this, I have to admit that squash, plentiful in the fall, has never been high on my list of favourite foods. Most preparations amplify the sweetness and soft texture, which, generally, are not what I crave in a meal. So I set about to celebrate the bounty of the harvest season by creating a recipe that celebrates squash; offers plant-based options for my vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian friends; while meeting my flavour and texture criteria. BBQ-grilled Squash Tacos, featuring black beans and salsa with soft flour-and-corn tortillas, fit the bill. I completed the meal with a cashew-based crema and what I am calling “totiha,” my tofu-based version of the salty, crumbly Mexican cheese called cotija (pronounced co-TEE-ha), along with regular sour cream and shredded cheddar as options. It was a symphony of flavours and textures. The spice rub, combined with the grilling technique, rendered the squash deliciously spicy, tasty, chewy and with a balanced flavour enhanced by the char of the grill and a hit of citrus. I found kabocha squash at the market, so I used that, but any hard winter squash would work (though butternut’s texture might be a bit too soft to grill). Crisp taco shells would be delicious, too, and offer another delightful texture. This column is actually a series of recipes – all the better to mix and match for future great meals! Cashew cream is popular in vegan cuisine. You’ll need raw (not roasted or salted) cashews, and most recipes advise to soak overnight. However, I was in a hurry, so I simmered them in water and a tbsp of lemon juice, in a covered small pot, for 5 minutes. Then I turned off the heat and left the cover on to steep the cashews for 20 minutes or so before draining and rinsing the nuts with cold water. October 2020
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Grilled Squash Tacos Cashew crema 1/2 cup raw cashews 1/2 cup water (at least) 1-3 tbsp lemon juice Pinch kosher salt Spice rub 3 tbsp chili powder 4 tbsp cumin powder 1 tbsp onion powder 1 tbsp granulated garlic 2 tbsp smoked paprika 4 tsp chipotle powder 1 tsp cayenne pepper 2 tsp kosher salt 1 (2 lb) winter squash (Kabocha, Acorn, Delicata, Buttercup or Sweet Dumpling) Totiha 1/3 lb medium-firm tofu 1/2 tsp kosher salt 1/2 tsp dry oregano 1/2 tsp cumin powder 1/2 tsp smoked paprika 1/2 tsp garlic granules 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Either soak the cashews in water overnight or use the quick method I described above. Drain and use a high-powered blender to blend cashews with 1/2 cup water, 1 tbsp lemon juice and a pinch of salt until creamy and smooth. Add water and scrape down sides as needed to reach a spoonable texture, like sour cream. Taste and adjust seasonings. Set aside in fridge. Preheat the BBQ, clean and oil the grills (or set oven to broil and place rack in 2nd highest position, line a pan with aluminum foil and grease with oil or nonstick spray). Stir the rub spices together and set aside. (Any leftover from seasoning the squash and the beans can be stored for another use.) Skin the squash and remove the seeds. Slice squash into 4-inch strips about ž-inch thick. Place on a tray and toss with enough of the spice rub to coat. Set aside. The salt will pull a little of the moisture out of the squash while it sits.
Beans and Salsa 1 can black beans, rinsed & drained 2 cloves garlic 1 sweet onion 1 bell pepper 1 jalapeno (or more, to taste) 3 tomatoes 1 bunch cilantro 3-4 limes (for zest and juice, and wedges for serving) 6-inch corn-and-flour tortillas or crisp taco shells (3 per person) Vegetable oil 94
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the chopped tomato, 2 tbsp cilantro, 1 tbsp jalapeno (more to taste), 1 tsp of lime juice and a pinch of salt. Taste and adjust seasonings. Set aside in fridge.
Meanwhile, make the totiha. Drain the tofu, squeeze/pat on paper towels to get out some of the moisture, then crumble into a bowl. Mix together the spices and toss with the tofu to combine. Grate in a teaspoon of lime zest and add a couple teaspoons of lime juice. Taste and adjust seasonings. Set aside in fridge. Prep the vegetables for the beans and the salsa. Chop the bell pepper and onion into 1/4-inch dice. Chop the tomatoes. Mince the jalapeno(s) finely. Finely chop a cup or so of cilantro – you will use it in the salsa, beans and have it standing by to garnish the squash and tacos, too. Mince the garlic. Toss the seasoned squash with a little vegetable oil and place over mediumhigh heat on the BBQ or arrange on the oiled, foil-lined pan in the oven. Grill (or broil), turning once until charred and tender – about 12 minutes. Don’t overcook. Transfer to a warmed serving bowl. Toss with 2 tbsp fresh lime juice. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro. In a medium bowl, mix together about 1/3 cup diced onion, threequarters of the diced bell pepper, all www.downhomelife.com
In a large frypan, over med-high heat, warm a tbsp of vegetable oil, add the rest of the chopped onion, the garlic and a tsp of the squash spice blend. Sauté a few minutes, then add the reserved bell pepper. Stir a minute or two. Add the drained, rinsed black beans and reduce heat to warm through. Taste and adjust seasonings. Transfer to a serving bowl, sprinkle with a little chopped cilantro and keep warm. Slice remaining limes into wedges and place in a little dish for the table. Transfer remaining chopped cilantro to a little dish for the table as well. You could thinly slice additional jalapeños or place hot sauce on the table for those who would like to spice it up. To assemble: Warm the tortillas in a covered dish (we invert a bowl over a plate) in the microwave, or crisp the taco shells according to package instructions. Set the tortillas (and/or taco shells), squash, beans, salsa, crema, totiha (and shredded cheese and sour cream if serving) on the table and invite everyone to assemble their own tacos to their taste. We served grilled corn, finished with butter and lime juice, as a delicious accompaniment. And we were lucky to have fresh chanterelles, which we warmed in a grill basket, tossed with salt and pepper. October 2020
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We reached out to our staff and our family and friends to create this collection of delicious berry recipes. We hope they become favourites in your home like they are in ours.
Cranberry Tarts By Vince Marsh
18 frozen min-tart shells, thawed 1 1/2 cups frozen cranberries 1/2 tsp orange zest 2 tbsp fresh orange juice 1/2 + 1/4 cup sugar 4 oz (1/2 block) cream cheese, softened 1/3 cup thawed Cool Whip Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine cranberries, orange zest and juice, and 1/2 cup sugar in a pot over medium heat and bring to a bubble, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer until cranberries start to burst and mixture thickens. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Beat cream cheese and 1/4 cup sugar with a mixer until fully blended and smooth. Fold in Cool Whip. Spoon cream cheese filling into tart shells and put in fridge to set for at least 20 minutes. Finish with cranberry topping and serve.
