Author: oceandelight

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Sunday Church Blogging: Saint-Pierre Cathedral

I’ve been using my Sundays posts to highlight churches in different communities, and today I’m going slightly off-island with the Saint-Pierre Cathedral, in St. Pierre, which I love. This cathedral was rebuilt after a fire in 1905, on land which had housed a church since the 1600s. In researching this post I learned that this Roman Catholic church is built in the Basque style. I especially like how the stain glass windows and door handle celebrate Saint Pierre’s connection to the sea and fishing – just like ours.

Saint Pierre is a short ferry ride from Fortune, Newfoundland, which itself is about a 4 hour drive from the cottages. It’s a really fun way to soak up a little bit of French culture in between your Newfoundland road trips!

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At Your Service!

We have a guest coming to our Heart’s Delight cottages tonight who is in a wheelchair – and unfortunately the cottages are not wheelchair accessible yet. But we want everyone to be able to enjoy this place, so Joe Friday and I spent yesterday building a ramp. She would also really like to have a fire, so we made sure there was lots of firewood ready (all the other cottages were similarly stocked – my poor arms!).

I really like the hands-on nature of my new job as Happy Innkeeper, and I’m getting into the best shape of my life. Even though I was a little apprehensive about using power tools on Friday the 13th! 

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Office Space

If you’re looking to find me on my St. John’s days, this is the first place you should look – Coffee Matters, my favourite coffee shop and place of business! For the ambiance and strong coffee, it gets my vote every time – even though an overzealous manager got the chain in hot water (so to speak) not too long ago. The owner resolved the issue quickly though, which I’ve learned is the most important thing to do in business, and I’ve never had anything but great service there.

But of course, we’re back in Whiteway for the next few days,  so this will be my office. I like both, but the view is better here! When given the choice, do you prefer to work from home, or get out of the house for a bit?

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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!