Downhome March 2021

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TUCK INTO A FEED OF

PUB GRUB!

$4.99 March 2021

Vol 33 • No 10

Submission of the Year Revealed

Twillingate Mystery Light Healing Power of Creativity

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life is better Published monthly in St. John’s by Downhome Publishing Inc. 43 James Lane, St. John’s, NL, A1E 3H3 Tel: 709-726-5113 • Fax: 709-726-2135 • Toll Free: 1-888-588-6353 E-mail: mail@downhomelife.com Website: www.downhomelife.com Editorial Editor-in-Chief Janice Stuckless Assistant Editor Nicola Ryan Editor Lila Young 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

Warehouse Operations Warehouse / Inventory Manger Carol Howell Warehouse Operator Josephine Collins Retail Operations Retail Floor Manager, St. John’s Jackie Rice Retail Floor Manager, Twillingate Donna Keefe Retail Sales Associates Crystal Rose, Jonathon Organ, Nicole French, Elizabeth Gleason, Erin McCarthy, Marissa Little, Elizabeth Gauci, Kim Tucker, Heather Stuckless, Katrina Hynes, Lynette Ings, Stef Burt, Ashley Lane, Alicia Evans

Subscriptions Customer Service Associate Cathy Blundon Founding Editor Ron Young Chief Executive Officer/Publisher Grant Young President & Associate Publisher Todd Goodyear

Operations Manager, Twillingate Nicole Mehaney

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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78 tour trend

Contents

MARCH 2021

48 A Party for St. Patrick Even if you must stay home this Paddy’s Day, you can still celebrate Irish culture.

Nicola Ryan

60 A Healthy Investment The Qalipu First Nation is looking to an important part of their past to help build a bright future.

Linda Browne

78 Rolling Right Along A tour of Bell Island on fat bikes Dennis Flynn

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118 Facing Death on the Ice An incredible story of survival and the power of belief in prayer.

Kim Ploughman

income supplement www.downhomelife.com

March 2021

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Contents

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homefront 10 I Dare Say A note from the editor 12 Letters From Our Readers Kindness and common sense, skunks in Newfoundland, and a rhubarb reunion

20 Downhome Update Dennis Flynn follows up on the Avondale Station Museum

24 on the go

24 Downhome Tours Downhome readers explore Ireland

26 Why is That? Why does water expand when it freezes? Linda Browne

28 Life’s Funny Truth Be Told…

Sadie Osmond

32 wild times!

29 Say What A contest that puts words in someone else’s mouth 30 Lil Charmers The Wearing of the Green

32 Pets of the Month Call of the Wild

34 Reviewed Denise Flint reviews In Search of Adventure: 70 Years of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Newfoundland and Labrador, and interviews the author, Helen C. Escott 36 What Odds Paul Warford’s new hobby hangs in the balance 38 Submission of the Year The best photo and written submissions of 2020 4

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and the winners are…

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camera happy

40 Fresh Tracks Wendy Rose reviews Leaving With Nothing by Rube & Rake 44 In Your Words My Father’s Woodstove Melvina Walter

features 54 Goodness Baked In Kinden’s Bakery & Café in Lewisporte designs good deeds along with sweet treats.

Linda Browne 64 A Sweet Family Tradition

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Maple tapping with the Pikes of Little Rapids Connie Boland

68 Sure Shots Featuring photographer Dave Wheeler

made with care www.downhomelife.com

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Contents

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lovingly built

explore 74 Sam’s Place Created in tragedy, this Fleur de Lys café celebrates life and gratitude. Connie Boland 84 Where History Runs Deep Inside the old cable building in Bay Roberts Dennis Flynn

home and cabin 90 Stuff We Love Book smarts Nicola Ryan

92 Get Creative Marie Bishop on the benefits of creativity 96 Todd’s Table Useful kitchen gadgets Todd Goodyear

100 Everyday Recipes Make your own pub grub 6

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90 book ’em

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110 a good ol’ time

106 Down to Earth How to choose seeds for greatest success Kim Thistle

reminiscing 110 Flashbacks Classic photos of people and places

112 Visions and Vignettes About the cover Dennis Flynn took this photo of his buddy during their fat bike tour of Bell Island. Fat bikes are the newest trend in off-road exploring. Find out why, beginning on p. 78.

Cover Index Tuck Into a Feed of Pub Grub • 100 Irish Charms • 48 Facing Death on the Ice • 118 Submission of the Year Revealed • 38 Twillingate Mystery Light • 116 Healing Power of Creativity • 92 www.downhomelife.com

Adventures of two young scalawags in an imaginary outport of days gone by Harold N. Walters

116 Bakers Light Can a mysterious light in the sky foretell a storm?

John Gillett

126 Puzzles 138 Classifieds 140 Mail Order 144 Photo Finish March 2021

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Like scary stories?

2020 Submission of the Year Read about Twillingate’s Did your favourite win? ominous Bakers Light on p. 116 Find out on page 38.

? ? ?? ?

Puzzles Got You Stumped?

Sneak a peek at the answers at Downhomelife.com/puzzles.

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Get more of the reader-submitted content you like anytime – and add your own!

Downhomelife.com/submissions

1-888-588-6353

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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

March 2021

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i dare say

Some things you have to see to believe, and even then…

Nicola Ryan photo

A bunch of us were hanging out one night in Salem’s Cove (or Solomon’s Cove), Twillingate. Tucked behind a high hill on the north side of the island, separated from the main road by a cemetery, it was the ideal spot for the young and the restless.

It was a starlit summer night, and we had a nice fire going on the beach. The ocean was black and endless. It was so calm the waves barely licked the shore. We were all laughing and carrying on when someone said, “Hey, what’s that out there?” There was a white light just outside the mouth of the cove, like a headlight, slowly moving across our view from the right headed to the left. Probably a boat, but who’d be out at night? As it continued its slow progression, more of us took notice until we all fell silent, straining to hear the boat’s motor. The only sound was the gentle lapping of waves on beach rocks. Then one of us, I don’t remember who, said “That must be Bakers Light.” I’d learned about the ghostly light in school, and even did a short write up on it for a Newfoundland culture assignment, I think it was. But I didn’t believe it was real. Do I now? I’m still not sure if I saw Bakers Light, but I saw something.

And the memory came flashing back when I read John Gillett’s story of Bakers Light (see p. 116).

Mysteries and superstitions give colour to the fabric of our lives and our communities. They are elements of our folklore that only survive if we keep talking and writing about them. Do you have a ghost story or a legendary encounter to share? Reach out to me. Email or mail me your stories and help keep your hometown “spirit” alive.

Thanks for reading,

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

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Kindness and Common Sense My grandson, Tyler, moved away from small town Arcola, Saskatchewan, and settled in Calgary, Alberta in 2011, where he was able to find employment. While living there he was introduced to Robyn, a smart and funny girl from Newfoundland who had also made the trek to Alberta to secure a job. The two had much in common and Robyn recognized this so, as the story goes, she invited Tyler on a date and “the rest is history.”

The two were engaged and a wedding was planned in Newfoundland for the fall of 2015. Friends and family from the Prairies were invited and, as the grandfather of the groom, I was proud to attend. I loved everything about Newfoundland – the scenery, the ocean, the accent, but most of all I loved the people. I can completely understand why people want to live there, as I feel the people of Newfoundland are millions of light years ahead behind us in terms of humanity and kindness. Common sense prevails, and the culture still exists to allow us to tell a joke on ourselves or others.

I must digress and tell a tale of this kindness that we witnessed firsthand.

We were staying in Gambo as we made our way across the province to attend the wedding, on the night of the infamous Jose Bautista “bat flip” in Game 5 of the Blue Jays vs Rangers American League Division Series. My son and son-in-law had wandered into town to find a watering hole to watch 12

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the game, and they were welcomed into the local establishment with typical Newfoundland hospitality. They sat with the other four men in the bar that evening, and it was a night that neither of them will ever forget. The game was a long one and they had been in the bar for several hours when the wife of one of the local men arrived with her husband’s supper of fish. He promptly passed the plate around the bar, sharing the contents with all those in attendance, including the two prairie flatlanders. They were overcome with this kind and intimate gesture from total strangers, made so much better by the commentary in the colourful Newfoundland accent.

On arrival at our first B&B near St. John’s, I discovered the Downhome magazine in my room. I was quite taken with the publication, but as we were in a private home I didn’t think it would be appropriate to take the book with me. At our next stop in Gambo there were a number of copies of the magazine, so I decided it would 1-888-588-6353

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likely be acceptable for me to take a copy along with me to read. I brought it home to Saskatchewan and have had a subscription ever since. I think there are quite a number of people in Saskatchewan that now subscribe to the magazine because of my endorsement.

I once read an article in the magazine about a grandmother who was caregiving her small grandchildren, and rather than have them watch television she had them collect interesting rocks, making a game out of it.

I shared that article with our local daycare and they took up the challenge as well.

I have always had a keen interest in the Indigenous people of our country and have researched them my entire life. I published a book called An Honest, Genial and Kindly People that contains images and stories of the Indigenous people of Saskatchewan. I was so interested to find out that Robyn, the gal who starts my story, has Indigenous roots tied to the Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation of Newfoundland and is a relative of Mattie Mitchell, an esteemed Mi’kmaq Chief.

Adrian Paton Arcola, SK

www.downhomelife.com

This is a photo of Adrian holding the book he wrote about the Indigenous people of his home province, Saskatchewan. Adrian passed away shortly after submitting this story to us in late January. He did know, however, that this story that he’d really wanted us to have and to publish, was being printed in the March issue. Thank you, Adrian, for sharing your story of discovering Newfoundland and Labrador, and Downhome magazine. Our deepest condolences to his family.

March 2021

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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 Arden Whidden of Bible Hill, NS who found Corky on page 79 of the January issue.

One of the Best Issues Yet Having been a regular reader for many years (right from the old format days), I look forward to each month’s publication. But I have to say that December’s issue was one of my favourite issues yet. The sections Readers’ Holiday Memories and Newfoundlandia being especially wonderful to read as they harkened back to a simpler time before iPhones and computers – a time when people wrote and read letters, when there were only two commercial radio stations and TV stations to choose from; those days when you had to actually get up out of your seat and turn the knob to change channels.

December’s issue also contained stories on the return of a wallet 75 years after a fatal plane crash and the Cuffer with Patrina Bromley, plus a wonderful assortment of other stories, trivia and those darn recipes that my daughters and wife made just to torment poor old diabetic me. In closing, a big 14

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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.

thank-you to Ms. Stuckless, the editorial and art staff, as well as your contributors for one of the best issues yet.

Wayne Moores St. John’s, NL

Thank you, Wayne, for the very kind words.

So Pleased I was so thrilled to see the write-up on Heart’s Ease Beach Trail by Dennis Flynn [December issue]. The trail is amazing and so is his writing. We have been referred to the article by many of our friends (guess we should subscribe to Downhome, hey). My mom, who is 101 years old, gets it and passes it on.

We are so pleased with our trail.

We’ve been working on it for several years now and have gotten funding to do work on it a few times. It just takes a few people with a vision to get these Continued on p. 16 1-888-588-6353

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Sponsored Editorial

Mr. Cinder of the Sunshine State When you think of the “Sunshine State,” the last thing that comes to mind is a Newfoundland Pony.

Yet just north of Miami, in Palm City, there’s a part Newfoundland Pony named Mr. Cinder who has been winning competitions and taking the dressage world by storm. With his highly adaptable Newfoundland Pony genes, we’re not the least bit surprised.

Mr. Cinder is 9 years old and is owned by Madeline Truman, who acquired him in 2019. She came across Mr. Cinder via a trainer on Facebook who said in the sales ad, “True to his breeding, he is sturdy and sure-footed.” She flew to Ontario to meet the pony, and excitedly arranged for a vet check the next day. A week later, Mr. Cinder moved to Florida.

He was bred by Kim Stoppa in Cobden, Ontario. His sire is registered Newfoundland Pony #577 Deerfield’s John Peter Payne and his dam is Canadian Horse, Deerfield Javron Sophie. Mr. Cinder stands 14.1 hands and weighs 900 pounds.

After giving Mr. Cinder lots of time to settle in and acclimatize, she began taking him out to training clinics and shows. “He’s everything I’d ever want in a pony; he has a great personality, good gaits, and is fun to ride. He truly is my best friend,” said Madeline.

“He’s very smart and he puts his trust in me. Even in a tricky venue, he catches on to the environment pretty quickly. Not much fazes him, including cold, wet or windy weather.

For that, it makes me very thankful he grew up in Canada!” she added.

They’ve been racking up medals and ribbons ever since: He placed #1 in Introductory Level and #6 in Training Level in the 2020 National Dressage Pony Cup USA Rankings.

The biggest competition they have ridden at so far has been the USDF Region 3 Dressage Championships at the Florida Horse Park in Ocala, with a best personal score of 71.8% at Training 3.

The duo is becoming well known in the U.S. and Madeline is asked all the time about Mr. Cinder’s breed. “People are curious about him and ask if he is Welsh or Fell, but I tell them he is a Newfoundland Pony. I didn’t know about the breed before, but I am so happy to have found Mr. Cinder.”

Above: National Dressage Pony Cup in 2020 year-end awards and his ribbons so far!

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things started in any community, and some of our people here have worked very hard and will continue to do so.

We are so pleased to see so many people come to visit our area since we started. Our thanks go out to all, and we’re looking forward to seeing many more this coming summer.

Gloria Seward Gooseberry Cove, NL

We love featuring interesting places and community projects that are such gems, like the Heart’s Ease Beach Trail. Readers, do you know of any little-known treasures, whether natural or manmade, that would make a great story in Downhome? Reach out to us. Call 1-888-588-6353, email editorial@downhomelife.com, or write to Downhome, 43 James Lane, St. John’s, NL, A1E 3H3.

Hat Box The “what is it” on page 16 of the October issue, I believe, is a hat box.

Top hats were often stored in such containers to keep them from being crushed.

Fred Letto Perth, ON

Skunks in NL? On page 69 of the January issue, Todd Hollett talks about animals seen in winter, including skunks and porcupines. I was born in Newfoundland and lived there for 36 years, and never heard about or saw one of these animals. Have they recently immigrated, or is Todd writing about Canada in general?

Orville Cole Via email

Thanks for your question, Orville.

Todd was referring to Canada in general, and specifically examples of common woodland creatures that are still active in the winter months. In this province, it is true there are no skunks, but porcupines are native to Labrador.

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We heard from another reader, Fred F. Burden of Conception Bay South, NL, who called to say there was a hat box like this in his family. Thanks to everyone who participates in these photo mysteries.

A Familiar Plane Story My eyes lit up when I read the articles “High Flying Heroine” and “Crash Landing” in the September issue. You see, my father, Robert J.G. Comber, was in the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada (Toronto) during WWII and guarded both the Botwood seaplane base and Gander airport before being shipped off to England.

Keenly interested in flying, he earned his private pilot’s licence in the late 1950s and then had a runway built on his property near Holland Centre 1-888-588-6353

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on the edge of Williams Lake in Ontario. He built his own home next to this strip. The airstrip was called Glendale Aerodrome and became the hub of flying in our area of Grey county from then to the late 1980s. I still live on this property and the airstrip is still used.

My father bought his first airplane in the late 1950s – CF GPD, the very one mentioned in the “Crash Landing” article. Stories and details get altered over time, but we do know this plane saw service in the war and had a mishap in Newfoundland and eventually found its way to Ontario and to my father. A J3 Cub cannot reverse its engine, and as far as we know it never saw service as a crop duster in Ontario.

CF GPD was the first airplane I ever flew in. I recall my father taking us up before we had finished supper one night. My brother and I grabbed our

www.downhomelife.com

rice pudding to take along, and as Dad was doing a loop we ate our pudding upside down!

In the winter our car was put away and the plane was put on skis. Dad would fly to Markdale and land on a field by the OPP station. One of the police officers would pick him up, drive him to the store and bring him back, and he would fly home with our weekly groceries.

Winter was a fun time for the local pilots, doing winter campouts under the airplane wing and ice fishing. At times when the lake ice was perfect at our place, Dad and his flying buddies would slide around the ice on their skied planes and it would look like they were waltzing.

Dad belonged to an organization called The Flying Farmers (Ontario chapter), and we spent many hours flying formation with other pilots to

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Reunited by a Flashback Thank you for publishing my photo “Rhubarb Patch Kids.” A friend I haven’t seen or heard from since the ’70s saw the picture and found me on Facebook! Thanks, Downhome, for reuniting us!

Barbara Moores Via DownhomeLife.com

That’s terrific, Barbara! Thanks for letting us know.

fly-ins at airports and farmer’s fields.

We met lots of wonderful folk both from all over Canada and the USA. My father gained quite a reputation with his flying. As we celebrated Confederation in 1967, my father was given permission to perform 100 loops over Markdale. I was on the stage with my school choir singing while my Dad was high above doing his loops. He lost count, but someone on the ground was keeping count and said he did 117 loops!

CF GPD suffered one accident while Dad owned it, but it wasn’t out of service long. Dad sold it in 1963 to our neighbour, James Baker, who lived at the east end of our runway. And Dad, being a carpenter, built himself a new plane, the Comber Treehopper A1 (similar to a Cub).

James was a finisher of TV cabinets at the RCA plant in Owen Sound. He had five children, so again CF GPD became a source of enjoyment ferrying family around for pleasure. After Jim owning this airplane we lost touch with it. I was glad to read in Downhome that it continues to fly in Alaska as of 2013. I hope this sunny little plane with a wonderful history

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continues to enjoy a long, full life.

Susan Comber-Dault Holland Centre, ON

Thank you for your letter, Susan. It sounds like it was quite the thrill growing up with a pilot for a dad.

Recipe Adjustment I made the Partridgeberry Spice Cake recipe (October 2020 issue) and it was delicious, once I got the liquid amount right. It says 1/4 cup water, but it’s still crumbs after adding that much. It needs 3/4 cup. Also, I drained the raisins, reserving the liquid and used 3/4 cup of that for more flavour. The guys took it in the woods and said it was great with their cup of tea.

R. Hynes Via DownhomeLife.com

That was a delicious cake. We made it here at the office following the exact recipe, and while the batter seemed crumbly, the cake came out perfectly moist and delicious. That said, everyone tweaks recipes to their own liking, and adding the raisin liquid for extra flavour is a delicious alteration!

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homefront update

Avondale Station Museum Follow-up

By Dennis Flynn

While I was humbled by all the positive feedback on a story I did about the recent rejuvenation of the Avondale Railway Station and Museum (“On the Right Track,” December 2020), I was especially happy to hear from Maria Hawco of Labrador, a person with deep family connections to both the Avondale Station and the Newfoundland Railway.