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Partridgeberry Spice Cake By Janice Stuckless 1/2 cup butter 1 cup sugar 1 egg, beaten 1 1/4 cups flour 1/2 tsp cloves 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped 1 cup raisins, plumped in water, then drained 1 cup partridgeberries (frozen or fresh) 1/4 cup water
Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream butter and sugar. Stir in beaten egg. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Stir in nuts, raisins and partridgeberries. Gradually mix into creamed mixture, adding alternately with water, until all is incorporated. Pour batter into a greased 9.5" flute pan or 9" x 9" square baking pan. Bake for 50-60 min., until tester comes out clean.
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Baked Oatmeal By Jennifer Hiscock
3 cups rolled oats 1 cup brown sugar 2 tsp cinnamon 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1 cup milk 2 eggs 1/2 cup butter, melted 2 tsp vanilla 3/4 cup fresh berries (or thawed from frozen)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Beat in the milk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla. Stir in berries. Spread into a greased 9"x13" baking dish. Bake for 40 min. Cut and serve warm right away, or serve portions later with a splash of milk poured over and warmed in the microwave.
Blueberry Pie By Cassie Boone
1 unbaked pie crust 1 – 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries (enough to cover the bottom of the pie crust) 1/2 cup butter, melted 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 2 tbsp flour 1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 350°F. Dump blueberries into unbaked pie crust. Mix melted butter, sugar, eggs, flour and vanilla together. Pour over blueberries. Bake for 1 hour, or when pie is golden brown on top. www.downhomelife.com
Blueberry Muffin Smoothie By Jennifer Hiscock
1 cup milk (your choice of dairy, almond, coconut etc.) 1 cup blueberries 1 ripe banana 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (or vanilla yogurt to taste)
Combine all ingredients in a blender, blend until smooth. Transfer to a drinking cup and enjoy! (Pour it into a travel mug and sip on the commute to work, or enjoy at your desk.)
Berry Scones By Jennifer Hiscock
2 cups flour 1/4 cup brown sugar 1 tbsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 cup butter 1 cup fresh berries (any kind) 3/4 cup cream 1 egg
Preheat oven to 375°F. Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter. Add berries and toss to mix berries in with dry mixture. In another bowl, beat cream and egg together. Slowly pour into dry ingredients and stir until dough forms. Knead just until it starts to all come together. Do not over-knead. Split dough in half and shape each half into a 6-inch round. Cut each round into 6 wedges. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 20 min. Makes 12 scones.
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Microwave Blueberry Duff By Cassie Boone
2 1/2 cups flour 3/4 cup sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1 cup blueberries 1/3 cup melted butter 3/4 cup milk 1 tsp vanilla
If you forget about your blueberry duff, this is an equally delicious quick fix! Use a large butter tub, small plastic ice cream tub or other lidded microwave-safe container. Coat the inside of the container in butter as well as the underside of the lid. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and blueberries in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine butter, milk and vanilla. Stir wet ingredients into dry until all is combined. Pour batter into the buttered container. Place the container in the microwave and just lay the lid on top of the container – do not seal it. Microwave on high for 5-10 min., checking on it every 3-4 min. as each microwave is different and cook time may be less or more. When a toothpick inserted in the middle of the duff comes out dry, it’s done. Let cool on counter, then if you buttered well enough it should slide out easily on a plate when you tip the container upside down. Slice, serve, enjoy.
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Blueberry Squares By Margie Gorman (submitted by her niece, Samantha Mercer)
Squares 3 tbsp butter 1/3 cup sugar 2 egg yolks 2/3 cup sifted flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 cup milk 1/4 tsp vanilla
Topping 2 egg whites 6 tbsp sugar 1/4 tsp salt 1 cup fresh blueberries (or berry of your choice)
Make squares Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg yolks. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk and vanilla. Pour batter into a greased 8-inch square pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. Reduce oven heat to 300°F.
Make topping Beat egg whites until peaks form. Beat in sugar and salt. Gently fold in blueberries (or other berries) and spread over the baked squares. Return to the oven at 300°F and bake until the topping has browned slightly (12-15 minutes). Cool completely before cutting.
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Partridgeberry Banana Muffins
By Janice Stuckless
1 cup salad dressing (mayo or Miracle Whip) 1 cup sugar 2 mashed bananas 2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped 1 cup partridgeberries (fresh or frozen)
Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine salad dressing, sugar and bananas. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and baking soda. Stir dry ingredients into wet until all is just combined and no dry ingredients are visible. Fold in walnuts and partridgeberries. Spoon batter into greased or lined muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes, until tester comes out clean. Transfer muffins to rack to cool completely. Note: This can also be made as a bread. Follow the same mixing instructions, then pour batter into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350°F for 1 hour, until tester comes out clean. Turn out loaf onto a rack to cool. Slice to serve.
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Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins By Sandra Gosse
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Muffins
Streusel
1/2 cup unsalted butter, soft 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar 2 large eggs, room temperature 1/2 cup yogurt (strawberry) 2 tsp pure vanilla extract 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/4 cups chopped strawberries (frozen or fresh)
1/4 cup light brown sugar 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold
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Cheesecake Filling 6 1 1 3
oz cream cheese, soft egg yolk tsp pure vanilla extract tbsp granulated sugar
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Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease or line 14 muffin cups.
Make the streusel In a small bowl, toss the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter and mix with a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.
Make the muffins In a bowl, beat the butter with a mixer on high speed until smooth and creamy. Add the sugars and beat on high until creamed. Add the eggs, yogurt and vanilla extract. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute, then turn up to high speed until the mixture is combined and uniform in texture. In a larger bowl, toss together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and slowly mix until combined and little lumps remain. Fold in the strawberries with a wooden spoon or spatula.
