moose, caribou and hogs

a teen is outside jason’s window spying on the paining of a nude woman he is working on.
the cast;
moira resident of the upper pipe house instigator of the evening, dennis and renée, lower pipe house residents, from the school, don,david, carol, brenda, eva, and jason from the gallery jim, ange and undrea. reg and sharon from up the road.

walk over to the pipe house with my offering when i see jim’s volvo turn in coming from the school. it seems that everyone is there except undrea, drinks are being served in the upstairs studio dinner will be downstairs. sharon and reg’s car is outside also they brought labatt’s

look in the fridge and find nothing so check my pockets and head across to bruce’s henry is outside and laughs when he sees me.
-you’re everywhere.
-as are you.
tell him about the soiree at the pipe house but there isn’t any domestic beer. asks how many people are over there if he knows anyone and if it would be alright if he came over.

said that he knows a few of them – go back and take eva over to him who invites him in for a beer. i chat with him dinner is being served downstairs and we invite henry down to finish his beer down there. sits won’t eat as he has had his supper. but does talk to me and sharon and reg.

tells eva and carol about the free coffee at bruce’s in the morning and that bruce is marrying noelle to-morrow in the lions hall in shoe cove this was news to sharon. leaves early as he is up at five every morning and had to feed his cat. henry’s wife died last year and we reckon that he is at ends as to what to do.

sharon by the way asks if i am voting, yes for whom? not bush. she agrees but asks how anyone could vote for kerry. david agrees two bad choices.

david’ s dish is the favourite – i am told as there is fish in it. jim and ange brought sushi they had slaved over at the counter at dominion.

there were store bought blueberries – big and pretty tasteless. reg reckoned that they were off island someplace. here there are very sweet.

best story of the evening was sharon relating when she came head to head with a moose in torbay road around stavenger drive. traffic stopped, the moose is walking toward her toyota. the car in the opposite lane flashed his light to tell sharon to turn off hers. when she does the moose stops right in his path then starts walking up to her car and peers into the windscreen, then walks around to the passenger side sharon said that all she saw were these giant legs she was afraid of it walking over the car. it then goes around to the driver’s side and again looks in – i imagine the scene in jurassic park substituting the tyrannosaurus.

i sat out on the lower pipe house steps again the pipe house has the best view of the cove and the closest. wondered if the house for sale across the road would be all that bad.

the last planned marathon drive was slated for to-day, once again putting up the route 10 through witless bay so that i could head to cappahayden the barrens, to st. vincent’s as it i should have stopped last year, then up through salmonier and back down to on the cape shore loop to photograph in st. bride’s and patrick’s cove – home of dan england. the final stop was to be plaisance – the french capital then the race to the transcanada and back in time for the roughriders –stampeeders game at the duke.

planned on leaving at 9am took to bottles of frozen water, three bagels and ubirajara – left ubaldo at home – with both lenses. took a bag of film as i didn’t want to have to ration – last year i seem to remember running short. chose to head down route 10 first despite the frustrations of traffic as there were still places that i had forgot and while it is a bit slower – all the towns, the restricted speed would be more frustrating when my attention span had gone.

as i was ready to leave a panic call from the school, eva was to do a walk with friends in st. john’s to the spout in witless bay her lift into town was still dead to the world. i left 20 minutes later. in the land above mexico this would have thrown me into a tizzy, here the days are so long that it wasn’t that much of a bother. in truth i was putting off the departure time for all sorts of reason – wanting to see where michael enright’s place was on the island – salvage – as i found out listening to an interview with him on the morning programme. adding to the potential lexicon of newfoundland literature as again there have been two seminars with rock writers.

while i thought that i would race through fermeuse and start my snapping there i found that i had missed ice arena outside witless bay and i finally got the gigantic pipe line that winds its way down from the tors cove pond to the ocean.

next time i need a atv as i wanted to head out to the avalon wilderness preserve this giant area bigger than the peninsula from st. john’s north with ponds and mountains but is i good 50 km ride over very bad roads.

first bagel eaten between fermeuse and renews, encounter with two moose at burnt point as they passed the car in front of me.

i was in cappahayden, the frustration of having to creep along vanished but that brought over problems, i would see a potential images and would have passed the scene before it registered.

