In 2010, my husband and I left the city to escape to rural life in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and we're savoring every moment.
I update my blog with everything I love through prose and photography, as well as posts about writing. My first novel was released in March 2016 and its sequel was released in March 2017. My third novel, The Women of Wild Cove, was published in September 2025, this time of the speculative genre.
I honestly can’t believe how fast this year flew by. 2023 was quite eventful, what with signing a new publishing contract—YAY!—as well as reaching a couple of personal milestones. More on those in a bit.
Not everything was rosy, however.
As many of you know, we had to say goodbye to our Vivian in November. Eight weeks later, the grief is still so raw, so fresh. I think the only way to ease the loss is to rescue another cat, or two, come spring.
Now for the milestones. In 2023, our house here on Perry’s Point turned one hundred years old!
We’ve lived here since we left the city in 2010, with very few regrets. Paul and I love it here next to the ocean and away from the hustle and bustle of urban life.
If you haven’t already, check out my post from 2020, Ten Years in This Old House, to see how we spruced it up before we moved in.
Milestone Number 2: On August 15th, Paul and I celebrated our silver wedding anniversary.
25 years married to my best friend. Of course Paul always reminds me we were together four years before our wedding day. 💕
I am deeply thankful on this New Year’s Eve for many things, and one of them is having you, my blogger friends, in my life. Each of you have made blogging much more meaningful than I ever thought possible when I started this journey. Which just so happened to be on New Year’s Eve, 2011.
The time has come to blog about something I’ve always dreaded, and the tears will be inevitable as I write it. It has taken me a while to accept the heartbreaking fact that, after a brief but devastating illness, our precious Vivian is no longer with us.
Vivian K. Perry
Life is too quiet now. Our home will never be the same. Perry’s Point will never be the same. I’m still grieving far too much to make these words eloquent, so just know that our pain and loss is real.
Vivian was our constant companion and our family member for over sixteen wonderful years. Her love and her devotion to Paul and me was unconditional and mutual. She will remain in our hearts forever.
Her last night on my lap—November 2/23
My hope is that she is reunited with her sister Maisie, enjoying all kinds of capers, cuddles and catnaps in a sweet kitty afterlife.
🐾 🐾 ❤️❤️ 🐾 🐾
Rest easy, sweet kitty!
I’m sharing Vivian’s first guest post on my blog from 2012 below:
When I first moved to Newtown back in 2010, my husband Paul told me how he used to play in “the farm” as a child. “Show me this farm!” I said. “Oh, it isn’t actually a farm anymore,” he chuckled. “But we used to play Cowboys and Indians, and climb the big rocks over there. Folks pick berries there now.”
In recent years, the farm trail has been upgraded and storyboards have been added.
The Farm: “In the late 1860’s and into the 1900’s, there were two ways to get from Perry’s Point to E & S Barbour’s and William Barbour and Son’s businesses. The long way was a semicircle past the Greens and Tulk’s houses, but usually when asked which way you had gone, the answer would be across “the Farm”.
“Uncle Ned Green had a long “hen’s house” . . . and in the summer, horses would gather to feed and were not driven away. This was the area where all young kids would play games, climb the rocks, and build mud and wooden huts. The Farm became their playground in the summer and a place for snow sledding in the winter. It was also a great place to pick berries in late summer.”
Did you know Beothuk children played here long before Paul and his friends did?
”Nature gives us so much: clean air, beautiful landscape, breathtaking views, fish, animals, and the list goes on. We want people to come, see, and actually walk the path where a tribe of Beothuk once lived with their children and took care of the land without damaging our environment. We need to show our appreciation to the first peoples by protecting and preserving this same environment for future generations.”
Well said and I couldn’t agree more!
*This hiking trail is part of the Wonder Shore Trails system which start in Greenspond and go all the way to Musgrave Harbour here in beautiful Bonavista North.
Greetings, Peeps and Pets. Vivian K. Perry here, happy to share that I celebrated a milestone birthday last week. I know, I know, I’m already sweet and fabulous!
Sixteen wonderful years with Jennifer and Paul—three years in the city, thirteen in the country. And thirteen years with my sweet and beautiful sister Maisie.
Our Maisie
I still get to explore the outdoors here on Perry’s Point …
… especially during the gentle days of summer.
I even grab naps outside!
🐾 🐾 🐾
Yet, it’s equally as lovely indoors where I get tons of love and attention.
Jennifer says she can’t imagine life without me.
