oh yeah, move with me baby!! oh yeah!! oh yeah!! make love to the camera.

ted is in his shed working on his boat, russell is looking at the potatoes by the shed.

just realised that these headings are a product of that great real estate conglomerate that tries to pass for an art school. i have become a product of my environment. pretty soon i’ll become pentecostal about the medium and blather on endlessly theorising in the manner a brobdinagian would in gulliver’s travels without ever feeling the need to actually make anything - photographic or other wise - at all.

after trying to put the place in order and actually see how much film i had left – ah think of the money i’ll save when i am converted – am in good shape have only gone through half of what i brought with me, i headed out into the wilds of pouch.

walked passed the school down strugnell’s marsh to head up the hill by the anglican cemetery. a few pouch cove formalist images of clothes lines and sheds. i just realised that everyone had a shed and some were quite well appointed. russell’s is pretty basic, he sits there in the morning. ted sullivan’s is packed with his boat and tools but he has at least four sheds. heading down the main road toward the town hall some of the sheds would be fine for me to stay in – they also have better views of the ocean than the houses. there was a shed in strugnell’s marsh that had a phone and i do believe had knotty pine walls with a nice chesterfield.

people were peering out of windows as i was making the snaps. i wave acknowledging that i am being watched. walked out of the paved road and onto the tracks – at first the wrong tracks but that was soon corrected.

the walk had a time limit, an hour out then head as i had a portrait session at one.
the theme of the day was going to be wood piles and other uses of the allotments in the woods behind pouch. i also wanted to find another part of the pond.

rephotographed some of what i did before as it was at dusk and i wanted to make sure that i would have something.

i have come to realise how much film i would save if i had a darkroom here.
wish list.
a darkroom - actually have duplicate stuff as i never through anything away it is merely finding property my shed could be a darkroom.
to be perfectly cross border a duplicate set of cameras. no more worries about airport security
scanner, printer
bicycle – if i had truly converted it would be an atv

the walk was as usual – choosing forks in the track at whim. finding not only wood piles but also places were people had left tyres, parts of cars – how do they get them up here and other objects no longer needed.

heading into st. john’s avoiding route 20 i went through outer cove and middle cove to logy bay. the area is becoming quite posh. rumours are rife that william hurt and j.lo have bought property in middle cove. what i also saw were old appliance grave yards all over. couldn’t get to them, couldn’t get a nice bucolic image of them as they were relatively hidden but there was a nice alternating between rusted out cars and washers.

am trying to photograph both the detritus and the wood piles equally as some people would see the cutting down of trees as a blotch on the environment. lovely day perfect temperature – some raspberries were out, the blueberries were far behind those on the way to the tolt.

perfect day light breeze so that walking didn’t soak my shirt. deep blue sky heightened by the clouds. the waning moon was still high in the sky.

didn’t find the pond, and while it was hard i did turn around at roughly an hour ok 90 minutes and headed back to pouch taking a different route.

arriving in town at the top of noseworthy’s hill was confronted with pouch surrealism. someone had placed all of their human lawn ornaments on those universal plastic chairs one gets from hardware shops. they were placed there as anchors from the wind but they did have a nice view of pouch and the ocean. a loaded laundry line was behind them.

more formalism this time including sheds.

just back from the kitchen where i caught a mouse in flagrante, it scurried behind the cooker.

trying to find a way down off the hill, took noseworthy’s lane which gave me a nice view of sullivans loop - which look like its own oasis in pouch - but no way down to it.
gave up walked back up noseworthy’s to new – unpaved - road then down connor’s hill.

ran into henry who was in his straw hat with this pouch cove 25 years sunglasses – i think that i left mine at m.u.n. so was decked out with my beloit snappers ball cap.

-still at it b’y?
-eternally
-where did you go?
told him
-must have seen everything b’y. what’s left?
-don’t know but you are still here and liking it…
-am 72
-see i have some to go then.
he then mentioned cape st. francis - done that
bauline – also
bell island – yep
i reminded him that he pushed me up the pipe house in 2001 when the neon was skidding on the ice. remembering that he laughed showed me his house and was off for dinner, via the shed.
arriving at the house to get the car and more film, i found a note on the door inviting me to a pot luck at the pipe house this friday. things are piling up.

ten minutes to go to shoe cove and for my first official portrait commission. cathy – russell’s daughter wanted me to photograph her daughter. arrived nervous as i don’t do portraits, tried to have her look at the website but like most of my stuff it was too circuitous for her or her husband.

her son alex told me to go around back where she had her hair salon. nice house, raised ranch type that one would find anyplace in fact it was at the end of the cul-de- sac, large television downstairs whirlpool bath.

she had plans to do it in the house – too dark no lighting equipment or knowledge,
went outside to see if there was a nice area as a backdrop. decided on the front deck as i wouldn’t have to look down on her and it was in the shade.

another gap in trust between here and the country above mexico. a friend of hers told her to put her in a halter top and underwear and photograph in the bath room – which was well lit.

could see the front page of the telegram now. north american kiddie porn ring works out of pouch cove – yank caught crossing border….

explained to her that it may not be the best type of image to make especially due to the paranoia in the states.

i was trying to calm down to remember everything, take off lens cape, make sure eyes are open, alyssa’s grin seemed forced. make her close her mouth. try to get everyone to relax, watch the background.

