Hiking Signal Hill

We went for a hike at Signal Hill yesterday -- my first time hiking Signal Hill. It's been a long time since I'd been on a hike. It's short -- only around a 3.5 km loop, but it involves about a 500 m elevation gain. We took our time and enjoyed the sights (my favourite way of hiking). Our thought is that on nice weather days over the spring / summer / fall, we can do this as part of our Saturday morning / early afternoon date -- go for a short hike and then enjoy a nice lunch.

We feel as though we're among the luckiest people on the planet to be living in such a beautiful place.

For those of you who don't know, Signal Hill is a National Historic Site in St. John's, located just minutes outside of the core and has beautiful vistas of both the ocean and the city of St. John's. There's even a little "castle" on top of the hill, Cabot Tower.

Local foods

We've been attempting to buy more locally.

Bidgood's in the Goulds sells moose patties and rabbit in a jar. We haven't prepared the rabbit yet, but it's the most disgusting looking thing -- rabbit meat in a jar. I hope that it will taste better than it looks. They also make great codfish patties. Yum, yum.

Auntie Crae's on Water Street sells a variety of speciality foods. We picked up a freshly baked loaf of whole grain bread yesterday. It was still warm from the oven when we purchased it. Just last week, I was telling Mel that we needed to find a place with good bread. We're going to make it part of our brunch date to pick up our weekly bread at Auntie Crae's from now on.

Food for Thought on Duckworth Street is a great place to get glutenfree products, including ones that I haven't been able to find at Dominion (such as chickpea flour).

I hear that Georgetown Bakery is a great bakery. We haven't been there yet as I hear that once they sell out of their goods, they close shop. Their baked goods are in such high demand that they often close early!

A City within a Park

I was delighted to explore some of the trail systems that are a short walk from our place. Mel and I took Alex in his wagon and walked through spruce forests along the Waterford valley. We passed a small duck pond with mallards, American widgeons, black ducks and domestic geese, and walked around Powers Pond.

I'd heard that Mount Pearl had some good walking trails, and I knew that there were some that were close to our home, but I was very impressed by how it felt as though we were in the middle of a wilderness so close to our home. It felt like another dream come true!

The City of Mount Pearl has the slogan "A City within a Park". It sounds cheesy, and it's not very apparent when you drive around, but it sure felt like it when I was walking along the trails. I learned from the City of Mount Pearl website that there are approximately 65 km of walking trails within the city, and the city doesn't use any herbicides or pesticides in their parks!

I'm excited to explore different aspects of the area and the island in general now that the weather is warming up. All of these experiences make me realize how lucky I am. And, just as our mailman had prophecized (see Nov 13, 2008 post), it really does feel as though God chose our home for us in Mount Pearl. For those of you who didn't know, we bought the home sight unseen. I'd actually never even been in Mount Pearl before. The interesting thing is that several months before we had even decided to move to Newfoundland, I had gotten the message that Mount Pearl would be the best place for us to move. And sure enough, it was the place that we eventually chose to live and we love it.

A gift for nature

A friend of mine inspired me to pick up a piece of garbage every time I'm out for a walk.

It's something that crosses my mind a lot when I see litter on the streets, but I often don't carry about a plastic bag with me.

Today, I was reminded to take two with me. One that I used as "glove" and the other to put the trash in. It didn't take me long to fill up a whole grocery shopping bag during our walk along a tributary to the Waterford River nearby our house. I was surprised by how much litter there was, but it felt good to even do the little that I did to clean it up. I'm going to continue to carry around some garbage bags with me and have already stuffed two in my purse for our next outing.

Acts of Kindness

Alex and I were the recipient of an act of kindness today.

We went for a walk to one of the neighbourhood parks. It was the first time that we were at this particular park. By the time it was time for us to go home, Alex was telling me "he wasn't feeling very good", and he wanted me to carry him back home. All 35 lbs of him.

The wind was cold and I was struggling to carry him home, when an older gentleman said hi to us from his yard. Alex loves to talk to strangers and he told the man that he wasn't feeling very good. The man offered to give us a ride home. I hesitated just for a moment, but I realized it was a God-send because just a few minutes before I was hoping that someone would be able to give us a ride home. And, sure enough, the universe said "so be it".

It was a very short ride home (literally around a long block), but we were very thankful!

We're home

We drove to Petty Harbour for the first time on Sunday -- it's only about a 20 minute drive from our home in Mount Pearl.

As we drove up to the harbour, the perfect song started playing on the radio -- Buddy Waisiname's "Salt Water Joys". The song itself is normally enough to get my heart, but in combination with the spectacular view, it was overwhelming. It's a tender song that really speaks about the love of this island.

I was overcome with emotion at the beauty of the harbour and the intense feeling of home that I cried -- no, I actually sobbed, as we pulled up on the side of the road and looked out at the harbour. It felt as though I'd arrived. We'd arrived. Our family, together.

It felt as though Spirit shook me a bit and said, "My darling child, look. Everything that you've asked for, everything that you've always wanted. It's right here. It's right here. You've arrived, my child. You've arrived. All you need do is breathe. All you need to is breathe. Take it in and breathe."

And, then I realized that it was true. I had arrived. I was home. Not just in the physical place of Newfoundland (which is part of it), but with respect to everything -- everything that I've spent my whole life searching. I'd arrived and I was home. And, there's no where else to go. Nothing else to do. But simply take it all in. And, enjoy.

Healing

Alex's health has been remarkably improving.

Many things to be thankful for this week:

• We've been able to re-introduce some of his favourite foods, including chicken, and today rice milk.
• As a result of the re-introduction of chicken, we were able to eat out with him this week at Swiss Chalet. He is free to eat the chicken and fries there to his heart's content! (It had been over 7 months since the last time we were able to take him to a restaurant).
• We've taken him off a daily antihistamine, something that he's been on for 2 years. We took him off his antihistamine a couple of weeks ago.
• Tonight, for the first time, we dressed him in two-piece pajamas. Normally, we've dressed him in one-piece pajamas to make it more difficult to scratch his body.
• His eczema has healed remarkably.

We are tremendously thankful.