Curling

Lewisporte Curling Club

The last post on beer is a good transition into the post on curling, because curling isn't curling without the beer. Although I'm not sure if mixing alcohol and going on ice is such a good combination, but maybe that is why curlers wear flats instead of blades like skaters.

I didn't use to think much of curling, since in the city there were always a dozen other activities to choose from. However this winter, since I decided to refrain from bringing out my winter sporting equipment in anticipation of my flight back home where in addition to my suitcases, I have a bicycle and camping gear, I decided I would stick with doing activities that did not require me to ship home any more equipment than what I already have; hence curling. All I need is duct tape for my shoes and the brooms are provided at the arena. No equipment to ship home!  

I didn't know much about curling since I just started this winter, but can say with great enthusiasm that I enjoy it immensely as curling is a very social sport, and is quite easy to pick up for beginners. Each team is composed of four people and all the members work together to make a successful play. The "skip" who is the most experienced player, assess and calls all the play for the team, which means as a novice, I have the leisure to focus on building my technique and not have to worry too much about decoding the game right away. Eventually as I master the technique, I should be able to asses the game and manipulate my techniques for a more strategic play. Since I've determined I am no good at playing any sports involving balls, I thought I might find it challenging to throw the rock, since it is almost like a ball, but it turns out a 40 lbs rock with its flat bottom and weight travels fairly well in a straight line. Whew, no gutter ball embarrassment like with bowling. Not only is curling a cooperative game which can accommodate plays of all levels, it is also a game which promotes good camaraderie outside of the game. The rules are, after every game, the winning team will buy the losing team a round of drinks; everyone wins. :)



   

Newfie drinks: Blue star

5 Newfoundland big brands
Photo from Newfoundland Beer Brand History

Alright, so I'm not going to pretend I know anything about beer. Someone else has already written an entire post on the history of the top five Newfoundland beers. I merely wanted to document in this post that I have given into the "tourist" tendency and tried the the beer with the Newfoundland flag on it - the Blue Star. The guys at the bar did make fun of me, deducting right away I was not from around here, but oh well, it sparked some good conversation. After all, this year is all about collecting and exchanging stories.

PS The Blue Star was really light in taste, and that is as far as I can go in describing its taste with my unrefined taste buds.

Chilling with Annie in Stephenville, NL
and putting some physics knowledge in action at the pool table. 

 

Winter greetings from Springdale

On the first day of December, I had set out to finally see the Indian River falls. That was also when we had our first snow fall in Springdale, so I was rewarded with some very picturesque scenes for my photos.

The rural red fence. 

The epitome of a Canadian winter in the rural:
evergreens covered in snow,
chopped logs,
a trophy moose head.
I had taken a photo at this exact same location earlier on in the fall. 

I stumbled across the Pentecostal cemetery.

Wolves, birds, boats, ATVs and cabins; objects of peace, passion and comfort.

A man's best friend.

The Indian River trail in the winter.

Cut logs! I find that so cute.

Looking back at Springdale. By the Riverwood Inn.

The trail had not yet been touched.

Even though I was the only person on parts of the trail that day, I never did once feel lonely. There were these really interesting and informative interpretation signs all along the trail keeping me company. These are some of the things I learned that day:

1) Moose, native to Labrador were introduced into Newfoundland island in the late 1800s as a food source for people. It was 50 years before its population was large enough for them to be hunted. Did you know that a moose would eat between 40-50 pounds of twigs and shrub a day in the winter, and 50-60 pounds of leaves and water plants during the summer. Humans consume around 5 lbs a day or 2000 calories. No wonder moose have no time to study, because they have to spend all day foraging. I suppose a moose would need to feed on 50 lbs of food, because I doubt twigs and leaves are high in calories. An average bull weighs 800-1100 lbs and a cow 600-800 lbs.

2) Did you know that the reason why rabbits and hare eat their droppings is that the wood fiber is hard to digest, so they eat them the second time to extract the nutrients not absorbed upon the first digestion.

3) The beaver will flap its tail on the water to warn others of danger. They can also hold their breaths for up to 10 minutes.

4) Red foxes are usually monogamous; they may separate during the year, but reunite for mating.

5) Goshawks have talons like little daggers. That is a bird of prey for you.

At last, I have reached the Indian River falls.

Indian River trail head in the winter.
Compare with this photo of it in the fall. 

Mummers

Mummering is a Newfoundland and Labrador Christmas tradition where the mummers - people disguised- visit their friends' homes during the twelve days of Christmas from Christmas day to Jan 6th, old Christmas day. It turns out mummering was an old English tradition which Newfoundlanders have kept and made into its own.

Three dancing mummers

Newfoundland mummers always have their heads covered, and are often found wearing clothing in odd ways such as mitts on the feet and socks on the hands, boots on the wrong feet, underwear on top of clothing, clothing stuffed with material, and men as women, and women as men.

The mummers visits their friends unannounced in the small out port communities, or pre-alerted by a non-participating friend for the city dwellers. The friends then have to try and guess the identities of the disguised mummers. If the friends fail to correctly guess the identity of the mummer, they will have to reward the mummer with some Screech rum or Purity maple syrup if the mummer doesn't drink alcohol. Of course since it is Christmas time, and is a season of festivities, there is always a lot of singing and dancing and cake eating.

To see what mummering looks like, here is a song recorded in by Simani called the Mummer Song and later incorporated into the CBC Newfoundland and Labrador television series "The Land and Sea" in 1986. The Land and Sea episode with the Mummer Song is still aired by CBC every Christmas Day as part of the Christmas tradition in Newfoundland.



 

Christmas send off from Springdale

January 6th, today is the last day of old Christmas day so I figured I should squeeze in all my Christmas posts to stay with the season.

