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I am more fully aware of the weather up here. Not that it is colder than the upper mid-west. It isn’t. I am aware of it as I have to prepare for it. The house not having central heating since the wood furnace was taken out, there is a ritual of opening and closing doors to heat and forsake various parts of the house. The back bedroom is a wine cellar. During the day everything is open. At night I strategically close what is not being used and just before bed open the door to the bedroom to allow the heat to infiltrate in just enough to be able to sleep. The place is at 16C.

I am aware of this as I headed out to the town where most students – and others - think I am from Witless Bay. I saw this house via Property Guys that overlooks the bay and ocean for $38.000CDN. Wanted to see it.

Needless to say it was a disappointment as it seemed that there was a better view of the water. It is between two houses and while at the price it is nice, I have been spoiled.

It was also small. Like Elke’s up the road, Hansen’s place in Kingman’s or even Peter’s in Petty Harbour, the rooms are quite compact. Sullivan’s Loop seems spacious, and the Pipe House…well with no walls.

On a –10C day I twigged. Easier to heat. While both Peter’s and Elke’s places seemed intimate they were also warm and only needed a wood stove. Baird sits under an afgan.

I am also aware as I have to start the fire when it is needed and I am still not a pro at it. I write this until the fire goes out and the chill seeps back in

Even though it was a –10C day it was nice enough to do my morning wander about Pouch with Ubirajara – the last time I use him in winter. Again I got overexposed negs – not so much that I cannot use them but they are definitely dense. Particularly worried as I found one of those ikonic snaps that I look for. It was Sam Newell’s clothes line with a head stone from the cemetery next door. There were quite a few juxtapositions to-day. A dory “parked” in front of a split level home behind one of the many Noseworthys places – this one had a statue of two “coloured boys” fishing. Am thinking maybe I should put two grinning people in Sou’westers on the front lawn.

Also photographed Jamie Lynn with her kid wrapped up on her back as she was waiting for her other daughter to come home from school in Gruchy’s Hill.

There are many things that I am not doing this time that I wanted to – no regrets just a statement one was to take that great mother road. So after snaking into St. John’s via a diversion through Flatrock and all the coves along Killick Coast Drive from Torbay passing under the new beginning point to the Trans Canada, passing the old Mile One and out Pitts Drive – at one time the TCH. Then down route 10 – The Irish Loop through Bay Bulls to Witless Bay.

Don’t much like the southern shore. It could be that it is on the way to someplace – you pass through Bay Bulls, Witless Bay, Ferryland etc. you end up in Pouch, Woody Point. It could be that I hate driving through the Goulds.

I liked Witless Bay, got out for a walk parking in someone’s lot
-taking pictures?
-yeah can I park there?
-yeah.

I keep wanting and meaning to spend more time in St. John’s and out of the Duke, but there was the formalism that I was looking for here coupled with the juxtaposition of objects and space that I like in the outports.

Zequinho was with me and he being able to take to the cold - it is easier to change film in him also - I could wander at will. A demonstration of faith as there was laundry on the line over the Atlantic in 30k/h winds. A dory in front of an 18 wheeler, A graveyard overlooking an area where well used items were “left”.

There was even a beach, black sand but still I haven’t been this close to the water since I arrived. Drove through Petty Harbour on the way to the late afternoon ritual, a flash back to the road to Bonne Bay for a few minutes – not the 30 there – I was winding my way through wooded hills. The Pipe for the water supply for St. John’s killed the magic a bit.

Like Petty Harbour again it is intimate, all along the hills on both sides of the harbour – Houses tucked in but there was this abomination that one sees in Peasant’s Pissoir usually built by F.I.B.s to impress someone – five stories high on a hill – the residential equivalent of the Rooms.

Cape Spear Drive and Shea Heights coming into St. John’s is second only to driving down the old Trans Canada and first seeing Signal Hill and then the harbour. I could see the Labatts brewery and from this distance the Rooms almost seemed ok.

It is late afternoon this means a search for a Globe to keep me and my Smithwicks company will be difficult. Head to a convenience in Duckworth that always has them, passing the CBC crew that was out at the Pipe House filming Kennedy cooking.

-Do you have a pet story? We’ll include you in the segment – as they head into Sue’s place.

No globe at the convenience but as I leave I run into Barb Daniels who was the next door neighbour in Woody Point – I kept calling her Pat as I was on a mission. Heard more about the scandal that happens within the Rooms.

Desperate, I head to the Hotel Newfoundland where having one I can now justify a pint before the long arduous trip back to Pouch listening to the Fisheries Broadcast where there is an alert of a dead whale warning and they give the coordinates.

Baird says he doesn’t mind the mouse running about when he is up nor the droppings it is the racket it makes when if gets in the food.

I see mine for the first time as we both go for the garbage at the same time.