Of whales and other creatures

I can't believe it's 3 months since our adventure in Newfoundland, so it's been interesting to look back through my photos and select a few for this blog post - the one I promised about the wildlife we saw on our road trip.

We were warned about Moose. Apparently many folk are injured and tragically some die in road accidents caused by Moose straying onto roads in Newfoundland. We saw huge road signs recording the year's fatal collisions. But we saw no sign of the giant gangly beasts. However while staying at Trinity we were looking forward to walking the Skerwink Trail and were warned that a family of Moose were on the headland. After the first bend in the path we spotted the youngster ... reading a house sign!

We slowly and calmly walked past as he munched on the vegetation. There was no sign of his parents ... although we knew they couldn't be far away - this made our return at dusk slightly un-nerving!

Beavers are one of my favourite animals, I find it amazing how a relatively small animal can fell trees and made such massive constructions. This lodge is on a lake near Rocky Harbour.
One evening just outside St Anthony we stopped by a lake where we thought we had spotted a beaver swimming back and forth carrying small branches. Then a much larger beast appeared - compared to the 'beaver' it was massive! The penny dropped, we had been watching a Muskrat. I didn't take shots as the light was failing, mosquitoes were eating me alive and it started raining.

This little squirrel was easy to photograph, he just sat nibbling a berry by the Skerwink Trail path.

And this Jack Rabbit - or Arctic Hare (wearing his summer coat) was even more laid back, he was just hopping around outside our cabin at Gambo.

Of course it's the giant beasts of the sea that Newfoundland is famed for. At St Anthony we went on the obligatory Whale Watching trip, this also included a close encounter with a massive ice-berg! We did see whales, and some were quite close to the boat. I think that these are Humpbacks.

And this is a Fin Whale, which was my favourite - they are HUGE, the 2nd largest mammal - over 20 metres long (70+ feet).

On a Whale Watching boat you expect to see Whales and Dolphins, but what surprised me was the fact that pretty much anywhere along the coast of Newfoundland you can just sit on a high headland and see Whales - it's just fantastic! This rocky cliff top at Bonavista was one of the best locations ...

... and because you are high above the water you get a great view of the whales - you hear them too, as they breathe out - a deep swooshing sigh and the white spray of water - apparently you can learn to tell the Whale species by the 'blow'.

Humpback Whales have long pectoral fins, like wings or arms, these are white on the underside so as the Whale swims the fins shine a pale turquoise colour under the water. Looking out to sea and watching for the 'blow' and then waiting to see if you'd see a fin or a tail or even a breach when a Humpback leaps right out of the water, is sheer magic. 

Of course there were lots of sea birds ... here are two Yellow Legs on a rock at Rocky Harbour.

Black Guillemots on a precarious ledge at Bonavista

and hundreds of Kittiwakes on a rocky islet off the coast near Trinity.

The bird I most wanted to see was the Puffin. I've never been lucky to see one in the UK and in Newfoundland there are a few spots that are easily accessible and near huge Puffin colonies - they like grassy cliff tops where they can live in burrows.

There were thousands of Puffins! Swarms of them filling the sky around the rocky islands off-shore, hundreds bobbing along in the waves below.

And Puffins are surprisingly small, a bit bigger than a Blackbird but not much, look how that Gull is massive in comparison. That Gull is after the Puffin eggs and young chicks! Luckily the young Puffins were mostly full grown and able to fly.

On the day we were there, a professional wildlife photographer had set up a toy Puffin decoy on the rocks to tempt a brave Puffin to land close to her cameras. When the tourist and bird-watchers aren't about, apparently the little Puffins land on the main cliff top as well as the off-shore rocky islands ... one brave little chap was curious and landed not far from where we were sitting, so we got close up view.

On a cold winter evening it's lovely to remember how beautiful Newfoundland was in summer. Where do the Puffins go in winter?