Make the cheesecake filling In a bowl, beat the cream cheese with a mixer on medium-high speed until creamy. Add the egg yolk, vanilla extract and sugar. Beat until combined. Layering the muffins Spoon 1 tbsp strawberry muffin batter into muffin cups. Add about 1 spoonful of cheesecake filling, then another tablespoon of muffin batter (fill the cup). Sprinkle each muffin evenly with streusel topping and lightly press the streusel down into the muffin just so it sticks. Bake for 25-27 minutes. Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
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Bakeapple Ice Cream
(Serves 6)
By Tiffany Brett
1 3/4 cups heavy cream 3/4 cup sugar 1/8 tsp fine sea salt 1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 tbsp vanilla 2 cups bakeapple jam (I used Dark Tickle bakeapple jam)
Pour 1 cup of the cream into a saucepan and add the sugar and salt. Warm this mixture over medium heat until the sugar is melted. Remove from heat and add the remaining cream, milk and vanilla. Stir to combine and chill in the refrigerator. (You can skip the warming part and just beat everything together very well.) When you are ready to churn, place mixture in the ice cream maker. You can either add your bakeapple jam now and mix the jam throughout the ice cream mixture, or you can stir in jam after you finish churning. (If you don’t have an ice cream maker, use any plastic tub about the size of an ice cream tub. Use a hand-held mixer to churn ingredients until ice cream is smooth and looks like melted soft serve.) Put ice cream into an airtight covered container and place in the freezer until you are ready to serve. Every hour or so, use a whisk to fluff up your ice cream as it’s freezing. If you make your ice cream early in the morning, you should have a nice frozen treat to serve by suppertime.
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No-bake Bakeapple Cheesecake By Emily Brett
2 cups graham cracker crumbs 1/2 cup melted butter 8 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar 1 envelope Dream Whip 1 (16 oz) jar bakeapple jam
Combine crumbs and melted butter and press into a 10"x10"pan or a 10" pie plate. Combine softened cream cheese and sugar, and beat well. Following the package directions, make one envelope of Dream Whip; fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Spread evenly over graham cracker crumb bottom. Spread bakeapple jam over top, to the thickness you desire (more or less jam than called for). Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. (You can make this same simple cheesecake using any berry, jam or fruit topping.)
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HOME and Cabin
down to earth
Beautiful Fall Bulbs by Kim Thistle
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I love this time of year as it is a wonderful time to get out in the garden. No flies and warmish, sunny days when it’s not stifling hot – the last hurrah before the snow flies. The thoughts of having early spring flowers when nothing else is blooming makes it that much more special. The term fall bulbs is a little confusing, mostly because they do not actually bloom in fall. A better term is “spring-flowering bulbs.” You will often hear both terms, but they are interchangeable. Some examples of these bulbs are daffodils, crocuses, tulips and hyacinths. Fall bulbs are interesting in that they are planted in fall, go through the winter period and then bloom in spring. These plants need long periods of cold temperatures to produce their underground root system, and they will not bloom if they do not get the required cold period. Cool fact: the flower of a bulb has actually formed inside the bulb, and if you cut it down through the centre and look at the cross-section, you can see the flower already formed. Hyacinths are the best example of this. (Educators, this is a great science lesson for children.)
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Here are a few tips for planting fall bulbs Choose a sunny spot with at least six hours of sun. Remember that deciduous trees do not have leaves in the spring when these are blooming, so what looks shady now may not be at bloom time. Do not plant in a wet area. Bulbs do not like wet feet. Bulbs like soil that is rich in organic matter, so be sure to add compost when planting. Plant three times as deep as the bulb is tall. If bulbs are too shallow, the frost will heave them up to the surface. Make sure the pointed part is skywards. If the bulb is round and it is hard to discern the “pointy” end, look for the flat part that has the remnants of roots. When in doubt, plant it sideways. If you do plant it upside down, it will still grow but just take longer.
Use bone meal to stimulate root growth. Please, PLEASE, plant in groups. A flash of colour is much more pleasing to the eye than a line of tulips that look like toy soldiers. I usually plant bulbs in a circle with the bulbs being about an inch apart. In Newfoundland, bulbs are best planted in October, but a general rule of thumb is to plant them about six weeks before the ground freezes. I have planted them in November many a time and they fare just as well as when planted in October. Be sure to water well once you have finished planting. The foliage left behind once a bulb has flowered can look untidy. Don’t be tempted to cut it off as this is what nourishes your bulb for future years. Instead plant your bulbs next to large leaved perennials such as hostas that will cover up the dying back foliage. That being said, you can cut back the flower stock. It’s just the leaves that should be left behind.
Tips for purchasing bulbs • The larger the bulb, the larger the flower. Top sized bulbs cost more but are well worth it. You are better off having a few good quality bulbs than a mass of foliage with small flowers. Customers often ask us if our tulips are on steroids. Nope. We just plant quality stuff. • Check for firmness. A healthy bulb does not have any give when 108
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squeezed. As well, look for signs of disease and rot on the bulbs. • Purchase for your location. Your local garden centre will only carry what is proven to grow in your area. • Buy from a reputable garden centre, where you’ll be more likely to get top size quality bulbs than at a home improvement store where smaller landscape bulbs are sold. 1-888-588-6353
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Showstoppers
Allium Globemaster
Colchicum
Butterfly Apricot Narcissus
Tulip Olympic Flame
Tulip World Expression
Pink Impression Tulips
Tete a Tete Daffodils
Muscari
Daffodil Fragrant Mix
Red Parade Tulips
Try naturalizing The term naturalizing refers to an informal planting style that looks naturally blended, like waves or drifts of bulbs. For example, you will often see a lawn covered with crocuses in the spring or a wooded area along a path with a spread of daffodils. Some bulbs are better suited for this purpose as some types propagate freely over time, which helps them to spread. It is important to make the right choice when planning this sort of garden. You want bulbs that are not fussy, as these gardens need little or no care and look after themselves. Some of the bulbs that I love to see in this sort of setting are Chinodoxa (Glory of the Snow), Crocus, Galanthus (Snowdrops), Hyacinthoides (Bluebells), Grape Hyacinths (Muscari), some types of Daffodils and Scilla (Squill). To get the informal look you seek, use a hose or rope to outline an undulating curve, then throw your bulbs and let them scatter at will. Start with your largest bulbs (daffodils) and if you are planting other varieties with them, throw the next size down and let them scatter. Continue scattering www.downhomelife.com
your bulbs at will till the smallest ones are in place. With that done, go back and space accordingly and start planting. For lawns, use the earliest bloomers (Chionodoxa, Crocus and Muscari). I plant them right into the lawn using a dibber or a sharpened broom handle. I poke holes with the dibber, throw the bulb in and press it closed with my foot. They bloom in the spring before the lawn is ready to be mowed, and once they finish blooming, it is fine to go ahead and mow right over them. The great thing about bulbs is that they are foolproof. If you have a quality bulb and plant it in a well-drained, moist area, it is next to impossible not to have success. If kept nourished, these beauties will reward you for years to come. If you have always wanted to try gardening but thought it was too complicated, start here. Kim Thistle owns a garden centre and landscaping business on the west coast of the island. She has also been a recurring guest gardener on CBC’s “Crosstalk” for almost three decades. October 2020
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reminiscing flashbacks
From the Ashes A restored and colourized picture of the ruins of the Athenaeum and part of the Union Bank on Duckworth Street, seen in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1892, St. John’s. Gerard Nash, St. John’s, NL
Boat in the Bay
The submitter found this photo among her mother’s possessions. Does anyone recognize the boat? Beulah Gillingham Stoney Creek, ON
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Rhubarb Patch Kids
“Long before we knew rhubarb leaves were poisonous, we wore the leaves as hats while chewing on a stalk. Top row: Alison Perry (Glovertown); my brother, Perry Parsons (Mount Pearl); me; my cousin Dean Scarlett (Salmon Cove). Sitting in front of Al is his brother Doug, now deceased,” the submitter writes. “We knew how to make fun! Taken on Penmore Drive in Mount Pearl.” Barbara (Parsons) Moores, NL
This Month in History On October 2, 1903, the employees of all the tinsmith stores in St. John’s, NL, assembled at the Mechanic’s Hall and voted to form the St. John’s Tinsmith’s Union, with a Mr. Pike as president. The workers had gone on strike a while before and refused to go back to work unless they were all paid a minimum wage of $1.50 a day. The union would go on to advocate for the work of local tinsmiths, petition the government to increase duties on imported manufactured tinware, and set standardized price lists for local tin work. (Source: On This Day: 365 Tales of History, Mystery, and More – the newest book by provincial folklorist Dale Jarvis.)
