Happy Mother’s Day, all! Since we’re busy celebrating, this is a quick, but pretty, church blog. Here’s Whiteway’s own picturesque St. Andrew’s United Church – another important and integral part of our new community. Enjoy!
The Eagle Has Landed
So it’s official – our friend Albert Legge is our resident photographer. If you’ve been following our blog, you may remember that our new neighbour and friend Albert has an eye for photography and often shares his shots with us, like he did with another eagle awhile ago. This big guy visited a few days ago, so Albert whipped out the camera.
This is quite the bird! We shall call him the King of Whiteway, as he looks down on us. We’ve named our 4 Heart’s Delight cottages after local birds – maybe we made a mistake not calling one ‘The Eagle!’
Lobster Mania
Feast your eyes on these babies – like we got to do when our friend and neighbour, Alf, called up to see if we wanted some lobsters. I have a mild allergy, so said we could only take two – one for The Berry (Laurelyn), one for Joe Friday. And just look at these monsters he cooked for us! The claw on the male (the one on the left) was bigger than my hand.
So when Alf showed up, we rushed to the liquor store in Green’s Harbour to buy two bottles of Bolla Pinot Grecio, then sat down to a feast – The Berry and Joe having magnificent sea food, and me, meatballs and bread. Does that sound fair to you?
They devoured one and and a half lobsters, leaving the rest for Laurelyn’s son, Adrian, who also loves them. Nothing beats fresh sea food (and plenty of that around here!).
Carbonear Iceberg
What a year for icebergs! Resident photographer Albert Legge sent us these shots he got from Carbonear, another town on the Baccalieu Trail. You can see a boat passing by in the following pics, which gives you a sense of scale. These suckers aren’t small!
And here’s a gull on the rocks, for good measure. As if those icebergs weren’t enough for boats to worry about back in the day!
Discovering Shag Rock
Alf Harnum, our wonderful neighbour, dropped by yesterday to see if we wanted to go to local landmark, Shag Rock, about 1.5KM out in the water. We jumped (in the boat) at the chance and headed out Whiteway Bay. It was a beautiful day on the water and we got a chance at up close and personal with the anomaly.
And just in case you have a dirty mind, we found out they call it ‘Shag’ Rock because it’s full of cormorants – big, black and sleek diving birds. They make it their home. And locally cormorants are known as ‘shags.’ So get your mind out of the gutter!
Yip, our maiden voyage in Whiteway Bay, and I was like a kid again (except when I was a kid we didn’t have an experienced captain or life jackets in the boat!). What a perfect day for a ride – thanks, Alf!
P.S. Cannot wait to get our own boat out in the water – I just finished the qualification course online. My grades: 90%, 100%, 100%, 90%, 90%. (what, me brag?)
And one last video:[wpvideo ijLKrXUb]
Growing Garden
As I wrote last week, we built a flower bed beside the house, and The Berry has been itching to try out her green thumb since we bought the place. Which is exactly what she did this weekend. She almost finished, but we need more plants (another excuse to hit up Kijiji! You can find anything on there!)
These plants are like us – we got them last year, and they wintered at our place in St. John’s. Now they too are beginning a new life in the Wonderful World of Whiteway!
Spring Hare Fun
Well, Whiteway’s Spring Hare is all said and done, and it was wonderful. The Spring Hare is an annual story-telling, poetry reading and art display event that celebrates local talent and art. This year was a full house, with fantastic art work and entertainment, great food and drink. What a potpourri of talent we have in this province. If you missed this event, don’t worry – Whiteway will have another art show this year as part of the Come Home Year Celebration. We’ll keep you posted!
As promised, here are some shots from the event. The first couple were taken by Albert Legge (and thanks to him – most of ours came out fuzzy – lets blame that on our camera!)
Me with the lovely Lisa Day, President of the Spring Hare Committee – thanks, Lisa!
Captive audience. Bonus points if you can find Joe Friday and The Berry!
And here’s the famous Albert Legge!
The great Dr. Gerald Squires.
And the Hare Broom Award goes to Gerry Squires!
Art from the lovely Renee Butler-Harnum.
And from the equally lovely Clifford George.
And here’s Clifford with Jane Prior.
And the Hare Broom Award to Tom Dawe, too!
Hard to believe all this was a free event! Can’t wait til next year!
Sunday Church Blogging: Whiteway’s first entry!
If you remember, I started my Sunday church blogging ritual to celebrate the different churches I’ve photographed along the way in the many different towns around the island – Newfoundland is a day-tripper’s paradise, and most of my church posts so far have been from past trips.
But I finally got out to take some shots of closer churches, which leads me to today’s: St. George’s, Whiteway’s Anglican church. The earliest records of Anglican churches in the area go back to the 1800s. Today, the 4 in the immediate area share a single vestry, and are an integral part of the community.
And if you were lucky, maybe you got St. George’s Day off a few weeks ago – it’s still an official holiday in Newfoundland! 
(Note: The Spring Hare was fabulous yesterday – will post pictures tomorrow!)
WOW in WWW
The Spring Hare has sprung. As I mentioned, last night was the kick-off with dinner and entertainment at Brown’s, and all I can say it WOW – Laurelyn and I had such an amazing time. And I had an epiphany – as I sat there, talking to our new friends, listening to some of the best entertainers I have EVER heard, and eating good food, I realized that we belong here. I had that rare and wonderful feeling that this is the right place for me and the right time to be here. This is really a magical place and I feel blessed to now be a part of it.
Above is The Berry with Clifford and Shirley George, and below is Lisa Day, the President of the Spring Hare Committee. (And I’ve got to get a good camera! – all my action shots of last night were too blurry to post).
Today is the main Spring Hare event – stay tuned to the blog to hear all about it!
Raising the Flag
[wpvideo tuebQAH0]
If you can’t hear me over the wind, I’m saying “raising the flag for a new tourist season – this is gonna be a good one!”
Like all Newfoundlanders, I’m proud of our flag, introduced in 1980, but I have to admit I may be prouder to have such a great spot to fly it!
I also have a soft spot for our pretty unofficial flag, the Newfoundland Tricolour. Tourists, it’s why you see lots of green, white and pink items on George Street!
The Berry and I are excited because tonight kicks off the Spring Hare, with dinner theatre at Brown’s Restaurant followed by professional entertainment. Tomorrow will be a free afternoon of story-telling and poetry. You can click on the brochure on the right or on our ‘Current Specials‘ tab to learn more about it. It will be our first, but I have no doubt it will be nothing less than extraordinary – nothing out here is. And if you can’t make it yourself, check back for updates!