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We had a lovely chat over the holidays, and she sent along several archival photos from her collection, including one of her grandfather and his family in the early 1940s, in front of the Avondale station (seen here to the left). “Grandfather John (Jack) Hicks was born in 1899, and he died in 1970 and is buried at Avondale. He started working with the Newfoundland [Railway] in 1914, at the age of 15.

He eventually retired in 1964 after 50 years on the job. He was very well liked, and loved the Avondale station and the railway, and was referred to as the Road Master,” she said.

Maria was also very proud of the contribution of another family member, her Aunt Mae Lyons Hicks. “Her family and close friends called her Mae, but her real name is Mary… My Aunt Mae is advanced in years now, but she also loved the station and she was very instrumental, along with other protestors, in sitting on the rails and saving the 1.4 miles of railway tracks from being removed near the Avondale Station. She also helped form the original heritage committee that initially got the museum set up,” Maria says.

“She is a lovely, quiet lady and would not want any attention, but I spoke to the current Avondale Railway Museum Committee and they tell me that there is a picture of my aunt and the public sitting at the tracks in protest that appeared in one of the local newspapers of the day. That was really something, for local people to stop the machines taking up the tracks... Who knows what might have become of the Avondale Station if they had not done what they did back then?”

I could not agree more. According to www.downhomelife.com

Top: Newspaper clippings of the protesters blocking the Avondale tracks in the 1980s, on display at the Avalon Station Museum.

Above: An old photo of Mary (Mae) Lyon Hicks (left) and Isabelle Dunne The Newfoundland Quarterly Magazine (Fall 1990 issue), “August 26, 1990, The Avondale Railway Station Museum was officially opened, as a result of the efforts of the Avondale Heritage and Conservation Foundation, which was founded in 1988, and succeeded in having CN donate the station, 1.8 miles of track and railway rolling stock. The Foundation also received a $19,000 ACOA grant.”

It was wonderful to hear from Maria about her family’s rich legacy and special connection to the Avondale Station. It’s always a joy to share stories that celebrate our history and connections to special places.

March 2021

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Imagine yourself ambling over well-worn paths, encircled by the ocean and lit by the changing light of day. You’re on an island, away from housework and zoom meetings, where life is simple though the atmosphere is rich. It’s 2021, and you’ve found a place that takes you back and takes you away: it’s Battle Harbour National Historic District.

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Advertorial

Once the bustling hub of the southern coast of Labrador, Battle Harbour today is a tranquil, restorative tourist destination that seamlessly combines 200-year-old refurbished premises with newly constructed amenities. With room for less than 30 guests, there are no lines or crowds. There’s space for everyone to stretch out, to explore, to breathe.

Battle Harbour Historic Trust, keeper of this precious gem, spent much of 2020 freshening up every space, indoors and out, and preparing to safely welcome guests for the 2021 season, June 7 – September 7.

New getaway packages offer experience-filled weekends that cater to a variety of tastes:

Labrador Songs

Labrador Skies

Featuring singer-songwriter Richard Neville from Black Tickle. His songs are mostly inspired by the people, culture and history of the Big Land.

Join astronomer Garry Dymond, owner and operator of Fireball Planetarium, for a night of awesome sky viewing (maybe even the Northern Lights if you’re lucky!).

July 9 - 10

Labrador Stories July 23 - 24

Dave Paddon, one of the province’s best storytellers, grew up in Northwest River listening to the stories and songs shared around the kitchen table.

Labrador Arts & Crafts

August 11 – 12

Labrador Photography August 20 – 23

Award-winning photographer Michael Winsor’s two-day workshop on this uniquely landscaped island will lead to some of the most beautiful photos you’ve ever taken.

July 30 – August 1

Led by Inuk artist Charlene Rumbolt, try your hand at silk scarf design using botanicals and beach finds, fish skin art and caribou tufting.

Make 2021 your summer to discover Labrador and Battle Harbour.

It’s the ultimate staycation, where you can both get away from it all and stay home. Call 709-921-6325 to plan your ideal stay.

Or explore the island and make your plans online at BattleHarbour.com.

Come with a need to escape, leave with a desire to return.

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homefront Downhome tours...

Ireland

Blarney Castle This is Bill and Frances Whalen of Spaniards Bay, NL, in front of Blarney Castle in October 2011.

Blarney Castle is a medieval stronghold near Cork, Ireland. Built nearly 600 years ago by Cormac MacCarthy, one of Ireland’s greatest chieftains, it’s one of the country’s most treasured landmarks. It’s said that once you kiss the Blarney Stone, the legendary Stone of Eloquence at the top of the tower, you will never again be lost for words.

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Cliffs of Moher

Roy Tarrant poses at the Cliffs of Moher. (submitted by Barbara Tarrant, Newtown, NL) You can’t travel to Ireland without paying a visit to the breathtaking Cliffs of Moher in County Clare. Incomparably beautiful, the Cliffs rise to 214 m (702 ft) at their highest point and range for 8 km (5 mi) over the Atlantic Ocean. They are Ireland’s most visited tourist attraction, and when you see them you’ll understand why.

Rock of Cashel

(L-R) Jennifer Ewert, Mary (Hamlyn) Ewert, Lisa Magas Tubin and Nicole Magas Nunziata take a rest at the Rock of Cashel, 2012.

Located in County Tipperary, the Rock of Cashel is a collection of medieval fortifications and religious buildings dating back to the 4th century. Once the centre of power in Ireland and the seat of the High Kings of Munster, it was here that St. Patrick baptized King Aengus, making him Ireland’s first Christian ruler. www.downhomelife.com

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Expert answers to common life questions.

By Linda Browne

Why does water expand when it freezes?

Have you ever placed a soft drink in the freezer to chill, only to walk away and forget about it until hours later? Then, instead of kicking back with a cold beverage, you find yourself cleaning up the mess that the ruptured cans or broken bottles have left behind.

What you’re witnessing, explains Dr. Chris Kozak, a professor in the department of chemistry at Memorial University, is the anomalous behaviour of water. Generally when things cool, they contract. However, water does the opposite. Why? A molecule of water (H2O) is made up of two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom. Within a substance, Kozak says, there’s motion between the molecules. If you have a glass of water near its boiling point, those molecules have high kinetic energy and move around very quickly, taking up space as they do so. As you cool these molecules, they slow down and pack more closely together, “until you get to this magical point at around 4°C. That’s when the molecules of water start to arrange in such a way that actually takes up a larger volume 26

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of space than they do in the liquid,” Kozak explains.

This has to do with two things, he says. First, one has to consider the “V” shape of water molecules (with the hydrogen atoms sitting at the outermost edges and the oxygen atom at the apex). Most of the electrons, which carry a negative charge, are sitting on the oxygen atom, giving it a slightly more negative charge than the hydrogen atoms. This polarity, he adds, is like the poles of a magnet or a battery.

“So, just like when you load your batteries into a flashlight, you want to line up the positive end with the negative end so the current can pass through the batteries in your flashlight. The water molecules start to do that as they form solid ice. So the positive end of the water molecule that has the hydrogen atoms on it, it’s 1-888-588-6353

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is a relatively weak interaction compared to the strong bonds between a hydrogen atom and an oxygen atom within a water molecule.

“And each water molecule can have two of these interactions in total. And as they spread out, it extends throughout the whole arrangement of all of the molecules of H20 in water as they form ice,” he says.

If ice were denser than water, it would sink and ponds, rivers and lakes would freeze from the bottom up – not a hospitable environment for aquatic critters.

H

going to try to align to the negative end of a neighbouring water molecule, which would be the oxygen atom,” he says.

Because the oxygen atom is large enough to have two of these interactions with a hydrogen atom, and each water molecule has two hydrogen atoms, he adds, “it adopts this hexagonal packing... and the space that is taken up by this special packing, this arrangement of water molecules, actually takes up more volume in the solid, in the ice, than it does in the liquid. So therefore, the volume taken up by ice

H

H

O

H

O

H

H

O

H

O

H

O H

O

H

H

O

H

H

is higher than the volume taken up by water, despite the fact that the mass is exactly the same.”

As the volume increases, the density decreases. Once you go below 4°C and hit 0°C, that’s when ice starts to form.

Ice has a lower density than water, which explains why it floats. This hexagonal arrangement is known as hydrogen bonding, which Kozak says

Ice

O

H

Water molecules in a liquid have a more random pattern, while in ice, the molecules arrange in a hexagonal shape, taking up more space.

H

H

H

O

Water

H

H

O

H

O

H

H

“This is why when lakes freeze over in Newfoundland, the fish that are living in the lakes, the trout, can last through the winter because they just go to deeper levels within the lake because it’s not frozen down there.

All the ice is up top, and it acts as an insulator as well,” Kozak adds.

“Hydrogen bonding is what allows life to exist on earth.”

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

Truth Be Told…

When my grandson, Jared, was about three years old, his mother took him for a dental checkup. The assistant, trying to make him feel at ease, said, “Does everyone know what beautiful, big blue eyes you have, Jared?”

He thought for a moment, then spread out his little hands and said, “I don’t think so, ’cause I don’t know everyone.”

Sadie Osmond Stephenville, 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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“If I jumpe d ov moon would er the th called socia at be l distancin g?”

–

Carolyn V atcher

Say WHAT? Downhome recently posted this photo (submitted by Nicole Watson) on our website and social media platforms and asked folks to imagine what this Scottish Highland cow might be saying. Carolyn Vatcher’s response made us chuckle the most, so we’re awarding her 20 Downhome Dollars!

Here are the runners-up: “I’m a little moooody today.” – Brenda Hicks-Vatcher “There’s a recall on this hay?” – Genny Humphries “This place is like a pig’s sty.” – Danette G. Rowsell

Play with us online! www.downhomelife.com/saywhat

www.downhomelife.com

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homefront lil charmers

The Wearing of the Green Kiss me, I’m Irish Georgia and Greyson are sweet in matching tartan. Meallacach!

Lindsay Rowe Whiteway, NL

Little Leprechaun Avery is the cutest little sprite. Gleoite!

Cora Drake Morinville, AB

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Irish for a Day Lilaraye celebrates her first St. Patrick’s Day in style. Banphrionsa!

Amanda Janes Stephenville, NL

Irish Princess Little Emma is pretty in green. Álainn!

Lacey Vivian Gander, NL

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homefront pets of the month

Call of the Wild Into Thin Air With no fear of heights, Mochi loves to climb to the peak of the shed roof.

Stephanie Decker L’Anse aux Meadows, NL

Treasure Island Skipper enjoys a boat ride and the smell of the salt water.

Hope Roberts Triton, NL

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Adrift on an Ice Pan Nikki poses on the clampers in Silverdale.

Natasha Upward Silverdale, NL

Captains Courageous Posing at the landwash, Mitsou’s ready to see the world.

Tracy Joseph & Mike Clarke ON www.downhomelife.com

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homefront

reviewed by Denise Flint

In Search of Adventure Helen C. Escott Flanker Press $19.95

In Search of Adventure: 70 Years of the Royal Canadian

Mounted Police in Newfoundland and Labrador is Helen C. Escott’s homage to those members of the force who have served in this province since they were brought in to replace the Newfoundland Rangers after Confederation in 1949. The book devotes a single chapter, usually a couple of pages long, to each officer profiled.

The stories are completely random. A chapter dedicated to a fairly recent retiree is followed by one concerning an early officer who has long since gone. A chapter relating a horrific incident precedes one with a comical turn. One will discuss an entire career. Another will focus on a single occurrence.

This isn’t a book to read at one sitting. After a while the stories can start to blur into each other. While individual experiences might differ, the tone remains the same: being a member of the RCMP was wonderful and no one would have chosen any differently if given the opportunity to start all over again. One occasionally gets the uncomfortable feeling one is reading a hagiography of the RCMP rather than a collection of reminiscences, perhaps because Escott drew from her sources in the RCMP Veterans’ Association to find her subjects. Others with less positive experiences might have been outside that reach.

In any case, it’s an interesting read, especially when one considers how much things have changed in a relatively short period of time. Those interested in policing and in the history of Newfoundland and Labrador will find much to capture their attention.

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Q&A with the Author Denise Flint: What made you decide to write this book?

Helen C. Escott: When I retired I joined the RCMP Veterans’ Association, and every month I’d be going to a funeral and every time I got home I thought to myself, “Well, there goes another part of history that we‘ll never hear again.” I write the veterans’ newsletter for Newfoundland and I started interviewing a vet every month... The anniversary [was] in 2019, so I decided to interview 70 vets, one for every year.

DF: How did you choose the subjects and how did you get hold of them?

HE: There’s no rhyme or reason to the stories; I just sent an email to all of our veterans and said, “I just want to capture your story, whatever it is: strange, scary, whatever story you want to tell that’s what I want to hear.” I’d call to interview about one subject and they’d go, “Hey, do you know I once ran into a UFO?” I interviewed one member in Gander and he asked me if I’d heard about the only Mountie who had been kidnapped and taken to another country... Veterans want to tell their story because they feel it’s important to history.

DF: What’s one thing either you learned or that took you by surprise with this project?

HE: How brave they were. All the safe practices and policies we have to keep officers safe were built on the backs of these officers. These were incredibly brave people who used their ability to communicate and negotiate before www.downhomelife.com

pulling a gun. Lots of times they were the only ones in a community with backup hours away. When the call came they jumped out of bed, put on their uniform and went out and dealt with it.

DF: A federal report last year said the RCMP had a “toxic culture” that encouraged “misogynistic, racist and homophobic attitudes.”

As a long-time female civilian member, how do you feel about that description?

HE: That wasn’t my experience. The officers I worked with were respectful and fun... I had come from the media before joining the RCMP – also maledominated – and men would be yelling at [me] in the street. I was told to lose weight, my skirt should be shorter. By the time I got to the RCMP I already had calluses. There were times I was frustrated, but I had a family to raise and a mortgage to pay.

I wasn’t the type to sit down and cry.

I had my strategies. We all had to have them.

DF: You write fiction, non-fiction, humour and who knows what else. How do you decide what to work on?

HE: As a writer you see the world differently. You see the world in multicolours, not black and white. I don’t pigeonhole myself. I don’t stick to anything. I think being a writer is my umbrella and underneath that, whenever an idea comes to me, I just go with it. The stories come to me and it’s my job to just tell them.

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homefront what odds

pop and snap

By Paul Warford

Of course, the Have you ever broken your question elbow? Actually, y’know what?

I asked. remains: Why Forget They enter the lobby from outside, stomping in the hell am snow and adjusting their face masks before they me. When they do, they go “Huh,” or they I doing this? notice give a little chuckle and say, “Practisin’ are ya?”

The quickest I beam at them and proudly say, “As a matter fact, I am. Thirty-eight years old and I started answer is of last week. Never too late!” I punch the last part “I got married.” with added enthusiasm in the hopes they’ll agree with me. They usually do.

I’ve started skateboarding. I’ll give that a moment to sink in.

I’m well aware we’re in the infancy of winter [at the time of writing it’s January], which is why I practise indoors, at work, on an anti-fatigue mat meant for cashiers to stand on. I use the mat to keep the wheels sticky and unrolling. The mat is my training wheels. I need training wheels.

Customers enter the store to see me shifting my weight, balancing on my back wheels, or generally getting a feel for my new hobby. The skateboard, mat – and helmet – tend to give them pause, but for a random smattering of strangers, I must say they’ve been pretty supportive. I haven’t discussed any of this with my boss, but very little escapes her, so even now she probably knows more about this than I think she does.

My tutor is Jordan Lilly, a Torbay boy who I’ve been told is the best skateboarder on the island.

He’s been featured in online content for longrunning skateboard magazine Thrasher, and he’s been sponsored by Etnies and other established clothing companies. He says he wasn’t technically sponsored by a certain famous shoe company, but they sent him 13 free pairs, so... He certainly impresses me, but that’s not hard to do with this sort of thing.

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A polite word to describe my athleticism might be “lacking.” As a swimmer, I couldn’t keep my legs straight while diving into a pool. In Jiu-Jitsu class, I couldn’t forward roll with my head tucked against my left shoulder because it would automatically shift to my right, against my will, over and over again. Skateboarding, meanwhile, requires an intense degree of balance, tenacity, dexterity and grit.

Making mistakes means falling on pavement, and we all learn by making mistakes; hence the mat (and helmet).

I still need to get elbow pads – the sooner the better, as I’m learning they’re prime targets for eager asphalt.

Of course, the question remains: Why in the hell am I doing this? The quickest answer is “I got married.”

I’ve previously written about my beautiful jack-of-all-trades, mile-aminute wife, Andie, and her tendency to get me out of my comfort zone and trying new things. But nothing we’ve done before has threatened my joints and bones like this.

Rewind a few weeks and you would find me in the same lobby at the same job watching YouTube videos of skateboarding competitions. I’ve always been fascinated by the sport, but I had never met a skateboarder as accomplished as Jordan before. Initially, I just picked his brain. Watching competitions soon followed.

And so, while home of an evening, drinking my tea, I was casually enjoying the 2015 SLS (Street League Skateboarding) Super Crown as my wife entered the room. She saw what I was watching and said, “Lover, you’ve been really into the skateboarding lately,” and I thought she was going to say “Maybe you should give it a rest for a bit.” But instead she mused, www.downhomelife.com

“Maybe you should just get a skateboard.” Going back to the swimming, the Jiu-Jitsu, thinking of the time I went to catch a pop-up while playing batouts in the Ascension field at 15 and missed the ball that then hit Jonathan Woodman in the face – the failures my body had provided me over the years seemed to flash as a kaleidoscope across my brain. Get a skateboard? Was she out of her mind?

So I asked her if she was out of her mind.

“Well, you’ll wear a helmet and take it slow. Jordan will help you…” And that was it.

If I were to tell my friends and family I was thinking of skateboarding, they’d adamantly suggest otherwise. My gangly lack of physical control has always been a bit of a joke, a knowing thing among all of us.

They’d be suggesting I not try in order to protect me.

Andie understands how uncoordinated I am, too, but rather than focus on it, she aims to convince me to ignore it, not get in my own head – which is probably what’s been holding me back all along. Either that, or I have some weird inner-ear thing and my fluids don’t balance me the way they should.

That’s why I joke with customers and say, “A supportive wife can be a dangerous thing.” But I don’t really believe that. Not anymore. And when I’m on my mat, my feet on the grip tape, I can feel myself grinning.

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 March 2021

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homefront

Best Photo With so many eye-catching photos among this year’s finalists, it was a tight race to the finish in the public online vote. This photo from the October 2020 issue, captioned “Taste the Rainbow,” emerged victorious! Congratulations to Trina Hillyard of Paradise, NL. Trina has won a $500 shopping coupon redeemable in our St. John’s and Twillingate Downhome stores, and online at www.shopdownhome.com.

