Newfoundland - Day 3

Another busy day here on the Rock!

Two incredible meals. When we got up in the morning, Larry was hard at work in the kitchen making breakfast. We were treated to two staples of Newfoundland: Toutons and scruncheons.

Toutons (pronounced bout'n's, where bout rhymes with out) are nothing but chunks of half-risen bread dough fried in pork fat. Scruncheons are...well...fried fat- salt pork fat, to be precise. I guess the procedure is to cook the scruncheons and then cook the toutons in the pan drippings from the scruncheons. It might sound a little gross, but it sure doesn't taste gross! You drizzle warmed molasses over the toutons like syrup. You can use syrup instead if you want. I tried them both ways. The scruncheons are just tiny bits of the fried fat...probably no bigger than a small pea usually. They add flavour and salt to the rest of the meal, kind of like a garnish. Larry had also made two kinds of sausage to go with it, plus their really good coffee and organge juice. What a great brekkie!! I hope you can get toutons and scruncheons at the Newfoundland Pub in Ottawa!

After breakfast we relaxed for a while and then we all piled into the car and went for a drive around. First we hit the tourist centre up the highway, where Wayne and Hilda's daughter Candace works. I spent about sixty bucks and scored a Republic of Newfoundland t-shirt, a novel written by a local author who's a Pilgrim...cousin to my cousins here. Also picked up a map of newfoundland, and the nicest thing I got was a "charm bag" made by a woman from Springdale, a few miles up the road. It's a beautiful quilted bag in all those blue and turquoise colours that I love.

Have you ever heard the expression "she got hit with the ugly stick?" Well, they had an ugly stick for sale at the Tourist Centre. It's a long stick of wood, and about half-way along it, were about eight piles of beer caps all stacked and affixed to the stick on long nails. The top of the stick was capped with a tin can. The stick comes with a smaller stick that you bang against the bigger stick, all the while banging the big stick on the floor to make a rather impressive noise. I guess these ugly sticks are used by "mummers" who are people who get dressed up in weird get-ups and go around at christmastime to peoples houses. I think they play their weird instruments and you're supposed to give them money or food or something. I'll have to find out more about that.

After that, Larry drove us all around "Viagraville" which is where a lot of older people have set up their camper trailers and retired. They all have little plots of land, and many of them...most in fact...have build tiny wooden dwellings onto the sides of the trailers. The little extensions are all quite tidy and nice looking, with immaculate wooden siding and nice vinyl windows, so the end result is rather a unique sight. For some reason I didn't think to take photos of any of these little places.

After Viagraville, we went to the Indian River, where there where a bunch of people fishing for salmon. Climbed down to the river on a nicely built wooden stairway to an observation deck where we could comfortably watch both the fishers and the salmon struggling to jump up the waterfall to the stream above. Quite a sight to see them flyingthrough the air, wiggling their silver bodies in a huge effort to fight gravity and the raging current to get back to their spawning grounds. The locals have built a kind of stairway for them to help them out, but the fish don't always find it right away, and it was really impressive to watch them trying to do things the old fashioned way.

Next we drove into Springdale and had a look at where Susan works...she's at the health centre, where they have a nice little retirement community of tiny "cabins" which to me looked more like wee townhouses, all with neat little gardens out front and people sitting in the windows watching us go by. We went past the hospital too, where Hilda works. Then popped into one of the local grocery stores to pick up some food. I'm making dinner on Wednesday night - my famous ribs - so I'll be going back there today or tomorrow to pick up my meat...which only seems to come frozen here.

Came back after Springdale and had a big long nap, from which I was woken very suddenly from a very deep sleep by Barb, my step-mom calling me to say it was time to go down to Wayne and Hilda's for dinner.

Now, Wayne and Hilda put on quite the impressive spread. They must have been cooking all day. A traditional "Newfoundland dinner," there was chicken and duck and moose meat, plus salt beef for meat. There were three kinds of puddings: peas pudding, onion pudding and spice pudding. Those last two being different-flavoured bread puddings. The spice pudding was my favourite thing of the evening. Really delicious, tasted like something you'd normally serve at Christmastime, spiced with cinnamon, cloves and allspice. There was also boiled potatoes, carrots and cabbage. Oh, and they'ed stuffed the chickens and the duck, so we had two different kinds of stuffing. And two kinds of gravy to go over it all.

Man, what a feast!! It was spectacular! Then boiled fruitcake for dessert, which was really yummy, even though it was fruitcake...so moist and delicious. We sat around for a while after dinner, and then we all drove down to the town wharf and enjoyed a fireworks display. It had rained quite a bit on Canada Day, so they saved the fireworks and did them last night. Not a bad little display for such a small town!

Came back up to Wayne and Hilda's for a while after that and then went home and to bed. A busy, busy day! I'm hoping today will be a little quieter. Larry's gone to work, and all I know we're doing is going to Springdale for a bit of grocery shopping. Barb's making spaghetti for supper tonight. So I think it'll be a more relaxing day. Oh...Barb and Susan are planning a walk up to the Falls and I've been told I should go with them. But I think I'll beg off and stay here for some quiet time.

A few little "Newfieisms" before I go:
-- Some of the old-timers say "I" instead of "me". "Are you comin' fishin' with I?"
-- the folks of my own generation often use the word "we" instead of "us". "Come for a drive wit' we. We'll take you inta town."
-- instead of saying "him" or "her" sometimes they'll tack 'un onto the end of a sentence. "I took'un down to da store for some hice cream." (no, "hice" is not a typo...that's how they'd say it!)

Then there's old Freddy Fricker up the road, who likes to keep his living and storage spaces all separate like little kids like to keep their different types of food separate on a plate. He's got a tiny little building for every purpose. One little building for firewood, one for fishing equipment, one for gardening equipment. The one he lives in isn't much bigger than any of those. His property looks like a miniature cabin farm.

Well, I can hear someone making coffee downstairs, so I guess I'll head down. It's about 8:30 I guess, my usual time to make an appearance so far this trip. Four more days to enjoy Newfoundland and then back to Ottawa on Friday. I'm kind of looking forward to getting back home, but at the same time, I'm loving it here and, as I always do when I love a place, thinking of coming back more permanently someday. Maybe I'll retire here...if I ever retire. Pipe dream, for sure, but it's a lovely thought.