Happy Valentine's Day

A very Happy Valentine's Day to everyone from here in Marystown, Newfoundland. I hope you all enjoy it to whatever extent you are able to during this pandemic. 

I send this note a little early as tomorrow on Saturday February 13 I will be working as a DRO (Deputy Returning Officer) in one of the polling stations in our district. As you may have heard the Newfoundland election was scheduled for February 13 but with the Covid outbreak in the St. John's area all polls in 18 districts on the Avalon Peninsula have been postponed for at least two weeks. The other 22 districts including ours will go ahead as scheduled tomorrow beginning at 7:30am. The polls close at 8:00 pm so it will be a long day for sure. Then I guess we have to wait for a couple of weeks to count the votes. It is an interesting time for sure - we'll have to wait and see how it plays out. (Late last night we got news that due to the Covid outbreak the voting would be cancelled Saturday and would be mailin votes instead.)

I guess one shouldn't fool around or tease Mother Nature or she will come back to haunt you. I was bragging to some NL friends on the mainland about our lack of snow here in Marystown on Newfoundland's south coast with it being February 8. Unheard of most of the time. But overnight Monday and into Tuesday February 9 we picked up about 15 cm of snow which was blown around with some good winds which made some nice drifts. Then we were supposed to have 5 cm overnight last night into this morning. Well when I awoke and looked out this morning we had more like 20 cm as you can see from a few photos I took during and after cleaning it up this morning. So this is my public apology to Mother Nature - I am very sorry for mocking you like I did. I promise it won't happen again! Please no more snow. :-)

Cheers to all and stay safe.

Barry

 

 

Whole driveway and 2 cars were like this!

Took 45 minutes to clear this away!

Making sure both exits are clear. There was snow on the deck too!

Outdoor Country Boil Up

Winter hasn't shown it's ugly face here in southern Newfoundland as of yet this year and today is February 2. Yesterday I went with 3 of my golfing buddies for a cookup in the Newfoundland outdoors. It was a beautiful sometimes sunny day with temperatures just below the freezing point. 

Two friends Edmund and John go to this area just south of Lewin's Cove around Big Salmonier Brook to cut some wood to burn and while there they usually cook up a lunch. Having teased us with photos of their past cook ups we invited ourselves along for the next time. 

Yesterday my friend Ches and I hiked into where they are cutting the wood. The boys go on their ATV's but since it was only a 15 minute walked we hiked there to meet them for lunch. They had a great place cleared for a cook up complete with seats for us around the fire. Lunch consisted of beans, bologna and wieners along with fresh homemade bread and toutons. As well Ches brought along some dried salt cod which we cooked in and on the fire. We complemented the lunch with steeped tea, coffee as well as date squares & apricot cake for dessert. The walk back out took a little longer. Ha! Ha!

We had a great chat during our lunch and left with the feeling that we would be doing the same thing again someday before the winter was out.

Below are some photos around the fire and of the beautiful outdoors area there around Big Salmonier Brook. Since the fish was a little salt we had to drink some fresh water! :-) Acutally when I saw the ice it brought back memories of growing up in Lamaline playing hockey on the pond. To get a drink you would have to cut a hole in the ice, lie down and drink to your heart's content. No water bottles in those days! The water was some cold and fresh too!

Cheers to all. Stay safe. Enjoy

Barry

L to R: John, me, Ches

 

 

L to R: Ches, John, Edmund

Boys preparing the fire.

Fire well under way.

Beans & bologna on and toutons are done.

Salt fish done too!

Me cutting the hole in the ice for a drink - only 2 or 3"

Me having a sip of the cold fresh water!

Boys with their load of birch for the day!

Big Salmonier Brook. It's a licensed salmon river

Winter 2021

I know it is a little early to brag about the present winter conditions here in Marystown, Newfoundland but I couldn't help but show a couple of photos comparing today with January 17, 2020 when Newfoundland got hit with a snowstorm. St. John's was smothered with over 90 cm of the white stuff over a 48 hour period while here on the south coast in Marystown we had a paltry 30 cm of snow. St. John's was pretty much shut down for quite a while and they had to bring in the armed forces to help with the cleanup. 