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Best Story

Over the past year, readers have made us laugh, cry, wonder and admire with their original stories and poems. Of all that we published in 2020, the editors ultimately chose this article as Submission of the Year for highlighting (and perhaps introducing) the interesting life of an influential woman in Newfoundland and Labrador’s history. Ena Constance Barrett was a Scottish war bride who had a tumultuous early life that no doubt enriched and informed her writing career and resulting literary legacy. The article was written by her granddaughter, Helena Barrett MacLean, who will be receiving a $500 Downhome shopping coupon for her win. Here’s an excerpt from “The Poet Laureate,” first published in the January 2020 issue.

Both world wars inspired some of her most powerful and meaningful work. One of her very poignant poems was written after the loss of her son, John. He had been a gifted student and musician who graduated in science from Dalhousie University, the youngest ever to have done so at that time, 1941. He then joined the RCAF, earning his wings and the rank of Pilot Officer. On October 14, 1942, he was bringing his bride of two weeks to Newfoundland, where his family eagerly awaited their arrival. In the wee hours of that morning a German Uboat torpedoed the passenger ferry SS Caribou in the Cabot Strait.

John’s body was never recovered.

His wife was rescued after many hours in the frigid water.

He didn’t come home with the boys today That son who was so dear, But his father stood as the train came in And helped to raise a cheer… www.downhomelife.com

Newfoundland newspapers frequently published Ena’s poems, and she became so well known that a new volume, Mayflowers and Roses, was published in 1946, to wide acclaim. She always had a great love of and respect for the British monarchy and especially Queen Elizabeth. When the then Princess and her husband, Prince Phillip, visited Newfoundland in 1951, a six-verse poem Ena had written to honour them was officially presented to them. Then when they returned to Newfoundland in 1959, Ena was thrilled to be presented to the now Queen Elizabeth. Also at that time a collection of her poems, in booklet form, was published as a token of loyalty to the throne of Britain and as a souvenir of the Royal visit.

Even long after her death, many remembered her work. In 2002, her wonderful poem “Newfoundland” was recorded by Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers for their Up Boot album…

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fresh tracks

new music talk with Wendy Rose

Leaving With Nothing Rube & Rake

ST. JOHN’S-BASED FOLK DUO

Rube & Rake’s gorgeous harmonies and musical chemistry make a lasting impression. Josh Sandu and Andrew Laite’s sophomore album, a follow-up to their 2017 awardwinning debut album Back and Forth, was eagerly anticipated and apparently well received locally: since its October 2020 release, Leaving With Nothing garnered the band a whopping six MusicNL award nominations: FACTOR Album of the Year, The Citadel House Folk/Roots Artist of the Year, Yamaha Group of the Year, St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival Music Video of the Year, Ron Hynes SOCAN Songwriter of the Year and The Telegram Fans Choice Entertainer of the Year.

It’s easy to see why this second release hits harder. By working with Adam Hogan of Hey Rosetta! fame and local musicians Maria Cherwick, Josh Ward, Andrew Sneddon, Steve Maloney and more, the pair expanded their sound by adding fiddle, organs, dobro and, for the first time, drums.

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The album kicks off with “Somewhere,” immediately launching listeners into an adventure with the album’s protagonist, a person on an uncertain journey, seeking out a certain feeling.

“There has to be a place to lay my head,” the chorus repeats. The third track, “What Will,” opens by asking, “What will carry us through our days with no work and all play?” This line, 1-888-588-6353

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though written before the pandemic, strikes a few different chords now.

Released as a single in March 2020, “Fleeting Moment” marks the entrance of percussion. Leaning more into folk-pop, this song appeals to a huge demographic of music lovers. “Fleeting Moment” would fit in a playlist of newer indie-folk bands like Fleet Foxes, Mumford and Sons, Bon Iver and Iron & Wine just as easily as it would mesh with pieces from Canadian folk legends Gordon Lightfoot, Valdy, Stan Rogers and Ron Hynes.

At the album’s midpoint, “10-33” is an immediate toe-tapper. The organ shines in this track, and it’s easy to see why Blue Rodeo’s name keeps coming up in the buzz about Rube & Rake’s latest work. There’s certainly a “Five Days in May” vibe here, but my mind instead wanders to Hawksley Workman as we slow down two minutes in, plinky piano carrying us through softly spoken lyrics and sorrowful violin before returning to the chugging, rhythmic ’90sera country-rock.

Rube & Rake explores psychedelic-folk with a dash of experimental noise for “Leaves of Gold” – light and delicate, yet dark and powerful. This was a stand-out track for me.

“Waking for No One” ventures into beautiful baroque pop, while “Snowing in July” continues the album’s ongoing introspective journey. The album’s second last song, “Crying,” tells a complex and familiar story of getting bad news and having to deal with the circumstances as well as the emotional pain.

Leaving With Nothing ends with “Pick It Up,” a dreamy melodic piece, suitable for a romantic country & western film. It’s a beautiful sign-off for this well-written, well-done album – well worth the wait. www.downhomelife.com

Q&A with the Artist Wendy Rose: You released Leaving With Nothing this past October – but I understand it was ready to go much earlier than that?

Rube & Rake: It sure was. We

started pre-production for this record in January of 2019, recording demos throughout the winter months to get ready for the studio. By the time we finished up most of the tracking, we were well into the fall. It was January 2020 before we tied the bow.

WR: How did the songs come together, and who was involved in taking the art from concept to reality?

R&R: The initial songwriting

process for most of these songs happened as per usual, with Josh approaching me with an idea and we spend months (in some cases years) fleshing out different directions in which the song might go.

Once we brought Adam Hogan on board for pre-production as our producer, the process completely changed. It was so nice to have such a creative, intuitive mind with us who was as dedicated to the project as we were. We had a really fun time introducing so many different colours to these songs that perhaps wouldn’t have been introduced without his guidance. Besides that, if you check out the liner notes, you’ll notice that there are many St. John’s music scene superstars who deserve big credit.

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WR: Speaking of reality… Due to gathering limitations and travel restrictions, promotional opportunities like shows and tours are indefinitely on hold… How did Rube & Rake ensure this new album still made its way to listeners?

R&R: It’s all pretty wild, isn’t it?

Our marketing strategy certainly took a nosedive, as most of it included travel. The record was set to release in May of 2020 on the back end of an extensive tour of western Canada, only to come home to a busy summer before the Atlantic Canadian album release tour in the fall. Of course, none of that happened, so we scrambled to make sense of a new plan. We released in October on the shoulders of online single releases and some video footage that we accumulated over the spring and summer.

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WR: Leaving With Nothing earned you a whopping six MusicNL nominations. What was your reaction to seeing your name on the list so many times?

R&R: We’re flattered. Our music scene is

jam-packed with talent, and we’re constantly looking up to so many of these bands who influence us all the time. If we didn’t receive any recognition at all, we would still be very proud of what we accomplished on this album, but it sure is nice to look down through a list of incredible artists and see your name alongside them.

WR: What’s in store for the band and Leaving With Nothing in 2021?

R&R: Well, we’ll see. The only thing we can

do now is continue to make touring plans throughout the Atlantic provinces in hopes that the Atlantic bubble reopens, while making plans to visit some of our favourite venues across the island in the meantime.

We are able to spend time working on new projects right now, but we’re eager to take this album on the road.

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homefront in your words

By Melvina Walter (nee Smith) Oakville, ON (formerly of Windsor, NL)

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Every year

I make a trip to my hometown of Windsor [now Grand Falls-Windsor], NL. Many childhood memories of living at the old homestead are revived.

My favourite little girl memories always surround the old woodstove.

Beaton smoking his pipe in front of the woodstove

The sole heat source for the threebedroom bungalow held a prominent position in the “front room” (later known as the living room), and all family and social activities just naturally occurred around it. I can still hear Dad saying, “Put another junk (chunk) o’ wood in the stove.” His name was Beaton, but most everyone called him “Bea.” On cold winter nights we would often huddle around the stove and listen to our parents’ stories. Dad’s stories were always funny, but Mom’s ghost stories deliciously scared us to death. We dreaded having to move

from our comfortable spot in case someone took our warm seat. At bedtime, bricks were placed atop the stove to warm, then Mom and Dad wrapped them in towels to stow beneath the blankets at the foot of our beds. We really appreciated those warm bricks as the fire dwindled and the night got cold while everyone slept. Each morning Mom or Dad would light the woodstove early and have the house warm and cozy before we got up.

Growing up, we never bought soft drinks. Making homemade root beer was a ritual – again, in front of the woodstove. Dad gathered all the

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ingredients; we would prepare, fill and cap the bottles to carefully place behind the stove.

Covered with blankets, it fermented until ready. No drink ever compared to our root beer.

As important as it was, the woodstove played second fiddle on family party nights. House parties were always like magic to me as a little girl: the music, the dancing, singing and poetry, all in our front room. Our entertainment came from party nights, not just for our family, but also the many families attending. On those nights us little ones could take part in the fun and stay up a little later.

Beginning early in the evening, people arrived lugging musical instruments. I can still see my father’s friends’ faces, wives trailing behind as they arrived. Roy, a handsome man with sparkling blue eyes and black curly hair, spoke with a stutter but sang with the voice of an angel. Ron, with his red chubby cheeks and animated face, made the banjo talk. Tall Luke with one good eye and hollow cheeks, played the accordion while dancing around the room. Poet Mike never finished reciting a poem without falling asleep – only to suddenly jump awake and catch up. A pot of moose soup cooked on the stove and Mom’s fresh bread, greased and still warm sitting on the counter top, awaited the “scoff” at midnight when the party wound down.

I remember dancing on my Dad’s feet to the beat of a waltz or two.

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The author’s parents Beaton and Flora Smith Though shy, I would sing along. The words of the song “The War Ship Had Landed” are still vivid in my memory.

It was always way too soon when Dad and Mom would remind us of bedtime, but we were allowed to stand in our bedroom and peer through a crack in the doorway. My sister and I always fought for the best view, but I often won. As we tired from standing, the bedroom grew cool; the fire was left to burn down in the sweltering heat of the party in the front room. Yet the music and dancing was more alluring than my bed’s promising warmth. Memories of those joyful nights of music, dancing and Mike reciting “Old King Cole” have lasted a lifetime.

I often wondered, when still a child, why the woodstove was so important to Dad, aside from heating the house.

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I have since come to understand: the woodstove meant comfort, family and the company of friends to my father, a way of life he himself had not known growing up. Due to difficult circumstances as children, he and his brother lived with a family friend, a neighbour.

Though well looked after, they grew up without family of their own.

The people and stories are different these days, but the tradition carries on with my brother firing up the wood stove when we visit from away, despite central heating now. It warms my heart to know there are still new stories, with people enjoying my father’s woodstove after all these years.

I’m much older now, long retired from the helping profession, and wonder how many of us Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and perhaps other rural Canadians, have enjoyed life as we have, all because of such family experiences together. I wonder if the growing unrest among today’s youth; increase in suicides; people reporting unhappiness, loneliness, hopelessness and discontent might be due to the lack of healthy, wholesome family experiences as children.

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The author and her father, Beaton, in 1988 Beaton made sure his life would count with a good wife (my beloved mom, Flora “Flo,” passed at age 80), eight children and a caring, gentle, generous heart; he lived to help anyone he encountered. At 88, my dad passed with peace, comfort, family and friends, and his beloved wood stove still going – just as he had lived.

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When I was young, way back in the late 1980s, my folks threw a couple of St. Patrick’s Day parties that rivaled Christmas for the amount of preparation and decorating that went into them. My brother and I helped string paper shamrocks from the ceiling and stick posters of rainbows, horseshoes and pots of gold on every wall. We’d sort through the tapes to find The Dubliners and The Wolfe Tones while stew bubbled on the stove and bowls and ice buckets and pint glasses were readied.

Throughout the preparations I would pepper my parents with questions: “Who was St. Patrick? Why are horseshoes lucky? Who are the rebels? What happens when you catch a leprechaun?” By the time my parents’ friends and colleagues squeezed into our basement rec room I’d have ultimately learned a lot.

This year, the ritual of crowding into a house party or packed pub is pretty out of the question. Luckily, there are lots ways to celebrate at home on this day when everyone’s a little bit Irish!

Decorate with

Shamrocks

The shamrock, with its bright green colour and three friendly leaves is the most recognizable and best loved patriotic symbol of Ireland. Legend has it that the shamrock was considered sacred by the pagan Druids of ancient times because three was a magical number. Legend also says that St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, used the three leaves of the shamrock to represent the Holy Trinity when explaining Christianity to the pagans. He is often depicted holding a cross in one hand and a shamrock in the other.

A quick trip to the dollar store will get you all kinds of shamrockthemed decorations to deck your halls, or you can craft your own!

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Important Dates in Irish History 461

Death of Saint Patrick

1169

Anglo Norman invasion

1541

Henry VIII declared King of Ireland, resulting in increased English involvement to gain dominance

1798

Irish Rebellion, a major uprising against British rule in Ireland

1845 - 1849

Great Irish Famine

1916

Easter Rising

1919 - 1921

Irish War of Independence

1922 - 1923 Irish Civil War

1948

Republic of Ireland Act

1969 - 1998 The Troubles

1998

Good Friday Agreement

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Wear Green

It’s because of St. Patrick and his shamrock that green became fashionable on St. Patrick’s Day. For a long time, though, azure blue was thought of as the colour of Ireland. In 1541, after more than 300 years of English bullying, Henry VIII decided to really knuckle down and declared himself King of Ireland. Ireland was given its own coat of arms: a golden harp on a blue background. Hence, blue had the misfortune of being associated with unpopular English authority.

In the late 18th century, as the English began to seize Irish land and make laws against the use of the Irish language and the practice of Catholicism, nationalists adopted the colour green. Patriots starting sporting green ribbons, handkerchiefs and shamrocks; green became the colour of patriotism and rebellion. British authorities, keen to stamp out displays of Irish independence, actually banned people from wearing green.

Punishments were harsh, and the guilty were subject to imprisonment, transportation – or the bayonet!

A stripe of green is also featured in the tricolour flag of Ireland. Green represents the Catholic population, orange for the Protestants, and the middle stripe of white represents a wish for harmony and unity between the two.

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Political history aside, green is also the colour of spring, the shamrock and the beautiful, verdant fields of the “Emerald Isle.” So hoist the flag, show off your best green duds and enjoy the “Wearin’ of the Green”!

Fun with Words

Ireland has a literary tradition that can be dated back over a thousand years and has produced some of the

greatest writers the world has ever seen. Try reading works by William Butler Yeats, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Seamus Heaney or Roddy Doyle to get you in the Irish spirit.

Try your hand at writing a limerick. Limericks are short, rhyming, funny poems with a bouncy rhythm that makes them easy to memorize.

No one knows for sure where the name comes from, but most people assume it’s related to the county of Limerick in midwestern Ireland. Why not have a little contest with your family to see who can write the best, funniest one?

Get Lucky

It’s no secret that the Irish are a superstitious bunch. St. Patrick’s Day is the perfect time to brush up on the charms that are sure to bring good fortune your way.

First and foremost, of course, is the four-leaf clover.

Not the same as the shamrock, four-leaf clovers are rare and hard to find. Used as magical charms by Celtic priests who believed they protected them against evil spirits, four-leaf clovers are now widely considered to bring good luck.

Also rare and hard to find are leprechauns, those tricky shoemakers of the fairy world, and any true believer will tell you that catching a leprechaun will bring you good fortune. They’re said to hide pots of gold just out of reach at the end of a rainbow and they’re able to grant wishes. The rule is, if you’re lucky enough to catch a leprechaun, you can never take your eyes off him or he’ll disappear.

Horseshoes are another popular good luck charm. One legend tells of St. Dunstan nailing a horseshoe to the devil’s foot. Displaying a horseshoe in the home or above a doorway is considered to be lucky for warding off evil. And, of course, it should be placed with the points up so the luck won’t run out.

Whether you believe in any of these old superstitions or not, there’s no doubt that there’s truth in the old saying that if you’re Irish, you’re lucky enough! www.downhomelife.com

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Play or Sing Along

Any celebration of Ireland needs music, and lots of it! All good Newfoundlanders and Labradorians should be familiar with the jigs and reels of traditional Irish music. You might already have a fiddle, tin whistle, mandolin or bodhrán at home. Fast-paced and fun, Irish drinking songs mostly bemoan or celebrate alcohol as the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems. Try your hand at playing a few tunes, or add “Whiskey in the Jar,” “Finnegan’s Wake” and “The Wild Rover” to your “Essential Irish Drinking Songs” playlist.

Irish traditional music also includes ballads and rebel songs that tell stories of Ireland’s difficult path through history. Sorrowful ballads often tell of hardship, famine and rebellion against tyranny. Of course, from 1798 onwards it was considered seditious to sing rebel or anti-British songs, but more recently bands like The Wolfe Tones have written hundreds of ballads about most aspects of Irish life.

The Dubliners, The Dublin City Ramblers and the Clancy Brothers are also essential listening for any Irish patriot on St. Patrick’s Day.

Sláinte!

And finally, what would St. Patrick’s Day be without drowning a few shamrocks?

Have a glass of whiskey or a strong pint of Guinness, Ireland’s beloved, iconic beverage of choice. Guinness Stout has been crafted at the St. James’s

Gate Brewery since 1759, when Arthur Guinness launched his enterprise.

Three million pints are brewed daily at the original brewery and more than 10 million are sold every day worldwide! Guinness is good for you, so the advertisements say, so have a pint (or two).

So there you have it. While this year might be a little different, there are still lots of ways to show your pride and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at home, and maybe even learn a little about the beautiful culture and long history of Ireland. Erin go Bragh!

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life is better A springtime visitor to Middle Amherst Cove David Borland, Upper Amherst Cove, NL

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Kinden’s Bakery & Café in Lewisporte is baking up batches of good deeds along with their incredible looking (and tasting) sweet treats.

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Local businesses are the heart and soul

of their communities. Besides providing essential goods and services, employment and contributions to the local economy, they act as spaces where friends and neighbours can gather to catch up and socialize, whether it’s the coffee shop or craft store down the road, or the restaurant, grocery store or hair salon. And while there’s been lots of talk lately about the importance of supporting local, many of these entrepreneurs go above and beyond to give back to their communities, even through all the stress and upheaval that the ongoing pandemic has wrought. For local businesses like Kinden’s Bakery & Café in Lewisporte in central Newfoundland, nothing is more important than supporting those who support them.

Recipe for success

You might say that Haley Kinden has baking and business in her blood. In 1969, her paternal grandfather opened a bakery in Etobicoke, Ontario, called Danish Family Bakery (a nod to his homeland), a business where her father worked as a teenager and which he took over in 1982, relocating it nearby and renaming it Little Denmark.

Growing up in Ontario, Haley spent many summers travelling back to Newfoundland with her grandmother (Audrey Northcott, who is originally from Lewisporte) to visit her great-grandparents and started to fall in love with the place. So after www.downhomelife.com

Haley’s husband Matthew was laid off during the pandemic, so the couple ended up working together doing deliveries.

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high school graduation, she returned to the Rock to continue her studies, met her husband (coincidentally, their grandparents went to school together as children) and eventually became a paramedic in Lewisporte.