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By Dennis Flynn
Chats with my father, Tony Flynn of Colliers, often lead to interesting stories. This one day it led to a chilling ghost story about his own father, Jack (John) Flynn, when he was working in what was once known as the lumbering woods of Nichols Pond. It happened sometime between 1900 and 1920, when my grandfather was still a teenager. “He was working in a remote woods camp that he said had to do with the Reid Newfoundland Railway,” Dad begins. “He was travelling from Colliers well ahead of the main gang this particular trip. They usually all went up together or met at what they called Mahers Siding [near Brigus Junction]. Father was a day early, so rather than wait he proceeded on foot by himself up towards the tiny camp that was 112
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at the far end of Nichols Pond, where the crew would be doing the actual harvesting of timber. It was a long spell to travel and a very lonely place to go, but Father was the type, like most rural men and women of that era, that walked everywhere and he always had a good nerve. Folks needed a strong constitution and a bit of courage since jobs were very hard to come by in those days.”. 1-888-588-6353
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He added, “Anything unusual or frightening that crossed their path, well, I guess they just had to find a way to come to terms with it and keep going. I am sure my father was probably afraid at times, but he had no choice, in his mind at least, except to keep working as hard as he could. He figured if you encountered any spirits and left them alone and in peace, they might not necessarily help you, but they might not go out of their way to hurt you either. That was good enough for him.” Jack made his way to the tiny camp at Nichols Pond and settled in to wait for the others. “Now during the night he heard sounds of men on the water rowing up the pond, and then the splashes of feet scuffling through the shallows as a small boat was being dragged ashore. He figured it was his buddies after coming up the pond, so he got dressed and went down to the water’s edge to meet them. As he approached, he said he could hear them talking and almost singing something, probably a little shanty to help with hauling the boat up, though he couldn’t quite pick out what they were saying,” my father continued. “Suddenly though, when he rounded the last little bend to where his friends should have been, there was nobody there at all. He looked everywhere up and down the pond as far as he could see, but not a soul was to be found and not a mark on the spot of beach despite what he heard. Father gave up on the search eventually and went back to bed. The next morning when his companions eventually arrived, Father asked them why they had turned back the night before. They had no idea what he was 1-888-588-6353
talking about. They told him it was too late when they got to Mahers Siding, so nobody had left the main camp or travelled Nichols Pond until dawn that morning. Whatever he heard it wasn’t them.” So what was it?
“Suddenly though, when he rounded the last little bend to where his friends should have been, there was nobody there at all.” “One of the senior members of the lumbering crew, who was quite familiar with the history of the area, said that Nichols Pond was a mysterious place and the site of a number of tragedies over the years – including a group of men in a small boat who were lost and all hands drowned. The phenomenon was apparently well-known to older locals as being harmless enough and merely a harbinger of bad weather on the horizon. Woodsmen and hunters often reported hearing the ghostly oarsmen rowing, talking, singing and even hauling their craft up out of the water. It was a token that a storm was on the way in the next few days and a warning to be mindful on or around the water.” You may choose to believe Jack Flynn’s tale or not, but if you find yourself alone in the Nichols Pond area, keep a sharp ear towards the water. The ghostly boatmen of Nichols Pond might still be up there rowing their boat ashore. October 2020
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LET ME TAKE you back to October 24, 1931.
A young man from London, England, sailed in through The Narrows of St. John’s harbour on the SS Newfoundland, a Furness-Withy mail and passenger liner that, back then, routinely operated between Liverpool, England, and St. John’s, Newfoundland. Sydney Morgan Bradbrook had just turned 19 that July, and here he was in a foreign land (albeit a British colony), one that he had heard was “quite primitive.” Like all adventurers, he had no way of knowing what awaited him when he eagerly set sail a week earlier, saying farewell to his family – some of whom, including his mother, he would never see again. Adventure, danger, challenges beyond his wildest dreams, love and heartbreak… all of that was yet to come. As the ship pulled away from the Liverpool pier that October day, he had but one thing on his mind: he was going to Newfoundland to study for the ministry at Queens Theological College in St. John’s. He was going to fulfill his dream and follow in the footsteps of his Uncle Edwin to become an ordained priest of the Church of England. Uncle Edwin had gone east to a British colony in Africa. He was going west, to a British colony off the east coast of Canada. The Rev. Sydney Bradbrook was my father, and he was, among many other things, a meticulous journal keeper. His first diary entry was at the age of 15; his last was written less than 24 hours before his death. These journals, some scribbled with a pencil in tiny notebooks, or school scribblers, or on whatever writing materials were available, and most written by the light of a kerosene lamp, are now in my keeping. These diaries have given me new insight into who my father was as a young man, long before he became “My Dad.” We all know our parents had a life of their own before marrying and starting a family, but apart from a story here or there, we rarely get the chance to really understand what their thoughts and feelings were during their unencumbered youth. Reading Dad’s diaries was like walking by his side and hearing him speak, not as my father but as the multidimensional Sydney I never knew. What a gift and privilege to be able to discover him anew, as the young London landlubber who adapted so quickly and happily to life in outport Newfoundland.