cappahayden is relatively flat marshland – peat bogs? – with nice organic shaped pools, i wanted to photograph a few with the space that has nothing to do with the shore. because the viewpoint would come up quickly and go i speeding by would mean backtracking quite a bit, i did make quite a few u turns.

in my earlier incarnations as an accidental newfoundlaner, i would have been quite reluctant to stop along the road, i’d look for wider verges or driveways. now i am acclimatised, i see something i stop.the roads are not so highly trafficked that it is a problem. i simply follow example of all the empty cars with no people about at all stopped along the route.

quite a few attempts at the perfect pool until it became mauzy not completely socking in the road but changing the landscape quite a bit. i was down at the tip not far from cape race – the closest landfall to the titanic, thought about heading there but again a long dirt road – atv time – had me think twice and decide to move on – the fog also had a lot to do with it.

photographed these lone cabins on the barrens overlooking ponds but not much of anything else. some were quite nice, the only lacking was electricity others were shacks the area before portugal cove south had some rolling hills to it so the outhouses did have either a pool or the distant mountains to look out on. beyond it was the moonscape of the barrens with little to focus on. my goal.

a few photographs in portugal cove south, newfoundland formalism, a mail box – for some reason and a closed and for sale snack bar on the breakwater protecting the town from the ocean.

stopped at the playground that i always stop at in biscay bay – again the mist some canvas trainers and another object on a table seemed to have potential as did the nicely painted changing rooms.

a diversion in biscay bay to see if i could find a volvo with tj’s tags on it wondering where david bolduc lives. no luck

a grave yard with a lone tombstone in it on the road outside trepassey.

the fog had burned off

dread trepassey due to the bay that one has to drive around. narrow at the mouth but widens as one gets further away from the ocean there is no bridge.

pass a swarm of motorcyclists outside a bed and breakfast. i stop to photograph a sign using homer simpson and then the convenience.

it is only there that it occurs to me, go up the street to the harley riders flash my drivers licence and ask to make snaps. seeing wisconsin i am fine. they are hogs from st. john’s who do this memorial ride every year. i guess that there were about 50 of them. they keep steering me to the bikes thinking that is what i want.

tell them that coming to the rock to photograph harleys is like heading to wisconsin to have a jigs dinner. they agree. still habit has it so that they move out of the way at times. chat with three or four of them – one of them seeing the saab says he knows t.j. we wish each other safe trip.

another minor theme has been the political signs left from the last general election, been trying to incorporate them in to the landscape. two potential ones but the best which could be an ikonic image was of the liberal candidate on a electric pole held up in the way they are down here – in a box of boulders - overlooking the barrens.

stop again at the road to st. shott’s decide to give it a pass as i have been there and i am wondering how i am going to get to patrick’s cove and branch. stopped at the overlook and made an effort to make a snap of the barrens with no object that could be construed as an object. i turned toward a body of water but it was too prominent so turned away. what is unique about this area is the want to find something to latch on to and finding nothing.

a couple were in a caravan he had binoculars she was sitting quietly. searched the horizon for caribou.

reading the sign there didn’t realise that st. shotts had resisted resettlement – good for them and that cape pine and its lighthouse was only 6km away.

i had been told that there is a house at the lighthouse for sale with magnificent views of the ocean on a cliff for next to nothing. had to see this.

it isn’t 6km to cape pine it is 15 along the type of road that i was trying to avoid. the scenery was beautiful i followed the electric lines and watched the ones to st shotts disappear in the distance. as i continue the fog returns it is at its densest as i stop in front of the lighthouse. true there were two houses – not cabins they were both in great shape. it would be no doubt that they could be had for a song considering the road i was on. an atv would be needed to go the distance to st. shotts to buy anything. couldn’t see the ocean the fog was so thick only a fog horn in the distance.

caribou are sunning themselves at a safe distance back on route 10.a stop in peter’s river slowed down for st tephen’s whales maybe nope.