It was a rewarding job and one that she loved, she says, but after five years of attending to calls and missing out on birthdays, Christmases, school concerts and other special moments in the lives of her three young sons (ages 3, 8 and 11), it started to take an emotional toll. So at the beginning of 2019, she left the job to start a new chapter. After a brief stint working in healthcare in nearby Gander, she decided to take some time to focus on her own health and wellness, and turned her attention to another passion.

For years, Haley had been creating cakes for friends for weddings and other special events as a hobby. But she wasn’t quite sold on the idea of turning it into a business.

“My husband always would say to me, ‘Haley, you know you’re gonna have a bakeshop one day.’ And I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ I was so afraid to turn a hobby into a career. I was really scared it would take a lot of the enjoyment out of doing the hobby,” she says.

But one day, she noticed a post online discussing the kinds of things that people would like to see in Lewisporte. Several people mentioned the idea of having a place to sit and have a coffee, and it got the wheels turning. Putting her initial worries to rest, Haley located a building down by the Lewisporte Marina (the former home of The Pilot community newspaper), got a business advisor and spent the next three 56

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months writing her business plan.

She started renovating in September of 2019 and on December 11, she officially flung open the doors to Kinden’s Bakery & Café.

Haley and her small staff were kept busy serving up hot drinks, including their very own Lewisporte Blend (courtesy of Just Us! Coffee Roasters Co-op in Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, Canada’s first fair trade and organic coffee roaster), as well as soups, salads, sandwiches and all manner of mouthwatering sweet treats that are incredible, edible pieces of art.

During one of their giveback missions, Kinden’s Bakery created care packages for the staff of local pharmacies to say thank you. They also delivered to local first responder units.

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Kinden’s Bakery’s “Come From Away” cupcakes. All profits from the sale of the cupcakes go to local charities and non-profits.

“It’s really nice because everyone we have that works there brings something new to the table, and they all have a passion for baking as well...

I’ve been blessed with really, really good employees, a really good team,” Haley says.

A fork in the road

Things couldn’t have been going better, and then, three months in, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Haley to make the heartbreaking decision to temporarily lay off her staff and shut the doors. Fortunately, she was still able to do deliveries throughout town. (The bakery reopened with full service in June.)

“It was really lonely for a few www.downhomelife.com

months… plus you’re hearing all this pandemic stuff. Ontario was getting hit hard and that’s where my family was. My grandmother turned 90 this year, so I missed that. And on top of that, the first week we were closed, our Pop Kinden here in Lewisporte passed away. So just navigating through all that... it was really difficult,” she says.

Instead of letting the gravity of the situation weigh her down, Haley started thinking about how to use her sweets to help lighten the load of others and lift up her community.

“One of the biggest things I missed from being a paramedic is the community involvement. I knew I wanted that to be a really big [part] of our company,” she says.

So last March, Kinden’s began doing regular giveback missions, starting with a donation to the local food bank. Giving back felt so good that they kept going, with each gesture bigger than the last. Since then, they’ve brought care packages (including coffee, cupcakes and other treats) to all of the local pharmacies to say thank you; delivered do-ityourself cookie kits to all the seniors homes in the area; hosted free coffee days for all essential workers; visited a local grocery store to purchase gift cards (which a clerk then randomly distributed throughout the day); baked cupcakes for all the local grads; purchased jerseys for the local hockey team; and delivered cookies to local veterans featuring Remembrance Day artwork by local Grade 6 students. (Kinden’s also made a donation to VETS Canada and the Gander Military Family Resource Centre on the students’ behalf.)

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The Kinden’s Bakery team (L-R): Kristen Budden, Lily Benson, Elliot Locke, Roxann Rideout, Georgia Stairs, Haley Kinden (owner) and Larry Kinden. Missing from photo: Charlotte Stairs mission yet, Haley located a small, locally owned bakery or café in every province and territory across the country and asked them to create gift boxes, which were paid for by Kinden’s and delivered to first responder units in each region.

This past December, Kinden’s kicked off their Come From Away cupcake initiative. Developed with the help of Gander resident Diane Davis (who one of the characters from the musical Come From Away is partially based upon), and with the blessing and approval of the Come From Away creative team, the initiative has seen all the profits from the sale of the cupcakes go towards local charities and non-profits. A different benefactor was chosen each month (January’s and February’s recipients were the Canadian Red Cross in 58

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Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor).

Through this project and others, Haley plans for Kinden’s Bakery to give back for years to come. For her and her team, nothing is more important than building genuine connections and being there for the community, through good times and bad.

“I think that’s what got me into the paramedic thing, is just feeling like I can make a difference somewhere, to somebody… and I felt like that was one thing I really, really mourned when I left the ambulance. So I knew I had to look for creative ways to do that at the café as well,” she says.

“Everyone kind of talks about supporting locally, especially right now during these trying times. But if we want people to support us, we’ve got to support our communities back.”

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seals have played an incredibly important part in the history, heritage and culture of Indigenous peoples throughout Newfoundland and Labrador and Canada’s northern regions. Indeed, they have relied upon seals for their very survival. None of the animal went to waste as it supported many facets of a traditional way of life, from vital nutrition and clothing, to materials for tools and crafts. The sealing industry has also provided a means to earn a living, giving individuals the opportunity to support themselves, their families and their communities.

It’s little wonder then that the Qalipu First Nation has focused on seals for one of their newest endeavours – a product that aims to provide health and wellness benefits, while also giving back to the First Nation’s communities and culture.

A Natural Fit

Established in 2011 under the Indian Act, the Qalipu (pronounced “ha-leeboo,” which means “caribou”) First Nation is a Mi’kmaq First Nation Band with approximately 24,000 members throughout 67 traditional Mi’kmaq communities in the province and beyond, making it one of the largest First Nation groups in the country.

The Qalipu Development Corporation (QDC) is an independent, armslength entity that leads business and industry development, and acts as a holding company for the Qalipu First Nation’s business operations and investments. It also looks for new investment opportunities to help support the band’s economic growth and sustainability. About three years www.downhomelife.com

ago, the QDC was searching for new commercial opportunities, and it wasn’t long before inspiration came into view.

“The discussion was what kind of products are out there that we could get involved with that would have commercial viability, and also fit in with our vision of a sustainable Indigenous fishery. So we kind of settled on seal oil as being one that would certainly, with the health food market these days just expanding by leaps and bounds, seem to be an area where we would have some success in putting it out there as an Indigenous product,” says John Davis, CEO of the QDC and Mi’kmaq Commercial Fisheries (an independent, Indigenous company owned by the Qalipu First Nation that manages all of its commercial fishing activities).

“Really, we just saw it in terms of, you know, the seal fishery’s a sustainable fishery, the product itself has real health and therapeutic qualities, and so it just seemed to be a natural fit for the kind of activities we would be interested in.”

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(L-R) Chief Mi’sel Joe, MHA Gerry Byrne, Brian Dicks and Chief Brendan Mitchell at the media event in Corner Brook, October 2020, for the official launch of Waspu seal oil capsules.

In October, the QDC officially launched their Waspu (the Mi’kmaq word for “seal”) seal oil capsules, developed through Mi’kmaq Commercial Fisheries. A socially distanced launch event was held outside the Qalipu offices in Corner Brook featuring local Mi’kmaw musician Paul Pike, and attended by government officials, representatives from the Qalipu First Nation and members of the public.

In Indigenous culture, the seal represents imagination, creativity, trust and integrity, and Waspu seal oil capsules are based upon these very same principles. The oil is derived from harp seals harvested sustainably and humanely around Newfoundland and Labrador, and it’s rendered in the province and refined to remove possible contaminants.

The capsules are also bottled and packaged right here, with the bottles featuring the artwork of local Mi’kmaq artist Marcus Gosse. His design features a seal and incorporates the 62

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Eight-Pointed Mi’kmaq Star in red, black, white and yellow, which, according to the artist’s website, “represent harmony and unity between all people.” On either side of the star are double curve designs that represent the balance of nature, environmental conservation and stewardship – guiding principles that have led the way for Indigenous peoples for hundreds of years.

A Path Forward

While our bodies can make most of the fats we need, we must get omega3 fatty acids from foods (or supplements). According to The Nutrition Source, a leading authority on food and nutrition knowledge based at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, likely due to their effects, “omega-3 fats have been shown to help prevent heart disease and stroke, may help control lupus, eczema and rheumatoid arthritis, and may play protective roles in cancer and other conditions.”

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While seal oil contains two of the three main omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), it also contains another that is not found in fish oil or plant-based supplements, helping distinguish Waspu from other products.

“In essence, most omega-3 products, whether they be capsules or something else, come from cold water fish species. Whereas seal oil, of course, comes directly from rendered seal blubber. The difference is that there’s a compound in seal oil called DPA (docosapentaenoic acid), which is unique to seal... and it’s been demonstrated that it does have very strong therapeutic qualities,” Davis says.

The capsules are currently available at Coleman’s stores across the province and online at the Mi’kmaq Commercial Fisheries website. Davis says with 630 First Nations across the country, most of which have reserve land that would usually include a clinic, grocery store, pharmacy or some combination of those, they’re also looking at how to tap into that distribution network.

“So that’s another market that we’ve really targeted, particularly when you look at some of the Northern communities where you have issues around isolation and very limited services,” he says.

Initially, the product was released in bottles containing 120 capsules.

When Downhome spoke with Davis in January, the QDC was working on releasing a larger bottle size containing double the amount of capsules which, he says, some of the larger box stores and bigger chains prefer.

Davis says while it takes time to www.downhomelife.com

establish a product in the marketplace, and considering there’s only so much money for marketing, the product is doing very well, with online sales coming from around the country and beyond. Since the QDC and Mi’kmaq Commercial Fisheries are self-sustaining entities, some of the money gets reinvested back, while the rest supports Qalipu’s communities and culture. And considering that Qalipu, like other First Nations, are mandated to generate non-governmental sources of funding, Davis says, they see this as a good investment with long-term returns.

“We’re not focusing specifically on the Newfoundland market, or even our national market. We know, going back over those last few years, that there’s a huge demand for omega-3s and seal oil specifically in the international marketplace, and it’s not currently being satisfied,” he says.

“We’ve already had good outreach from distributors and others who were interested in importing our product. So that’s primarily over the long term where we see driving our sales – it’s going to be in the international export market.”

Apart from seal oil capsules, the QDC is looking into developing other products in the not too distant future. This year, Davis says, they will start doing some research into seal-based pet food (and there may be other products that can be developed as well, he adds, like protein powders, which are big in the health food industry) to see if there’s a viable way forward. If the initial success of the Waspu seal oil capsules is any indication, Qalipu is on the right path.

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of spring arrives, when temperatures start to climb and the air smells sweet, Vicki and Earl Pike unpack their buckets and get ready to tap – maple trees that is. This year, working alongside their daughters and their families, three generations will watch Mother Nature give up its bounty.

“It’s great fun, wonderful exercise and extremely productive if you are willing to put the time into it,” Vicki says from her home in Little Rapids on Newfoundland’s west coast. “We look forward to it every year.”

The Pikes’ kitchen window provides an unobstructed view of two towering native maple trees in a spacious backyard. Tapping has become increasingly popular in the Humber Valley. It’s a relatively inexpensive DIY project with few materials required, and beginners are welcome. Vicki estimates paying roughly $50 for supplies at a local hardware store when they started tapping

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maple trees more than 12 years ago.

“It might cost a bit more now,” she says. “But with proper care you can use the same supplies every year.”

Early on a Saturday morning, Earl has the buckets ready to go. “When you can start tapping depends on the season, and each spring is different,” Vicki explains. “When we start to get those warm, sunny days, but at night it’s zero degrees or less, that’s the key. The temperature triggers the sap to run.”

Tapping takes a small percentage of raw sap from the tree. The rest is used by the tree to create leaf buds.

“If you have maple trees in your yard,

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keep an eye out for the snow to disappear,” Vicki adds.

“When you see grass or soil at the base of the tree, that’s the ideal time to start.”

The Pikes, who are in their early 70s, were introduced to maple tapping by a family friend. Their three daughters carry on the tradition, with their partners and children getting in on the fun. “Our grandkids love it,” Vicki says with a smile.

The family also taps 100year-old Norwegian maple trees on a nearby farm. They have tapped birch trees, but prefer maples.

“Tapping doesn’t hurt a tree,” explains Earl, a retired teacher and native of central Newfoundland. “The tree dictates how much sap is taken.

When it stops producing, or when we have enough, we plug the hole for next year.”

The Pikes boil down the sap on a woodstove in their shed,

Vicki Pike checks one the containers used to collect maple syrup.

Maple Tapping Supplies FoodFirstNL offers a list of supplies for maple tapping on its website at www.foodfirstnl.ca. The information was distributed at a workshop hosted

by Lisa and Steve McBride, Backyard Farming & Homesteading NL, at the St. John’s Farmers’ Market.

• Portable or hand drill, with 7/16-inch drill bit

• Candy thermometer for boiling down sap for syrup

• Bucket for catching sap (2-4 litre)

• Large stock pot

• Metal tree taps – plastic taps can blow out of the trees

• Jam jars or bottles for storing • Felt for filtering syrup

• Hammer to drive in the taps; you can also use a metal slug (called a spile driver) to drive in taps 66

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How to Install Taps Drill into the tree 1 1/2” (about 4 cm) on a 20-degree upward angle so sap can flow downward.

Remove wood shavings from the centre of the hole and hammer tap in. If you’re tapping a previously tapped tree, locate the new hole six inches from last year’s tap hole. www.foodfirstnl.ca

decreasing the cost and amount of steam that would be produced in their kitchen. “The smell is delicious,” Vicki laughs.

When their daughters were young, the tree-lined property was home to animals of all kinds. The couple still grow their own vegetables and bottle homemade pickles, chutney and salsa. Vicki’s sweet, golden syrup won second place for taste and clarity at a contest in St. John’s two years ago.

“We love the outdoors,” the Prince Edward Island native says. “We are earthy, back-to-the-land people.”

Vicki’s favourite way to enjoy maple syrup is drizzled over vanilla ice cream. “It’s to die for,” she grins, and adds, “Sap straight out of the tree added to white rum also makes the maple flavour pop.”

Tips for Cooking with Maple Syrup For every 1 cup of granulated sugar, substitute 2/3 cup of maple syrup. Reduce the quantity of liquid ingredients in the recipe (water, milk, juice) by about 1/4 cup. Lower the baking temperature by 25 degrees Fahrenheit.

Maple syrup can also serve as a one-to-one substitution for other liquid sweeteners, such as honey, molasses and corn syrup. www.puremaplefromcanada.com

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sureSHOTS Featuring photographer Dave Wheeler

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In music and in photography, it’s a matter of practice and always striving to do better – to nail that power chord or frame the perfect scene. In the way that a musician’s ear is always tuned to sound, a photographer’s eye is constantly seeking the right light. When Dave Wheeler is not rocking out on his guitar, he’s scouting the landscape with his camera.

Dave is no stranger to Downhome.

His photo submissions have been published in numerous magazine issues and calendars. His scenes often provide perspective on rural Newfoundland and Labrador life and always feature a pop of brilliant colour – a cobalt sea and burnt orange cliffs under an azure sky, steel grey rock brightened by verdant evergreens, cherry red sheds and cotton candy clouds.

“I love shooting landscapes, especially the outport communities of Newfoundland, because they are so diverse and I have the freedom to go pretty much wherever I need to go to get the perfect shot I want, not to mention the tranquil moments that I experience,” says Dave.

Not every moment is tranquil, though, and one was a little nerve wracking. “During one of our family outings, we decided to drive to Wooddale in Central Newfoundland to photograph a caribou herd that was there. It was early spring, so the temperature was a bit warmer,” Dave recalls. He decided to drive down a “road less travelled,” and the car got bogged down in slush and mud. By this time it was starting to get dark.

“There wasn’t any cell service in the area, so we started to panic a little. I www.downhomelife.com

put the SUV in four-wheel drive.

After a few attempts we managed to get out. Needless to say, I didn’t get any photos of the caribou and I have no plans to return to try again!”

Dave, 51, lives in his hometown of Grand Falls-Windsor with his wife, Mary, and their 13-year-old son, Alex. A drug store manager by day, photography is primarily a hobby started long ago. From 2005 until recently, Dave was a professional wedding photographer as a side gig.

“Recently, I’ve decided to take a break from photographing weddings and focus more on taking nature/ scenic photos, which is what I enjoy the most,” he says.

Dave’s first camera, which he still has, is a Kodak X740. These days he shoots with a Canon Markii DSLR and a 7D DSLR with a wide variety of lenses. One thing he’s learned, the hard way, is to “have a backup camera because you just never know when the camera you are using could get damaged or not work for some reason.” The other thing he’s learned is patience, “as it could take some time to get the perfect light or for an object to appear into the scene to make the photo extra special.”

As you’ll see on the following pages, the photos were worth the wait.

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Created in tragedy, this Fleur de Lys café celebrates life and gratitude

By Connie Boland

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A morning visit with her mom,

a walk in the afternoon. In the evening, Millie Walsh stands in the building dedicated to her daughter and feels the presence of family members who’ve passed away.

“I’m happy in my heart. May your hearts be happy, too,” the Fleur de Lys entrepreneur wrote on the Facebook site for Samantha’s Saltwater Joys Museum and Café. “If you have small children, let them figure things out for themselves a little more. When you figure stuff out on your own… you never forget. We learn best by doing.”

The story behind Sam’s Place café is tragic. Samantha Bertha Walsh, born May 27, 1986, was murdered on February 6, 2000.

Her death left behind broken hearts and lives forever changed.

Family and friends called her Sammie. She loved the song “Saltwater Joys.”

“George and I wanted to do something special to commemorate the hearts of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, the people from all around the world, and the gestures of love and gratitude given to us during our loss,” Millie says during a recent telephone interview. “I want to leave a legacy of who Sam was. That’s where the building started.”

Samantha’s Saltwater Joys building was initially designed by Samantha’s father, George Walsh, with input from Samantha’s brother, Sandy, and Neil Walsh. Residents volunteered time and labour in the early construction phase. Donations were used for site development and construction materials.

When George died in 2012, Millie was left with a dream, and a choice. “I walked into the building, which was just a shell at the time,” she recalls. “I said I’m going to do this. I put my heart and soul into it. I scrimped and saved to establish what I felt would represent the dream we both developed.”

Fleur de Lys is a small community of less than 300 people at the tip of the Baie Verte Peninsula. Sam’s Place is purple, with bright yellow trim. The inside shines with natural light; warm and vibrant, like its young namesake. The museum has four distinct corners representing the four points of a compass, significant to the 17-day search for Samantha as well as the four corners of the earth.

Panels in each corner display messages from people of all ages.