Left: A young Sydney Bradbrook, the “London landlubber,” in a scow full of cod. 1-888-588-6353
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Sydney Bradbook (second from left) and friends about to embark on the “Newfie Bullet” from St. John’s to Corner Brook in June 1932
Finding his Sea Legs
Dad spent the summer of 1932, his first in Newfoundland, living in Daniel’s Harbour on the Northern Peninsula. It was there that outport life captured his heart and soul. Here, in his own words, is how he learned to be a fisherman. June 9, 1932: “…I thought I would like to go out in a boat. A boy, Edgar by name, a quaint chap, said he would go with me. He got a jigger and off we went in his grandfather’s dory, a heavy, smelly old thing. He took the paddles for a time and then I took them. It was good to get down to some hard work. “We pulled some distance out, and then let down the jigger to try our luck. Edgar tried first and very soon hauled up a codfish. Then I got one. I was quite excited. About three lbs. I was surprised to find that I could handle a wriggling fish and get the hook out quite easily, for I had been expect116
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ing a certain amount of revulsion. We caught 10 in three quarters of an hour, and then it was time to pull back. The total weight was about 30 lbs. “At 2:15 we were out again. The afternoon was very hot. We caught 18 good-sized ones, the biggest being six or seven lbs. I was very thankful that the fish couldn’t cry out, for the way the barb caught the fish sometimes was cruel to see. Toward six o’clock the smell of the dory sickened me, though I felt better while rowing, so back we went. When I got back to the house, I had the pleasure of eating some of the morning catch.” Every day he was eager to learn new skills: June 10: “…Arose late this morning. After breakfast I had the pleasure of making a churn full of butter. My respect for dairymaids has gone up considerably. It’s harder than I expected, that is, I mean, muscularly. Then I worked in the garden all after1-888-588-6353
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noon. Out in the boat for an hour in the evening, jigging for fish.” June 17 “…Lovely day. Helped John fit up an old store which is to be converted into a two-roomed house... After tea, Mr. B and I again went jigging. We got a halibut about 4 or 5 lbs. My, how he thrashed about in the bottom of the dory. Couldn’t get near him for flying mud and water. Finally killed him with the butt end of an oar. “We didn’t get any more till we almost decided to pull in, when we suddenly struck a patch of codfish. We couldn’t jig fast enough! In fact, often we didn’t have to jig, but just let down and pull up. Our haul was 34 in about 15 minutes. When we gutted and split, we had nearly a tub-full of fish. My hands are very stiff and sore.” Ten days later, he graduated from jigging from a dory to trawling from a skiff. June 28: “…John called me at ten past six, and after breakfast we went with Mr. Ingram and Charley (John’s brother) to the trap. It was quite a novel experience for me. It was interesting the way they ‘tucked’ the trap. They got three or four quintals. Got back about nine o’clock.” June 29: “…Up at six, and after having something to eat, went out to the trap. A great deal of fish; in fact, so much that Charley had to go back for the scow. Instead of forking them out we used a dip net. We loaded up the scow, Mr. Ingram’s dory and Charley’s boat. In all, about 15 quintals. I steered the boat back. It was 11 o’clock when we got back to breakfast... After a very quick meal the fish was started on. I got an oil coat and threw the fish on to the splitting table 1-888-588-6353
as it was wanted, then I learned how to head the fish. Mr. B. cut the throats, and John and George (another brother) headed. Mr. Ingram and Charley split. The work was carried on steadily and by about five or six it was all done. “I was standing in two or three inches of slob, although I had to stand knee deep in cod’s heads at times. We all went home tired and hungry to tea. So ended my first big day at the fishing industry.” By early July, he was a regular at the cod traps. July 2: “… John called me at six. I was tired after only having four hours of sleep (for I didn’t get to bed before two). No time for anything but a glass of milk, and then off to the trap again. Only two or three quintals this morning. There has been lots of caplin in the trap lately. They look blue and green when swimming near the surface, and it is great to see them swimming about in thousands. “There were two or three dogfish in the trap yesterday. They are nasty looking things. An ugly looking brown fish with a yellow belly, called a prim, was hauled in and Charley told me that when they are patted they swell up and when thrown into the water they kick about on the top because once blown up, they can’t ‘unblow.’ Fascinating!” So, that’s how Dad got initiated into all aspects of the cod fishery. What he learned kept him in good stead throughout his ministry in outport Newfoundland because the people he served knew that he understood how hard they worked to make a meagre living. October 2020
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A last chance journey on a Newfoundland train Story and photos by Kenneth G. Pieroway Conception Bay South, NL
My best day trip ever
in Newfoundland didn’t take place on a highway, but rather on a train. I’ve been a lifelong fan of the Newfoundland Railway, since I was a small boy in 1960s Corner Brook, but never got a chance to ride our beloved “Bullet” or the mixed trains to Argentia, Bonavista or Carbonear. I had thought my opportunity was lost until one day in 1987, when a friend at Terra Transport gave me the heads up that a mixed passenger train service still operated from Bishops Falls to Corner Brook! 118
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Immediately my girlfriend and I rushed to Bishops Falls on the morning of April 20, 1987, to finally ride the rails. Upon arrival, our little train was already marshalled with diesel unit 945, 20 bright green containers and, at the end, a coach in front of a bright orange caboose. Eagerly purchasing our $19 oneway tickets, we boarded coach 757 for the 222-km journey across the Gaff Topsails to Corner Brook. We were the only passengers that day. At 11:00 a.m., with two short blasts from the engineer, Terra Transport Mixed Extra 945 West started with a lurch and we were on our way. We were amazed at how comfortable the seats were and how smooth the ride was in the coach that was once part of the “Bullet.” Before long, we passed under the TCH overpass and climbed the grade at Cruisers, said to be the steepest on the entire line, and soon reached Grand Falls, where the crew did some switching. En route to Badger, we ran alongside both the Exploits River and the TCH. The train stopped briefly at Badger, and young boys in their backyard waved to us as we departed for the Gaff Topsails. From here the train parted ways with the TCH and all civilization, as the highway turned 1-888-588-6353
north but the railway plunged west. We passed through communities made famous in Newfoundland Railway folklore – Millertown Junction, Caribou and Mary March – names that few, if any, modern day TCH motorist has ever heard of, let alone driven through. At Blaggard’s Curve just before Quarry, the train made a long sweeping curve to the left and then to the right, so that the front of the train was clearly visible from the coach at the back. We had begun our ascent into the Topsails, a high plateau that was barren and windswept with several feet of snow that would remain there until June. With permission of the crew, I leaned out of the vestibules to capture many beautiful images. We reached Summit on a stretch of the railway that is 472 metres above sea level, the highest point of track on the entire island. Looking around, we could see the four Gaff Topsail Mountains, named after the masts on a sailing ship – Main, Mizzen, Gaff and Fore: a beautiful backdrop to an already impressive area. Continuing west, we passed the base of Summit Mountain before reaching the community of Gaff Topsail. We slowed but didn’t stop in this cabin area known for a great caribou herd of 1,500 animals that often blocked the trains. Next was Pond Crossing, a spectacular location of about 44 cabins with the Topsail Mountains in view and October 2020
