Author: oceandelight

If there is one thing I know after 60 (plus….) years on this planet it’s that there is no end to the amount of beauty and wonderful places to visit on this island. So, with thanks to Bud Vincent for helping me kick if off, I’m thinking about starting a new blog series featuring some of our wonderful communities. Remember that on our Things to Do page we have a link to a great service that can help you figure out driving distances and directions between communities.

So this beauty is Champney’s Arm, located near Port Rexton between Champney’s West and Champney’s East. Here’s what Bud has to say about it: “To me this is a beautiful yet simplistic rural community..It has a character of its own…People just go about their business as if they are in another world..Yet, when you get invited into their home, they are oh so hospitable and completely down to earth.. A pure delight to have been amongst them.”

If you’re from Champney’s Arm, have travelled there or would love to visit, let us know in the comments! And if you’d like to share your community, please get in touch!

This may be my most interesting post yet, and all the credit goes to Albert, who wrote it and sent along these pictures. Thanks, Albert! I’m really hoping to turn this blog into a community space where we can share our stories, past and present, so I hope this inspires more readers to share their stories!

(from Albert…) This is the area known as Joshua’s Garden. The photo was taken in the late ’60’s or early ’70’s when horses were free to roam. The mainland visitors would remark when they visited the area “where we com from you erect fences to keep the animals in, but in Newfoundland you have to build fences to keep the animals out” … And that’s the way it was back then.

With increased automobile traffic (over the last 40 years) resulting in accidents which saw many horses being injured and killed and the change from horses to ATV’s, the number of horses has dwindled to the point where only a small few remain and today you have to have a fence to keep the animals IN, away from the roadways.

These horses belonged to residents of Whiteway, Cavendish and Green’s Harbour as well as other communities. Some horses would leave Whiteway and travel across New Harbour Barrens and graze on the hillsides of Tilton, Spaniard’s Bay and Harbour Grace all summer long. They would have to be picked up in the fall and led (or ridden) back home for the winter wood hauling season and the early spring ploughing of fields. This was common practice in the ’40’s, ’50’s and ’60’s.

This is the same area today, the old Joshua’s Garden (Joshua Jackson) now occupied by this attractive A-Frame, home to Ocean Delight’s Joe Friday.

It has been said by some early residents of Whiteway, that this is possibly the burial site of some lost sailors from a distant past who regularly sailed the waters of Trinity Bay for a variety of reasons.. In any case, many strange occurrences have been related about the area along the beach (known as Pippy’s Dock) that lies right on the edge of Joshua’s Garden.

Stay tuned.. Whiteway (formerly Witless Bay) has many strange and eerie stories to tell. Be afraid, be very afraid!!!

The Shag Rock stands as witness to all the unusual events. If only the layers of that majestic rock could talk!

The beach at Pippy’s Dock also now serves as the site of many a bonfire during the summer season!

 

Ever get the feeling you’re being watched? Molly’s a Devon Rex and if you know anything about the breed, you know they like to get up high. I just think she’s keeping tabs on me.

By the way, have you heard that all four-legged guests stay free at the cottages this Spring, and they get a doggie basket, too? I can’t wait to make all sort of new friends, especially since we’re inviting our guests on a Saturday afternoon walk around a local pond all Spring, too.

Under strict orders from the RCMP and the Royalty Protection branch (SO1) of the British Protection Command, we have had to keep our most recent guests secret and out of the media. Royals William and Kate have been hounded by the press since announcing their pregnancy, and William wanted to treat his new wife to a secret getaway Easter weekend where they could relax without all the public scrutiny. They decided on Newfoundland, relatively close enough to England for a quick trip, and settled on Ocean Delight after seeing all our press related to our Accommodator of the Year award. They knew that our remote cottages could give them just what they were looking for. Imagine our surprise when we learned that Kate has become a regular reader of Jerry’s Blog!

British Protection Command contacted us several weeks ago, and began making preparations to secure our Heart’s Delight location. The young couple arrived Friday morning, and enjoyed their welcome from Joe Friday and Murphy. We had a special gift basket ready, and they were very friendly and spent some time meeting and greeting our other guests. But we knew they wanted their space, so we left them alone to enjoy the Wonderful World of Whiteway. We know they took a hike and a marshmallow roast – we’ve always heard how down-to-earth they are, and it’s really true. They were truly wonderful guests, barely leaving a mess, and they gave us some Scottish brandy as a parting gift.

This was a private retreat, and not an official royal visit, but to our loyal blog readers, we’re letting you know that they won’t be leaving for their private jet until around noon. So if you need to come down to our house to borrow some sugar, you might catch a royal sighting!

 

Happy Easter, everyone. We’re delighted to have a full roster enjoying our cottages this year. Word to the wise: the Easter Bunny does come to the Wonderful World of Whiteway! In the meantime, this seemed like the perfect Sunset Sunday picture for the day – the sky is lit up with Easter colors!

If this isn’t the quintessential Newfoundland image, then I don’t know what is. I love Allison George’s eye, and I love that she’s shared so many of her beautiful pictures with me, and I’ve loved sharing them with you. I’ve set aside Saturdays on the blog to showcase Newfoundland talent and Newfoundland beauty. If you have any pictures you’d love to share, please email us!

What can we say – we love bragging about Joe Friday as much as our guests love being on the receiving end of his hospitality. Here’s some more reviews that came while we were still in trip-mode, so he takes all the credit for having made these guests’ stays special. Are we bragging? Maybe, but with Trip Advisor reviews like these it’s hard not to!

Here’s an experience I bet almost every Newfoundlander has shared with me, especially given how many people live away these days – staring the top of these stairs at the St. John’s Airport, waiting for a loved one to come through the doors and down the stairs into your open arms. All my daughters live away these days, so going to the airport is almost always a happy day. Like it was yesterday, when my middle, Emily, came into town. Looking forward to a happy visit, and hope that your loved ones are planning a trip soon!

I’m delighted that Jerry and The Berry are back from their Caribbean adventure, so I’ve been sticking close to them, never letting them out of my sight, since I’ve been back. And I’ve been studying Caribbean cultures, so that maybe I can accompany them on their next trip. So when Jerry was playing some Bob Marley yesterday, I had to come out and show off my new look and get in the groove. Ya man!

And in the meantime, I’m so excited for this Spring. I think I’m going to have lots of new friends out here. For all April and May, pets stay free if you stay for at least 2 nights, and four-leggeds receive a treat basket on arrival (jealous!). Plus, every Satuday, all are welcome to join me as I walk Jerry and The Berry around Jimmy Rowe’s Pond. It should be fun!

As a final memento to our great journey down south, a final Sunset Sunday from Belize! It rained our last evening there, so this is the last sunset we enjoyed. But never one to let a little rain ruin my parade, we still sat on our balcony outside reliving our trip and planning for our future. We have a wonderful work plan for this year and we are eager to wrap our arms around it. Hang on to your horses – she is going to be a wild one!