North to Newfoundland

Island Park Morning, 10x10 I HAVE GOTTEN ahead of myself, and so early in the trip! We arrive in Channel Port-Aux-Basques Thursday on the ferry (more on this below, and on the blog), and are struck by how utterly foreign the landscape is. It looks like the Shetland Islands, or some place even more distant. As we drive out of Port-Aux-Basques. the landscape normalizes a little. Trees begin to appear, and the rocks recede a little, or are covered with grass and small hills. It is beautiful, but in a more known way. Early in the day, we pull into a lovely little provincial park and I make this painting. I am sure it will be one of my favorites of the trip. The sky is quiet, birds sing and fly, the morning air is crisp and the water clear and blue. After I finish this painting, THEN we head to Gros Morne, the subject of the yesterday's newsletter. *** Weather Watch IT IS COOL HERE in the mornings, in the upper 50s, and every morning has been cloudy...

Gros Morne ALL ALONG, one of our aims has been to see a moose, and people tell us, again and again, go to Gros Morne, that's where the moose are.  So we go. It is beautiful. Breath-taking. Grand. Spectacular, even. But in all honesty, Carol and I suspect we are missing most of it, even missing the best of it, because we are not hiking, climbing, foraging along the trails. It is not that kind of trip, this trip, and we have to be OK with that. And we are.  All that being said, there's a big part of me that admires Canada for leaving this park - and UNESCO World Heritage site - relatively unmarked by roads. If you really want to see most of the great stuff, you have to get out and hike. It is not instantly, easily available by car as many American parks are.  So we drive, we walk a little, we see some amazing sights, and I paint.  While I'm working, a couple drives up. Carl and his daughter Abbie. In one of those amazing twists of fate, it turns...