thank you for being a friend

Had such a good weekend. 

A few farewells: Mandy was off to Toronto early Saturday morning and then Sarah and Brandon 

went back to Scotland on Sunday evening. 

But while they were here we had fun celebrating Caitlin's birthday Friday evening, 

then later we got refused at 24 hr Celtic Hearth (unspeakable!), Subway was out of bread (unbelievable!) 

and thus had hotdogs and wedges freezing outside instead (unbearable!). 

Saturday was sleeping in, brunch with Tony, hanging out with Catherine (and Alicia) 

at her apartment watching Brandy's Cinderella (remember that one?) 

and then some late night take out from "Momma Bellies" aka "Mohammed Ali" 

nom nom for falafel pita sandwiches and Golden Girls. 

Sunday was more hanging out with everyone listed above, 

driving home in time for church, visiting a recovering Aunt Dorothy, then having soup & grilled cheese 

and a movie with Aunt Ollie & Uncle Frank.

Basically my heart is aching right now because so many of my favourite people are everywhere but here. 

I'm on moons and clouds 

where worlds wrap around

 

light

 a few more from the lantern installments

lantern festival

 Victoria Park Lantern Festival brought a little bit of magic to our city this weekend.

st. john's weekend - part 3 (sunday)

Sunday was a fairly relaxed day. We went to church at Elim in the morning, had a quick little lunch back at Nan's, then headed over to our aunt's house for our cousin Bethany's bridal shower! They had the 'design a wedding dress from TP' game. I'd played the mummy wrap before, but never the dress. Elizabeth and I transformed Catherine into a beautiful blushing bride as you can see, as she holds her bouquet of flowers, haha. There was also a 'guess her age' game with a ton of pictures of her childhood. I was always just one or two years off the mark! Prizes were from Davids Tea, the really cool company Bethany works for. There are plans for it to come to St. John's and I'm pretty excited about it. There were also lots of presents to open:

Can I take this moment to declare my love for Manna Bakery? I was already in love with their bread, but add that amazingness to their curry chicken as well? Delish. I love the variety of food at showers.

We went to Cape Spear afterwards with high hopes, but there was a ton of fog and misty rain that we didn't anticipate at all.

Nice out right? I suppose we should have known, but the rest of the city was just overcast. We definitely weren't dressed for a walk in that dreariness so instead, we drove back to the mall to see The Green Lantern. We wanted to see Bad Teacher but it was sold out when we got there. It worked out quite alright though. Good movie, and they kept it pretty PG considering its Gossip Girl, Blake Lively and mchottie, Ryan Reynolds. We drove home that night, rather slowly. It seems every single time I've driven home from town in the evening there's some sort of terrible weather to face, these days: unending fog.

And that concludes our June 25th weekend!

st. john's weekend - part 2 (saturday)

We arrived downtown around 11:30 but could not find a parking spot to save our lives. After about 25 minutes of driving around the heavens opened up and finally bestowed one upon us. And in the process of discovering said spot, we noticed a mass of people making their way towards the waterfront. We, being our curious selves, decided to ignore our breakfast/brunch seeking bodies to find out what the fuss was all about.

 We quickly realized that it was the rally to save and keep the Search and Rescue program here in Newfoundland. It kind of has a place in our hearts not only since our father is a retired fisherman, but also because a Michael Petten, from our home community and older brother to one of Catherine's best friends, is only still here with us today because of this program's existence in our province.

If he had to wait for them to arrive from Nova Scotia, where Harper's government wants to relocate it, he surely would have perished in that frigid Atlantic; he was waiting over 2 hours for assistance as it was from our shores! That place does over 500 rescues a year, and in the matter of lives, that's no small number. We heard his mom give her few words on the matter in front of the huge crowd and we were so proud of her.

From there we walked to the Duke to get some brunch, once again, the place was packed and we got the only table left in the house. Our "weekend brunch" hit the spot. We even saw good ole "Tinny" again. Catherine decided to tweet "Newf celeb sighting: Tinny from Republic of Doyle at the Duke! Where's Des?" just for fun. We abandoned the idea to go to the pottery craft place only for the fact that it was all the way at the opposite end of Duckworth and we ultimately wanted to head in the opposite direction. 