park the car in st. vincents noticing that the snack caravan that used to be on the beach is gone. park close to people who are water skiing and tubing in holyrood pond in wet suits. walked about the town rife with newfoundland formalism, but as i leave the car someone says he has a camera. walk toward a functioning convenience to make a snap when again the voice says he is taking pictures.
-careful or i’ll take yours as i walk toward two girls in wetsuits and a boy in trunks.
ask if i am a tourist or if i live here.
professional tourist, one girl says she is the same she comes every summer the other lives in st. vincent’s the one who comes every summer lives up the road.
make snaps of the two girls when i notice that the boy is staying to the side. tell him to get into the snap he sort of refuses until the girls tell him to. he puts the towel on his hair trying to make a turban, and stands on the opposite side. i head back to the convenience – sign, laundry, flag. then as i reload film a car parks ruining the image. notice a chicago white sox sweatshirt hanging upside down. make a few snaps there and try to incorporate the two bell express vu satellite dishes into an interesting snap.

finally i head back to the car but yell out to the girls isn’t there a museum in town up the road but it is closed to-day. mention that i photographed someone who worked their last year.

-do you take a lot of photographs?
-yeah.
-why?
-who is the more insane here me making snaps or you in wetsuits trying to enjoy the water.
head up the road pass the museum photograph a graffitied rock outcropping and find the best ball park of the day. all foul balls would be hopeless lost in holyrood pond. the backstop is on the cliff.

while photographing an elderly couple pass in their car then return drive down the path and park by the picnic tables in the outfield.

second bagel eaten.

exchange information – asked if i am married to a newfoundlander i photograph them they offer me a big 8 cola as they have seemed to brought enough food for the harley crowd. the woman frets that she didn’t bring a table cloth. again wish each other a safe trip as i am heading north.

am find time wise but am afraid that the loop along the cape shore would be too much so branch and patrick’s cove is jettisoned – chagrin. this is a concrete manifestation of my impending exile. will take the dirt road from colinet to placentia.

stop in gaskiers to photograph yet another ball park that has escaped a decent depiction – one year it was due to that wanker of a so called repairman at photography at bald mountain in california that forgot to replace a baffle. three times a charm i hope. kids were just finishing a game. mothers were honking so that they could get home for supper.

gaskiers would hold potential for my mother’s place up here as it has a horizonless view of the ocean, is cheap it is two hours from st. john’s but an outport taxi is supposedly only $30. – it is $45 to pouch.

glad that i brought both lenses for ubirajara as passing the church in st. mary’s remembered the crab massacre in the church yard. it seems that gulls drop them from a height break the shells, and have a feast. with the extension rings on the normal lense photographed a few of the shells.

recognised places that i have photographed, stopped at the ball park in st. mary’s
another one that always has me stopping – nice adverts on the outfield wall.

pick up two hitchhikers on their way to st. john’s will take them as far as colinet. small talk but when i drop them off they fall victim to my camera. – bad lighting but on the verge i wasn’t going to direct. i can only hope.

wrong turn had me take a longer route than i should but again i allowed a new area to explore.

entered a driving mode – a pity but that means that i am getting tired forgetting my situation i made mental notes for future snaps.

a 22km drive along a dirt track to plaisance – sign stating the maximum speed being 60k/h laughable made barely 40. the odometer barely moved again a road with cabins off all sorts, cars parked everywhere but no one about. windows had to be shut when approaching cars passed the dust trail was hundreds of metres long. stopped at a hand painted memorial to a passed on horse done on an erratic.

placentia was a bit too strange for me to comes to grips with in the little time that i had. the skies had darkened threatening rain. the light was the equivalent to an hour before sunset. tried to make a snap from the boardwalk tried also to so something while riding around town. the only potential was a series of images dealing with the lift bridge and what was around it. on one side a forlorn lounge, on the other, a house with its laundry out.

sped back to st. john’s – remembering the dunville ball park – it is on the website as the potential home for the montréal expos right now –stopped at the irvings mainway in whitbourne junction rest stop and comfort station. then to the bairds to pick up the papers ange had bought for me and a quick guinness. she kept trying to offer me something to eat. i wanted to head back to pouch, post the blog and then head to the duke to watch the cfl game.

the good and bad thing about canada is that the media doesn’t run everything. the cfl isn’t like the nfl where the games are schedule for the east coast. the game between calgary and saskatchewan was scheduled for the people there, meaning that the 8pm start of the game would be 11:30 pm in newfoundland. gave it a pass.

again was conflicted as the baseball game at st pat’s seemed interesting.

passed the sign congratulating bruce and noelle from the staff of d&l on the torbay road just outside st. john’s