Welcome to Newfoundland

On Monday the 31st, we drove about half the distance to St. John's, stopping in Grand Falls-Windsor for the night.  Along the way, we saw a female moose along the highway.  Surprisingly, with all the moose problems that Newfoundland has, there was very little moose fencing along the highways.

Finally on June 1st we arrived in Paradise. It was good to meet our new home.

We are living on the main floor of a small house on a fairly busy road. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large kitchen, a large living room and a laundry room. There is a deck at the front door and a raised deck at the back. Poor Pippin has to climb down 8 steep steps to the fenced-in yard. I just hope that she doesn’t one day do a nose dive going downstairs. We back onto a baseball diamond which is used every day. The noise from the games is minimal although the large overhead lights are on until 11 p.m. The neighbourhood is much like any in Ontario, however there are hardly any trees planted in the front yards. Also, most of the houses are built with vinyl siding. Brick houses are very rare.  Each house is a different colour which brightens the neighbourhood.

Here are some facts about Newfoundland:

1. The island of Newfoundland (along with Labrador) is the most easterly province of Canada.
2. The nickname for Newfoundland is “The Rock” and I don’t mean Dwayne Johnson or Alcatraz. Rock, whole or crushed, is everywhere. Even the gardens have small stones in them but the flowers, bushes and trees still grow.

  
3. Newfoundland has no crickets, porcupines, raccoons, skunks, snakes, deer, wolves nor ticks. It does have lots of moose… over 10,000 of them. In 1904, 4 moose were given to Newfoundland by the government of New Brunswick. Since then, the population has grown unchecked since there are no natural predators other than coyotes and humans. Each year, many people die or are injured by colliding with moose on the highways. They seem to like the young plants that grow on the roadside and at dawn or dusk they appear close to the roads. Warnings are everywhere with a hotline where you can report sightings or accidents. So far we have only seen two moose in different locations far from the roadside.

 

4. St. John’s is the oldest city in North America.

      5.  The island has its own time zone; 30 minutes ahead of Atlantic Standard time. So we are 1 ½ hours ahead of Ontario.

                                                      

      6.  Both Newfoundland and Labrador have dog breeds named after them.

Newfoundland Dog

Labrador Retrievers

            

They are not as cute as our Pippin here on "The Rock"

    7.  The most easterly point in North America (if you discount Greenland) is Cape Spear, just outside of St. John’s.

    8.   Newfoundland was its own country (a sovereign dominion of Britain) up until 1949 when it joined Confederation with Canada.
    9.   On September 11, 2001, 39 aircraft were diverted to the small airport in Gander. More than 6,600 people (over 60% of the local population) were taken into homes for up to 3 days until the U.S. airspace reopened.
                   

   10.   Speaking of Gander, my father, Gordon Wilson, while in the air force as a medic, was stationed in Gander during WWII.

   11.   Weather: During each month of October, November and December there is typically an average of 21 days of precipitation. That’s something to look forward to! Newfoundland has an average of 206 days of fog each year and the St. John’s area has an average of 126 of those days.

           

      12.   There are very few brick houses in the area where we are living. Way back in the day, when Newfoundland was still a British colony, the Governor did not want to encourage people to settle permanently so they were not allowed to build with brick, only wood. Another reason is that bricks were not made in Newfoundland and there were not enough masons or bricklayers to build houses from them. So today, the houses are painted or sided in vivid colours which makes the City distinctive.

There are many more facts about Newfoundland. As we come across them we will report them.