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Above: Terra Transport Mixed Extra 945 West about to depart Bishops Falls, April 1987 Left: The author’s travelling companion, Michelle Kelly, April 1987
many ponds and hills nearby. Now on the downward side of Topsails, the train picked up speed as we descended towards Kitty’s Brook. Before crossing the river with the same name for the second time, we passed an old freight train that had derailed about 15 years earlier, all twisted and wrecked over an embankment. With Sandy Lake visible on the right, we reached Howley and, with it, both springtime and civilization. Next we crossed the top of Main Dam, which holds back the waters of Grand Lake; the large hydroelectric towers were visible just outside Deer Lake. For the next 19 kilometres, the train traced the shores of Deer Lake. We were joined then by the conductor, Carl Dillon, who enthralled us 120
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with his tales of working on the trains. The ride was so informal and the crew were exceptionally kind, even giving us a tour of the caboose and letting us sit in the cupola. At Pasadena, we rode through large meadows and fields where cows grazed contentedly, then we ran parallel to the mighty Humber River. After Steady Brook, we passed by Marble Mountain and Shellbird Island, the tracks clinging to the side of the high rocks while cars passed below us. The train wound in and out of the cliffs, providing us with a few breathtaking last kilometres as we looked up at the “Man in the Mountain.” Our journey ended, all too soon, in Humbermouth. We wished we could have stayed on longer. It was indeed our best day trip ever. And as for the young lady who accompanied me? Well, this year we celebrated 31 years of marriage together and many more railway journeys throughout the world! 1-888-588-6353
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reminiscing
The Plant Hunter by Chad Bennett
A soft leaf-pattering rain wrapped the forest
close around Agnes Marion Ayre. She was holding her breath, as a low growl found an ear from some unseen corner of the woods. Agnes had been trekking for some seven or eight days now (she had lost count), pushing ever farther into the wilds in search of the perfect specimen, the rare and elusive, and the discovery. At 20 years old, Agnes was a plant hunter. At a time of change, when the world began showing a new face, she would live that change and leave her mark. The year was 1910. 1-888-588-6353
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reminiscing flashbacks
“Her hands seized upon a heavy branch. She couldn’t run, she knew she couldn’t run. She squeezed tighter and the wood bit into her palm. There was a quickening of sounds rustling in the brush and Agnes spun to face it, screaming a roar, club at the ready. A beat. A breath. Nothing. Just the sounds of soft rain and a hammering heart.” The growl, gutteral and indistinct, moved legless around the dark tree trunks, found space amidst the canopy and lingered in the pooled shadows of heightened imagination. Agnes, trapped between wanting to look and not wanting to be seen, stayed still as her eyes darted over the moss green forest floor, straining past the fallen branches and downed trees. Her hands seized upon a heavy branch. She couldn’t run, she knew she couldn’t run. She squeezed tighter and the wood bit into her palm. There was a quickening of sounds rustling in the brush and Agnes spun to face it, screaming a roar, club at the ready. A beat. A breath. Nothing. Just the sounds of soft rain and a hammering heart. Time to get back to town and, if nothing else, to get an assistant. She returned with her prize, Erioderma mollissium, the graceful felt lichen. In the present day, this lichen is 122
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found on only 12 trees, all on the Avalon Peninsula. The assistant, newly minted, is Nellie Rostellan. She hurriedly tripped over the cobble streets to meet Agnes at her home, laden down with supplies for the upcoming expedition. A knock on the door sent it swinging inward. “Hello?” Nellie poked her head into the gaping entry and called again, “Anyone home? Hello?” “Come on back!” a distant voice bounced down the hall. Nellie entered with the collection of necessities in tow. Her eyes couldn’t take it all in fast enough. Canvases, paints and easels in one room; plant specimens, pressed, framed and meticulously catalogued, in another. Instruments, magnifiers, microscopes, books, maps – every room a new collection of wonders. This, she knew, was the right place for her. “Hello, hello,” Agnes greeted with 1-888-588-6353
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an extended hand. “You made it, terrific. First off, call me Marion. I’ve never felt that Agnes has sat well on me. And how would you like to be addressed?” Nellie, caught flat-footed for an instant – but only an instant – smiled. “Nell, would be fine by me, Marion.” A small chuckle. “Grand, grand, Nell it is. Now on to business.” Agnes found a chair and motioned for her companion to do likewise. “And do forgive me for being blunt, but are you absolutely certain you want to do this? It will mean two months in the wilderness, hardly seeing another person, and the niceties and comforts of town will be non-existent. You will experience extreme personal hardships and be at the mercy of nature and wild beasts,” Agnes cautioned her new recruit. “The train leaves tomorrow. Are you sure you want to be on it?” Nell took a deep breath. “Yes, absolutely.” The two shared a look of understanding. “We’re going to be fast friends, I can tell,” declared Agnes. Agnes Marion Ayre would make hundreds of expeditions into the back-country of Newfoundland. She would find such wonders as the Alaska Rein Orchid (Platanthera unalascensis), Rattlesnakeroot (Prenantles racemosa), Vreeland’s striped coralroot (Corallorhiza striata var. Vreelandii), the Barren Willow (Salix jejuna), Fernald’s Braya (Braya fernaldii), and Long’s Braya (Braya longii). Brayas are small flowering plants at home among alpines and 1-888-588-6353
other small herbaceous perennials. They possess unique specialized contractile taproots to anchor against frost heave. The last three of these plants, the Barren Willow and both Brayas, exist nowhere else on earth. By the end of her career, she’d amassed more than 100,000 items, representing over 80 per cent (fivesixths) of the then-known flora of Newfoundland, and 1,876 finely rendered plant paintings, internationally recognized for their quality and scientific merit. In addition to her herbarium, Agnes was an active member of the Women’s Franchise League, a founding member of the Historic Society and a founding member of the Newfoundland Art Society. She would donate her life’s work to Memorial University’s department of biology, home today of the Agnes Marion Ayre Herbarium. The modern herbarium contains more than 60,000 bryophyte specimens (mosses), which ranks it in the top five bryophyte collections in Canada, as well as 40,000 vascular specimens (trees and flowering plants). The Ayre paintings remain with the collection and are increasingly being made available for all to enjoy online through MUN’s digital collections. The home of Agnes Marion Ayre still stands at 120 Military Road in St. John’s. Out front, a mature maple tree lightly nods its approval of a life well lived in the pursuit of knowledge, equal opportunities for every individual and the betterment of us all. October 2020
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2010_Puzzles_c_1701-puzzles 8/27/20 1:34 PM Page 132
puzzles The Beaten Path
Roy D. Ralph 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.
