Sunday Snaps: Root Cellars of Elliston

Elliston, root cellar capital of the world

root cellars of Elliston, NL

These photos of root cellars are from one of my November posts five years ago. I’ve been thinking about them lately because in the speculative novel I’m writing, an abandoned root cellar figures largely in certain plot points of the story.

More than 130 root cellars have been documented in the Elliston area, dating back as far as 1839, and some are still used today to store homegrown vegetables.

According to Elliston folklore, the older folks told the children that babies came from root cellars. For more photos and info, click on the link below:

Mom, where do babies come from?

Cozy

When I folded laundry from the dryer the other day, I put a throw cushion on top until I got around to bringing it upstairs.

I usually do that to prevent one of the cats from turning it into a bed. Well, Maisie couldn’t resist the warm nest and simply nudged the cushion aside.

“Voila! Thanks, Mom.”

I didn’t have the heart to drive her out of it. ❤️

“Like all pure creatures, cats are practical.”
~ William S. Burroughs

Sunday Snap: A New Perspective

Aerial View of Perry's Point
Aerial View of Perry’s Point

This cool photo of Perry’s Point was snapped last week on Monday, November 5th by Paul’s cousin, Winston Perry. He took it from a small plane and gave me permission to share. Check out the sand and the seaweed around the coastline.

That’s my house in the foreground, closest to the end of the point, the blue one with the shed and a little blue outhouse to the far left. A large portion of Newtown is shown in the background.

The sunshine that day makes the house colour look lighter from that angle, but if you click on my Facebook link below, you’ll see its true colour. Laundry and all! That photo was taken by Winston’s brother and our neighbour, Wayne Perry.

Thanks for the great captures, guys!

Home Sweet Home on Facebook

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Places People Live

Evening Sky in Autumn

Autumn sky“There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky.”
– Percy Bysshe Shelley

Virginia Rose

Just a bud
full bloom

The Virginia rose, also known as a common wild rose or prairie rose, is a woody perennial in the rose family native to eastern North America, where it is the most common wild rose. ~ Wikipedia

The pollen on the wild rose’s yellow anthers are an important food source for many beneficial insects, including bees. The rose hips they produce are a winter food for birds and mammals such as waxwings, grouse, pine grosbeaks, rabbits, and even coyotes.

I took these pics in July. They grow everywhere in our province, but these are from my daughter’s garden at her summer home in Lead Cove, NL.

Can you tell I miss summer already?
What’s your favourite wild flower?

This is my contribution to Cee’s Flower of the Day Challenge

Mariners’ Memorial

I don’t know about you, but I find these fall photos I took in scenic Grand Bank as Halloween-ghostly as they are eye-catching.

The story behind this memorial is one of tragedy and loss, a familiar one for many who live on this island in the North Atlantic.

From the Town of Grand Bank’s website:

“This is the Mariners’ Memorial: a life-size female figure and a water and beach rocks “shoreline” containing the names of the mariners who were lost at sea. The woman represents and exemplifies the virtues and strength of character of thousands of Newfoundland wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters who had to endure the loss of their men. She is standing alone on the widow’s walk staring in the distance. Her body is full of tension, anticipation and premonition of tragedy. Like a withered tree, she remains there eternally expecting those who will never return.”

To see more of my photos from historic Grand Bank, NL, click here.

Morning Hunt

Cat hunting for rodents
“People that hate cats will come back as mice in their next life.” – Faith Resnick

Cats, even the cutest of kittens, have a killer instinct. It’s an inherited and hard-wired behavior put into practice by the time a kitten is barely a month old. Mother cats will teach their kittens to hunt by example using trilling and other sounds to indicate the type of prey brought to the den. When kittens are about four weeks old, she brings dead prey to teach identification of prey species and later live prey to teach how to catch and kill. Kittens soon learn to swat, pounce and scoop with their claws extended. They learn to bring the prey home to share as their mother did for them and to play with the prey.

As adults, cats will bring humans (mother substitutes) their bounty as a shared offering. Depending on what’s available, it could be an actual mouse carcass or perhaps a toy mouse in your shoe.*

*Excerpt from Cat Wisdom 101 – Cats: Hardwired to Hunt in 6 Steps

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To All the Cats

To all the cats we’ve loved before
you beautify our wall decor
both with us and long gone
our love goes on and on
to all the cats we’ve loved before.

Our cat wall includes several images of Maisie and Vivian, our grandkitties Moochie, Ginger and Joey, as well as Padmé, Smoki, Sandy, Mitzi, and Timmy.

Missing from collection: Puff, Jinx and Tiger. Sorry, my kitties, I couldn’t find any photos of you!

Happy Sunday, everyone,
and Happy Thanksgiving
to my Canadian friends and followers! 

Tablelands

Tablelands, NLTablelands, Gros Morne, NLOn our trip to the west coast of Newfoundland this past weekend, we took a drive to see one of the best-loved sites in the area, the Tablelands.

The Tablelands, found between the towns of Trout River and Woody Point south-west of Gros Morne National Park, look more like a barren desert than traditional Newfoundland.

This is due to the ultramafic rock (high in minerals), peridotite, which makes up the Tablelands. It originated in the Earth’s mantle and was forced up from the depths during a plate collision several hundred million years ago. Peridotite lacks the usual nutrients required to sustain most plant life, hence its barren appearance. Peridotite is high in iron, which accounts for its brownish rust colour.

source: WoodyPoint.ca

Got Plans?

Maisie does.

House plans?