All I know is, however long I remain in this earthly realm …
With all the hype and hoopla about the new Barbie movie—no, this isn’t a review as I haven’t seen it yet—I thought I’d dig out the only Barbie I own right now.
It’s also fitting to share her this year because she was a bridal shower gift to me back in 1998, from my husband Paul’s Aunt Cassie. Yes, on August 15th, we will celebrate our silver wedding anniversary!
The box she came in has gotten a little damaged over the years.
Twenty five years later, I’m dusting Barbie off and “unveiling” her for you. This is what is written on the back of the box:
Below are her accessories:
… and her open-toe pumps:
Here she is with her veil on:
… and with the veil pulled back:
Before I put her away, should I reenact our wedding?
As an avid reader, I am always looking for something a little different when it comes to novels. Happily, I found four books this year which fit the description well. All four are very well-written, have vibrant female central characters, and yes, they are also authored by women.
In The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner, “a female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose – selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be free of the men in their lives who have wronged them – setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course.”
📚📚📚
In Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, “Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. And like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why Elizabeth finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show, Supper at Six. And she isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.”
📚📚📚
In The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, “an aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love.”
📚📚📚
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn is “an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet bookworm, Mila Pavlichenko, who becomes history’s deadliest female sniper. Based on a true story.”
📚📚📚
I enjoyed all four of these novels, although to a lesser extent, the last one, because war is not a subject I care to dive into very often.
Have you read any of the above? How did you find them?
Do you have any recommendations for other books with unconventional female protagonists? Do tell!
Thinking of you today, Dad, and every day. Revisiting a favourite post from 2015 to honour you on Father’s Day. ❤️
These days, few of us experience the old-fashioned pleasure of receiving a letter by standard mail. So imagine my joy to find, tucked inside a Christmas card from my aunt in the U.S., a handwritten note, along with a handful of photos sent to her from my father.
She writes:
“Dear Jennifer – A note to enclose with these snapshots sent to me many years ago. They are precious to me, but belong in your heart and your home. It was a great adventure that Ralph shared with me over the phone lines. – Lovingly, Irene.”
Discussing this with my aunt recently, she was unable to nail down the year they were taken, but she believes Dad made the trip to Labrador in the mid to late fifties. That would make him, at the youngest, twenty-one, and still single.
An added bonus: his familiar handwriting scrawled on the back of each snapshot. ♥
I have captioned each one with his words.
On Gander Runway
A closer look:
I love his outfit. Lots of layers, warm boots, yet he is wearing a jacket, shirt and tie, and his hair is perfect.
Our plane at Gander before takeoff 4:30 pm
This begs more questions: why did he fly out of Gander and not St. John’s? Who was he with and who took the pictures? Why did he make this trip to Labrador? Unfortunately, we are fuzzy on all the details.
Crossing the bays to Hopedale
Deserted shack and our dog-sled at Big Bay between Hopedale and Davis Inlet
At Makkovik with “husky” pups.
No surprise to me at all that Dad would love the little animals!
If only he and I could sit down and have a chat together about his adventure in “The Big Land.” In any case, I cannot put into words how good it feels to see my father’s young face again. ♥
Have you ever gotten mail that made your day?
Is there someone you love and miss with all your heart?
They say that travelling to places you’ve never been before is good for your brain, especially as you age. The island of Newfoundland is quite large and is the perfect place to accomplish this, with its ancient rock formations, dense forests and breathtaking coastlines and seascapes.
I know, I know—there’s no big culture shock from travelling within my own province, but it’s still nice to sightsee in locales we haven’t visited before. As I mentioned in a previous post, Paul’s work affords us many short road trips to all corners of the island, and we try to visit little nooks and crannies of interest in between. So when we found out about site visits to two schools on the Port au Port Peninsula last August, we were particularly happy to go. We’ve both been up and down the west coast but never there. And this would be our chance to visit the only peninsula on the island that we’d never been!
Port au Port Peninsula is that tiny arrow shape on the west coast.
We booked a two-night stay at The Inn at the Cape on Cape St. George. It was lovely, the host was friendly, and the breakfasts were wonderful.
Inn at the Cape
“Discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust
Gulf of St. Lawrence Limestone cliffs of Port au Port
We didn’t get to take in everything on that trip but would gladly go back to sightsee what we missed.
“I take to the open road. Healthy, free, the world before me.” – Walt Whitman
Jennifer's Journal 