So far this winter season we have had very little snow and as you can see there is none on the ground here in our town. We may have had all of 10 - 15 cm up until today while St. John's has had a bit more than that but certainly nothing compared to last year's Snowmagedden. 

I'm sure we will be getting some of the white stuff soon but Mother Nature we can wait as long as you allow our golf course to open at it's regular time.

Stay safe everyone.

Cheers
Barry

2021 Sports Predictions

 Major League Sports Predictions

North American Sports

2021

My Bold Sports Predictions for 2021
League	Trophy	Winner
NHL	Stanley Cup	Montreal Canadiens
NFL Got This One Wrong!	Super Bowl	Green Bay Packers
NBA	Larry O'Brien Trophy	Boston Celtics
MBL	World Series	New York Yankees
MLS	MLS Cup	Toronto FC

Finally I will go out on a limb and predict that Tiger Woods will one at least 1 of the 4 golfing majors this year – either the Masters or the U. S. Open – which will set the record for the most wins by any golfer with 83. 

From the above predictions I'm sure those of you who know my sports allegiances will see that my personal bias played little or no part in my prognostications!

Cheers

Barry

P. S. Of course I will also predict that Canada will defeat the U. S. to win the World Junior Hockey Championship on Tuesday January 5! Go! Canada! Go! Oops! Guess I got this one wrong!!!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

From Marystown, Newfoundland

As 2020 comes to a close I just wanted to take the time to wish one and all a happy, safe, heathly and prosperous New Year in 2021.  Hopefully things will get back to some semblance of normal by the end of the summer.

Thank you to everyone for sending along photos of your tree, decorations, family, pets, et al for my little Christmas tree project. 60 entries - WOW!! I loved all the photos and I am not sure if you have seen them all but I picked out a few that for one reason or another struck a chord with me. Gladys & I both looked forward to seeing your photos. I'm sure Cheryl would have loved it too.

This one for obvious reasons!

This one where Rachel & her mom decorated a tree on the Garnish trail in Cheryl's memory.

This is a photo of my brother Kevin's backyard display in Moncton. On the left is his Gazebo made in the likeness of the Allan's Island Lighthouse where our father worked for a time while we were growing up. He also has a life sized cutout of a man which represents dad. All the ornaments were made by Kevin.

This one is from our friends Clayton & Cassie in Lindsay, ON and it brings me memories of growing up in Lamaline where there aren't any trees to cut down. Someone in town would drive 45 minutes to cut some trees and you would take one along with some spare limbs to fill in any holes. As you can see here they used one of the dog's squirrel toys to fill in a hole. :-)

Those 2 trees I had to include as they were done by 2 university students to get themselves into the Christmas spirit - on the left is UVIC first year student Chelesa in Victoria while on the right is MUN 3rd year engineering student Kevin's tree.

This lovely set of mummers comes from Jocelyn in North Vancouver. They were made by her parents and a couple of friends a few years ago. Awesome detail there.

This lovely ornament which kind of defines 2020 comes from Mark & Amelie in Port Moody, BC. I love it.

It seems that we have gotten further & further away from this during Christmas in later years but I still have many fond memories of the stable, animals & wise men. This great set belongs to Lorraine & Gibby in the Beaches in Toronto.

Not sure how Derek & Patti in Torbay managed to do it but to get 4 dogs to stay still long enough for such a photo had to be a bit of a chore. Well done!

Love this photo of the Dildo sign from Tish & Darren. Nice to see the sign lit up for the Christmas season.

Cora Lee, Gary, Kyle & Riley

This tree belongs to Gladys's niece Cora Lee, her husband Gary and children Kyle & Riley in Massey Drive, NL.

Paddy, Allison, Liam, Jack & Cheyanne

This tree belongs to Gladys's nephew Paddy, his wife Allison and children Liam, Jack & Cheyenne in Burin, NL. The first is their tree at home while the second is the tree at the Monkey's Fist at Smuggler's Cove.