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Last Month’s Community: Salvage 132
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Sudoku
from websudoku.com
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
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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: • Located in Deadman’s Bay • Used to go by Cat Harbour • Known for its sandy beaches • Historically an inshore fishing community • Icebergs sail past in spring
Last Month’s Answer: Robert’s Arm
Picturesque Place NameS of Newfoundland and Labrador
by Mel D’Souza Last Month’s Answer: Glenwood 134
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In Other Words Guess the well-known expression written here in other words.
Last Month’s Clue: Embark upon an undomesticated bird pursuit In Other Words: Go on a wild goose chase This Month’s Clue: Refrain from precipitating upon the man’s procession In Other Words: ____ ____ __ ___ _____
A Way With Words women
Last Month’s Answer: Little Women
Rhyme Time A rhyming word game by Ron Young
1. To consume a Halloween candy is to ___ a _____
This Month’s Clue
2. A library thief is a ____ _____
ABAKEDPIE
3. A complimentary hot beverage is a ____ ___
Answer: ______ ___ __ ____
Scrambled Sayings
Last Month’s Answers 1. mild child, 2. ride guide, 3. long song
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.
.
’
?
A E N D E G D B E A D E A T G A T E A L E F O N R I O I I R I E T M E R W H I T H I N K S S R R T U N S R F T O U H O V R S P T T Y V R T O Y S T S U U
Last month’s answer: The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are. www.downhomelife.com
October 2020
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Rhymes 5 Times Each answer rhymes with the other four
1. pan 2. fleck 3. gait 4. captured 5. fasten
____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
STUCK? Don’t get your knickers in a knot! Puzzle answers can be found online at DownhomeLife.com/puzzles
Last Month’s Answers: 1. rave, 2. crave, 3. behave, 4. wave, 5. cave
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!
Annie Merchant Sea __ _________ Owe Limb Picky Vents _______ ______ Last Month’s 1st Clue: Thumb Hiss Single Ink Answer: The missing link Last Month’s 2nd Clue: Ache Ham Rub Hug Answer: A camera bug
Unscramble each of the five groups of letters below to get 5 Newfoundland and Labrador place names.
1. AHAIRSCOB KOROB 2. HATTREEHON 3. HOTPINKMS 4. SNOBSIRON 5. GLADSHHIN Last Month’s Answers: 1. Margaree, 2. Burnt Islands, 3. Fox Roost, 4. Rose Blanche, 5. Lapoile
A nalogical A nagrams Unscramble the capitalized words to get one word that matches the subtle clue. 1. CHEER PILOT ~ Clue: not a bird, not a plane, not Superman 2. CENT ACID ~ Clue: found at the intersection of bad luck and poor timing 3. ACT RIPE LIT ~ Clue: always comes in threes 4. ELOPE THEN ~ Clue: we’ve all gotten hung up on it 5. REVERT ALL ~ Clue: always on the move Last Month’s Answers: 1. babysitter, 2. customer, 3. catalogue, 4. professor, 5. uniform 136
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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.
1-10: rival 1-91: understand 3-23: crazy 4-6: favourite 6-46: fat 8-48: spire 10-8: decay 12-15: risk-free 12-42: only 14-17: dispute 14-64: woman 17-20: idiot 17-47: darling 19-17: whale herd 19-49: pontiff 21-25: mannequin 26-6: yet 26-23: hemorrhaged 32-35: wilted 34-64: man 39-37: legume 45-42: create 50-20: be active 50-41: partier 50-46: joyous 52-56: Muslim faith 53-23: slip 53-56: bang 54-57: crippled 56-59: steak 56-86: anchor boat 61-41: she 61-81: chicken 62-42: fabrication 65-15 taste 65-62: northern mammal 65-63: ocean 65-95: granite piece 67-64: sit 67-70: nuisance www.downhomelife.com
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69-39: tread 69-99: shipped 75-80: lender 75-71: hostel 77-57: mimic 84-64: enemy 84-81: young deer 84-86: distant 84-87: make out 86-89: harness part 91-100: intentional 93-73: boy 93-100: free 95-45: tree 95-100: scold 97-47: harvester 97-100: value
100-10: backhoe 100-60: soil Last Month’s Answer
F E D E R A T I O N
A I RM I N D REGALAR EMO N BM I R A D A WE N E FOGN I K H I R ENTA N A EMA RK ACN E T I R P E NNABO A I R T S EU October 2020
E G L T O N E E U Q
D E C A P I T A T E 137
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The Bayman’s
Crossword Puzzle 1
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by Ron Young
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ACROSS 3. paddle 4. “Das a ___!” – pity (colloq) 5. “Those who would go to ___ for pleasure would go to hell for pastime” 7. clothing label 8. “Don’t bless the fish ’til __ gets to the land” 9. ice formed by sea spray and waves (colloq) 18. “An honest ___ when there are no anchors around” 19. nemesis 20. __ Manche – abandoned NL community 21. Newfoundland’s largest lake (2 words) 23. “_ ___ an old comrade I’d sailed with before” (2 words) 25. comes before tee 26. rogue 27. rodney 30. fight 31. conclusion 32. “Mother’s big 42 ___” 33. opposite of SSW 35. shopping centre 37. “Arn?” response (colloq) 38. short for Debra 39. ___ man’s beard – lichen (colloq) 40. oil drilling platforms 42. Red Bay (abbrev) 43. “You’re not ____” 45. “Smokey __ a Labrador tilt” 47. “Whaddaya __?” 49. dynamite 50. cigarette 51. “She got ___ lip than a coal bucket” DOWN 1. dragonfly (2 words, colloq) 2. burlap sack (2 words, colloq) 6. “I’m so hungry I could __ the arse out of a low-flying duck” 9. pancake (colloq) 10. plus www.downhomelife.com
11. smallest amount 12. pens 13. follows bee 14. morning 15. completing a knot 16. 11 a.m. snack (colloq) 17. fee 18. Pa’s mate 22. tip, to an investigator 24. unit of weight in India 26. whale flesh 28. Lonesome as a gull __ _ rock” (2 words) 29. “Good day __ clothes” 30. come 32. ___ Haven – resettled community in Placentia Bay 34. recede 35. encounter 36. drowned at sea 41. Old ___ – the other Newfoundland rum 44. eye for __ eye 45. “Sonny don’t go away, I __ here all alone” 46. “He’s __ thin you can see the sins on his soul” 48. Toronto (abbrev) L E T M E F I S H O F F C A P E
A B G O E N A V R I S E T H M A A R I B L O U A R A A L
ANSWERS TO LAST MONTH’S CROSSWORD T L E O E D R T A E A R M T WN A N C B E I A N D E R
C U L L A I O S T E L T L S K I A H K H O R A R E N E T D B
A G E T A E S S K N I E A N W B F L O I T O E S T
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DIAL-A-SMILE © 2020 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. ___ 668
__ ___ 96 779
_ ____ _ __ 2 8643 4 64 __ 27
___ 968
__ 48
___ _ 945 5
_____ 22688
________ __ 83678284 66 __ __ 47 69
.
