Author: oceandelight

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Land and Sea Guests

What a treat it has been to have the crew of the CBC’s popular program, Land and Sea, stay with us. We had the pleasure of chatting with Pauline Thornhill (above) and her cameraman, Calvin Tobin. They’re working on a piece in the area that will be out this fall, and staying (and loving!) at our Whiteway cottages. No wonder the show is so popular when the host and crew are “personality plus” – truly sweet people. I can’t wait to see what they’re working on, and for those who don’t know, Land and Sea airs at 12 noon on Sundays. Tune in if you want to learn about the challenges and pleasures of life on the east coast!

And they were nice enough to leave us some hats – one for me and Joseph (Happy Birthday, Joe Friday!) and one for our neighbour and friend, Alf Harnum, who may be the show’s biggest fan and has seen every episode at least once. We make a handsome bunch, don’t we?

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One Ocean; Two Views

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile (almost two months going strong!) you know that The Berry (Laurelyn) and I are splitting our time between the cottages and our apartment in St. John’s. So yesterday we traded this view of a boat anchored near Shag Rock (taken by our friend and Whiteway neighbour Albert Legge, whose stunning shots I’ve also posted here and here)…

…for this view of slightly larger boats in St. John’s Harbour, with Signal Hill in the background. Either way, I know I’m blessed to be so near the ocean, like most of us on this island!

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Bayman’s Flea Market

The Berry got a lot of credit (and rightfully so) for being a good sport and sleeping out under the stars this past weekend. But this is my blog, so I’m making sure I get my due recognition for being the The Berry’s shopping partner (or, more often, go-between for sales on Kijiji!). This woman knows how to find a bargain, and she’s used this skill to really spruce up our new cottages, making them all over in her unique taste and our personal ‘style.’ They really feel like ‘ours’ now, and are almost all ready for the summer season.

We’ve been pleasantly surprised with the amount of shopping there is here on the Baccalieu. One more reason we’re so happy with this life-change.

This past weekend we hit up something great that I didn’t even know existed before moving to Whiteway – the Bayman’s Flea Market. It’s a great place to look for odds and ends – we got frying pans and a barbque set. The Berry was in her glory, roaming the stands.  She loves old stuff, which works out for me (I keep getting better and better!).

We bought a beautiful, old (maybe 100 years or more) five drawer dresser made of solid oak that we spent all day yesterday lovingly restoring for the Partridgeberry Cottage. It’s the perfect match for the 125 year old door we converted into a headboard.

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Jackie, Dave and Sally Ann

Meet The Fergusons, just like I had the pleasure of doing this weekend as they took advantage of our April Special. They enjoyed themselves at The Osprey and on our ATV, and we enjoyed having them.

Jackie and Dave checked out Sunday morning, on their way to the Salvation Army Church in Twillingate, which recently celebrated its 125 year of ministry.  Their regular church is the Pathway Community Church in Paradise, which has services every Sunday at 11 o’clock at the Rotary Paradise Youth Centre.

The Salvation Army has a rich history and great tradition of helping out the poor of this province, and while I am not a member I certainly respect what they do, and was happy to meet these soldiers (church members). In researching this blog post I learned that Newfoundland boasts the largest per capita numbers of Salvation Army soldiers in Canada, and they still carry out outreach work today.

I’ve always been a people-person – that’s why I’ve excelled as a business- and salesman. I have been more than thrilled that my new job as Happy Innkeeper allows me to continue to meet people and hear their stories on such an intimate level. I can’t wait til the summer for our high-season to really kick in.

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Cutest Easter Bunny (or, Happy Easter!)

Today is a day for rejoicing and spending time with family (some would also say eating chocolate, though I’m not a huge chocolate lover – shocker!), so today’s post is a just a short oldie but goodie. Here’s my youngest daughter, Kathryn, years ago, making what I think is the cutest Easter Bunny yet. Hope you’re all enjoying you family, or, if you’re like me and all your children live away, able to chat with them and cherish your memories. Happy Easter!

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Listening to the Waves

Barb and Jim, the previous owners of Ocean Delight Cottages, left us these great army sleeping bags, good to minus 40 degrees. The moon has been too glorious to describe of late, so last night we decided to experience it in nature herself. We fell asleep listening to the waves, with FREE tickets to the greatest show on earth.

The Berry made it til about 3 o’clock. I made it through the whole night – unabashed and unafraid! An experience not to be forgotten, and experienced again soon. Bring on summer!

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Early Easter Bunny

Although it’s not quite Easter yet, the Berry (I mean, the Easter Bunny) has been decking out our cottages for our coming guests, who took advantage of our Easter Special (Buy 2 Nights, Get the 3rd Free is good through April, by the way). This is still our first off-season, so busy weekends like this one are challenging but really fun.

One of our guests this weekend will be fellow blogger, Jenny. Being a CFA (Come From Away), she offers some great reading about the province in her blog, The Republic of Me.

Of course, Good Friday is a day for a lot of reflections and a lot of memories. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing that I need to spend the day working on the cottages with Joe Friday. At least this evening when we finish, I’ll be able to look out over Shag Rock and do some reflecting then!

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The Rooms with a View

I spend a lot of time on this blog celebrating Whiteway and Heart’s Delight and our new little paradise we’re building out there, because it’s new and we’re so excited about it. But I still come into St. John’s most weeks (where I am currently), and sometimes when you’re used to a place it’s easy to forget about its good points. St. John’s, of course, has many. Here I am outside of one: The Rooms, which is not only a world class museum and a must-see for any visitors to the city, but also perfectly located to give some of the best photo-ops of the city. If it’s not too windy, you can even go out on their balconies, where I got these shots.

Something else I always recommend is checking out The Rooms Cafe (you don’t need to pay to go through the museum if you’re just eating). Not only is the food divine, big windows offer a panoramic view of the city. Whenever my daughters are in town, we always hit it up. Here’s my youngest and oldest, Kathryn and Adrienne, having fun there one Christmas.

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Little Boats of Newfoundland

So I am back in old St. John’s, and thinking about new (to me) Whiteway. I took these shots right before I left for my Gros Morne trip, and they made me think about the great Harry Hibbs singing ‘Little Boats of Newfoundland. Gotta love Youtube! Hibbs was a real Newfoundland treasure and it’s great to hear traditional music still so popular today.

Here’s some little boats another shot I took a few years ago, just outside Corner Brook. I’m sure you can get shots like this pretty much everywhere on the island!

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Sheila Brushed

If you’re in Newfoundland, you probably spent last weekend bemoaning Sheila’s Brush. If you’re not from Newfoundland, you’re probably wondering, ‘what’s Shelia’s Brush’?

Colloquially, Sheila’s Brush is a final winter storm, late in the season, sometimes even in what we’d like to consider Spring – which is what we got this past weekend. I just did a little research and learned that historically, Sheila was considered the wife of St. Patrick, and a storm was expected around St. Paddy’s Day. Lots of Newfoundlanders wouldn’t consider it safely ‘summer’ – an important distinction when going out to sea – until after a final such storm.

Regardless, this picture was was taken by local talent and friend, Albert Legge (see other of Albert’s shots here and here) this past Sunday, a day after our Sheila’s Brush. Look closely and you can see our house (the bigger yellow building) and our 3 little cottages closeby. Hard to be mad at Sheila when she leaves such vistas in her wake!

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