Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Blog Jam


Sunset on the Bay, taken by me


10 LOVES

(1) I love the way my dog does a stately paddle in the sea every night. Just for the sheer joy of it. Head thrown back and this grin on her face. She lets the hair of her belly just touch the water and she lifts her paws high, throwing me an eager eyeball: try it oh two footed one, just try it!
(2) I love the way we all left the community hall after cards last night. It was after ten. We stopped suddenly, as one, and looked at the remains of the maroon sunset striking the still water like a paintbrush below us. My, said Myra who is 91, isn't it grand to be alive? Grand indeed.
(3) I love the way the conductor of a fabulous youth choir Shallaway was spontaneously invited into an Ireland-Newfoundland meeting I was at today and cried as she talked of how her dream became reality and her choir now tours the world.
(4) I love how I rush about tidying up and rectifying really bad areas of my house before the cleaning lady gets here tomorrow.
(5) I love watching the boat building across the bay and how they water tested this large vessel they were working on this evening with all these other little boats running around it. Like a mother duck with ducklings.
(6) I love the smell of the fresh mown grass and the forget-me-nots that are everywhere around the house.
(7) I love how my value has risen in the village because I now have a potato trench with actual potato plants pushing up through it.
(8) I love how certain friends 'get me' as I 'get them'. It is so easy to talk to them. Like shorthand for soulmates.
(9) I love how I'm beginning to tell tomorrow's weather by the colour and condition of the water in the bay tonight.
(10) I love the feeling of this old book that arrived today from the states. Thanks to Abe Books.
It is called "Newfoundland and its Untrodden Ways", a 1907 tome by J.G. Millais that I have wanted for a long, long time. It is bound in red leather and comes from Stanford University Library. Gorgeous doesn't do it justice. It has many old, old photographs and maps and drawings, some worth framing if I can get good copies.
I quote from one paragraph near the beginning:

"St. John's is a quiet old-world place, something between a Canadian town and a Norwegian fishing village. On one side of the beautiful harbour are endless codflakes and a few sealing vessels, and on the other is the main town, built on the side of a steep hill, where electric trams and lights add the one jarring note; but the whole atmosphere of the place is charming and without noise. They discourage the American spirit there, and the man who wants to hustle soon breaks his heart. Business men stroll down to their offices at ten o'clock, and have always time for a cigar and a chat."


I am looking forward to tucking into the rest of it. The interior of Newfoundland, the vast unknown, has always intrigued me.

14 comments:

  1. "the man who wants to hustle soon breaks his heart."
    that's brilliant.

    your life in newfoundland sounds idyllic.

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  2. That's a nice way of appreciating the joys in life. My way is to look for the "wow" factor - ten things I've done or seen today that made me feel "wow!" Maybe just simple things like an amazingly beautiful flower that's just come out, or an unexpected compliment, but they all add up to the feeling that life can be much richer than we expect.

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  3. Laurie:
    There's not too much to the 'down', well there's the rain, sometimes days of unrelenting, then right now is 'nipper' season where these tiny black flies each bite with the ferocity of 10 mosquitoes!
    XO
    WWW

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  4. Nick:
    Yes, like yourself, I think awareness is the key. As they say 90% of the people walk around fast asleep and the rest have the 'loves' or the 'wow' which means they are wide awake!
    XO
    WWW

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  5. I like to think I am wide awake and smelling the roses.Good colour in the sky here tonight.

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  6. We experienced some of those 'maroon sunsets' while boating on the Norfolk Broads. Wonderful! I'd almost forgotten how good they are. Not too many of them in central Illinois.

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  7. Gm:
    I just know you are!
    -----------------------
    RJA:
    Oh so good you're back! I must check your blog now!!
    -----------------------
    XO
    WWW

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  8. I had to move my blog, WWW. I hope you'll come over to see me there. Love, Nora.

    http://brightandsunny.wordpress.com/

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  9. I love the way I get to sit here in the middle of the night with my music on and do whatever I choose to do without bothering a single soul and even the animals don't mind and just sleep right through it. That, to me, is bliss. Just wish I could see the starry sky at the same time.

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  10. What a lovely photo! I do envy you St John's with scenes like this to photograph.
    I understand totally 4). My grandmother would clean and tidy up before the workman came to fix the boiler - even though they would leave things in more of a mess than before. It's a heartwarming trait - it's a kind of welcoming too.

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  11. N: Why can't you see the starry sky, is it too bright with city lights?
    XO
    WWW

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  12. OF:
    I think it's a bit stooopid. actually but I can't bear the idea of my cleaning lady sharing with chums and fellow-villagers the slovenly level to which I will sink if left alone for longer than a week.
    XO
    WWW

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  13. It goes without saying, I hope, how much I enjoy your posts, WWW. And, any post with a pic of a 'sunset' attached is all the more enjoyable since I'm a complete 'sucker' for 'sunsets'.

    I'm just now downloading my latest load of photos taken on this last Turkey trip.

    Here's my own personal favourite so far.

    Maybe you'll see in it the same as I do. That is, how wonderful our world truly is. If only certain cretins wouldn't serially be set on screwing it - and us.

    Btw, if any has the time and/or inclination (and is not too easily bored), there are numemrous additions to Flicr page(s).

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  14. Richard:
    Gorgeous photo too. yes something so special about sunsets, I agree. End of day thoughts trickling over the beauty that surrounds us every day if only we are prepared to notice it.....
    I'm glad you do, too!
    XO
    WWW

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