Touched by the story, they offered faith, hope, peace and love through cards, letters, poems and drawings. More than 15,000 pieces of mail were received from Russia, France, Norway, the Canadian provinces and all over Newfoundland and Labrador.

Random selections decorate the panels. www.downhomelife.com

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Millie Walsh, centre, owner of Sam’s Place, celebrated the 2019 opening of the museum and café with her mother, Josephine Lewis, and sisters Dorothy Barrett and Sheila Drover.

Erin Furlong met Samantha in elementary school. She visited the museum and café and examined the school portraits and candid photos: Samantha in a boat; with her dad; her hockey skates and snowshoes; her backpack on the floor upstairs, never unpacked after that last school day before she went missing. A life remembered and celebrated.

“We became really good friends,” says Erin, a native of Baie Verte.

“Sam’s Place is one of my favourite places. I worried about how I would feel when I first walked in, but I felt an extreme sense of relief and peace. I felt her around me, but not in a sad way.”

Sam’s Place opened in 2019. The café in the registered not-for-profit organization was sort of an afterthought. “As we finished construction, I realized I needed something to offset the overhead,” Millie explains.

“I want to give back to people and the community that were so good to us.”

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Numerous organizations benefit from the proceeds. Local craftspeople, authors and artisans are invited to display their work. “That’s what this is about,” Millie says. “It’s a place to give back. In some small way, I think it signifies what Newfoundland and Labrador stands for. There is no greater place on the planet than our province. Through tragedy, something beautiful and positive was created.”

“It’s a very calming place,” Erin adds. “There’s a special feeling, even if you didn’t know Sam. I love bringing my family there. Other times I go by myself, to sit outside with a cup of coffee by the water. It’s a place you feel drawn to. Definitely a little piece of heaven.”

Sam’s Place operated under COVID-19 guidelines in 2020. “It was different, but enjoyable,” Millie says. “Our own people are our greatest asset for survival. People walk through our doors, see the beauty and feel the peace. I talk to people 1-888-588-6353

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who have suffered great tragedies and losses. I think in some way it’s helpful.”

She adds quietly. “My heart is there; it’s where I finally found peace. I have the heart of Newfoundland and Labrador in my building.

It’s the epitome of gratitude.”

Erin wasn’t surprised to learn Sam’s Place would give back to the community that helped built it.

“That’s pretty much Millie, George and Samantha ever since I’ve known them,” she says. “Millie dedicated her life to making something positive out of what happened to Samantha.

For her to start something that gives back to the community is not surprising. I was proud when I learned she fulfilled their dream.”

The story of a missing teenager hit the province hard. Police, search and rescue teams, and residents combed the area on snowmobile.

A Fleur de Lys teenager was eventually convicted of second-degree murder.

“I’ve been given the grace of peace,” Millie says. “Everybody has a choice, and everyone handles things differently. I know life only comes by once on this earth. I’m an outdoors person. My soul is in every flower, every river. I pick berries. I fish. I do it alone, for the most part, and I am okay with my aloneness. I reconnect with Sam when I’m in nature. I believe that’s where her spirit is. It’s with everything that’s beautiful.”

The retired teacher’s Facebook posts are another way of connecting with people. “There are people out there who are hurting,” she says.

“What I write seems to resonate.”

Millie marked the passing of her husband in January, and Samantha www.downhomelife.com

The museum includes photos of Samantha Walsh and some of the 15,000 messages of support sent to the Walsh family from people all over the world. in February. “I miss them,” she says.

“I still become unraveled, but I know how to deal with that now. I’m in a much better place, thanks to love.

“I enjoy simplicity in life. My mom is 94 years old. My family is supportive and so is my community. I’ll never forget that, and I think that’s what Sam would want. Our building is a saltwater joy,” Millie adds. “Sam appreciated her culture. She didn’t live to make a big contribution to this province, but I think through her eyes, I’m doing something she would have been proud of.

“When people walk through the building and say they feel a sense of peace and love, that’s a beautiful feeling.”

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Dennis Flynn’s fat bike tour of the pathways and points of interest on Bell Island

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It’s a late October weekend in 2020,

and the grass is still green in places along these old cart roads. Sedimentary cliffs laden with fossils and honeycombed with caves reach to a churning blue-green ocean, where headlands adorned by protective necklaces of sea stacks and slant-toothed reefs cradle beautiful pocket beaches hundreds of feet below.

I have been to Bell Island a fair number of times over the years to hike, bike, kayak, paddle board, and even scuba dive to the WWII iron ore carriers sunk by German U-boat attacks in 1942. Such activities, when done with the proper safety gear and training, and under ideal weather conditions, are wonderful.

What brought my cycling buddy, Doug Harrison, and me to Bell Island this time around was something completely different: a relatively new sport called fat biking (or fat tire biking). Styled like a mountain bike, fat bikes have a specialized lighter frame, wider forks and

oversized knobby tires that provide superior traction on all types of offroad terrain. Fat bikes are not built for speed, but are perfect for casually exploring trails where other bikes can’t readily or as comfortably go.

First, a few words about logistics.

To make the most of our trip to Bell Island, we watched the long-range forecasts for several weeks before getting our ideal window of a full weekend with low winds and no appreciable precipitation. (Don’t attempt this route in icy, snowy or stormy conditions. It is amazingly scenic and, for a number of reasons, deserves to be seen on good days.)

Doug Harrison rides along the scenic shoreline of Bell Island. All photos by Dennis Flynn www.downhomelife.com

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We were also the first vehicle in the lineup, well before sunrise, for the earliest crossing of the tickle from Portugal Cove. And we went prepared to stay the night in case we were delayed in our touring and missed the last boat back to the mainland.

While there are numerous access points to tackle the challenge of travelling the outer edge of Bell Island, we opted to stop at the café near the ferry dock for a socially distanced chat with locals to get the best advice.

The very helpful café owner showed us a map of the island indicating points of interest and the approximate route of the 24-km Gregory Normore Coastal Walking Trail. She told me Gregory Normore arrived here circa 1740 as the first settler on Bell Island.

A friendly customer offered his experience riding ATVs all over the island. “I can go out driving sensibly and safely, and ride all day for seven or eight hours on the trails on Bell Island, have a boil-up and stop to 80

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take photos wherever I want of the magnificent seascapes. If I choose my course right, I never ever have to go back over the same trail twice in the same day. You’d never believe, just staying on the road in your car, how many paths there really are for ATVs and for human-powered bikers like yourself. On those rigs with the big tires, you are going to love it.”

Then he pointed out on the map the best direction of travel, the spots to see and, most helpful of all, the places where the path was currently still too wet and muddy from recent rains a few days earlier to be easily passable. He was quick to show us where we could detour around them to the main roads or side trails.

Armed with this essential local knowledge, off we went from Beach Hill. One of the first stops on our journey was Long Harry Point, on www.downhomelife.com

the northeastern part of the island just beyond Pulpit Head. Exactly who Harry was is a matter of much conjecture, with several competing beliefs holding sway, but he’s generally believed to have been tall, thin and good-natured.

From there it was on to the lighthouse, some 88 metres (290 feet) above sea level. The Keeper’s Café has a commanding view of Conception Bay and any visiting whales and icebergs. Rolling along counterclockwise around the island, we passed the former East #1 Mine site, Freshwater Cove, Gull Island South Head and Sandy Beach. We stopped to explore and take photos in the area of #2 Mine, from a distance.

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it is scant in some less-travelled sections. Use your discretion based on your own comfort level and ability.

Roadways to bail out of the trails are never far away, and it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with them ahead of time.

We meandered beyond Gravel Head with a side trip to check out the Grebes Nest and hidden beach. From there it was on to the airstrip and Ochre Cove on the northwestern (or “back”) of the island and into the wetter sections we had been warned about. Fortunately, they were not too bad nor too long (on this occasion), so we slogged through them and emerged eventually around Bell Cove in view of the most amazing sea stack that gives Bell Island its name. A quick stop and then on to Bickfordville and Lance Cove, which is the site of a Seaman’s Memorial to the four iron ore ships and 69 men who lost their lives here during the WWII U-boat attacks.

At this point we opted to try a forested quad trail we’d been told cuts largely through the centre of the island. It was a remarkable contrast to the coastal regions we had been

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travelling much of the day. So it went until we eventually broke out to paved roads again and meandered along “The Front” to where we’d parked our vehicle. We loaded up the fat bikes and made straight for Dicks’ Fish & Chips restaurant on Beach Road for the obligatory feed of their title dish while awaiting the ferry ride home.

In a leisurely day, we covered about 35 kilometres. In the summer tourist season with more daylight, I’d definitely recommend extending the stay. You wouldn’t want to miss the excellent underground tour of #2 Mine and Museum, a walk by the giant public murals or a play at the seasonal Theatre of the Mine. There are also opportunities to explore the outdoor grotto, WWII coastal gun emplacements and the short trail to the Early Settlers Graveyard, if you feel so inclined.

Whatever you decide to do and however you choose to travel – by fat bike, by ATV or by car – I hope you get to explore Bell Island in person and come up with a rolling commentary of wonderful experiences and memories all your own.

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ROUNDING THE GIANT

sleeping Newfoundland dog of Fergus Island, I silently glide past the pocket beach nestled betwixt his paws, linger for a moment in the shadow of the Lantern sea stack and gaze at the pathways of the eight-kilometre Bay Roberts Shoreline Heritage Walking Trail. They hug the coastline through resettled French’s Cove and Juggler’s Cove, where European fishermen once trod in the late 1500s and early 1600s. Urging the kayak beyond Jones Head, the warm June sun beams down on smoked-glass ocean.

I pause my paddling to take a photo of the two-storey, hiproofed Western Union Cable Building. Sturdily built of red English brick, it has stood on this spot for more than 100 years. Preserved now as a National Historic Site, hopefully it will be telling stories for another 100 years.

The view from the outside led me to seek out a tour of the inside, led by 77-year-old Eric Jerrett, chair of the Bay Roberts Heritage Society. He explains how specifically and uniquely designed this building was for its purpose.

Dennis Flynn photo

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The lifestyles exhibit in the Road to Yesterday Museum, inside the 100-year-old cable building Dennis Flynn photo “It is unique in Newfoundland for that period in that the building, and even the roof, is all thick, reinforced concrete with pillars going right to bedrock to make it very solid, since some of the equipment used here was vibration sensitive,” he says. “All the concrete was mixed by hand on the ground, no modern machinery, and local boys and men were paid to go around gathering beach rocks to put in the concrete. They used a horse with block and tackle to haul the buckets of concrete up to the roof.”

To ensure the reliability of the cable service, the station had three independent power sources: the town’s grid plus the station’s own generators and backup batteries.

And the station had its own water supplies for firefighting; the company well was supplemented with a reservoir tank in the attic and one underground.

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earthquake-resistant structure so important as a relay station site for their transatlantic cables going from England to New York that it was guarded 24 hours a day during both World Wars by forces [at different times] from Newfoundland, Canada and the United States,” Eric says.

Surveying the communication equipment on display, it’s easy to imagine this place as a hotbed of vital activity. I am told there were direct, private, secret communication lines between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin Roosevelt that passed through the station during WWII. Additionally, the cable station relayed sensitive military matters, troop movements, enemy submarine sightings and crucial weather reports. Cable was much more secure and could not be intercepted by enemy forces as easily as wireless signals. It is said that during WWII, 75 per cent of all transatlantic cable messages went through the Western 1-888-588-6353

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Union Cable Building in Bay Roberts.

After Western Union closed the building circa 1960, it eventually fell into disrepair. It underwent a full restoration starting in 1996, and now the Cable Building in Bay Roberts is both a National Historic Site and a Provincial Registered Heritage Structure, as well as a Manning Award-winning venue. It contains the Bay Roberts Town Hall and Archives, the Road to Yesterday Museum and the Christopher Pratt Gallery of art.

A relatively new addition to the

museum is a small, but top-notch collection of Newfoundland and Labrador military memorabilia, donated by veterans from the Bay Roberts area in many branches of service from both World Wars and other conflicts. A haunting c. 1917 photograph of a group of Great War soldiers, mounted on a window pane looking out to sea like spirits floating on air, is entitled simply “All Bay Roberts Boys.” Eric points out folks in the image, naming each one like old friends long gone. “We are all very proud of this photo,” he says.

Left: Blacksmith William Henry Littlejohn shoeing a horse c. 1905 Below: A photo from the museum’s military history collection

Courtesy of the Bay Roberts Heritage Society

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Eric Jarrett explains the significance of this print shop exhibit The most unique military exhibit, however, is the uniform, sword, weapons, medals and swagger stick belonging to Lawrence Tretheway Stick (better known as L.T. Stick), a longtime resident of Bay Roberts. He was the first Newfoundlander to enlist in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment on September 5, 1914, famously assigned with Regimental Number One. L.T. Stick went on to have a distinguished career as a soldier, a Newfoundland Ranger, and the first Member of Parliament for the District of Trinity Conception after Confederation in 1949.

Other exhibits in the museum pay tribute to the commercial history of Bay Roberts c. early 1900s, from boat builders, general stores, doctor’s offices, fancy shops and restaurants, to aspects of local agriculture and fishing. There’s also the oldest recovered headstone from the community 88

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and archeological treasures such as largely intact European amphora (for holding wine or similar liquids or certain dry goods) recovered by divers from shipwrecks in Bay Roberts Harbour. Everywhere I turn there is a new story to learn, but two capture my attention a little more than others.

The first involves the forge of a Coley’s Point blacksmith. Eric explains, “William Henry Littlejohn started this forge around 1900, and it was a very important place in the community. That is a photo of Mr. Littlejohn shoeing a horse around 1905, and when he retired his son [also William] took over and it stayed in operation until the mid-1960s.

When the Littlejohn family decided to donate the forge to the museum, we were delighted to have it. So we photographed and numbered all the pieces, disassembled it and 1-888-588-6353

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reconstructed it as best we could here in the museum, to preserve as much of it in the most authentic fashion as possible. The bellows, the bricks, all the tools, the forge itself, even the coals and the ashes left behind in the forge are all original, just as the last blacksmith left them.”

The museum also meticulously recreated the Water Street Print Shop of David B. Russell, whose family printed The Bay Roberts Guardian. This newspaper published for 40 years from July 9, 1909, to July 9, 1949 (minus a short interruption in 1919-20). After that, Dave Russell ran a successful commercial printing operation on the same premises for decades. In a life-size photo, Dave Russell stands behind an antique hand-powered printing press. Over his right shoulder is a newly printed funeral notice: it is for David B. Russell himself.

I say to Eric, “That was a very nice touch, to set the machine up that way

for display purposes. It is subtle and most people would not notice it or think to do it, but very appropriate.”

Eric says, “We can’t take credit for that. When Dave Russell died, his assistant, Langdon Critch, set up the printing press with Dave’s funeral notice, printed it and then the machine was retired forever. That’s the way it came to the museum and, like you, we liked it just the way it was. Dave is remembered on that machine and in ink, and that is a nice commemoration to him.”

The eclectic depth and breadth and quality of the various artifacts for a small-town museum amazes me. I went in search of one story of cables and communications, but I came away with much more. I gained stories of patriots and painters; of amphoras and anchorages; of commerce and conservation; and of ashes and ink in a place where, like the subsea cables themselves, history runs deep.

Dennis Flynn photo

Eric Jerrett, 77, is chair of the Bay Roberts Heritage Society www.downhomelife.com

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HOME and Cabin

stuff we love by Nicola Ryan

Book Smarts KOBO E-READER An e-reader allows you to store thousands of titles in a lightweight, portable alternative to printed books. Millions of eBooks – including best sellers, classics and new releases – can be purchased online or downloaded on loan for free from your local library. Kobo e-readers are easy to use and come in a range of prices and models, available where most electronics are sold.

BOOKMARKS If printed books are your thing, mark your page with a beautiful bookmark. We love these colourful sea-themed ones featuring original lino-cut relief prints of starfish, mussels, squid or salt fish by Janet Davis of Norton’s Cove Studio. www.nortonscove.com

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WOODEN PAGE HOLDER This handy book page holder is a simple, clever finger accessory that makes reading more comfortable.

Fashioned from light wood and available in a variety of styles, sizes and colours, “thumb things” keep the pages in your book held wide open – useful for folks with arthritis, MS or hand mobility issues. Search online at Etsy.com or make your own with these instructions: www.instructables.com/ Wooden-Page-Holder.

USB RECHARGEABLE READING LAMP Brighten any reading nook with a cute clip-on reading lamp. This one from Lvjing features adjustable brightness settings and colour temperatures to reduce glare and prevent eye fatigue and strain. It has an easy to operate touch control and flexible neck, and it’s rechargeable – no dangling cords or outlet requirement. Available on Amazon.

TOTE BAG Whether it’s library books, textbooks, notebooks or eBooks, tote your favourite reading material in a lightweight carryall. A reusable tote bag is roomy, practical, eco-friendly and stylish. We love this Gone Fishin’ bag from Whink. www.whinkinc.com.

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HOME and Cabin

Get Creative

BY MARIE BISHOP

The act of being creative

means to bring something into the world that didn’t exist before, to shape something in a completely unique way. Most of us think of creative people as artists, those gifted individuals who can draw accurately, visualize intensely and produce wonderful works that inspire. All of that is true. What is also true is that each of us has the ability to create, to stretch our imaginations beyond the norm and produce something original.

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“Being creative is meditative, brings joy, reduces stress levels and improves our quality of life.”

Pablo Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is staying an artist when you grow up.”

The unbridled creativity we enjoyed as children often fades into the background as we age. We begin to pay attention to what others think; we judge ourselves against the standards of others; we feel embarrassed to fail. But if you take the time to reset the dial and drop the veil of self-consciousness, creativity has enormous life-changing benefits. Scientific studies show that being creative helps improve mental and physical health, boost brain power and increase longevity.

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In her article “Creative Wellness: The Positive Benefits of Creativity” published in 2017, psychotherapist Nicola Vanlint says that creativity “gives us permission to take risks, try new things and strip away inhibitions in a healthy way... It gives us faith and confidence in our instincts... Being creative is meditative, brings joy, reduces stress levels and improves our quality of life.”

Dr. Maria Cohurt explored “What are the Benefits of Being Creative” for Medical News Today, in which she states that “Artistic self-expression improves our mental health... allowing us to overcome trauma and

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manage negative emotions...”

The article goes on to say “a lot of research in the medical field has actually suggested that art – and, more specifically, being creative – is, in fact, quite useful for our mental and physical well-being.

Different avenues of creativity can improve mental health, result in brain-boosting effects and offer significant physical benefits.”

Scientific evidence aside, being creative is really about having fun and challenging your inner child to play. It’s about finding pleasure and joy and freedom from a spark of inspiration. Open up your paint box, break out your craft supplies, take your camera for a walk and see the world through a different lens, so to speak. Life can be very challenging and serious, more so this past year. So, why not take a break from your everyday routine, lighten things up, be inspired?

