nostalgia

I grew up on a diary farm. It was the best, my own small universe was huge and sparsely populated—just they way I like it. The lawn was large and had giant peony plants at one end. Two red maples were in front of the house that had been planted when my dad was little. Summers where humid, green and introspective. (Yes, even when I was six I was looking into myself and asking big questions.)

In the winter all the snow from the laneway would be dumped into a giant pile and my dad would carve out the best forts ever.

We only had five channels, no internet and my mom made us go outside all the time. I credit this for my imagination, my independence and my love of outdoors.

When I was a kid, living on a farm, I used to wander around alone a lot outside.

Just now, when outside with my dog, I could smell spring—cold mud, melting snow—and there were actually crocuses poking out through the dirt in front of our building. It gave me flashbacks to spring on the farm, and I remembered taking photos of streams made of melted snow running over the stones in the laneway. For some reason it struck me as so beautiful that here I am, twenty years later, remembering it. The changing seasons always give me a  good, tingly belly.

The photos of course didn’t do the scene justice, I have never had a talent for photography, and probably my excitement for spring coloured the moment. It would be nice to still have them though.

I cannot tell you how much I love this book. Anything eerie (not thriller, psycho murderer stuff)  is so great to me. I remember first finding this book on my classroom shelf when I was in grade four and eating it up, not even knowing who Ray Bradbury was at the time.  If anybody knows anywhere online I can buy a copy with the cover on the left, please let me know!

I don’t think this needs any explanation. Enjoy.

Okay, it’s not really online. My mom is from there and tonnes of my family live there and I love it so much. Should you ever have the chance you should definitely visit.  Here are some things to wet your whistle.

  • Cheers Newfoundland A snowboarding video filmed in St. Johns (my husband is a crazy snowboarder, he goes every weekend in the winter)
  • Getting Screeched In People with no Newfie blood in them have to get screeched in. It seems to vary from town to town but usually the ceremony always involves kissing a cod fish and taking a shot of Screech
  • http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/ Official tourism site

This is where my grandparents used to live. One summer a chunk of iceberg broke off and floated into the cove where we could touch it. It was the size of a washing machine by the time it reached us but my siblings and I were still super excited because we were 10ish years old.

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