yyt

it is mid july. i have been stoking the fireplace for the past two nights, i'm not alone heading out for an evening walk i can smell the burning wood in the air. forgot how much wood one can go through six logs last evening constantly filling the stove but also forgot how warm the stove and make the place. now i see why the half of the basement and all under the bedroom deck is filled with wood.

am settling into a ritual which sadly will end within a week. a pity as the flatrock soirée is coming up 1-3 august. up coffee, work on the website, down to bruce's for something to cook. back to work until either the library opens so that i can check e-mail or out for a walk around noon.

to-day down at bruce's finally found out who noelle was. she has been putting up the postcards in the shop, chatted then raced home to get the book of snaps to see if i did hear the names right. almost, cyril is actually sam - cyril is sam's son, i got albert correct, but not paul, found out dannie's name this can all be corrected for the show. made a snap of noelle - the fourth - she tore up the first one i made of her in 1999 and the clerk that was working at the time. it seems that she is now married to bruce who came back from brampton.

it rained and rained and rained, felt sorry for elke's friend inge who was still weed wacking the front garden. their dog even seemed miserable in the rain. i kept throwing logs on the fire and made decent headway on one of the sections of the website.

mike hansen - mikehansen.com - is up from toronto and is to be the first person to stay in the new residency at the elementary school. mike was the first person that i met the first time i was here as he was staying upstairs in the pipe house in 1999 spending christmas here with his partner avril and cam their son. he was skiing cape st. francis.

he - as is everyone - was impressed with martin and gabrielles, place considering the school doesn't have heat the toilets are down the hall as are the showers and he is in the kindergarden.

when the library opened checked e-mail, passed on some information to josh and erin and headed back to work some more.

sitting down i caught this black shape breaking the water in the cove. a whale it surfaced a couple of times. the next 30 minutes was spent trying to find it again.

headed into st. john's when the rain stopped to publish the blog order some books not so much can. lit. but nfld. lit. discussed my revelations with jim. working with that balance of place.

while we were chatting a woman and her tour mate come in looking for a phrase book for newfoundland english we both say the dictionary of newfoundland english - he doesn't carry it

-of course not you speak it she says.


bought a globe headed to the duke and had two pints while reading the paper. needed a tripod as i wanted to photograph at dusk but couldn't find one.

headed over to the school to see if mike needed anything - heat? a shower?

a lot of the local teens were hanging out there. thought that i owned the place. kept asking if i needed help as they were trying to break in.

mike is driving a volvo and has a power book. a lot of conversations has been around computers.

talked about buying property - again the idea of place. driving back from gander wondered why i couldn't buy on a lake someplace around here. it would be cheaper and just as beautiful but it wouldn't be on the ocean. walking back to the car there were a number of places in gower street with a view of the narrows from the top floor - but it is not on the water.

mike was thinking lake - the ocean is dangerous here and in accessible - he likes to swim. we both ruled out the irish loop but he would move to the west of the island wants the trees of cottage country and the black fly. couldn't take corner brook. no culture for me - little music, literature, visual art. i'd probably could deal with rocky harbour in gros morne. but i like pouch because there is st. john's down the road.

we both know of the lighthouse in trepassey that is still for sale.$5000 at the end of an unimproved road so $4000 to make the road ok for driving. i prefer bauline. hills the ocean. went exploring the school checked the doors and left.

bit off more than i can chew working here but still am doing more than i could have there.