Inspiration can be found everywhere: the way light hits the land, shadows on the water, the night sky, nature, animals, music... anything and everything can be a visual or audible inspiration. Feeling stuck? Just google an interest or idea you may have and thousands of images will direct your inspirational process.

A search of the term “abstract art” recently inspired me to try my hand at alcohol ink art. The intense colours, free-flowing process and very short learning curve gave almost instant satisfactory results. Adding a layer of doodling extended the creative process.

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If you are interested in being absorbed in a new passion, here’s a quick tutorial on ink art to get you started.

The alcohol-based ink, mixed with isopropyl alcohol (which has to be at least 91 per cent alcohol – rubbing alcohol is not recommended), works best on a non-porous (Yupo) paper, available at Michaels, but any non-porous surface works great. You could use any size glazed ceramic tile (best results come from white or black tile), plain white plates, mugs, bowls, mirror, glass, as well as prepared canvas. The simple way to prepare canvas is with Kilz 2 – just brush it on, let it dry and it’s good to go.

The inks, available at art supply stores, come in small bottles of very vibrant, intense colours. You could start with a few of your favourite colours, available in packs of three and sets of 12. A few inexpensive paint brushes are a good idea, but the most interesting results come from moving the ink around with a straw or a hair dryer, or just tilting the surface. It’s highly recommended to wear disposable gloves: the ink will “eventually” wash off, but not right away. Covering your work surface with a drop sheet or disposable tablecloth is a good idea, too.

Once you have your supplies, the fun begins. Different techniques will give different results, so experiment. For convenience, put some of the isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle or a bottle with a dropper top. Start by spreading some alcohol on the paper, canvas or tile. Then let a drop or two of your ink 1-888-588-6353

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drip from the bottle onto the alcohol.

Using a straw, gently blow the ink around. The more ink you use, the more intense the colour; the more alcohol you use, the softer the colour. You can combine colours right there on the surface; remember your colour wheel – red and blue make purple, red and yellow make orange, and blue and yellow make green. You could cover the entire surface or leave lots of white space.

The result will be completely abstract and vibrant or subtle depending on the technique.

If you become immediately obsessed (be prepared), you can find endless inspiration for different techniques, subject matter and colour combinations, and supplies on the internet.

Whatever you turn your passion and curiosity towards, making time in your day to be creative will improve your well-being immensely on so many levels. Stretch that muscle, escape your normal routine,

The beauty of ink is, even days after it dries, you can reactivate it with the alcohol. So, if you’re not happy with the result, you can either wipe it clean (easier to do on a tile or glass surface than the paper or canvas), or add more colour and alcohol to completely change the look.

If you are happy with the result and want to make it permanent, you need to spray it with a fixative. The one most recommend is Krylon Kamar Varnish, available at Kent, Home Depot, Walmart and other similar retailers.

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flesh out those ideas that have been simmering back there – the rewards are prolific.

Creativity lives in each of us. Find what quenches your creative thirst and indulge; bring something new and awesome into the world.

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Todd’s table

Useful Kitchen Gadgets

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Todd’s Table

By Todd Goodyear

When he’s not dreaming up or cooking up great food, Todd Goodyear is president and associate publisher of Downhome. todd@downhomelife.com

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It almost goes against everything I believe in when it comes to cooking. I love scratch made, by hand, with passion. Sure, even when I’m warming up a bottle of soup I refuse to use the microwave and I’ll put it in a pot on the stove.

Today, however, I start sharing my growing appreciation for some really cool kitchen gadgets. I have learned to love some in particular. Even though this is a somewhat new venture for me in the way that I prepare meals, I am surprisingly convinced that some gadgets are really valuable when considering convenience, time and simplicity in preparing a great meal.

For starters, I am going to be discussing my very recent experience with the increasingly popular air fryer. So many of my friends and family now either have one or at least are talking about getting into the air fryer movement. I first heard about this gadget a long time ago, but because of how I felt about cooking, and the way I do things in the kitchen, the interest was just not there to purchase one.

I guess all that changed and we ended up with the Ninja air fryer. I have been nothing but totally impressed with just about everything I have tried in it. So far my air fryer has seen bacon-wrapped scallops; chicken wings, thighs and legs; whole chicken (small); pork chops, shrimp, fresh-cut french fries, sausages and the list goes on.

This gadget is easy to use, easy to clean, and I think it is pretty well priced. You can shop around and find one for less than $100. I’ve been curious about the amount of electricity it uses, compared to a conventional stove or oven. I don’t have any details or facts on that, but I think I will investigate and see if there is a possible savings.

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Air Fried Chicken Wings Often I will use chicken wings that are split and you are buying two basic parts: the drummettes and the flats. For this recipe, I chose to use the entire wing, tips and all.

I love buying fresh ingredients. For the wings, and many other meat purchases, I often find myself dropping in to Halliday’s Meat Market on the corner of Kings Road and Gower Street in St. John’s. This neighbourhood cornerstore has made its reputation on producing great puddings, sausages and excellent meat products overall since opening at the beginning of the First World War, back in 1914.

Customers receive more than a century of butcher shop expertise coupled with great wit, a political dig and even a scattered story. Cliff Halliday Jr. and the rest of the staff know how to keep them coming back for more.

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Ingredients 2 lbs chicken wings 2 tsp Halliday Meat Market Spice 1/2 cup flour 2 tbsp baking powder 2 tsp granulated garlic

1 tsp fresh ground pepper 1 tsp kosher salt 1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional) 2 tsp paprika Cooking oil spray

Pat dry the chicken wings with paper towel. Season lightly with the Halliday’s spice (or your favourite chicken spice). Mix together the remaining dry ingredients in a polybag or large Ziploc bag. Add the wings, a few at a time, and toss in the mixture until coated. Remove and set aside. Discard the bag with any remaining flour mixture.

Turn on the gadget to “air fry” and preheat at 350°F for 2-3 minutes.

Open the tray and spray just enough cooking oil to cover the bottom.

Place the wings in the air fryer, trying not to crowd the tray. Depending on the size of your unit, and the wings, you may only be able to cook 6 wings (whole) at a time. If you are cooking just the flats and drummettes separated, obviously you will be able to cook more pieces. Just don’t pile the wings. Keep them separated as much as possible.

Set the temperature to 350°F and cook for 10 minutes. Check the wings, turn them over with tongs and lightly spray them with the cooking oil after you turn them over. Increase the temperature to 400°F and set the timer for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes, check the wings again and, depending how crispy you like them, you may want to cook for a little longer.

Toss the wings in your favourite sauce in a bowl or serve them with

sauce on the side, or dry. As you are munching down on the first batch, load up the fryer and start your second batch.

Chicken wings are certainly a favourite in our home. We enjoy them alone as a great movie night snack, or we make it a meal and serve the wings with a side salad or rice.

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Chef’s Tips If you have the time, after tossing the wings in the bag, place them on a rack and a cooking sheet and place them in the fridge, uncovered, for an hour or two. The baking powder (aluminum free) will make the wings extra crispy, trust me.

When turning the wings, spray oil on the dry powder or bare spots and the oil will help to make the wings crispy.

Feel free to change up the dry spices to whatever you like the best.

If you have tried the air fryer and have found a great recipe, please pass it along to me and I’ll give it a try!

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HOME and Cabin

everyday recipes

Pub Grub Missing a night out for a few pints and some pub grub?

Make it a BYOB evening at home with these tasty nibblies.

Deep Fried Pickles 6 dill pickles, quartered lengthways 3/4 cup flour for dredging

Egg Wash 2 eggs 3/4 cup milk

Breading 2 cups Panko bread crumbs, blended fine 1/2 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp ancho chili powder 1/2 tsp onion powder 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper

Whisk egg wash ingredients together and set aside. Combine breading ingredients and set aside. Pat the pickles dry with a paper towel. Dredge them in flour, shaking off the excess. Dip them in egg wash, and then in the breading to thoroughly coat them. Deep fry at 350°F until they have become a deep golden brown. Drain, and serve immediately with your favourite dipping sauce. Yield: 4 servings

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

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Scotch Eggs 2 lbs Bratwurst sausage, casings removed 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper pinch of nutmeg 6 eggs, hard boiled, cooled and peeled 1 cup flour for dredging 2 eggs 3/4 cup milk

Breading 1/3 cup flour 1 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs, blended into fine crumbs 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp black pepper

Make the egg wash by whisking eggs and milk together; set aside. Mix the breading together and set aside.

Thoroughly mix the sausage meat, cayenne pepper and nutmeg. Divide into 6 equal pieces. Flatten a portion of meat between two pieces of plastic wrap, making it as flat as you possibly can. Remove a sheet of plastic, and place a hardboiled egg in the centre of the patty. Using the plastic to help you, wrap the meat around the egg, thoroughly sealing it and shaping it into an egg. Dredge each portion in the flour, shake off the excess; dip in egg wash, then the breading and shake off excess; dip in egg wash again and once more in the breading. (We have now double-breaded the scotch egg.)

Deep fry each egg at 350°F until the internal temperature of the meat itself reads 165°F. Cut in half lengthways and serve immediately with your favourite sausage accompaniment. Yield: 6 servings www.downhomelife.com

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Blooming Onion 2 large Spanish onions, peeled 1 1/2 cups milk

Breading 1 cup flour 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper 1/4 tsp turmeric 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp dried thyme 1/4 tsp cumin 1 tsp smoked paprika 1/4 cup cornmeal

Dip 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1/2 cup sour cream 1 tbsp Chipotle paste

Mix all dip ingredients together and set aside to allow the flavours to meld. Mix all breading ingredients together and set aside.

Cut the top off each onion exposing a 2-inch diameter circle. Using an apple corer, remove the centre of each onion, including the root.

Flip the onion upside down so that the root end is facing up. Using a knife and starting one inch away from where the core was, cut all the way through the onion from top to bottom. Do this all the way around the onion until you have made about 16 segments. Carefully flip the onion back over and, holding it in your cupped hand, start to separate the “petals” of your onion flower.

Dust the onion, being sure to get in between all the petals, with the breading mixture. Shake off the excess and dip the entire thing in the milk.

Drain. Again, dust the onion with the breading mixture, being sure to get in between all the petals. Gently shake off the excess.

Deep fry the entire onion at 350°F until deep golden brown.

Drain the onion, and place on a platter with the dip.

Yield: 6 -8 servings, depending on onion size

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Hasselbeck Potatoes 4 long potatoes, scrubbed and rinsed 1/4 cup butter, melted 2 tsp salt 2 tsp pepper

1 tsp smoked paprika 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp onion powder 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place a potato in a large serving spoon. Using a sharp knife, cut equally spaced thin slices in the potato, stopping at the spoon (the spoon will help you to avoid cutting all the way through the potato, as we want to keep a little bit attached at the bottom). Repeat with remaining potatoes.

Mix together salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and onion powder; set aside. Drizzle the butter evenly over all four potatoes, being sure that it runs down between the slices. Sprinkle the spice mixture evenly over the potatoes, being sure that it gets between the slices. Place potatoes on a sheet pan and bake for approximately 40 minutes. The potato should be cooked all the way through and soft when you pierce it with it small knife.

When potatoes are cooked, sprinkle them evenly with Parmesan cheese and bake for another 5 minutes. Serve immediately. Yield: 4 servings www.downhomelife.com

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Welsh Rarebit 1/2 cup butter, soft 12 slices pumpernickel bread 4 tbsp butter 4 tbsp flour 1 1/2 cups Guinness beer 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 1 5 2 3 1

tsp black pepper tsp salt shakes Tabasco sauce cups whipping cream, hot cups old cheddar, grated tbsp whole grain Dijon

Butter both sides of the bread with the 1/2 cup soft butter and set aside. Mix together beer, Worcestershire sauce, pepper, salt, and Tabasco sauce. Set aside. Melt second quantity of butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add flour, and mix with a wooden spoon until flour starts to turn a blonde colour. Gradually add beer mixture, whisking constantly until it thickens and is smooth. Turn heat to low; gradually whisk in whipping cream. While sauce gently simmers, whisk in the cheese. Continue to stir until cheese is melted and sauce is very smooth. Whisk in Dijon and turn off the heat. Cover to keep warm.

In a large, dry frying pan, fry the buttered bread on both sides over medium-high heat, until both sides have a light crust. Place fried bread on a plate and top with cheese sauce. Serve immediately. Yield: 6 servings

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Calamari 1/2 lb squid tubes, cut into rings 1 1/2 cups flour for dredging 1 egg 1/2 cup milk

Breading 3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cornmeal 1/2 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp onion powder 1 tsp smoked paprika 1/2 tsp turmeric 1/2 tsp black pepper 1 tsp salt

Beat egg and milk together thoroughly, and set aside for your egg wash. Combine all the breading ingredients together. Rinse and thoroughly drain the squid rings. Dredge the squid rings in flour and shake off the excess. Dip the rings into the egg wash, let excess drip off, then thoroughly coat with breading. Deep fry squid rings at 375°F for approximately 3-5 minutes. The rings will fill out into circles and be deep golden brown. Serve immediately with cocktail sauce or your favourite marinara. Yield: 4 - 6 servings www.downhomelife.com

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HOME and Cabin

down to earth

Know Before You Sow How to choose seeds for greatest success

by Kim Thistle

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It is that time of year again, when gardeners are pouring over mouthwatering seed catalogues and making decisions on what to grow this coming season. It seems that people are very eager to get started this year after the seed shortage in 2020. Make sure your eyes are not bigger than your belly (or gardening space in this case). Proceed with caution and practicality. There are some things to keep in mind when purchasing seed or sorting through last year’s leftovers.

First of all, figure out how much space you have for starting your seed and how much room you have in your garden. Do you need a packet of 500 beefsteak tomato seeds? You probably only have room for a few plants and you may want different varieties. Gardeners tend to go overboard with seeding and become overwhelmed when every seed germinates and they have hundreds of seedlings and not enough space to grow them all. Gardeners hate to cull; we feel the need to save every seedy soul.

Buy from a reputable company that sells fresh, viable seed.

Always try to start with the best quality product.

When growing in Newfoundland and Labrador, keep in mind that there are many vegetable crops and flowers that we struggle to grow. Your local garden centre will be selling the types that grow successfully here. You can also count on the staff to give you guidance when you purchase.

If using leftovers from last year, be prepared to have a few failures. Seed should be stored in the dark, in an airtight container, in a cool place (ideally below 10°C). A test for checking the viability of old seed is to put a few from an old packet in a glass of water overnight. If the seeds are still floating in the morning it means they are bad, so cut your losses now and chuck the whole pack. Alternatively, place 10 seeds on a wet paper towel and put them in a Ziploc bag. Seeds should germinate in five to www.downhomelife.com

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10 days. If fewer than 75 per cent of the seeds germinate, toss them all out. They’re not worth your valuable time. Some seeds will maintain a high germination rate for up to five years, while others, such as lettuce, decline after one year of storage.

Now that you’ve decided on what you’re going to grow and how many, check the instructions on the seed packet before you buy. Try not to fall for the pretty pictures, but rather pay attention to the written description.

Look at the maturity time. This number can be affected by many factors, so I use it as a rule of thumb but not an exact measure. Consider, do you have enough frost-free days where you live to grow this? Sugar snap peas mature at about 65 days, so there is plenty of time in our area to 108

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grow this crop when planted from seed outdoors. Leek, on the other hand, takes about 120 days to maturity and should be planted inside in late February or early March, then transplanted outdoors in May to get a decent crop. If the packet says 150 days, dream on… or relocate.

Flower seed packets will often instruct you to plant indoors a specific number of weeks before planting outside. Pansies, for example, need 10-12 weeks indoors if you want them to bloom soon after planting them outside. I would plant my pansies the third or fourth week in March and start hardening off early to mid-May for outdoor transplanting the first week in June. For the length of time involved, you may find it less expensive to buy the pansy 1-888-588-6353

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plants you need – unless, of course, you like the challenge of growing from seed.

Seed packets should tell you if you need light or dark to germinate. Most seeds germinate in the dark, so if you bury them to about three times their thickness, they will be fine. Sometimes a seed requires light before it will break dormancy. These are best sprinkled on the soil surface and gently pressed in to keep them moist.

Soil temperature is important. If the seed packet does not have this information, you should google to find what is the optimum temperature. When seeding indoors, you will need bottom heat, such as a heating pad. Special seeding mats are available and are generally inexpensive.

Have a look for days to germination. Some seeds take forever and if you are not aware, you may give up in despair and throw them out. Anticipate Murphy’s law… just as you are giving up and emptying the soil into the compost, you will notice tiny roots starting on the seed. I can tell you from experience. Augh!

The weight or number of seeds is often included on the packet. As I stated before, you do not need 500 tomato seeds unless you are competing with Heinz. Ten seeds per variety are plenty.

Pay careful attention to extra details. For example, if you are growing “pole beans,” they will need to be staked. “Bush beans” grow as a small bush, so you will not need extra infrastructure. If the packet does not say pole or bush, look at the height on the back of the packet.

Beginners beware of the phrase www.downhomelife.com

As I stated before, you do not need 500 tomato seeds unless you are competing with Heinz. Ten seeds per variety are plenty. “susceptible to.” Do you really want to get your basil to harvest stage just to have it collapse with fusarium wilt? Look instead for varieties that say “resistant to.” It will save you a lot of aggravation in the long run.

There is a lot to know about growing from seed, and I often have customers tell me that every green pepper or tomato that they grow is worth $50. The sense of accomplishment after growing from seed to spoon is well worth it. I’ll conclude this month’s column by supporting our local garden centres. They should be your first line of purchase – they carry the right seed, they can share their expertise, there’s no shipping cost and you’ve just supported your local economy. Happy planting!

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.

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reminiscing flashbacks

Starkes Siblings The submitter, Marie Goulding (nee Starkes), and her brother, Donald Starkes, enjoy summer vacation in Nipper’s Harbour in 1949.

Marie Goulding Ajax, ON

Friends at the Beach Do any of our readers recognize anyone in this 1948-1950 era photo of a group hanging out at Salmon Cove Sands?

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Skiers at Tipping Pond (From right) Joan Tipping, Don Thistle, Sylvia Thistle, Brian McGrath and Bob Herdman pose on skis in this photo from 1949.

Susan Herdman, Lincolnton, GA, USA

This Month in History Margaret Duley was Newfoundland’s first novelist to attain worldwide recognition. Born in St. John’s and educated at the Methodist College, she went on to work at the Women’s Patriotic Association and was a member of the Ladies Reading Room and Current Events Club. This club of prominent women would produce many leaders of the suffrage movement and contributors to the creation of public libraries in the province.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Duley published four novels that received critical acclaim: The Eyes of the Gull (1936), Cold Pastoral (1939), Highway to Valour (1941) and Novelty on Earth (1942). Containing evocative descriptions of life in early 20thcentury Newfoundland, and reflecting a feminist sensibility, her works are now considered to be a significant contribution to Canadian literature and Newfoundland and Labrador culture. Margaret Duley passed away in St. John’s on March 22, 1968, after a long illness.

