Welcome! Bienvenue! 

"What a wonderful site! THANKS…it has shown me more than anything else as a new visitor." DZ 

"We're planning a trip to Newfoundland soon. After reading endless text in guide books and looking at endless dreary black and white photos I was stunned by the pictures on your web-site, and feeling an early sense of vindication in deciding to head in there rather than the west coast. Very much looking forward to the visit." UK

These are the Tablelands. This picture was taken from the mountain meadow on Lookout Trail in Gros Morne National Park.

Do you want to hike Newfoundland? Do you want to know about Newfoundland hiking trails? Do you want to know nice places to eat in Newfoundland? Accommodations in Newfoundland? Piqa will try to help you. A good place to start visiting our site, after you've looked through this page, is with our Hiking Trails page.

If you're planning a trip to Newfoundland for five, ten, fifteen, twenty days, we make some recommendations as to what you can do to fill those days. Visit our Newfoundland Trips page.

Royal Canadian Legion Pasadena

Awards Presentations

Other pictures may be seen HERE

Pasadena Winter Carnival - 2010

You may find all the Winter Carnival pictures HERE.

 

Pasadena - The Smiling Little Town

Only seven houses in the home decorating contest this year.  Lots of nice houses around town though.  Make sure you get out and drive/walk around before they're all take down.

Here are a few of the contestants - no particular order.

There are more home shots HERE right at the end of the gallery.

I think Pasadena is as much a winter town as it is a summer town. Perhaps even more so.

When you wake in the morning to the sound of snow blowers and go to sleep at night to the sound of skidoos on your street, you know it's winter, and in this case you know it's near Christmas. (I'm not one who minds skidoos on the street as long as they're responsible. In the little hamlet on Baffin Island where we taught for a year, skidoos - the only mode of transportation - were not allowed after 11:00 pm out of respect for the elders. Sensible that.)

In our little corner of the world, this morning there were three snow blowers operating on six or more driveways. Real Christmas spirit that, but it goes on all winter. Seems like whoever is out first does the driveways.

All that aside, what a beautiful day for the Santa Claus  Parade. Fresh snow on the ground, fresh snow falling (but not too much), cool but not cold, and lots of excitement for the wee ones. The adults were excited for the wee ones. Even the dogs were out and excited.

It started last week with the lighting of the  Tree of Memories, on another perfect night. Good turnout, lots of hot chocolate, some caroling and a couple of brief speeches. (Gotta love those brief speeches - second best thing.) The Tree this year is in front of the Rec Centre, a very sensible place for it to be.

There was more going on (as usual) this morning than the parade. At Pasadena Ski and Nature Park volunteers served a lovely breakfast and signaled the beginning of their season by selling ski passes. What a beautiful facility for Pasadena to have. Eminently sensible it is. Club members reckoned that there would be people skiing this week. No grooming yet, but trails packed a little by a skidoo. One of the great forms of exercise, you can ski those trails and enjoy the facility in between loops through the woods on beautifully groomed trails. If you haven't visited yet, make sure you do and make sure you take in some of the many events during the year.

Then, after the parade, there was soup and sandwiches luncheon at the Salvation Army, along with a bake sale. Missus just got home from and it said it went well.

Now I know it's mainly people like me, time on my hands and not a lot of responsibility, who can take in most of these events, but there's SO much that goes on in town that maybe people don't know about. Usually you see the same people at everything, mostly people like myself, retired and not a lot of other things to do.

Enjoy your Christmas everyone. It's lovely these evenings walking around town. Not everyone has lights up yet, about a third of the homes I'd estimate, but most of the others will be going up this weekend.  I don't know if Billy and Eileen Ryan are doing  lights this year, but if they are, it's worth the drive down around (Circular Road) to see them.

Smile!  :-)

There are more pictures of the Santa Claus Parade HERE

There are more pictures of the Tree of Memories HERE

Pasadena Carries a Torch for the Olympics

 

Great turnout today for the Olympic torch relay. As Bern said to me, "it's not every day that the Olympic Torch comes through  your town.  Well, the odds are certainly that it wouldn't be every day. Probably once every twelve or sixteen years if you're really lucky. And that's only if you live in Canada where we get to host the games every once in a while. Anyway, seeing the turnout in our little town does one proud.

The Torch Relay had a busy schedule today, starting in Grand Falls - Windsor, stopping in Badger, Springdale, Deer Lake, Pasadena, on to Corner Brook, and ending in Port Aux Basques tonight.

There were four torch bearers through Pasadena. I can't name names though.  :-(  Everything was on time. The escort vehicles and promotional vehicles offered souvenir handouts and lots of hype.  Ceremonies were brief and to the point. Mayor Gary Bishop welcomed the Torch to Pasadena and sent it on its way down Main Street.

You can see lots more pictures HERE.

 

Pasadena, Remembrance Day - 2009

On this Novemeber 11th, a day of sorrow and pride, Pasadena turned out in greater numbers than I have ever seen before to remember our fallen heroes. 

Those two emotions, pride and sorrow, were front and centre for most of us. Sorrow for those fallen and injured, and pride for what they and our country represent. In Newfoundland, especially, where families remain close together and everyone of us has had family or friends in the two world wars, and now family members or friends in current conflicts, we feel this sorrow and pride together.

Why such a wonderful turnout today? There are three reasons I can identify: First, the War in Afghanistan is so current and immediate and so visible. As I write this, I'm sitting and watching ceremonies from Parliament Hill and hearing the amazing. touching stories from families of those lost. We watch the motorcades on the Highway of Heroes; we see the pictures of the heroic young men who have gone to fight so bravely and willingly; we see the sorrow on the faces of the veterans and families. Governor General Michelle and Prince Charles are standing there saluting as I type. Quite moving. Second, there's our "new" memorial, a thoughtful expression of town building and history. Third, along those same lines, Pasadena is coming together as a community, and now has its own branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. The older veterans today were joined by young men with medals on their chests.

The ceremony in Pasadena was very tight, that is, well planned, organized and efficient. The wreath laying was done with precision; there was no nonsense about this ceremony. Everything was deeply felt and appropriately remembered.

Lest We Forget!

You may see additional shots of today's ceremony HERE.

Photography of Newfoundland and Labrador

Visit our photo galleries on our photography site:

Leading Tickles, Targa, Glover's Harbour    Great Northern Peninsula     Green Point      Norris Point    Southern Harbour PB      Little Bay Islands    Sally's Cove    Trout River    Quidi Vidi    Trout River March 2005     Neddy's Harbour    Cow Head, Shallow Bay, Rocky Harbour    Westport, Fleur de Lys, Baie Verte Peninsula  Jackson's Arm, Schooners Cove, Sop's Arm, Hampton, The Beaches The Codroy Valley, The Southwest Coast: Isle Aux Morts, Burnt Islands, Rose Blanche,  Witless Bay, Newfoundland Wildflowers, Icebergs - Triton, Port aux Port Peninsula, Ming's Bight - La Scie - Harbour Round - Bryant's Harbour, Port Au Choix, The Burin Peninsula, St. Pierre

(If you're looking for items that were previously on this page, they're either on the "Specials" page, or the "Hikes of the Weeks" page.) There are many more of our most recent photos HERE as well as in our Photo Gallery.)

If you want to see previous "Hikes of the Week" just go HERE.  This is not the same as our Hiking Trails page. Most of our recent photos are HERE as well as in our Photo Gallery and on the "Specials" page.

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