Luxury getaways to the ocean's edge
Here’s The Berry picking berries – raspberries – right on our property, teaming with enough to give us a bucket-full. Coupled with fresh trout (from Alf, who else?) and homemade bread, they made the perfect breakfast. Nature keeps on giving around here.
This is a great year for blueberries and partridgeberries. Our neighbours have promised to show us the best spots. Lookout – here come the muffins!
Meet The Sky Family, a wonderful, gifted family from PEI who share their Bible ministry with their Celtic music. They’re currently touring the island (this weekend will be their last show, in Corner Brook), and they stayed with us while doing a fundraiser in Green’s Harbour for the Acreman Elementary School and Community Playground. They all stayed in the Cranberry – squished would be an understatement, as it normally only sleeps four, and their group, by the time they showed up, had grown to nine!
Beyond being a great family and their service to the community, they were a real treat to have around, because they kept spontaneously bursting into song and you could hear them everywhere. Thanks to this musical family, the bays were alive with the sound of music!
You may remember Shauna and Geoff, a young couple from Kingston, who were our first guests to be screeched in by Joe Friday. They also have another distinction – our first honeymooners! Here they are happily displaying a Clifford George original – given at a discount for the occasion – in front of their cabin. They loved their stay – thanks in part to donated bikes from Whiteway’s own Lisa Day, and tea and a boat tour from Clifford and Shirley. Fresh fish helped, too!
If you watch our Youtube video, Geoff says he thinks “Ocean Delight chose us.” That’s exactly how we felt when The Berry and I decided to buy these cottages. We’re thrilled that Geoff and Shauna enjoyed our place as much as we do (and wish them all the best!), and we hope we’ll have lots more happy, honeymooning couples to share it with in the future.
Since coming to Ocean Delight I have become quite the athlete quite easily (natural water dog that I am), bounding into the ocean without fear whenever Jerry and The Berry need me fetch things (like I am above, swimming for my favourite toy).
And since coming to the Ocean Delight family, I’ve learned about a relative in Virginia – namely Mabel, the pit bull who owns Jerry’s daughter, Adrienne. This Mabel seems quite charming, but all I hear about is how great Mabel is, how sweet Mabel is, what a great personality Mabel has, how Mabel can out-swim all her retriever friends when she goes on hikes.
Well I’d like to meet Mabel and set the record straight. It’s one thing to swim in rivers, and another to jump into the heady North Atlantic! That’s why I have webbed feet! But while I’m sure, as a retriever, I could outperform any terrier (even if they are of a larger variety), I might just have to let Mabel think she’s won – after all, not only am I her uncle, I’m also a gentleman!
So look at these pictures and let me know what you think – who makes the more fetching water dog?
My guess is, it’s a tie!
Well, we’re not experts yet, but this weekend we hosted our first Screech-In, and MC Joe Friday did a great job, if I do say so myself! Shauna and Geoff from Kingston were our first targets, followed by Ron and Sheryl from Toronto (apologies for the blurry photos – I’m still getting the hang of taking shots is low light!).
Screech-Ins are of course a Newfoundland tradition that, if completed by Mainlanders (by, among other things, downing Screech and Newfoundland ‘steak’ and kissing a cod or cod-like substitute), confers upon them unofficial Newfoundlander status. It’s a rite of passage for any intrepid traveller to the island, and we were more than happy to share it with our guests (and Murphy, who wanted in on the action!). It was a lot of fun, and we’ll be doing another for guests later this week – who asked if they could pay for it, but that’s hardly the Ocean Delight way!
Joe Friday, usually loathe to be the centre of attention, loves his new post as Master of Ceremonies!
Geoff is now branded a Newfoundlander for life – gotta love it!
I’m running out of pictures of churches I can place – before I was blogging, I just took pictures without paying attention to names and denominations, so I’m turning to you, trusted reader, to help me out! A few years ago I was driving home from Twillingate, somewhere on Route 340 I guess, and had to stop to get pictures of this eerie but still beautiful abandoned church. So locals, or those who just love it up there, help me out! Do you have any idea the name of this church or its history? I’d love to know!
And if you need help placing it, this is it’s setting. What a beautiful spot!
I love little boats in the harbour – nostalgia, I guess. Yesterday I was in Green’s Harbour and had to get these shots. The setting was picture perfect, although I wasn’t close enough to get that perfect shot. Still cute though!
Little boats for a little post!
I’m not a golfer, but I know beauty when I see it – and Whiteway’s own Pitcher’s Pond Golf more than hits the mark. I’d say I enjoy myself just sitting on the clubhouse deck and people-watching as much as I would if I were hitting the greens! That’s why we’re excited to be teaming up with Pitcher’s to offer a fall package deal – details soon!
Our golden retriever, Murphy, has become quite the hit at the cottages (or at least we think so), and has become a resident feature on this blog. He’s so loveable and now, as we play with him in the ocean each night, it’s hard to write about daily life in the Wonderful World of Whiteway without including him. Plus, there’s lots of dog lovers out there on ‘the net.’
So what about Molly, our Devon Rex? Technically, she’s now Joe Friday’s Devon Rex, living with him in his new, nearby cabin. But she is the ultimate faerie cat, charming and elusive, a great little mascot in her own way for all that is mysterious about this unique part of the island. So what say you? Would you like to see more Molly on this blog? Please let me know in the comments!
Gulls are not the most beloved of birds, and in the city after they’ve gone through your trash creating a big mess, I’ve been known to curse them, too. But when you’re out the water with them (like I am as much as possible in my Boston schooner, the A Wake at Last), and you get to see them soaring over the waves, wings outstretched, you really start to build an appreciation for their own inherent glory. And unlike a lot of the seasonal birds that we all love to love (hey, we even named our Heart’s Delight cottages after some of them), gulls tough it out with us, summer and winter, through all weather, sometimes solitary, sometimes in groups, always dancing on the wind and playing in the waves. They’re tough, just like Newfoundlanders!
