Strong winds are battering northern Newfoundland, white caps are dancing everywhere on the angry ocean, and the sky is hiding under a fog cover. I’m glad I took time off in order to spend some sunny November days outside in nature before the weather changed. Instead of being sad that the golden fall is over, I tell myself to go with the flow. No use becoming frustrated, there are nice things to see and experience in every season.
I’m getting ready to travel to Vancouver and then to the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia where I will spend the winter and spring. The southwest of B.C. is normally a climate oasis, so mild and with very little snow in the winter. But now when I see the pictures of flooding after heavy rainfalls, washed-out roads and deadly mudslides, I have to abandon this illusion. We are all in the same boat, wherever we live on this earth. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to a change of scenery even when I feel sad to leave Newfoundland for a few months. And I’m looking forward to the launch of my new mystery novel “A Dark Chill” that is set in northern Newfoundland. Tomorrow I will get the manuscript back from my copy editor Lindsey Alexander (she says “A Dark Chill” is my best book to date). Then it goes to my beta readers who are an important part of the process. I’m expecting the paperback to be ready at the end of December. I will keep you posted.
One of this year’s resolutions that I didn`t follow up on was to learn to make decorative wall hangings in the old Newfoundland tradition. They call it “rug hooking” here, it is not with knots but the threads are just pulled tightly through burlap. Unfortunately, I never seem to have had the time, there were always more urgent tasks (like writing books). Instead I played cards with my neighbours at night when I was tired but wanted to relax. It is amazing how a simple game like cards can make me content!
My potato harvest was great this year, compared to the poor turnout last year when I started this endeavor. Potatoes are one of the few vegetables that grow really well in rugged northern Newfoundland if you know what you’re doing. Now that I have many bags bursting with potatoes, I feel the pressure to eat them while they are fresh. Which means potato dishes almost every day! I have become rather creative with it and people gave me recipes for variation. But if you have an exciting idea for a potato dish, I would love to hear from you! (Of course I gave lots of potatoes away to the few people here who don’t have their own garden.)
