Sunday, May 18, 2008

More Bergie Bits

Saturday turned out to be a nice day. So we went in search of the Organic Farm in Portugal Cove. The Organic Farm is a family business, and I know one of the family from the pottery studio. Although it is tremendously early for produce here, they have several poly tunnels that they grow greens and herbs in, and later they will plant tomatoes and peppers in them. Locally grown produce is a rare find here at any time, so I was pleased that we found them. It was a challenge. They were down a winding side lane and up a narrow driveway behind a modern house tucked into evergreen trees, sandwiched between two other modern houses tucked into trees. It reminded me of Galiano Island in so many ways. We were the only customers at the time. If they were busy, I think we would have had to walk in from the lane as there was barely enough room to turn the car as it was. This is a norm for here. There are also a number of small plant nurseries tucked in behind what I would consider sub-division houses in the burbs.
They may not be big, but they're small.
After Portugal Cove we went on a jaunt round the Killick Coast to Pouch (pronounced pooch) Cove for some more iceberg spotting. They had three. I work with two guys from Pouch Cove and they assure me that there is a great rivalry between their village and the next one over named Flatrock. We went there too and not to be undone, Flatrock had two icebergs of it's own. Flatrock's bergs were much closer to shore, and so provided a better photo opportunity. Shhhh, don't tell the boys. Flatrock also has a grotto. Sort of. Actually it is a very large shrine with the stations of the cross on it and not a grotto at all. But I've learned that if the locals want to call it a grotto, then there is no use in arguing.







This is one of the bergs at Flatrock, all the way into the cove. The houses behind give you an idea of the size.

We continues to follow the coastline all the way back to town, through Torbay, (no bergs) Middle Cove (3 bergs) and Outer Cover (1 berg visible but it was one of the Middle Cove bergs, really.) Middle Cove is a provincial park and there were hundreds of people there playing in the sand and watching the bergs. While we were there, I heard a great boom like a cannon, and the closest one to shore cracked and rolled a bit. I didn't see the bits fall off, but later there were bits floating close to it and the waves that were generated by these huge bits of ice falling into the ocean created quite a wave wash hitting the beach for several minutes after.

Before and After
















When we arrived home, we were invited to a bonfire at Outer Cove, so we turned around and went back. We have had so few clear days that I was amazed at how long the day length was when it wasn't obscured by thick fog. At 9:30pm we still had twilight left enough to make out the outline of the iceberg and the coastline across the bay.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. I get the feeling that photos don't do justice to the size of these things.

Anonymous said...

I notice your language is becoming more and more NL'ish... "We continues to..."
hahahahahahah!!!