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reminiscing visions & vignettes

Gnat, do you mind…

Sheila’s Brush?

By Harold N. Walters

“There’s weather brewing.”

Uncle Rube Ginn leaned close to the radio to hear the forecast synopsis. The final inch of a cigarette, held in place by saliva and a disregard for gravity, stuck to his lower lip. A pack of Target tobacco, rolling papers tucked into its cellophane sleeve, lay on the radio shelf.

“I ’low tis the Liner storm,” he said, the cigarette butt jittering.

Harry and Gnat, making an aftersupper visit as they often did, roosted on the daybed’s edge like a brace of cockerels. “What’s the Liner?” Harry asked. “’Tis the snowstorm that comes when the sun crosses the line, the equator. Means it’s spring. The Irishmen calls it Sheila’s Brush,” said 112

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Uncle Rube, plucking the butt from his lip and poking it through the stove’s vent into the fire.

“Oh my,” said Aunt Mary. A plate splashed into the dishpan.

Aunt Mary, a woman renown in Brookwater for her sensitive, nervous nature, rung her dishcloth as if twisting a done-laying hen’s neck on the eve of Sunday dinner. “Awful things comes with that Sheila’s 1-888-588-6353

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storm,” she said.

“Like what, maid?” Uncle Rube asked.

Harry’s and Gnat’s ears perked up at the mention of possible dire events. Had Harry and Gnat been true cockerels, their cockscombs would have stood erect like Mohawk topknots.

“That’s when the leprechauns comes out of hibernation and starts pestering people again,” said Aunt Mary.

“P’raps you’m thinking about fairies or some other foolishness,” said Uncle Rube.

“Leprechauns, fairies, ’tis all the same, Rube,” said Aunt Mary. “That storm wakes them up.”

Partly mortified because of Aunt Mary’s ignorance, Uncle Rube turned off the radio, went to the woodbox and began whittling shavings from the splits stowed in one end.

In response to her skewed knowledge, Harry and Gnat – recognizing opportunity’s mischievous chops when it rapped on the door – grinned at Aunt Mary. “Do they come ridin’ on unicorns?” asked Harry.

“For all I knows, they might, my son,” said Aunt Mary. “I just knows I’m frightened to death at the thoughts of them evil creatures.”

“Sure, they’m only little critters, Aunt Mary,” said Gnat. “They’m no bigger than tomcats.”

“I don’t know how big they is,” said Aunt Mary, “but they’m a wicked scourge. Worse than Satan’s imps.”

Uncle Rube closed his pocketknife, lodged down his final curly shaving and considered Aunt Mary trembling at the sink and Harry and Gnat smirking approvingly. “Yous get on home,” he said. “Your mothers’ baked cookies.”

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Outside, Harry studied the sky, sizing up the ominous clouds east of the moon. “That storm will be goin’ strong this time tomorrow,” he said.

“T’will so,” said Gnat.

“Aunt Mary is some afraid of leprechauns,” said Harry.

“She do be,” said Gnat.

“I got an idea,” said Harry.

“I ’low,” said Gnat.

Thinking of stormy weather, and leprechauns, and Aunt Mary’s frail nerves, Harry and Gnat dodged home. There was a slim chance that their mothers had indeed whipped up batches of cookies.

Come morning, the sky to the node-east of Brookwater looked threatening. An icy drizzle promised thick, wet snow before midafternoon.

A ferret-like wind scampered hither and yon on the cove as if seeking a location to hunker down and become a full-blown gale.

Harry and Gnat walked up Eva Mann’s lane and entered her porch.

Sonny Mann flung open the kitchen door before – in his eyes, at least – the best two boys in Brookwater had stamped the slop off their logans.

“Ma,” he said, grabbing his winter coat from a nail in the porch wall, “I’m goin’ out with Harry and Gnat.”

Raising a cautionary hand, Eva scravelled toward her rambunctious boy, but the door slammed shut in her face. “Behave yourself,” she said and sighed.

Sonny Mann had grown to be a bandy-legged young fellow with a pinched face and coppery hair that sprung from his noggin like a birch broom in the fits. Sonny reminded Harry of a… well, a leprechaun.

“Want to do somethin’ with us?”

Harry asked.

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Sheila swept and swept. The storm blew and blew. Calendar spring might well be on the horizon, but twilight still came early in lands nigh onto fifty degrees north latitude, especially on dismal days.

Sonny nodded and danced a jig, kicking up ice crystals like fairy dust or sparkling nuggets of leprechaun treasure.

“He’ll be the clear cat’s ass,” Gnat said, considering the shenanigans he and Harry had planned.

“I ’low,” said Harry. “Especially if we can sneak Aunt Chook’s billy goat out of his pen.” Sonny scampered at Harry’s and Gnat’s heels like an eager pup – or perhaps a delinquent leprechaun – as the tricksters trooped up the road to Aunt Chook’s stable.

Near noon – while the outlaw trio rustled Stump, Aunt Chook’s billy goat, out of the stable – the northbound sun inched its nose a dickystraddle north of the Line and made a brief appearance above the Crow Cliffs. Then, no surprise to anyone attuned to weather conditions, Shelia swung her broom and swept a storm of snow into the pale sun’s face.

Shelia’s Brush, the Liner Storm, commenced to smother Brookwater.

Heedless of sleety snowflakes stinging their cheeks, the boys pushed against the node-east wind.

They hauled Stump behind them using a rope fastened to the goat’s single horn.

Bawling into Harry’s ear, Gnat said, “I knows for a green jacket that Sonny can squeeze on over his coat, like a weskit.”

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leprechaun to go with it?”

“Might be,” said Gnat, trudging into the thickening storm.

“Nnaaaaaaah,” said Stump at the end of his tether, conceding it was pointless to balk.

Sheila swept and swept. The storm blew and blew. Calendar spring might well be on the horizon, but twilight still came early in lands nigh onto fifty degrees north latitude, especially on dismal days.

Most farm animals were safely inside their stalls, munching from mangers stogged with hay. Those unfortunate ones left outside found sheltering nooks and huddled arse-on to the node-east wind… except for a struggling billy goat dragooned to be part of the antics of young schemers.

Partially protected from the storm in the tuck of spruce at the bottom of Uncle Rube’s garden, Stump fought to cast off the burden bundled on his back. With his single horn, he hooked left and right, aiming to gore his tormentors and escape his noose.

He bucked like a bronco but failed to unseat the weight straddling his spine. Resistance was futile.

“Bide still,” said Harry.

While Gnat crow-hopped to avoid Stump’s horn and scoated to snub the billy goat, Harry fought to balance the load on Stump’s bony back.

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hind leg.

Snow whizzelled among the trees, adding to the billy goat’s frenzy. Perhaps Stump broke loose. Perhaps the rascals released him.

Either way, Stump stampeded from the trees and charged up Uncle Rube’s garden, the encumbrance bouncing on his back. Stump bolted through the fury of Sheila’s brush; he lurched against the Liner storm’s wrath. Two phantoms pursued him.

“Rube,” said Aunt Mary, leaning over the kitchen sink and peering into the night, her nose an inch from the windowpane. “There’s something out in the garden.”

Uncle Rube cranked himself off the daybed. “’Tis getting closer,” said Aunt Mary. “’Tis hard to tell in the snow and dark, but it looks like some kind of a… a beast.”

Uncle Rube joined Aunt Mary at the sink.

“I believe ’tis a …”

Before Aunt Mary finished her 1-888-588-6353

sentence, a fierce apparition emerged from the furious snowstorm like an entity materializing from a parallel dimension or a leprechaun’s hellish hollow. A yellow-eyed unicorn galloped headlong into the lamplight shining from the window. Riding the unicorn, hunched like a clumsy jockey, was a bandy-legged, greenjacketed leprechaun. From beneath the brim of his battered hat, coppery hair whipped and flapped like a birch broom in the fits.

“My bless-eed Saviour,” said Aunt Mary before she swooned.

Mind that Liner storm, Gnat? If Uncle Rube had failed to catch her, Aunt Mary would’ve brained herself on the kitchen canvas.

Harold Walters lives in Dunville, Newfoundland, doing his damnedest to live Happily Ever After.

Reach him at ghwalters663@gmail.com

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reminiscing

downhome memories

Bakers Light

By John Gillett

Twillingate, NL

When I was young, just 10 years old in 1957, on a

warm September night around 9 o’clock I climbed a hill called Ochre Pitt, a small hill just above our house in Hart’s Cove on Twillingate Island, NL. I used to do this often, just sitting or lying on my side watching the stars in their millions because it was peaceful. Also I could hear the night sounds of owls, bats and ground mice, and in the distance, barking dogs each with their own distinct bark.

There were no streetlights, only dim kerosene lamplight shining through someone’s kitchen window.

On this particular night, as I was looking out over Twillingate Harbour and the ocean beyond, I noticed a dim light very far in the distance to the northwest of me, dancing over the water to and fro like a ballerina. It came closer and closer, moving very fast. It got brighter the closer it got, and sometimes I could see a blue light within it. The light danced and kept going to and fro until it got halfway in the harbour, then turned and with greater speed danced out of the harbour back to the northwest. In about 10 minutes it was out of sight.

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Never before did I ever see anything move as fast as this, not even the trains my mother and I took going to Toronto earlier that summer, and for sure it wasn’t a fisherman’s boat with the old make-andbreak 4 HP engine. Never did I see a light get so bright, not even the one in the lighthouse on Long Point.

Next morning, I went down in the cove and out on the stage head where Mr. Hawkins was doing his fish. I asked him if I could cut out the cod tongues. “Aye you,” he said. I was bursting to tell him what I had seen last night, but didn’t want him to make

Hawkins said.

There’s a story of the time two men from here ran out of tobacco.

In their punt, they paddled across the harbour towards E.J. Linfield’s Shop, which was open until 9:30 on this Saturday night, to get some tobacco. It was dark and the water was as calm as oil. Halfway across the harbour they saw this light coming towards them. They paddled as fast as they could, but they couldn’t get rid of it. Suddenly it engulfed them.

“They told me,” Mr. Hawkins said, “that there was a hurricane of wind

“You saw the Bakers Light. It’s a weather light; we’re going to have a storm of wind for sure, I noticed this morning my weather glass was bottom up.” fun of me for talking foolish. Then I just blurted it out. “Mr. Hawkins, I saw a light last night after dark come in the harbour, a bright light going very fast and dancing as it went.”

His answer came quick. “You saw the Bakers Light. It’s a weather light; we’re going to have a storm of wind for sure,” he said. “I noticed this morning my weather glass was bottom up.”

He told me he had seen the light himself a few times. It comes from the shipwreck of the Queen of Swansea in the 1800s on Cape John Gull Island, about 30 miles across the bay. They all lost their lives; some survived the wreck and got ashore, but eventually they died from the cold and hunger, as it was in the winter.

“December, I believe it was,” Mr. 1-888-588-6353

in the light. They lost their caps, their hair stood off straight, lightning was flashing and cracking, and their small boat seemed to be spinning around. Suddenly, it was moving back out the harbour. All was calm but they couldn’t see anything, including where to go. After 10 or 15 minutes they got their sight back and headed back in the cove. I was there when they came in and helped haul up their boat. They were shaking like a leaf on a tree. George never did find his cap and Bobby’s hair turned white as the driven snow.”

I saw the Bakers Light once again after that, my buddy and I. The next day we had a nor’easter, a gale of wind and torrential rain. These stories I heard when I was young will stay with me always.

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reminiscing

An incredible story of survival and the power of belief in prayer

By Kim Ploughman

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Somewhere in the icy North Atlantic,

near the Strait of Belle Isle, a plate of false teeth rests on the ocean floor. Lost over a decade ago by Rex Saunders of St. Lunaire-Griquet, NL, while out sealing, they would likely do some chattering about this intrepid man’s many adventures.

One of the most extraordinary of these occurred the day those dentures sank beneath the waves in 2009, when his trip to the ice turned into a life-threatening ordeal. Stranded for more than 40 hours on a sheet of sea ice, Rex would later attest he was saved by the “power of prayer.”

Rex was born in St. Lunaire-Griquet, a small fishing village nestled in the hills on the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland. When he was a small boy, his family moved to Main Brook, but they returned home by the time he was 16, in 1959. By 1965, Rex had started fishing and was married. He and his wife, Irene (nee Earle), would raise a family of five (four sons and a daughter).

The burly man has endured his fair share of mishaps as a mariner. Then, there were the medical challenges he overcame, including six back operations and numerous stents following repeated heart attacks, including his first in 2008.

This fisherman’s boat sadly perched more often on the landwash than on the water. Still, it was in his blood to fish and seal, even as age and medical conditions crept upon him.

1-888-588-6353

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A GOOD DAY SUDDENLY TURNED BAD On Monday, May 4, 2009, Rex peered out his window at a calm day on the bay and decided, “This is going to be a good day out in the boat.” He ventured out alone to harvest a few seals for his family’s use.

Out on the water, the 66-year-old enjoyed a mug-up with some fellow sealers off Griquet Cape. He steamed away and spent the afternoon feeling

reduced enough for him to get out from under the overturned vessel. At this point, Rex swallowed saltwater; while spitting, his bottom teeth plate dropped from his mouth and into the water, sinking into the deep.

In a recent conversation from his home in Deer Lake, Rex explains how he tried to kick off his boots and then attempted to get onto the ice from the water, but both failed. Then he swam to his overturned boat and eased himself upon it, but it slowly sank beneath his weight. As the boat bumped against an ice pan, Rex

Now in a relatively safe zone, Rex immediately fumbled for his cellphone, but it was dead.

During the boat upset, his wool hat, survival bucket, rifle, gas can, strobe light and gaff also ended up scattered in the icefield. He had no survival supplies and no way to call for help. blessed to be back in his element on such a glorious spring day. He even culled a number of seals.

Rex assured Irene when she called at 3:30 p.m. that he would be home in an hour. Then, spotting more harp seals to add to his bounty, he decided to head towards them and swung his boat around. That’s when life took an unexpected turn for this experienced fisherman.

His six-metre boat, Seabreeze, ran up against a clump of ice and capsized. Rex was suddenly in the icy water along with his nine seal carcasses. Worse still, he was trapped underneath the boat due to his flotation suit. But because he had earlier unzipped the suit a bit, water now seeped in and his buoyancy was 120

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gratefully rolled over onto this new security pad.

Now in a relatively safe zone, Rex immediately fumbled for his cellphone, but it was dead. During the boat upset, his wool hat, survival bucket, rifle, gas can, strobe light and gaff also ended up scattered in the icefield. He had no survival supplies and no way to call for help. Rex admits, “All this happened because I was a bit on the careless side.”

PRAYERS AND HALLUCINATIONS As rain and then snow showered him, along with northeast winds, Rex (who served with the Coast Guard Auxiliary for 25 years) knew he was 1-888-588-6353

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Rex crafted a replicia of the Ann Harvey to honour the Coast Guard ship that rescued him in 2009. in trouble. A diabetic, and with only several months since his heart stent, he worried about his vulnerability against the elements without food, water or even a blanket to protect him. His right foot especially concerned him, as it was left with very little circulation after back surgery.

The far-off sound of helicopters and light beams consoled him that people were searching for him – his wife must have sounded the alarm.

He reassured himself that “they will find me, by and by.” (At one point, a helicopter was so close to finding him, the light shone on the toes of his rubber boots.) Rex recollects he also found comfort by turning to prayer and singing church hymns, like “Till The Storm Passes By.” “I’m a man of faith, so I kept asking 1-888-588-6353

God to help me. I knew my church family back home would be praying for me, as well as churches and people in the surrounding communities,” he says.

Darkness soon joined the weather, and Rex braced himself to spend the night stranded on grinding ice floes in Iceberg Alley. Earlier, he’d managed to find fresh water from the ice pan to quench his thirst; and even with his flotation suit frozen stiff, he swung his arms and legs to ward off the cold. As he stood and stayed awake through the night, he prayed, especially for the protection of his vulnerable right foot.

Dawn broke on day two of his peril with sunrise streaking the sky and a divine intervention catching his eye – his gas can drifted by close enough March 2021

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that he could grab it. That can became his seat for the duration of his time on the ice. “I finally had it comfortable,” Rex chuckles.

As hypothermia and hunger set in, hallucinations started. First, a seagull appeared between his legs and a young harp seal materialized nearby; later it was a speedboat with two men, and even a polar bear and her baby.

Darkness descended again and Rex perched on the gas can with a heavy heart as he thought of his family.

With his head bent into his jacket, he blew inside his survival suit to keep himself warm. At one point, he admits, he gave in to the thought that dying was just around the corner; but soon he was on his feet singing and praying, “Oh there’s power in prayer, power to spare… Oh, there’s power, so much power in prayer.”

RESCUE DAY AND FAITH SOUP At the break of Wednesday (day three), the sun rose like a big ball of fire from the water. A weakened and deflated Rex again summoned the power of positivity: “This is going to be a good day,” he told himself.

At the Maritime Marine Rescue Subcentre (MRSC) in St. John’s, the status of the mission was shifting from rescue to recovery. Merv Wiseman, rescue coordinator, was on duty that night and recalls that the captain had advised “the place was searched to death.” Merv drew up a plan of new coordinates to keep the searchers going for a few more hours.

At 7 a.m., Rex spotted the Canadian Coast Guard ship Ann Harvey, but, to his dismay, the vessel didn’t slow.

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Rex with his 2009 book, Man on the Ice His hopes were so crushed that he “sat down on the ice with my gas can in my hand and I cried and sobbed like a youngster,” he recalls.

Then, about a mile away, the ship blared out three big blasts and turned broadside. A set of keen eyes had finally spotted the “man on the ice.” Soon, a red rescue craft with four men was making its way in the water to save the happy, cold soul.

Rex remarks, “It was then I knew my time on the ice was over.”

The lost sealer was reported in good health and better spirits when the crew members pulled him aboard. Tired, wet, cold, hungry and weak, he was taken to hospital in St. Anthony for observation, where he 1-888-588-6353

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Rex with the red gas can that kept him company on the ice pan – it’s signed by his rescuers. was reunited with family. Rex spent one night under observation due to his severe hypothermia.

Rex later learned he had drifted 25 nautical miles (53 km) from home off Grey Island; and though he wore a bright orange suit, the glare from the ice and the sun made it difficult for searchers to see him. As well, crews were looking for a boat in the water, not a person on the ice.

When he finally arrived home, his family had a warm welcome waiting for him, including a bowl of “faith soup.” A local restaurant, The Northern Delight, had cooked a pot of rice soup for the family while he was 1-888-588-6353

missing. His daughter Trudy put a bowl aside for him and called it “faith soup.” She decided, “When he’s found, I’ll make sure he eats every last drop of it.”

