The Demise of an Iceberg...

It's been a foggy, rainy few days here. I don't like these kinds of days at the best of times, but like them even less when there are icebergs to see. At some points, it's been so foggy, I couldn't even see the ocean, let alone 'my' iceberg. The first picture above is what I've been able to see from my house for the last couple of days.

But....lo and behold today, the fog sort of lifted, rather briefly at that (second picture)....kind of like a curtain going up....long enough for me to see 'my' iceberg (I've even named him..Iqbald the iceberg....the kids think I've lost it....but that's ok....I'm having fun playing it up with them). It was so interesting to see the way it has changed over the last couple of days. The warmer weather, rain, waves etc. are certainly changing the way it looks --- as you can see by the difference between the last two pictures. Hmmm...I wonder how much longer he will be with us. That's ok though....my on-line friend from Australia sent me this link (click here) and if this story is true....our first spring here should be an amazing one that we'll never forget!

Glad I've got my bench ready....bring on the icebergs and the whales!

A reminder...

Just a reminder....the third edition of the Carnival of Canadian Home Educators will be up on May 5. Submissions are due May 2....find out more details here

So...if you're a Canadian Home Educator.....don't forget to get your submissions in.

Looking forward to reading!

More Icebergs (Click to enlarge)

More Icebergs !

There are so many icebergs floating around out there in the north Atlantic Ocean. There are a lot within eye shot of our house, I wonder how many are out there that we can't see. They're simply amazing and breath taking to watch.

It stopped by for a visit! (Click to enlarge pics)

Finally, (well I guess it's only been two days, but it *seems* like a long time) an iceberg floated in by our house. We watched and watched all day as it got closer and closer. We were all excited but disappointed at the same time because as it got closer it was also getting darker.

At night, even though it is pitch black here, the stars and moon are so bright (when it's not cloudy) that it looks like there are outside lights on. (I've gotten up more than once to check and make sure the outside lights were in fact off.) That, together with the bright whiteness of the iceberg was amazing --- almost like it glowed in the dark --- we could see it from our house in the darkness of the night.

I was afraid it would be gone by this morning. I was like a kid at Christmas and just couldn't get to sleep. I checked a few times through the night and finally at 5:30 I got up and even though it had moved away from our shore.....it was still in our little bay! I didn't want to go down there though because I didn't want to run into a moose.....I'm not sure how they react to people at close range. Finally at 6:00, I couldn't wait any longer so away I went. Above, are some pics I took early this morning. It was still kind of dark and it's cloudy here today (figures) so they're a bit dark. I think too it's getting smaller, so it's not a huge iceberg like some.

Oh well....it was good enough for *this* mainlander.

Iceberg Pics (Click on pic to enlarge)

Well, today there was another iceberg. This one a lot closer but somewhat smaller. Really, the picture doesn't do it justice.....the iceberg is much larger than it appears.

I got my new bench down by the ocean just in time for iceberg watching season! Woohoo!!!

I'm still hoping more icebergs will come our way, bigger ones would be better. And...hopefully, they'll get stuck in our little bay here, so we can have a close up view!

Icebergs!

We saw icebergs today!!! Woohoo!!!

I've been keeping close watch every day for the last little while. Sometimes I see things floating way off in the distance but they've always turned out to be boats. But....not today!! We had headed off for piano lessons and stopped for the mail. As I waited for Brittney to return from the post office, I noticed these 'things' that seemed to be too lopsided to be boats, floating way off on the horizon. I made Larry return home so I could check through the binoculars and sure enough.....they were ICEBERGS!!!

There were lots of them and we not only saw them here, but all along the coast on our way into town. By the time we returned home, there were 5 or 6 floating around and we could see them from our back yard.

I tried to take some pics, but they were just too far away. They ended up looking like small dots on the screen. I'm hopeful though, one (or maybe even two) will make it's way into our little bay here (in which case, I'll be snapping lots of pics!)

Benefits of living (and breathing) in Newfoundland

I love living in Newfoundland!!! (I betcha didn't know that though, did ya?)

There are so many things we love about our new provincial home, but two have been in the forefront recently.

Crab season opened last week and our friend Paul (who used to be a full-time fisherman before the moratorium) went crab fishing today. We benefited from his hard work as he brought us some fresh crab. Caught from the Atlantic Ocean today --- can't get much fresher than that!

Mmmmmm......I can hardly wait to sink my teeth into it.

We had all kinds of questions for him, about how fishing on a large scale is done, quotas and how they work, when the different seasons opened and for how long they were open for......we just had so many questions. It was really interesting to learn, but I'm sure our questions seemed a little odd to him. (We keep reminding him we're mainlanders and all this ocean stuff is really new to us).

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I *still* love our weather too.

Saturday saw Toronto with summer-like conditions. Their temps. were in the mid to high 20s, while we were down around 4 degrees with some wet snow flurries thrown in. Brittney was quite disgusted that while her friend in Ontario had worn shorts to school, she still had to wear long pants and a coat.

A quick check of Environment Canada's website though, soon changed her mind. We saw the air quality health index for Toronto, that night (April 19), was 7. Wow - 7! (Anything from 7 - 10 is in the high range). Now, we're not talking a hot afternoon in the middle of July or August. No....we're talking an evening rating....and an evening in mid April nonetheless. Amazing.

Another check of The Toronto Star's website, noted Toronto had issued it's first smog alert of the year --- in April ---- Wow! I shudder to think what it will be like come July and August.

The above pictures were taken around our area, most of them outside our home. Three were in, March, the other in August. Whether it's March or August, the sky is very blue!

For me.....I'll take our clear, clean, fresh air (even if it is cooler). No question!