yyt

sundays are days to go into st. john's parking is free everywhere. there was a time when i would drive in, wash my clothes at mighty whites. when they were done - washed not dried, clothes lines are free - i head over to the bagel with saturday's globe - the middle sections and have my samosa breakfast - samosa, two eggs fried and potatoes. i'd then do the galleries, agnl, craft council, when it was open the r.c.a. the day would end at the duke.

i got up early sunday to work on the web site and the blog, not remembering the hill i had taken chris and heidi, went around the corner to look at the street sign.
-don't you take my picture now. came out from the red shed on the corner of the main road and sullivan's loop.

-then you should have kept quiet and i wouldn't have known that you were in there. raced back to get joãozão and got back as they were coming out. they were russell langmead - the brother of henry whose house we were going to buy - and ted. thought this place is lousy with langmeads.

ted was in the process of repairing the roof when a scream came from across the road for him. russell told me a bit about the area. i now know everybody south of me in sullivan's loop and have spoken longer with russell than i have with all the good neighbours back in pleasant prairie.

he's been married 47 years last friday - would buy in a partridge berry loaf from auntie crae's. that he was born in elke's place and a good walk was to the top of the toad the tallest hill south of pouch - there is a great view from there he said. go in the meetinghouse - how appropriate - road it takes about an hour. he walks three miles a day - which i believe everyone except the teenagers walk all over.

we chatted again at his place as i passed for some reason. comparing the views around pouch. his isn’t bad but wonder why he moved his house to the back of the lot further from the ocean.

since i was out for a walk i headed north to the path to cape st. francis. didn't go far but far enough for me to want to try it. it held to the coast and not far out of pouch opened so i could see all of the town from the north. the coast isn't friendly here no beaches to be seen. i was a good 100 feet up with crags everywhere.

quite pleased with myself worked pretty well, had a light breakfast - coffee and partridge berry loaf from auntie crae's - packed up the bag with the cd's to be downloaded, jen's discs and headed into st. john's.

was cut off by an albertan - probably a newfoundlander with alberta plates where kenna's hill turns into king's bridge at empire. a rarety here - people don't use turn signals and a times drive like octogenarian floridians but aren't rude.

the plates made me realise that i'm not a newfoundlander. don't live in alberta, don't drive a dodge shadow or chevrolet cavalier and the car that i do drive isn't a powder blue.

stopped into wordplay - jim was in pouch - downloaded the blog with a little trouble forgot what l.s.p.u. stood for so ran down the street.

chatted with the clerk downstairs as i heard her recommending books on the province and non of them i had heard of - not arrogance but i was curious if what she recommended was more tourist fare. no not at all she simply recommends work that is about 20 years old. no lisa moore, michael crummey, stan dragland, no wayne johnston. she said her favourite book was death on the ice now out of print. funny i have yet to make her snap.

didn't want to spend money as funds are a bit low too early for the duke even though i had brought the globe with me - in a week i'll regret that i didn't make the most of the duke and had my fill of smithwick's. walked up to baird's place to give jen her discs arrived just in time to see her pick up her cat to catch flies by the window. stayed a bit chatted, watched jim tease a cat by making it dance for chicken. was surprised that it did the same for cherries. left as i wanted to get to auntie crae's, it wasn't raining and i wanted to be out. i was offered one of the six baseballs that made it into their back yard last evening.

took the long way back into town as st. john's despite its size is a great place for swarving, the tony houses along rennie's mill and carpasian roads - large lawns, gardens, trees. the row houses that south and west of monkstown road - houses to the street no trees, planter's boxes. saw how spoiled i was, why not live in st. john's great walking city, compact, at times one can see the harbour or better the narrows but so what it isn't that long of a walk .

how do you find mount pearl?
go west until you run out of taste.

woke up a bit depressed as time is flying by, the walk didn't make me feel any better as the nickel film and video festival starts at the l.s.p.u. the day that i leave as does another music fest. even pouch will become more interesting as the absentee owners along sullivan's loop, harold, martin and gabrielle, meaning that i would have to clear out, are coming over.

i also realised that how little i have used the plastic cameras - could this be the end of the line? to tell the truth i wanted to use them when i headed to st. shott's and while they are in my bag i realised that i haven't been bringing them out or rather bringing them out in due to a sense of guilt.

monkstown road, rawlins cross, queen's road, church hill, duckworth, mcbride's hill, water street would come back via mcmurdo's and the duke giving myself one last chance.

passed the place of one of the first people i photographed - he still had a sign out at munchkin eye level - let me paint your portrait. forgot that i wanted to walk the lanes and alleys between streets. i had brought ubaldo precisely for this.

am finding a strange pecking order for my cameras while i am here. perfer joãozão for portraits and photographs outside of cities am worried when i use him as half my images were ruined the last time i was here. the bellows are ducked taped to the extent that would make red green proud. they better hold up 90% of my portraits were with him.

ubaldo is great for cities as the square is perfect for dealing formally with space, eliminating diagonal kerbs and the like - he is great for low light and thus snaps made during meetings at the duke - joãozão's meter isn't realiable in low light. i do like how he collapses to the size of a paper back making him very easy to carry.

was back early enough in pouch to tackle the toad. it doesn't get dark until after nine. it was six. headed south when two teenagers said hello to me at the park by noseworthy's hill. had to make snap of them. in practice i am not as mercenary as it seems. i won't disrupt a conversation to make a snap - it is not a conceptual exercise - passed one of the people who pushed the car out of the pipe house drive during the winter of blizzards and have yet to take out the camera. we always chat.

one of the teens was luke elliott - jesse's brother. wondered what he looked like sharon had been talking about him. made the snap before i knew who he was. wondered what sharon would think. i photograph her other son and two months later he drowns.

the day before i got an e-mail from a person whose kids i photographed as they sold me lemonade. she thanked me for the snap and wished that she had called out a neighbour's kid to be in the picture, for only days later she drowned in a freak accident in a pool.

photographed luke with his friend kevin. he then dares this other person walking toward us to say something so i'll have to take his snap - stumpy. asked if i could get up to the toad via meeting house road. yes. takes about an hour? yes.

i head out.

am never on this side of pouch. the south side. there are possibilities property wise but only four or five houses maximum. climb the hill and turn up meeting house road. in a hundred yards it becomes gravel another hundred pitted then a trail.

i had started off with the toad to the south. now it was west of me as i headed out past a quarry - it was to the north. followed the atv tracks wished that it was august as i could have all the blue berries that i would want. rising out of pouch there were vistas - just about everywhere where the town disappeared. again i was surprised with the amount of water that was around. above the town there were ponds all over.
i was also surprised the trails that an atv could navigate one track seemed to be 45 degrees higher than the other. an hour and fifteen minutes later i was ready to make the last climb and it was a climb. straight up for about 100 yards. scrambling up sphagnum peat. didn't realise this until my shoes - which won't make the trip back south - stirred up the smell. also saw lichen - thought that it grew only on lionel train layouts .

not worrying about how i was going to get back down, the view was great from the summit. all of pouch. some of pouch cove line, a couple of ponds. i had debated whether to try it as it was threatening rain and didn't want to be caught out. the days usually start out bright and sunny then it clouds over - usually when i put out the wash. there is a brief shower then periods of sun and clouds. to-day it has been grey all day.

from the summit i also noticed a path that headed directly to the town centre. took it back stumbling down hill - remembered from when i walked in the winter of blizzards but after a while turned back as the path seemed to be a stream as i kept breaking ice with running water under neath.

i was back at the house within a half hour ready to work some more on the website and feeling so pleased with myself that i decided to do the east coast path to cape st. francis to-morrow.