Celia
xx

My Newfoundland crafts safari

I promised to tell you more about my Newfoundland adventure, when I'm on holiday I love hunting out the local handicrafts and especially the local yarn/knitting shops as skeins of the local yarn make perfect holiday souvenirs.

I knew that there is a tradition of knitting in Newfoundland, although yarn is no longer produced locally the traditional patterns for warm mittens, hats and socks is kept alive. 

Of course selling the knitted accessories to tourists is what keeps the tradition alive, I took these photos in a shop attached to an extremely popular restaurant in Rocky Harbour, while waiting for an hour for a table!

I somehow failed to take a photo of the 'thrummed knitting', here's a link to give you an idea of what it's like. Roving (carded but not spun fleece) is looped along the reverse side of the work making a thick fleece lining. It is used to make EXTREMELY WARM gloves and slippers! I put my hand inside some thrummed mittens and almost overheated (we were there in a heat wave! so I wasn't tempted to buy them). I regret this now, but I'm sure I could find the materials needed and have a go at making some one day.

We did a good bit of research before travelling to Newfoundland but somehow I missed appreciating how significant 'Grenfell' is to the town of St Anthony at the far end of the Great Northern Peninsula. By luck we'd booked a room at the Grenfell Heritage Hotel and Suites which is right next door to the Grenfell Interpretation Centre, so we had a chance to find out all about Dr Wilfred Grenfell.

Briefly, Dr Grenfell was a newly qualified doctor from England who travelled to Newfoundland and Labrador in 1892. He was shocked by the poverty and lack of medical services - there were no hospitals or doctors; so he made it his life's mission to bring medical services to NW Canada and his legacy still serves these remote areas today. You can read more here.

Dr Grenfell and his wife Anne and their children lived in a lovely 'arts & crafts' style house on the hillside behind the present day hospital in St Anthony. I could have stayed there for hours looking through the original photo albums and letters in this beautiful gallery/verandah running the length of the house.

Dr Grenfell needed to raise money for his plans to set up hospitals and fund nurses and doctors to cover the remote settlements. One of his main fund-raising ideas was to teach people to make things using traditional handicrafts and sell these to raise money and get lots of publicity. The crafts had to be high quality so patterns were designs for the makers to follow - although they were encouraged to interpret the designs and make them unique. Embroidery, beadwork, carvings, leatherwork and most famously rag-rags, made the Grenfell Mission famous.

High quality materials were in short supply, so Dr Grenfell asked women in England and the USA to send their laddered silk stockings to Newfoundland to be dyed and cut into strips and made into intricate rag-rug pictures. Dr Grenfell became an international celebrity - his daring exploits made him an action hero - and tirelessly worked to make the lives of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador better and healthier. 

I particularly loved this map design and it reminds me of our Newfoundland adventure.

Also at the northern end of the Great Northern Peninsula, not far from St Anthony, is L'Anse aux Meadows where 1000 years ago, Viking adventurers built a staging post where they could repair there ships and gear.

In the museum there is a spindle whorl and a broken bone Nalbinding (a fore-runner of knitting) needle which is evidence that the Vikings were doing some kind of wool-craft. I read somewhere that this is evidence that women had been living in the settlement, as Viking men would never had spun wool or made socks. I'm not convinced, I suspect that a Viking far from home could have spun some thread and mended his socks is the need arose.

Intrigued by this and by the reproduction woolen caps the 'Vikings' at the msueum were wearing, I wanted to know more about Nalbinding. I found a small kit in the museum shop, consisting of a birch wood needle, some yarn and a page of instructions. This turned out to be 'Coptic stitch' which didn't make a fabric like the Viking caps, more research was needed!

Back home, and determined not to be beaten! I've poured over YouTube videos of Olso Stitch and eventually managed to get the hang of it. A breakthrough was using Twool instead of wool, the stiffer yarn makes learning much easier and I managed to make a little storage bag.