a roll and an half on the deck then a costume change and another on the lawn – they had a front lawn. alyssa was most comfortable strangling her stuffed dalmatian that she won at the regatta.

the snaps in the sun may not work too much contrast but i wanted the maple leaf across the street in the snap – but not the light pole directly behind her. tried to photograph up at her so that and hoped that the mountains in the background would make a nice backdrop.

that finished i was offered a cup of coffee by cathy. at first i refused as i had thought that i had things to do – you know things – but remember the woman who was crooked when i refused the coke in corner brook, i accepted. besides i didn’t have things to do.

a nice conversation ensued. alex was too cool to have his portrait made - 13 years old. both went to the school in pouch until it moved to shoe cove where alyssa goes, alex goes to a parochial school.

cathy was curious about photography brought out the tom ridge she called alex and he never left. played with the camera, played with the lightmeter.

by the way
due to dwindling funds and not being able to either sell buildings and/or alienate and fire staff, to make ends meet, i am selling a pentax digital spotmatic lightmeter which i stopped using when i got the sekonic. good working order $475cdn, $350us.

alex saw the saab asked what type of car it was when his mum said a saab he said cool. doubt that would have happened with the grand caravan of last year.

now making snaps was fine – a few of cathy while i was learning about the area – some of alex while we were comparing pets, he has a hamster and seemed to be grossed out by the pet rats i used to have, we both had terrapins but his didn’t run loose.

discussed why they had chosen not to live on the ocean – afterall she is a langmead even if her husband’s family is from the goulds – angishore. the cul de sac was quiet the view of the pine covered hills and shoe cove pond was nice and it was good for swimming and fishing.

thought of the cul-de-sac in peasants pissoir with the manic car washer –insert a paul kennedy whelp here.

she was one of the first on the scene when adam, a.j. and jesse, drowned. said that the stories in the news were wrong there were not skipping as it was slob ice, they were near shore when they fell in and the slob kept them in, that one person had jesse with a rope and in trying to pull him out broke his arm, it was then that jesse reached back to try to save another.

everyone feels that they should have done more. they – cathy, tony - were going to pick up their son from school and get ready for a trip to domenica when they were passing through pouch.

coffee finished i excused myself and headed back to pouch for walk two.

saw russell and ted sullivan
-your daughter broke my camera
-how much do i owe you?

ted wondered if i had vodka to go with the orange juice i had bought at the pharmacy.

when she mentioned shoe cove i thought the cove itself – everything is based on water with me. i went back to pick up more film and headed down to shoe cove driving to shoe cove road and walking toward pouch.

i had done a lot in winter once when i was here with the pinhole but stopped when i was slipping down the cliff. at the time all i saw were pines that went down into a valley on my side only to steeply rise on the other again i felt like those europeans – who were exploring the west. there was nothing but pines.

tried again in the blizzard of 2001 but stop when i stepped into a six foot snow bank.

i was ready this time. typical rough descent the track was also a water run in the spring. kept trying to see the bottom of the valley but all i saw were trees, finally turning a corner two cliffs rising with about 100 metres of ocean between them. completely secluded – as was proven by eternal love that was written on the rocks – i could barely see the islands off cape st. francis – forgot the tome ridge so no digital snaps for e-mails. the beach was rounded rocks – the type of striated rock that one picks up to take back with them. felt the urge then remembered.

sat for a bit then headed back up to do some of the east coast trail toward pouch – again an hour out then turn around.

not quite as many diverging tracks over here. walked then slowed to a crawl, first some remnants of raspberries but the blueberries while not in full bloom were out enough to not have to look to pick them. picked and ate pecks. at first i was happy to get a hand full and eat until they were finished. however they soon became so plentiful that i would gulp down a handful so that i could fill up again. turning a bend i heard what sounded like a car. it was. it was a mercury grand marquis type of car here on the east coast trail a man with a broken arm was driving it with another in the passenger’s side. i got out the way but they stopped.

you know the drill by now
lovely day yeah b’y.
asked how they drove here. was told they called it the killick trail, for some reason cape st. francis and the cabins up there. asked about the house – it looked like a house to me – by the pond behind pouch cove – they knew of it – and said it was a cabin. the man with the broken arm was quite deferential. said good-bye they said enjoy my stay and come back. chose a path that seemed to get closer to the coast, still gorging myself on blueberries, rounding a bend just about where the path stopped i could see pouch and an inlet that was a good 50 metre drop to the ocean. there were two of these and with the path ending…

retraced my steps to the land based fork – better blueberries until time was up,

retracing my steps to the car – i decided to first see where the two blokes had entered diamond road the last road before the descent into pouch – it is there where at night the town gets ready to be laid out in front of you as you wind down into town.

heading back they were still there. a quick chat again then they drove off as i made my way back to the car.

evening bit of shopping the canadian way as i went to zellers to buy a new pair of sunglasses. zellers bought out the kmarts – i think – and this one was within 500 metres of a wal-mart and a costco
the car park was empty the shop had more staff than customers and i only saw five staff people. no sunglasses that would be respectable outside of florida. i tried i thought as i headed over to the wal-mart car park.

saved as there was a canadian dollar shop – (pretty crappy) sunglasses had for $2.00.
this trip is still wal-mart free.

a good drive home route 20 was empty and for the first time this visit did 100k/h on the flatrock/shoe cove straightaway .