Irene recalls that memorable day Rex was rescued. “It was like a nightmare and, needless to say, I was a nervous wreck expecting the worst news and my faith was sorely tested.”

When the Coast Guard called to say he was found, she was “overjoyed,” she says. “It was then I thanked God a miracle happened.”

Incidentally, Rex still proudly holds onto the red plastic gas can that kept him company on the ice. It is signed by his “life mates” – the crew of the Ann Harvey, including Andy Billard, the man who first spotted him. Rex also shares that after the ordeal, the toenails fell of his left foot from the cold, but not his bad right foot. “God is good,” he declares.

For months after the wayward expedition, Rex spent most of his time recuperating in his shed, making model boats. Then in 2012, at the age of 69 and with encouragement from his family, Rex penned his many colourful rural stories in a book called Man on the Ice. The last chapter details his near-death experience and rescue from the ice floes.

The main piece of advice he offers to those in jeopardy is “Don’t panic, there is bound to be someone searching for you.”

Today, Rex, who now has 15 heart stents, feels like the terrible accident is “behind me.” Yet, he still suffers nightmares that begin with him out in the boat sealing and ending up in the water. He says, “It happens over and over and it is frightening.”

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* Valid in Canada on a 1-year term. 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/International $49.99. ** Valid in Canada on a 3-year term. Total inc. taxes, postage and handling: for residents in NL, NS, NB, PE $114.99; ON $112.99; QC, SK, MB, AB, BC, NU, NT, YT $104.99; US/International $140.99.

Send to Downhome, 43 James Lane, St. John’s, NL, A1E 3H3 or call 1-888-588-6353

ORDER ONLINE TODAY! www.joindownhome.com

2103_Puzzles2_1701-puzzles 1/27/21 2:33 PM Page 126

puzzles The Beaten Path

Wayne Stacey 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: Winterland 126

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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: • A fishing and logging outport in Bay of Islands • Named for a founding family, rhymes with “fox” • Accepted resettlers from Penguin Arm and Brakes Cove • Used to have a mink farm • Home of the Big Hill Festival

Last Month’s Answer: Wabush

Picturesque Place NameS of Newfoundland and Labrador

by Mel D’Souza Last Month’s Answer: Bridgeport 128

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

Last Month’s Clue: The moment has come to slam the bag In Other Words: Time to hit the sack

p

p

This Month’s Clue: Without agony, there is no reward In Other Words: __ ____, __ ____

A Way With Words E L T T A B

Last Month’s Answer: Uphill battle

This Month’s Clue

THEAPUNCHFACE

Rhyme Time A rhyming word game

by Ron Young

1. A stay-at-home rodent is a _____ _____ 2. A half-dozen switches equals ___ ______ 3. Additional mythology is ____ ____ Last Month’s Answers

Answer: _ _____ __ ___ ____

Scrambled Sayings

1. rye guy, 2. heart dart, 3. hexed text

by Ron Young

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

’ H O H P O L T R T

D E M I F D S O A R E I L E K E O C E D E E E M I I N U W O R K I N G X E R D I E E H M S N O Y M U S T S H O R O K R S Y U W I T L S

Last month’s answer: The greater the step forward in knowledge, the

greater is the one taken backward in search of wisdom. www.downhomelife.com

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Rhymes 5 Times Each answer rhymes with the other four

1. muscle 2. intelligent 3. wagon 4. pie 5. flatus

____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________

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

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

Last Month’s Answers: 1. vat, 2. hat, 3. mat, 4. cat, 5. rat

Tangled Towns

by Lolene Young Condon and Ron Young

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

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

1. TSUOH KOROB

For best results sound the clue words out loud!

2. PEDALRINGS

Hide Hen Tickled Wins _________ _____

3. FECEOF VOCE

Have Thief Honey Skidding Their ____ ___ ___ __ _______ _____ Last Month’s 1st Clue: Lie Sin Sand Dredges Tray Shun Answer: Licence and registration Last Month’s 2nd Clue: Own Lethal Only Answer: Only the lonely

4. ACHEDBISE 5. TELLIT YBA SDISLNA Last Month’s Answers: 1. Jacksons Arm, 2. Pollards Point, 3. Browns Cove, 4. The Beaches, 5. Hampden

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

1. CARE A BIT ~ Clue: it’s enough to make you sick 2. I DUG ALOE ~ Clue: all talk 3. AMBLED ROOTS ~ Clue: the way to anyone’s heart 4. CAT VAIN ICON ~ Clue: a stab’ll do ya 5. BOAT DUO RUN ~ Clue: had me going in circles Last Month’s Answers: 1. continuous, 2. apartment, 3. supervisor, 4. passenger, 5. therapist 130

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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.

1-4: ensign 1-10: blatantly 1-31: halibut 1-91: seafood store 2-32: licks 4-8: award 5-8: rave 5-25: fish eggs 7-47: friendlier 9-39: fibs 16-13: cargo 16-56: hasp 18-20: lubricate 21-25: meagre 22-25: peel 24-30: attained 26-30: pained 28-58: fuzz 34-4: boast 34-31: party 34-54: beg 36-33: bass horn 34-36: although 34-94: yokel 36-40: tantalize 37-40: alleviate 41-50: writing 41-91: grocery store 43-63: born 45-43: Sol 45-50: screenplay 47-49: tear 49-69: write 52-82: follow 54-52: visited 56-53: dwelling 56-59: rabbit 57-60: space 57-77: contribute 64-61: fruit 64-69: excuse www.downhomelife.com

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65-95: pretends 66-63: sexual assault 67-70: finished 70-50: dine 73-43: youth 74-94: relative 75-77: fish 77-74: wharf 80-50: vegetable fuel 80-74: horse pen 80-78: tablet 85-83: alloy 85-89: entice 89-69: beige 91-100: interpreter 92-94: raced 93-73: insect

93-91: craft 100-10: frequently 100-98: decay Last Month’s Answer

MA AN GG I A S P T A R T AR T I E S

T N E L A T S U R I

E I P A R T U B E R

R E V E A L L E A P

N L A C E E A G E R

A N T I N T R A D E

L LY I AR AEA RHT OON AL E D EM RME AOL TNE

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The Bayman’s

Crossword Puzzle 1

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by Ron Young 3

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ACROSS 1. “Excursion around the ___” 3. “Fair weather to __ and snow to your heels” 5. prevailed 6. Ma’s mate 8. __ Anthony, NL 10. bearded seal 17. glow 18. entry 20. noise 21. grower 24. Harbour _____ – NL resettled community 25. cowl 26. kimono sash 28. limited (abbrev) 29. island (abbrev) 30. spoiled child 31. “How’s ya gettin’ __?”

32. common seal 33. Harbour __ Cou 34. immature seal 37. short for Alexander 39. fired 40. medical doctor (abbrev) 41. night before 42. __ Niño 44. Tetley 45. seal molting stage from whitecoat to bedlamer DOWN 1. derogatory term for outport dweller 2. not old 4. observation officer (abbrev) 7. __ _____ as a mouse (2 words) 9. altered course 10. mature harp seal (2 words) www.downhomelife.com

11. battery size 12. Eastern Provincial Airways (abbrev) 13. prefix meaning “idea” 14. lake 15. Edgar Allen ___ 16. mistake 19. baby harp seal (2 words) 22. Round Harbour (abbrev) 23. a bay seal in its third year 27. hay bundle 29. “One split pea __ _ ten pound tub” 31. ___ Perlican 32. edge 35. former 36. moose species 37. “with” in St. Pierre 38. drip 41. estimated time of arrival (abbrev) 42. for example (abbrev) 43. large (abbrev) T R A W L T U B

A R I B D O L A D H L A G I S N K T I C H E A R F I E A A T O L

ANSWERS TO LAST MONTH’S CROSSWORD S T Y O B G B C R K L E I W L I L D S I E P I

B O U G H U F A O L O G N Y S G S H E P O R G L O O I D O T O E N S D O

S

E G G E D

C M A L F F M S U T A K G G E

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A A

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DIAL-A-SMILE © 2021 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.

’

______ 647377 ____ 5483

_____ 27368

____ 9484

____ 6253

’

___ 386

___ 288

__ 86

____ 8439

_________ 966337385

____ __ ___ 2623 78 677 Last Month’s Answer: I used to jog but the ice cubes kept falling out of my glass.

©2021 Ron Young

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

_ _

h;

_ _ _

_ _ _ _ _

BphZ7

O L\

N _

_ N _

CW

W C7

_ _ _ _ N _,

xf W \

C

m

_ _ _ _

7 ZB7

_ _ _

O W\

_ _ _ N

p7 xC

_ _ _ N

t l 7C _ _

hB

_ _ _ _ _ _

f7 x ZZC _ _

hz

Last Month’s Answer: Your children need your presence more than your presents.

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Food For Thought

© 2021 Ron Young

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

pull =

_ _ _

statements =

}f h

confront = _ _ `

_ _

tps

chateau =

surround =

_ _ _ _ _

_

_

ofppsoo _ _ _ _ _

hV kt h _ _

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s tpkvpxs _ _ _ _ _

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_ _ _ _ _

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tkxfvs

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tkxfvs Yk}[Vf}

xVo o

_ _

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_ _ _ _ _

st}[fokto b

Last Month’s Answer: A true friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else. www.downhomelife.com

March 2021

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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 GO OUT SKATING

Last Month’s Answers: 1. Window, 2. Tree, 3. Steering wheel, 4. Coal Bin, 5. Headlamp, 6. Collar, 7. Hood, 8. Door, 9. Wheel, 10. Side view mirror, 11. Fence, 12. Roof “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 HOCKEY TEAMS

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

AVALANCHE BLACKHAWKS BLUES BRUINS CANADIENS CAPITALS COYOTES DEVILS DUCKS FLAMES FLYERS HURRICANES ISLANDERS JETS KINGS LEAFS P S I I O W W S I S T J F D G U T I

T R L X M G H C K S C G P K W W S T

A J E M L A L W A R R S A S N L H G

Q S U D R E A C I N F O A D A X F J

E N R K A H U T N A U S T N P M V A

U H S E K T E B E D R K D A W M D X

LIGHTNING OILERS PANTHERS PENGUINS PREDATORS RANGERS Y P P I N F N V B P N L E O R A I C

Last Month’s Answers

B J C C L D O L I E U E S R N M C V

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Y J A N V I T R H R R C A W P E G T

L L C W A S O T S S H N K N B N S L

B M U V E L N M B F G O S S E N L W

S A U M Q A A O Y E C A E U Z X C I

C T A K P B F V R W Y U N T A O Z F

I L E L L K Q S A W J U A S Y M N Q

S N H O J G N O L P J N K F Y Z T J

F J S J D E V I L S D S C X H I C C

SABRES SENATORS SHARKS STARS WILD

L S S H L Q O B T U K M Z Q V L I E

Q K T I J Y H I B E R N A T I O N I

C A P I T A L S O R W L I T H U B Q

U C O R J V E G K N K V Z E Q B P N

V E R E J T Z K E O D N L J M L Q O

S N E I D A N A C A X C R S G I O U

G N M I B O P H C H H I A W E I U K

R E X E P U Y N P O B Y P L S Z U G

B E O S R S B Z L T T L R Q U G U U

X L T N H Y A T O O H T W T B Z Y D

I T L X T G N K M I U S Q U Q A O F

L W V R L N R A I S M Q U Z G F S F

P R U M G A H W R N Y O D O V R G L

E U E O N H O F L U R R I E S D Q A

U S H E F I U I G E S J H G N P J U

V T B W T N E A V B H F B T F Q M N

L O Q E S E X M R A W D Y I I F R N

E Y K Y N U I X H S E R B A S Q M A

T U H A A J H E I L M S K H L B X E

U E F S U R T C S T K P E W L M A L

S S D L X G N P T V A M H G P F O W

N R Z L H T M N N C T C S X I A T T

J Y W I I E O U D A U E G Z G T Y E

T E G F I N S J N T P W F A Y B Y T

N G T B M W S Q F R L G N L K R C Y

W L R F F T U Y L F G A V S X I C M

K I N G S E O Z I F L D L I W H A F

N C Q L W F V I N P S V V Q E Z S C

V O A U E U N J N C C N U A K O C A

F S Z C Z P G H N O F O Z Y N A U T

March 2021

B K H P O G V S K A T I N G H F Y V

E D S X O T X D P S L W O O L I K Y

D E L S B O B A C T N S S M O L D M

G T R E G R X S G S E T O Y O C J C 137

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LOG HOME Brigus Junction Only 35 min. from St. John’s.

NEW PERLICAN, NL

Beautiful 2 bedroom 1 bath. 1 hour & 45 mins to St. John’s and 20 mins to Carbonear. Private Sale. Reduced to $125,000 Contact edwardhiscock@hotmail.com

Side-by Side Included!

Over 4000 sq. ft.

Five bedrooms, three bathrooms, garage, heat pump, Pacific Energy woodstove, artesian well, developed basement and just 3 minutes from TCH.

$449,500

Call Dean 709.689.4228

Hillview, NL $212,000

Well maintained 3 bedroom home, ocean view, fully furnished. 10 min east of Clarenville. Kitchen, separate dining

room, living room and washroom on main floor. Basement has a rec room with a woodstove, built in entertainment unit, laundry room, dry bar and 3 pc bathroom. Shed, patio and backyard gazebo. New roof in the last 9 years. Oil furnace, electric heat and woodstove. No property taxes.

709-466-4446 • cecilandlisa@live.ca

Downhome Real Estate Ad prices start at $50 for a 1 column x 1 inch colour advertisement.

This size fits approximately 20 words. The smallest size of advertisement with a picture is $100 for a 1 column x 2 inch advertisement.

709-726-5113 • 1-888-588-6353 advertising@downhomelife.com 138

March 2021

1-888-588-6353

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Movers & Shippers SAMSON’S MOVING

FIVE STAR SERVICE Without The Five Star Price! ★ Local & Long Distance Moves ★ Packing

Voted CBS Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year

★ Door-to-Door Service Across Canada ★ Replacement Protection Available ★ NL Owned & Operated

MOVING INC. 709-834-0070 866-834-0070 fivestarmoving@outlook.com www.fivestarmoving.ca

Over 25 Years Experience in the Moving Industry

Let our Family Move Your Family Home

Newfoundland, Ontario, Alberta and All Points In Between Newfoundland Owned & Operated Fully Insured, Free Estimates Sales Reps. in Ontario and Alberta

Call Jim or Carolyn - Peterview, NL 709-257-4223 709-486-2249 - Cell samsonsmovers@yahoo.ca www.samsonsmovers.ca

A&K Moving A Family Moving Families Professionally and economically Coast to Coast in Canada Fully Insured

Covering all Eastern & Western Provinces and Returning Based from Toronto, Ontario Discount Prices Out of NL, NS & NB Newfoundland Owned & Operated

Newfoundland Owned & Operated

35 Years in the Moving Industry

Contact: Gary or Sharon King

Andy: 416-247-0639 Out West: 403-471-5313

Toll Free: 1-866-586-2341 www.downhomemovers.com

aandkmoving@gmail.com

Moving you from Ontario and Newfoundland... or any STOP along the way!

DOWNEAST CONNECTION 709-248-4089 905-965-4813

Hawke’s Bay, NL (collect calls accepted) downeastconnection@yahoo.ca

Discount Storage St. John's, NL 709-726-6800

www.downhomelife.com

March 2021

139

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GREAT GIFT IDEAS!

Some Good:

Sweet Treats By Jessica Milton

Up in the Bottom:

A Newfoundlander's Life Journey Noel Edward Martin

Bonita's Kitchen: A Little Taste of Home - Bonita Hussey

#79694 | $29.95

#79592 | $24.95

Cooking up a Scoff:

Our Best Berry Recipes:

Our Best Seafood Recipes: From the readers

#79297 | $14.95

#55888 | $10.99

#79586 | $21.95

Traditional Recipes of Newfoundland and Labrador

Dictionary of Newfoundland & Labrador - Ron Young #34047 | $19.95

From the readers and staff of Downhome

and staff of Downhome

#58362 | $10.99

Downhome Laughing Matters

Downhome More Laughing Matters

#46852 | $14.95

#57231 | $14.95

- Ron Young

- Ron Young

Prices listed do not include tax and shipping

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MORE SELECTION ONLINE www.shopdownhome.com

Waffle Cotton Tea Towel - $6.99 each Any Mummers Lowd In #77316 | Lighthouse #48612 | Lobster #48613

Waffle Cotton Tea Towel - $6.99 each Newfoundland Kitchen Sayings #65130 | Moose #65083 | Puffin #65131

Cookie Cutter - $7.99 each Lighthouse #49560 | Moose #49563 | Moose Head #49564

TO ORDER CALL: 1-888-588-6353

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GREAT GIFT IDEAS! Sale!

Plush Moose with attached Baby - 14" #59174 | $19.99 Now $9.99

Plush Newfoundland Puffin - 4.5" #44414 | $8.99

Plush Puffin with Sou' Wester - 9" #64669 | $14.99

Plush Whale - 12" #52754 | $10.99

Numbers in Newfoundland:

Rhymes from the Rock:

Bonnie Jean Hicks Illustrated by Leanna Carbage

#75941 | $9.95

Bonnie Jean Hicks Illustrated by Leanna Carbage

#58304 | $9.95

Plush Newfoundland Dog w/ Bandana 10" #43618 | $19.99

Plush Moose with Baby 9" - Moose Hugs From Newfoundland

#40530 | $19.99

Newfoundland and Labrador Lullaby Riemann, McCarron and Steuerwald - Hard Cover

#49135 | $12.95

Prices listed do not include tax and shipping

2103 mail order_2_Mail order.qxd 1/27/21 2:37 PM Page 143

MORE SELECTION ONLINE www.shopdownhome.com Sale!

Newfoundland Cap - Camo #63811 | $19.99 Now $9.99

Checkered Flag Cap Newfoundland Black & White #43452 | $19.99

Two Tone Vinyl Trim Cap - Map of Newfoundland - Black #38872 | $19.99

Red Plaid Cap Newfoundland - Moose Canada #75546 | $19.99

Cap - Since 1497 Newfoundland - Canada #79390 | $19.99

Newfoundland Flag Wrap Cap - Newfoundland Navy #35896 | $19.99

Newfoundland Cap Pink #79346 | $19.99

Cap - Newfoundland Labrador - Pink and Grey #60470 | $19.99

TO ORDER CALL: 1-888-588-6353

Dynamo Anchor Cap Vintage Patch - Navy #79414 | $19.99

2103_photo Finish_0609 Photo Finish 1/29/21 10:09 AM Page 144

photo finish

Out Lamb like a

As the old saying goes, “March comes in like a lion, out like a lamb.” This is Missy, enjoying a day in the sun.

Pam Whitten Kilbride, NL

Do you have an amazing or funny photo to share?

Turn to page 9 to find out how to submit.

144

March 2021

1-888-588-6353

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