Practice makes perfect ... maybe not perfect but an improvement at least ... and I've Nalbinded a bag, the button was bought in Alaska 2 years ago and is made of Moose horn ... which I though apt.

More souvenirs! Patterns to make traditions Newfoundland mittens and a book about Rug Hooking in Altantic NW Canada. I really want to have a go at rag rug making, or even just make a small hooked picture panel.

Our adventure began and ended in the Newfoundland capital and only large town, St Johns. But being weekends and with most shops shut on Sundays, shopping opportunities were limited! However I managed to find a lovely yarn shop, Cast On Cast Off, that I'd checked out online before the holiday – it was a good walk out of town! I bought the grey and red skeins of Briggs & Little Heritage so I could knit some Newfoundland mitts. And then treated myself to the gorgeous hand dyed sock yarn in blue/green/ochre to remind me of the island, it's by Fleece Artist from Nova Scotia. Also I couldn't resist a small skein by Rhichard Devrieve - just because it would have been wrong not to! and the colours reminded me of the painted houses of Newfoundland.
The terracotta and the black skeins are also Briggs & Little yarn bought as souvenirs from the Grenfell Handicraft Centre in St Anthony.

I have yet to decide what I'm going to make with all the lovely yarn; but when I do use it, it will bring back some wonderful memories.

Celia
xx

Who led us to Newfoundland?

You went where? Why?

As you can see in the photos in the previous blogpost, Newfoundland is a beautiful, wild and remote island; but not at the top of most folk's holiday destination list. So what prompted us to go?

About 6 years ago Cliff's aunt became very ill and we had the task of helping her move into a nursing home. Her house was sold and among the things we brought home were keepsakes that had been in Cliff's family for generations – including a writing box with a secret drawer and a print hinting of a naval connection; a Georgian snuff box and a portrait of Joseph (Cliff's GtGtGtGrandfather) painted in 1804.

Then, 2 Christmases ago, a cousin sent us a copy of the front page of a family bible, the names were familiar from what we knew of Cliff's family tree but what caught our eye was where Joseph got married . . . St John's Newfoundland!

St John's harbour

We we intrigued and did some research on the web, the Anglican Cathedral in St John's has records online, we found Joseph's marriage to Ann in August 1803 and he is described as 'Purser on HMS Iris'. So now we knew that Joseph was in the navy and his bride, Ann, was from St John's. 

By now we wanted to see Newfoundland for ourselves, it was a good a reason as any to go there for our holiday. 

Inside The Rooms

In the photo of St John's harbour at the top of this post, you'll see a huge building with pointed gables and red roofs, that is The Rooms. Inside are a theatre, galleries, a museum and exhibitions, as well as The Archives. We had two opportunities to visit while in St John's, on the first and last days of the holiday; so we headed straight to the Archives on our first day in Newfoundland.

We were able to look at facsimile copies of the handwritten marriage records from 1803, and we saw that there was more information than in the transcribed online records. The archivist told us that we could only make notes with a pencil and photographing the documents was not allowed, we copied the words carefully. 

St John's, 1800

As we travelled around we began to put together a picture of what Newfoundland had been like in the early 1800s. While staying in Trinity, which was a major harbour and like St John's, a crucial part of the salt cod industry; we went on an excellent walking tour of the town and also saw The Pageant - a historical play by Rising Tide theatre company which is acted out around the town.

The Trinity Pageant

This gave us some idea of the industrial scale of the salt cod industry and the tough existence of those who worked there. 

Salting Cod on the Flakes - Trinity Pageant

The hillsides around the harbours were covered with fish flakes, wooden shelves on which the salted cod fish was laid out to dry in the sun and wind, before being packed into wooden barrels and transported to Europe or to the Caribbean where the poor quality fish was bought to feed the slave labour in sugar plantations. Newfoundland was part of a triangular trade route crucial to the economy of Britain and Portugal. The French were vying for control of the key harbours, these were tumultuous times.