So we went back to the Newman Wine Vaults to take a sensible look around the place, without the chairs. We continued on and browsed a couple of little stores we'd never noticed before along the way. Lots of people were out walking and it shaped up to be a beautiful day, considering the dreariness we've been living in for the last three weeks. Not only did it not rain like the forcast foretold, but the sun actually showed up!

This is the face of an ecstatic girl. It was about this point when she discovered that Allan Hawco of Republic of Doyle retweeted what she'd said earlier. We had a good laugh at that!

We walked by the ole train too. We decided to end our train adventure when some cute newlyweds showed up to take pictures; we figured we'd share. We went back to Water Street, stopped to rest our feet and drink something hot from Coffee and Company (the wind still made it a little chilly), and picked out bridal shower presents for our cousin.

Since it was such a nice day we went up to Signal Hill to check out the view, learn about Marconi and radiowaves, and people watch a little (as always). Lovely.

(the two photos above are from Evannah)

From there we got some things to bring to the birthday bonfire in Middle Cove Beach. It was Janessa's birthday and it was a perfect way to spend a Saturday evening. We chilled from 8 til 11ish eating the mandatory hotdogs and marshmallows, doritos, and cupcakes that Evannah made; playing with light up toys, catch phrase and enjoying the fireworks show that a nearby group were shooting off. The beach was really lit up that night, fireworks and at least a dozen other fires.

We really enjoyed ourselves!

st. john's days

As I've already said, it's been a few years since I've experienced summer in Newfoundland. I've been making plans to get out there and enjoy as much of it as much as possible. In less than two weeks are the St. John's Day celebrations, you know, to celebrate the birthday of our fair city. They've got lots of things going on to taste, see and do. If all goes well, my sisters and I are going to spend that weekend in town and we've made up a schedule to try and fit as much in as possible.

It's been forever since I've done something like that. In fact, I don't think I've ever sat down and planned my own sight seeing trip. In the past, sister trips downtown usually involved catching the bus with no set plan for the day and we've always enjoyed ourselves. When making plans with friends I'm usually the agreeable one, up for anything, which is great but usually leaves me trusting someone else to deal with the details. This is like a test run. It's in a place I've been to a few dozen times, but we'll be looking at it a little differently. This time around I'm kind of excited to have a plan of action, and to even have a little research already done in preparation.

What are we looking forward to doing, you may ask?

Well, we're hoping to catch a "spooky performance" held in the Newman Wine Vault, which has a pretty cool history. In the late 1600s, on its way to London, a Newman's ship was knocked far off its course by pirates and bad weather. They ended all the way over here in Newfoundland and because of the winter approaching, sought shelter in St. John's until the spring. When they returned to London with their cargo of wine, they discovered that the taste was improved. From then on, they continued to bring over their port to mature in the vaults in Newfoundland, and this wine proved to be very popular with the local pub goer and aristocracy alike. And to think I've walked past this place on numerous occasions without realizing it.

(source)

We want to go by Quidi Vidi Lake where there will be some races by crews from the Royal St. John's Regatta. I've always missed Regatta Day which is a big deal in August, so I'm guessing this will be a little sample of it. There'll be other things going on in the area while we're there too.

The Railway Coastal Museum is a possibility. Trains are cool.

We're definitely going to Cape Spear which, in case you didn't know is the most easterly point of North America. Haven't been there in years so it better be a nice day! It tends to get pretty cold around here. I want to visit the lighthouse and check out what they've got going on for the Whale Festival. Hoping to actually see some whales while we're there too.

I'm pretty excited to attend the free workshops going on at the Craft Council of NL Clay Studio. I've never been, and I haven't sculpted anything since the basket in grade eight art class. Wait, that's a lie. I once made an armless mermaid sculpture at a workshop when I went to Encounters with Canada back in the day. Anyways, it's a lot of fun. I should do it more often.

Again, if the weather's good, one night Janessa is having a bonfire for her birthday festivities. I'm looking forward to hotdogs and marshmallows and warming up by a blazing fire. Beach fires make it feel so much more like summer.

I happen to think this weekend trip will be a lot of fun.  There's a few more things we're hoping to squeeze in too, meals at some places my sisters have never been before, like the Duke or the Yellow Belly and some sort of musical entertainment. We'll include some bonding with Nan and go to church Sunday morning too.

Having something to look forward to makes the daily grind easier to manage. 


Also, bear with me, I'm testing out some new looks for my blog. With it being a new year and all, I want a new look to reflect it. It's a little on the plain side to me right now. I'll get it right eventually.