__ 36
___ __ 653 37
_____ 28643
___ 968
Last Month’s Answer: Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won’t expect it back.
©2020 Ron Young
CRACK THE CODE
L
Each symbol represents a letter of the alphabet, for instance =N Try to guess the smaller, more obvious words to come up with the letters for the longer ones. The code changes each month.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ N ’_ i D A C t pO l LZ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ h A uh l Z i OZ p l _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ N _ _ _ _ _ ki h7 t C i t L i ;hp f _ _ N _ _ _ _ _ _ N ; O LD HOpx t L _ N _ _ _ _ N h i l L l Li Last Month’s Answer: The first recipe for happiness is: avoid too lengthy meditation on the past. 140
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© 2020 Ron Young
Food For Thought
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.”
_ _
dumb = bow =
begin =
_ _
waI b
kv[d
_ _ _ _
_ _
[I
b
_ _ _ _
`[v w _ _
dw
_ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
l[w wwxx
enamours =
_ _ _ _ _
Vwht w
`[x
q[``whq w
female diety =
_ _ _ _
locale =
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _
tx
_ _ _ _ _ _
qtav`x
_ _ _ _
taVw
_ _ _ _ _
q[t valw
_ _ _ _
wV w v _ _ _
_ _ _
Iav
_ _ _ _
b tah
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _
wv wa` w w dw _ _ _
_ _ _
k[x xwx xww Last Month’s Answer: Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. 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 HAVE A COOKOUT ON THE BEACH
Last Month’s Answers: 1. Cloud; 2. Horizon; 3. Headband; 4. Stool; 5. Easel; 6. Coal Bin; 7. Dome; 8. Tower; 9. Roof; 10. Window; 11. Boulder; 12. Footpath. “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 SPORTS
The words can be across, up, down, backward or at an angle, but always in a line.
SNOWBOARDING SOCCER SURFING SWIMMING
BADMINTON BASEBALL BASKETBALL BOXING CRICKET DIVING FOOTBALL GOLF GYMNASTICS HOCKEY LACROSSE POLO RACING RUGBY SKIING R E N G G I X G B K G M C Z K O T M
U V S C N N O U O A Y X D T J E H K
G T M S V I I H A L D G U V N I G R
B S B W O D D I A I F M L N W C P V
Y L E B L R X R K O Z Z I W N Z O L
C P U H L L C C A S V S E N W J P T
R A K W Y O F E J U Z N F M M X A G
Last Month’s Answers
W K Q A E R A A X O L G R U T C V D
www.downhomelife.com
G C F Q Y C T L L L B G A B A O P A
O Q I I B B C C A A C W W I C G N L
T I U C A O K B O R S I O O M C N O
W T S D L U E A I O U H G N A O V Q
S T W V L S T C C P R C N N S E T Y
O N P L Z O E C W A N A A W E I E U
F T V O A I K A L N F W I S I M G T
U X S B R O O E N O Q C E G S R L M
R G T T W Q W D T N K U Q M L I N C
E S C B B E L R B B I W C Y W Y B U
D G E L G S C S W I N G A D A B R Z
L A K J L J R O N P W R Z F S R O A
P O L O T V D I V I N G A C M I S X
U T G G K A T S P I O E Y S O T H E
E W U S E S O T Z C T E Y E D R T F
U K S J O A S O D V G B R N G C U R
TENNIS VOLLEYBALL WRESTLING
Q L S S E N G Y V C E Z N S D C T D
E U L M S R O B P A T O K U K D Z E
N K M M O Q R J J Z E B A T X U W E
U R A I Y C O P U D T M N H K Q T D
M J D M V C B L O I O W X C I V U D
Z D L M F U V B S I L S O M S Z E U
I A S L K N I A A L L I S T L C H K
L L A B T E K S A B T H D X C A D I
F V K N E W E U L L R N A I B A Y R
J Q A K I I S H H Y A C K K R K E P
I A F N J W Y K E I Y A P O I S O K
N I A N O K F T P V H R I C I G M Y
A V I J H V P N Y E C F O K D D V G
B M N T V E R E C C O S I U U N S J
N H N D C O I M U A T U N A E K B V
L F J P M J E K O D R S B U G O D H
R I R P K R P S B A Z M Z J V G G L
M E E G D I R B H T E L R S J S O B
L D H K R S W G H I L L G R A D E O
W B E C Z G N I M M I W S Y I X G X
C V Y C J P A S A D E N A M Y I G D
T R O P T S A E K N E W T O W N R B
W J O M W R E S T L I N G N H M L K
October 2020
G M X R G N I L R U C G R I R M U G
T Y N B Z I B W E T L P G R Q G B Y
D H B V X H E Y Y A Z L S K L X M K 143
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photo finish
Taste the
Rainbow
If the “pot of gold” is filled with chocolates and rainbows are made of Skittles, Ben’s about to hit the sweet tooth jackpot. Trina Hillyard Paradise, NL
Do you have an amazing or funny photo to share? Turn to page 9 to find out how to submit. 144
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