Fish Flakes at Bonavista Bay

Imagine miles of these wooden structures covered with salted fish and hundreds of people working to keep the fish from spoiling when it rained and packing the fish into barrels. Imagine the stench!

One thing puzzled us, although there was a naval record of HMS Iris, we couldn't find any mention of her sailing to Newfoundland. However, the flagship of the British admiral who was the governor of Newfoundland, was HMS Isis; the more we read the more the facts fitted with Joseph's story - what if the marriage record had said 'Isis' and not 'Iris'?

The Newfoundland Archives

There was one chance to find out, at the end of our holiday we arrived back in St John's an hour before The Archives closed for the weekend. We ran up the steps and up to the archivist's desk, she remembered us and retrieved the marriage records box.

So, was it 'HMS Isis'? It could be, but equally it could say 'HMS Iris', we could see how the transcriber had gone for a name that seemed more plausible. Then I noticed the minister who wrote the records was called 'Harries' and in every record he wrote his own name and the word 'married', both those word have 'ri' in them. He was used to writing 'ri' so if the ship was 'Iris' the letters would look the same ... they didn't! Surely it must be HMS Isis! And proves that you should always go back to the original source of the information.

The Trinity Pageant

Knowing Joseph was on HMS Isis made things fall into place. He had probably been on board the previous year when Admiral Gambier arrived in St John's, having survived a hurricane in the North Atlantic, his flagship Isis with broken masts and tattered sails. As the purser, Joseph would have been responsible for sourcing and paying for the repairs.

St John's in the early 1800s

There were more names of witnesses on the handwritten record than the transcriber had put in the digital records. One was probably Ann's father, we found that he may have owned a butchery and tavern, was this where Joseph got supplies for the ship? Other witnesses were Thomas Skinner and Jane Hester Skinner, most likely this was the surveyor and architect in charge of building the British fort on top of Signal Hill, and his daughter who was the same age as Ann.

The fort that Thomas Skinner designed and built

I wondered if Ann had stood on The Lady's Lookout on Signal Hill, waiting for the Isis to return in Spring 1803, after spending the winter months in England. Had Joseph already proposed to her? Or was she hoping he might?

Waiting for her sailor
- a scene in the Trinity Pageant

In November 1803 Ann sailed with Joseph to her new life as a navel officer's wife, on board HMS Isis leading a convoy of ships including captured French warships.

The view from Signal Hill

looking over the narrow entrance into
St John's harbour

In January 1804 the war against Napolean's France was getting more serious, Joseph had already joined another ship, HMS Scourge, which sailed to the Dutch coast to rescue a captured British merchant ship. Joseph rowed a boat under gunfire to help in the rescue and was commended for his bravery. Was this that prompted him getting his likeness painted in June 1804, was this a gift for Ann in case he didn't survive the next voyage?

Joseph had a long career in the navy as a purser/paymaster, a position that was gaining more respect and importance. He retired in his 60's with a naval pension.

So, raise a glass and toast Joseph and Ann, without whom we would never have thought of going to Newfoundland and having a wonderful adventure.

Celia

xx

Over the sea for a road trip

We've been away on an adventure, a road trip of about 2000 miles on an island that's a 5 hour flight from London; west and a bit south of the UK; about the size of Gt Britain and Ireland together and with a population about that of Cornwall . . . have you guessed where we went to?

Jelly Bean Houses

The brightly painted houses in the capital, St John's have become one of the iconic features of

NEWFOUNDLAND

I'm told it should be pronounced to rhyme with 'understand'

New-f'nd - Land

 St John's Harbour from Signal Hill

We arrived fully prepared for fog, rain and chilly winds but the weather was hot and humid! We stood on the rocky headland high over the narrow inlet into the harbour that for over 450 years has been strategic to Britain's trade and naval history. Click on the photo to enlarge it and above the two red ships you'll see a white building with a red roof, this is Murray Premises, the hotel we stayed in.

