Weather Conception Bay South

Is the weather in Conception Bay South different then the St John’s and Mount Pearl area? I am not a meteorologist, however; I have lived here for over fifty years and have driven for, work purposes, to St John’s for over forty of those years. There is definitely a difference in weather patterns.

Surprisingly, this morning, it’s plus 1 in St John’s and minus 1 here in CBS. Below are some of observations and the reason for the difference. I have driven on both the old Topsail Highway and The Manuel’s Arterial.

The biggest change is in the winter season especially when the temperature is in the freezing or near freezing mode. We have left home in the morning and as we drove we noticed that there was frost on the ground and the vehicles coming towards us had snow on them. If we were having drizzle, it would be freezing rain as we drove towards St John’s. There would always be more snow outside of CBS.

Also, we get less fog and drizzle. The area on The Manuel’s Arterial, near Fowler’s Rd or what locals call Weir’s pit is where we run into or out of fog and drizzle.

The reason is the difference in elevation and I would suspect the waters of Conception Bay. Whatever the reason, we know that we have some of the best weather on The Avalon Peninsula here in Con Bay South.

Photos to follow and hopefully some daily updates. Enjoy your day.

Bottling Plums

This was a bumper year for our plum tree. The summer was warm with very little rain so I guess that was the reason for such a good crop. Check out the following photos.

Last year we picked a couple of dozen but this year there were a few hundred plums on the tree.

We decided to use some for jam and bottle the rest. The children and their friends as well as some of us adults ate a number of them. They were delicious.

For bottling the plums we used three cups of water to one cup of sugar. We doubled the recipe  as were going to bottle most of the fruit. The mixture was brought to a boil and left to simmer for five minutes. We put the plums into the pot and began bottling them when the skin started to crack.  Each 500ml jar took 10 to 12 plums.

Thus far we have 24 bottles and we still have about the same amount left to bottle.

We also bottled some pickles today. A busy morning in the kitchen. My wife did the pickles, although I did help with the peeling, slicing and dicing.

Conception Bay South NL

I have lived in Conception Bay South NL for over fifty years. We moved to Manuel’s from Creston, PB back in 1958 and this area has been home to most members of my family since.

One of my favorite places was and still is Manuel’s River. We swam in the area known as The Flats, Bubble Pond, The Falls below the bridge and The Upper and Lower Canyon. The Flats was our favorite spot. This area has changed over the years as the grassy banks have washed away and have become covered with bushes.

We would fish the river from Bubble Pond to the Train Trestle and beyond. I recall one day, my brother Sam and our friend Johnny walked the river to Paddy’s Pond. Most of our walk was in the river. We only caught a few trout.

We would climb the banks, along the river and in the winter we would toboggan down the steep hills across the river from Bubble Pond. There were few trees so you would almost fly down the hill and across the frozen river.

In the winter, hockey was out favorite past time. There were years that the river would be a sheet of ice from Bubble Pond to Squire’s Beach.

Conception Bay South has changed and is now a vibrant town that stretches from Topsail, in the east to Seal Cove in the west.

An offshore vessel just outside the Port Of Long Pond.

Garages In Conception Bay South

As in many communties throughout Newfoundland Labrador, there were a number of individually owned garages in Conception Bay South. They were full service, doing everything from changing and repairing motors and transmissions to changing oil and tuneups. Basically, if you had a problem with your vehicle, it could be fixed at your local garage. Most had gas pumps and either served Texaco, Gulf or Esso products.

We all had our favorite garage and we knew the owner of the garage. You would drop off your vehicle and would be satisfied that the vehicle would be repaired.

How times have changed! Most garages are now automobile repair shops and many of them have had to specialize as automobiles have become so complicated to repair.

There are still a few back-yard garages, however;  they are few in number. They have been pushed out by council restrictions and red tape. Also, the legal ramifications and insurance requirements are too much for a back yard garage to  bear.

We spent eight years in Ontario and I was lucky enough to find a couple of garages, in the Town Of Arnprior, that were good and trust-worthy.

Afetr moving back to Conception By South, I had to find a garage to fix my late model Impala. I asked around and used a few. There was one that did good work, however; I stopped using them as I felt they were doing work that was not necessary.

I am finally happy and have a good customer relationship with a full service automobile repair shop in Conception Bay South.

It took me awhile to get a doctor. Now to find a dentist…

 

Gathering The Hay

One of the joyful memories of my youth was gathering the hay or more specifically, jumping down the hay. The job of cutting the grass was usually done by our oldest brother as the scythe could be a dangerous weapon if not used properly. See photo

Our land had a lot of rocks poking through the soil so you had to be careful when cutting the grass. Also, you had to know how to sharpen the sythe. We did use the sickle (photo below) but we were warned to be careful.

After the grass was cut, it had to be dried. This sometimes could take a few days depending on the weather. We would toss it with a pitch fork and rake it up with a rake. It would be baled or piled (there was a word that was used to describe a pile of hay) if there was rain in the forecast.

The fun part was when it was being tossed by pitch fork into the barn. Most barns had a second floor so the hay would be tossed in through a door on the second floor.

We younger children would take armfuls and take it to the back of the barn. As the pile grew higher, we would jump it down to make room for more. It was usually quite warm and the hay would get in every crevice of your body. It was extremely itchy.

After all the hay had been gathered and stored we would head to The Millbrook or The Landing Place Pond, for a swim, to wash off the hay particles.

We would talk about sleeping over in the hay loft but the fear of a fire was enough to stop us. Our parents told us that the hay would be very combustible. Well their words were..” that hay could catch on fire…”

It’s a fond but distant memory.

Pineapple Crush

It’s sweet and really doesn’t taste that well but I like a can of pineapple crush every now and then. It’s sunday night and I just finished a can I purchased a couple of days ago.

Our son-in-law and family live in the ottawa area and we try and remember to carry a few cans when we visit them. We have tried to purchase the crush product in Ottawa but as far as we know it is not available.

I just found an article that was published in The Telegram back on Sept 21,2016. The article was written  by Ashley Fitzpatrick and it is headlined Newfoundland Labrador Flavor Fascination. Story here.

Apparently, there is a facebook group called “Newfoundland Pineapple Crush Pride.”

For some unknown reason many Newfoundlanders love their pineapple crush. Our son-in-law calls it his sugar kick.

I just finished the only can we have in the house and it will be another month or so before I’ll buy another. Part of the reason is that I stopped drinking pop  about 18 months ago to see if it was adding to my gout attack. Surprising, I have not had a bad gout attack since. It may have been the access sugar that I was consuming as I was not drinking a significant amount of water.

Enjoy your pineapple crush.