Stay-cation and Stitching

***My site is under construction at the moment... going to try and fix those wonky pictures in a couple of hours promise!***

Happy Sunday!

First off, thank you all so much for your kind words on my last post. I really do love you all :)

This summer, seeing as we've been flat out house building, we decided to have a mini stay-cation. We didn't stray far from home and opted to do a bit of camping in Lockston Path Park seeing as we liked it so much last time (did we ever, I wrote THREE posts on the trip haha: On the Discovery Trail; Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)! This time I took a few days off work and we were gone a grand total of 4 days... yup that's what a vacation looks like when all you can think of is HOUSE HOUSE HOUSE. 

Anyway, given that the boyfriend's birthday was coming up I decided to treat him while we were on this mini vacation. We did something that we both have never ventured to do before... and as a Newfoundlander I should have at least done this once before in my life... we hit the open ocean! As his b-day gift, I had decided to take the boyfriend on a boat tour. BUT not just ANY boat tour. This tour was going to be all about the old resettled outport communities in the Trinity area rather than the whale, bird and iceberg tours that are a dime a dozen in this region. Sure that kind of boat tour might have tickled the fancy of some (myself included as I'm a sucker for animals) but for the boyfriend who is a huge history buff and knows more about Newfoundland than I do (and he wasn't even born here!) I thought that this would be right up his alley. 

I tried my very best to keep our destination a secret right up until the very last moment until there was no where else to go but follow the sign that said "RUGGED BEAUTY BOAT TOURS THIS WAY ---->". At that point there was no denying what we were doing.

So down the ramp to old fishing stage we went, where we donned our bight yellow life jackets... not that they'd be much help in the North Atlantic Ocean! One word - Hypothermia... Of course, I hadn't thought of that until we were already headed out of the bay with the salt water lashing our faces. The ocean was a bit choppy that day so getting wet was all but inevitable - another thing I hadn't thought of until it was too late. But despite all this, I never... not even once felt unsafe. I put all of the maybe's and worry out of my mind and had a great time learning and experiencing what it must have meant to live in those isolated communities of old. 

Before I go on any further about the trip there is one thing you must know. Back in the 60's the government sponsored a resettlement program. This resulted in the relocation of hundreds of communities and their citizens to more prosperous locations. Life in the outports was and will always be difficult, and sometimes the fish weren't plentiful or perhaps there had been a disease of some sort, so people would uproot and leave. This had been happening long before the resettlement program was introduced, but of course now people had a monetary incentive. The worst thing about this was all the history and culture that was lost of communities that had been hundreds of years old. Resettlement has become known as a very sad chapter in Newfoundland history. 

One very famous image of Resettlement. Pictures kids watching the floating of a
 house to be transported to another location during resettlement. 

Back to the tour! We visited the communities of Kerley's Harbour, British Harbour and Ireland's Eye (my favourite just because of the name!). The most amazing thing is that while not much remains in these places but for a few modern day cabins, mother nature and the old inhabitants haven't taken away everything. Relics and collapsed piles of wood still dot the harbours of these deceased communities.

Of course, apart from learning about these old communities, we got to experience Newfoundland as it should be experienced! On the ocean. The coastline and sights were spectacular!

Kerley's Harbour

Washed up lobster traps - Kerley's Harbour

Kerley's Harbour

Open Ocean - NL coastline

Collapsed Houses - Ireland's Eye

Ireland's Eye -You can actually still see the remnants of the old Church.

Ireland's Eye

British Harbour - The last remaining saltbox house was restored by the cabin
owner that owns the building to the furthest right. Now that is amazing!

Having a culpa at our guide's family cabin. - British Harbour

Myself and the boyfriend even got to Cod jig for the first time!

An old time Cod jigger!

Of course I could go on and on and on about all the other things we saw on our trip but I think I'll just show you instead:

Best chocolates ever! - Trinity

Trinity

Tide is out! - Trinity

Trinity

Dunfield

Fort Point - Trinity

Trinity

Trinity

Trinity

Kitchen Garden - Trinity

Old Jello packages in a restored general store - Trinity

Headstones from the 1700s!!! - Trinity

Trinity

The morning after the storm! - Port Rexton

View from our Inn, had to take last minute refuge from an unexpected storm
the evening before!!! Turned out to be an amazing evening with
the boyfriend and an excellent bottle of wine all huddled up
in out warm (and dry) room :)

A scene that struck a cord with me from a play we watched in Trinity.

PEWF! My my that was a trip indeed!

I even got to start on LHN's Season's Mystery sampler whilst puting along in the car.

Almost finished part one! As I don't have part 2 or 3 yet I'll opt for getting a start on Santa's Magic... if the fabric would ever get here *note to self... saving 10$ is not worth the sale if you have to wait 5 weeks+ for the fabric...*

Hope you all have a great dayyyyyy!

xo

Melissa