Sailor's Delight

"Red sky at night, sailor's delight."


At this intersection I had to stop at the red light, in the sky.


This is Memorial University's Marine Institute, where a new semester of future sailors would be delighted at this good omen.

Petty Harbour, Newfoundland

Just a short drive from St. John, there are a couple of ways to reach the picturesque community of Petty Harbour. One is by the access road from the Goulds (far west end of St. John's), and the other is along the route to Cape Spear. From the latter route, you will also pass through the pretty, and expanding community of Maddox Cove.

On this day, residents of Petty Harbour put off a Heritage Festival at harbour side.





For more photos and information on Petty Harbour, and Maddox Cove, visit their website at www.pettyharbourmaddoxcove.ca/
* If you would like to order a print of Petty Harbour, please visit www.printscharles.ca

There has been so much fighting on George St. that city councillors should rename it Muhammad Alley

Update This was also printed in Saturday's Telegram on Aug. 28.

There have been a couple of good Telegram articles recently about the good and the bad of St. John's famous/infamous George Street. A few hard-hitting messages came through - George St. has an image problem, there is an alarming hard drug problem, and our culture of alcohol glorification show no signs of waning. Police authorities surely have their hands full dealing with weekend brawls, vandalism, noise and unruliness. Councillor Tom Hann saw it first-hand as he took a drive with the RNC 3 am Sat. night. The police say it would be helpful to install closed-circuit television cameras on George St.

Maybe it will deter some potential public brawls on that particular street, but it won't stop people from acting out of control either with drugs, booze, or their inner selves. Our whole culture, whether it's a city, town, or outport, has found the lure of alcohol, well, intoxicating, and from young ages on up, many still glorify it. For better or worse, our realities are influenced by the activities, personalities around us, attitudes, and habits that are powerful in our environments. This particular witness to a culture of over-drinking has noticed that there does not appear to be much emphasis, in general, on self-control. At least it wasn't a topic in my school curriculum, or there were few, if any, public messages about it. As we see, it affects adult behaviour and society in negative ways.

We are all human, and it is not always easy to take control of some habit that we have become accustomed to. However, as we also know, good habits can begin to replace unhealthy ones, and we can control our lives, rather than have negative habits control us. It goes for drugs, alcohol, food, and personal behaviours.

Naturally, parents and guardians have a huge role to play in educating their kids, and imparting messages of self control when it comes to potential problem temptations. However, young people still don't hear much about self-control in general. On the contrary, it's cool to throw away any antiquated sense of that, to "treat yourself", "just do it", "par-tay", and don't even think about what any "foods", drugs or alcoholic toxins can do to your body. As a matter of fact some restaurants use an opposing message to self control by their tantalizing "All You Can Eat" lure.

A message that can be out there more, is that we as individuals can control so much, like what we decide to eat and drink, and how fit we are, hence also helping to control the demand on health care, and the demands on the authorities who have to patrol all the George Streets, wherever they are. What happens on George Street and lots of roads and streets are preventable in the long run, but the roots of the problems and behaviours need to be studied, and addressed by every segment of our culture.

Good luck to Yvonne Jones

Liberal leader Yvonne Jones announced Friday that she has breast cancer and will undergo surgery on Monday. Having survived cancer and it's side effects, I want to wish Ms. Jones, and every cancer patient strength to deal with it physically and mentally.

Progress has been made on many cancer fronts, but it is still far too common, and still we also have long wait times for certain preventative tests like mammography. In addition, our main hospital still has staff shortages which makes it challenging for cancer doctors to properly care for their patients. However, we always hope it can only improve, one would think, with all the errors and criticisms of it in the last few years. For now, I hope Yvonne Jones will have a successful surgery and use her strength of character to return her to a good health. As some commenters at CBC's site advised, conserve your strength and put politics on the back burner for as long as it takes to get well.

Drive to the Isles - on the way to Twillingate

Just a couple of great looking towns on the Drive to the Isles. It was my first time driving there, and so well worth the day trip. Actually, the scenery and communities were so interesting and beautiful, that I would really want to spend a month on this little peninsula alone. One would need it to just explore and climb some hills for shots of the towns, land and seascapes, the geography, vegetation and community attractions. That's not even mentioning tourist attractions like whale and iceberg watching, and strolling the streets of historic Twillingate.

On this trip there, where normally it would take maybe 1.5 hours from Gander, it took over four hours, simply because of photo stops along the way. New never-before visited places can often cause that, especially on a rather bright day, which enhances the view of what nature has to offer.

There are many communities along this route, and to really get a full appreciation of each one would require much more time, or many return trips to the area. Below are a few places and scenes along the route.


From Gander to Twillingate is about 115 km.


There are many views like this along the way.

This is a more detailed map of the "Road to the Isles".


The community of Fairbanks

A view near Cottleview causeway


Beautiful Boyd's Cove




Twillingate seems to be rather "touristy" with lots to see and do, including museums, crafts shops, diners, and boat tours. I did not have enough time to fully explore the streets but will next visit. The view from some restaurants is fantastic.

Here is a view from one restaurant along Twillingate's busy streets.


The town of Twillingate


Reflecting on the days trip at Fairbanks again.

Sun and Moon Shift Change

One goes down and another comes up
tides comes in and tide goes out
good days come and good days go
darkness is followed by light

life is predictable yet unpredictable
expect the unexpected
and know that after darkness comes light