Blogs

It’s almost Christmas. Have you heard?

I for one tend to get a bit twitchy when November starts to gallop towards December and public places set their sound systems to Jingle Bells 101. So I find it helps my Christmas spirit (or lackthereof) to remind myself of the good things about the season. The things that don’t involve frantically running around malls full of people mowing you down to get better spots in cash register line-ups so long there should a surprise pop-up concert by Adele waiting at the end.

We’ve all said things like “that meal just changed my life.” And if you haven’t, well… you might want to take a serious look at what you’re eating. I’ve eaten lots of meals that have changed my life. I probably overuse that phrase, but that’s how much I love food. There’ve been a few recipes (especially over the course of this past year) that I’ve made again and again for friends and family that I love and yeah, I think they’ve changed my life. They wake me up a little, they make me better. So… yeah. But the closest I’ve come to food tears was a couple of months ago at the Roots, Rants and Roars Festival in Elliston.

St. John’s is a city that has been on the go for over 400 years. That’s a whole lot of life, death, love, murder, passion, intrigue, treachery and… did I mention death? That’s a whole lot of history, spilling out into the twists and turns of the narrow streets. No wonder it’s a hotbed of hauntings.

It’s one of my absolute favourite events of the year. The St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival kicked off its five-day run last Tuesday night by slamming it down and packing a few punches.

Lauren Suarez, a 17-year-old high school student from Greenwood Indiana, recently travelled to St. John's for the first time with her mom and her mom's best friend, Laura. They stayed with Laura’s relatives who made the experience so unforgettable that Lauren wrote to tell us how completely she fell in love with Newfoundland & Labrador and its people.

Karen Moores is a cities-focused travel writer who calls St. John’s, Newfoundland home. She is proud of her city’s commitment to historic preservation while retaining a hip, modern vibe. Check out her insider tips to the Canadian city.

Of all my travels around Newfoundland this summer, visiting Prime Berth Heritage Centre in Twillingate was one of my most memorable experiences. An interactive, interpretative centre created by David Boyd as a tribute to the culture and heritage of his fishing forefathers, Prime Berth is hard to miss as you're driving across the causeway...

We took a short trip with friends to Newfoundland this week and had the sort of memorable time that everyone talks about whenever they return to Moncton from a visit to St. John's, a city like no other in Canada.

I recently returned from a visit to St. John's, Newfoundland, North America's oldest and most easterly city. St. John's is known to be saturated with Irish traditional and Celtic rock music, but for a smallish city on a fairly remote island, I was surprised by its many other live music offerings.

As our trip to Newfoundland stretched out before us, I knew I would blog about it and I knew instantly that the theme would be gratitude to the people of Newfoundland. So it’s serendipitous that in the last few days I started reading so many words of thanks to the people of Newfoundland from the stranded passengers of 9/11 who were taken into their homes and made to feel like family.

I spent last week getting culturally back in touch with my English Lit student days. First, I went to see Hamlet on a hill, then Henry IV, Part 1 out in one of North America’s oldest and most historic towns, Cupids...

Last week I went to catch the final performance of Hamlet – one of the 2011 Shakespeare By The Sea productions. I realize writing about this festival when it’s already happened and you can’t now go and see the shows (if you unfortunately missed them) is a bit of a tease, but I’m hoping this post will encourage anyone out there who’s already thinking about a 2012 trip to Newfoundland and Labrador, to plan on seeing a performance or two next year.

Fogo Island is undergoing an interesting experiment spearheaded by the Shorefast Foundation, which is trying to promote the social, cultural and economic regeneration of the area. From the development of a new inn slated to open in 2012 to new artist studios dotted around the island, Fogo has suddenly been put on the radar as a place where new things are happening. So we decided to have a look at the artist studios through a tour put on by the Fogo Island Arts Corporation .

Four days with Writers at Woody Point, and I’m more inspired than I’ve been my whole life. As Canadian travel journalist Lucy Izon said one evening while taking the water taxi to Woody Point, there’s a sense of community here. Like Banff, I’m so awed by the overwhelming hospitality from everyone...

“Ed and Ed’s B and B — Where you are a Stranger but Once” is the third play in this series. Since we hadn’t seen any of the previous “Ed and Ed” plays we were not certain what to expect, other than that the programme billed it as a comedy. Many of the plays at Theatre Newfoundland Labrador’s Gros Morne Theatre Festival deal with local themes, so this play fits right in since the Bed and Breakfast that Ed and Ed are opening is  in Cow Head.

On the last leg of their adventure, the hikers from TrailPeak.com saw the wreck of a ship from the early 1900s, whalebones, and a slew of icebergs.

This week, the hikers from TrailPeak.com saw 10,000-year-old icebergs, and visited historic Battle Harbour, a restored fishing village that thrived over the last three centuries.

From waterfalls to ancient coastlines, the hikers from TrailPeak.com have seen it all over the past three days, while trekking through southern Labrador.

Well, it can’t be denied. The Folk Festival this year was a damp one. But it also can’t be denied that the performances were as amazing, and surprising as ever – and the vibe of the audience was gun ho and game for anything.

Check out the latest blog from Kurt at TrailPeak.com to read about the scenery, history and culture they’ve discovered along the south coast of Labrador.