 On the cliff at Horrid Gulch
Pouch Cove, Avalon Peninsula

I think this was the moment I relaxed and thought, 'I like this place', the day before we started our 'road trip' we ventured along the coast just north of St John's and sat on the cliff eating sandwiches and crisps. The Atlantic Ocean stretched out to the far horizon, blue and calm and as we watched we saw a puff of spray, and a Fin Whale gracefully surfaced, briefly showing its dorsal fin as it dived again.

 Heading West on the Trans Canada Highway

Newfoundland is big. Towns are few and far between and off the high way. Much of the next two weeks we'd see this view.

But the places we found along the way were astoundingly beautiful . . .

 The West Coast
Gros Morne National Park

I think this was my favourite walk, the Coastal Trail from Baker's Brook just north of Rocky Harbour to Green Point - if you're into geology look this up! 

 Tablelands

Looking at the landscape of Gros Morne you notice a vast lumpy ochre coloured mountain that looks completely different from the forest covered slopes all around. Geologists get very very excited about this place called Tablelands, where the rocks have tipped and folded so that part of the earth's mantle is on the surface. The rock contains very high levels of metals and chemicals, so much that plants can't grow, it supports hardly any living things. And yes, that is snow you can see in the far distance.

 St Anthony
the Great Northern Peninsula

The top west of Newfoundland is a long narrow peninsula, one road snakes along the west coast, the east is only reachable by boat. If you've read 'The Shipping News' by Annie Proulx, this is the setting (the movie was filmed at New Bonavista near Trinity, we went there later on the trip).

 Whales and icebergs

Vast lumps of ice, some are kilometres long! break off the glaciers of Greenland and float south in what is known as 'Iceberg Alley', they take up to 2 years to reach the Newfoundland coast where they break up and melt. This is one of the last icebergs of this summer, we saw it on a whale watching boat trip from St Anthony. On the left edge of the photo you can see a whale blowing.

 The Viking settlement at
L'Anse aux Meadows

When I was about 9 years old, I read 'Vinland the Good' by Henry Treece, but I never dreamt I'd stand on the shore where Vikings landed and set up a camp and ship repair workshops 1000 years ago. The historical novel written in the 1960s was inspired by the most exciting archaeological find at the time - the confirmation that the Norse sagas telling of a land of plenty to the west of Greenland, were based on truth.

 Trinity, Trinity Bay

In the second week of our adventure we stayed for a few days at Trinity, Trinity Bay. This was once the most important harbour in Newfoundland, imagine the slopes around the harbour cover with racks of drying salt cod and dozens of tall masted trading ships at docks around the sheltered 3-armed harbour (hence Trinity).

Heritage buildings at Trinity

Now this is the tourist hot-spot of Newfoundland, many original wooden framed buildings were saved in the nick of time and are now museums in the care of the Trinity Historical Society. In fact the whole town is a 'heritage zone' and all buildings have to be constructed in traditional styles and materials. Trinity is the home of the Rising Tide theatre company and we arrived in time to see a production of their famous Pageant, an open air history of the town performed in locations all around the harbour, the audience walks between locations.

 St Johns harbour

Two whole weeks of almost constant sunshine but on the last day, back in St John's, we had a taster of some real Newfie weather! This is the view from our hotel at the north end of the harbour opposite the narrow opening to the Atlantic Ocean.

Newfie weather at last!

In a lull in the rain we ventured out for a last visit to Signal Hill, I'm holding on to that wall so I don't get blown into the harbour!

I'd love to share more about the beautiful animals and plants, the crafts - knitting and rag rugs, and the reason we chose such an obscure holiday destination ... but I'll save those for another blog post.

Now I have to pack for my stall at FolkEast next weekend, it's the best summer festival (not just my opinion) if you're coming along do call into the Art Marquee and say hello.

Celia

xx