The cards my students made me.
I even got a letter completely written in French by one of my grade 6 Intensive Core French student. 

I have been so blessed meeting all the people I did in Springdale. They were welcoming, kind, and caring; always looking out for me. My biker lady friends gave me a wonderful send-off and made sure I was well stocked on all types of souvenirs from Newfoundland and Labrador.

Back from left to right: Pauline, Linda, Colleen, Kelly
Front from left to right: Golda, Phyllis, me, Heather  

Thanks to Pauline who searched hard and far,
we all received a bike ornaments to celebrate our biking passion and fellowship.  

A mysterious Santa even came to my send-off party!
On Santa's lap with my first-ever stocking. 

Colleen presented me with a photo-canvas of us all jolly the morning after
a night of good food and silliness at her cabin.   

A hand crafted Newfoundland and Labrador tote with Newfoundland tartan by Colleen. 

A hand crafted winter wall hanging by Golda.

A hand crafted Christmas card holder by Pauline

Newfoundland gifts. I am stocked up on Purity kisses and mints.
At the bottom right are a pair of blue mitts from Joy . I turned inside out to reveal the thrum.
The first time I put them on, I was like, what's this fuzzy stuff in my mitt?
It turns out that fuzzy stuff is the thrum. Thrum is a little wisp of unspun fleece or roving that may be knit into socks, hat, slippers and mitts to make the insides soft and warmer. This technique is most often associated with Newfoundland and Labrador, and early 19th centuary English rug making.
The yellow tinted fluff on my mitt is roving - unspun bundle of wool.

A lot of ornaments. There is also a snowman theme.
My favourite is the keychain puffin which my students have named
Mr. Muffin the Puffin.

I have been to the "Rock" (a.k.a. Newfoundland and Labrador) and
came home with a piece of it. This is a labradorite which is found typically in Nain, Labrador. 

If you turn the labradorite at certain angles, shiny spots will  be revealed.

More presents: A picture of Newfoundland mummers dancing with a mop, a photo of my first classes, a canvas of my biker friends and a Newfoundland dictionary for me to decipher the language next term.
The Newfie word I find the most amusing is the word for kettle.
In Newfie it is appropriate to ask someone to boil some water on the slut for a cup of tea. Teeheehee.

Being spoiled by everyone.
I am dressed up for my red & green day at school.
Muffin makes his first appearance in my photos. 

Springdale street names

In the older part of the town of Springdale, most of the street names are named after a type of tree (likely due to its presence in the surrounding). I have decided to make a catalogue of these street names with photos of what the tree looks like.

The red shrubs are probably blueberry bushes that have turned red with the season. 

Road side photos biking to Little Bay.

Forest St - this street is at the centre of town. All the other "tree" streets, Cherry Cr., Aspen Ln, etc surround Forest St.

**I regret to say that the photos in the links for the trees do not belong to me, but maybe after this post, I will have acquired more skills in identifying trees and will be able to showcase my own photos next time.**

Ash
Aspen Aspen is the tree I always confuse with birch, because they both have smooth white trunks, medium size rounded leaves with teeth, and in the fall, the leaves both change from green to yellow. The only thing I can use to differentiate the two is that birch bark is paper thin and peels off horizontally readily.
Birch

 Little Bay
I can't tell from this photo if the trees with yellow leaves are birch or aspen.
So much for my newly acquired skills in distinguishing them.

Cedar I've been told there is no cedar indigenous to the Newfoundland island, so what ever cedar you may
find there are grown for decorative purposes. This makes me wonder why Springdale with have a street named after a tree that is not likely to be found in that town...
Cherry 
Dogberry I now know the name to these pretty red berries! I think I have a photo of dogberries from an older post.
Elm
Fir I learned a try in distinguishing between fir and spruce trees. Fir starts with "f" which is also the first letter of flat, which is its distinctive trait where needles stick out on a flat plane from the branches. The needles on a spruce stick out from a branch in planes of all 360 degrees and thus the needles are all aROUND the branch and not flat.
Hemlock
Juniper The scale like needles are similar to cedar, but these ones are thicker and rounder.
Maple There are maples where I lived, but what I missed most this autumn were the vibrant red maples of southern Ontario and Quebec.
Larch There's also tamarack larch commonly just called tamarack which is really common in Newfoundland and in the northern territories. I was initially very confused by the tamarack, because being a coniferous, I was expecting it to be green like all the other needle and cone-bearing evergreens I was familiar with. What I saw instead this fall was that the needles of these coniferous trees were turning yellow. It turns out I was deceived by the cones and needles and in fact tamaracks are coniferous and deciduous and thus turn yellow and fall off in autumn. Tamarack is the Algonquin word for "wood used for showshoe", because the wood is tough but flexible.

Very short tamaracks in the distance.

Mulberry
Oak Oak trees remind me of one time when I was at Moorelands camp in Ontario and we were set to work on building the layout for this maze in a field, except, it was difficult to find a clearing to lay the material down since the field was scattered with acorns, the seeds of oak trees. I had wondered where all the lazy squirrels had gone, because there was a whole field of acorns to be harvested (not to mention that is was fall and they should really be stocking up for the winter). I then wondered, why don't humans harvest acorns... We eat all sorts of nuts, so why not acorns. I then proceeded to crack open an acorn to try for myself. It turned out, the nut was bitter in taste. Satisfied by my discovery I discontinued my degustation. It turns out Native Americans in fact do eat acorns. They first boil it in water to leach out the mildly poisonous substance which gives the acorn the bitter taste, then they grind up the nut to produce a meal/ flour for cooking.
Pine
Poplar
Redwood
Spruce
Sycamore
Walnut
Willow