Just a simple walk in the woods...I hadn't intended to do much today, but the big camera was sitting on the seat of the car so I decided to take it with me while the dogs were beating each other out.
So this was today, January 25
And this was himself who stopped long enough from eating the woods to get his picture taken. Interesting glow in his eyes; must be from the glow of the lens reflecting the sunset.
A Wonderful Day in the NeighbourhoodI suppose I could lie and say this was a "typical" day in the neighbourhood, but the truth is it was a little above average. It was quite cold, the dragon was breathing in the valley and his breath coated everything small and round. Up at 5:00 to see off some friends of Liam's who were going to Trout River Pond to try to find a waterfalls to climb. Their plan was to be there (at the base of the falls) by dawn. So off they went. I napped for an hour and then off I went to Marble. Wasn't going to go; too cold. But the thought of the dragon in the valley and the photo ops dragged me out. The valley was too full of breath on the way down, but from the top of Marble you could see the traces of his trip up the valley. It was even worse on the way back(meaning not quite what I wanted for photos), so I settled for an hour or so then made my way back down the lower road along the lake, and across to the Resort. Much nicer; a few nice snaps resulted. Then I dropped in to Pasadena Ski and Nature Park to see who might be zipping along the trails so I could get another good shot or two. To do this I should have hiked up the trail and little and done some ambushing, but I didn't. Here's one shot from the Resort.
You want to see all today's shots? Click HERE. Sit in front of the fire now and have a sip of the creature. That's the final touch on a West Coast day.
Pasadena - The little town of lights Take some time, before it's all over, to stroll around town in the evening, and in the snow, and drink in the flavours of the season. Last night Carol and I took in as much of this as we could. Here are a few shots. Enjoy!
Click on any shot to see it full sized.
Pasadena's Santa Claus Parade
Peace Memorial - November 25 - PasadenaApart from being a lasting memorial to those who fought and died for our country and for peace, there's something about a memorial that adds to the identity of a town. Yesterday's unveiling and dedication, the impressive turnout, the short and meaningful ceremony, all served to continue our growth as a strong community and a wonderful place to live.
Click on any of the thumbnails to see them full sized.
Pasadena Ski and Nature ParkEveryone knows it's a great cross country ski venue. Not everyone knows it's a great place for a summer hike, and learning experience. The trails are dry, several are summer trimmed, and most importantly, all the flora, fauna, and trees, are labelled. If you pick up the booklet at the entrance to the lodge area, you'll find them beautifully explained and illustrated. (Well, they're not ALL labelled, just the different species.)
Our favourite trail for walking with the dogs is The Lone Pine. It loops off The Looper and comes around again. Then you have several options, either straight on back to the Lodge or to explore one of the other trails. This trek of ours takes us about an hour, and it's excellent. It's gently uphill until the half way point, and then starts gently down. It's wide, dry, beautifully forested, and you're walking on leaves or moss most of the way. Spots that were perhaps once wet/muddy have been filled with wood chips. Drainage is well managed. Even on a wet day, you'll scarcely get your feet wet. We've also explored The Martin trail and Caribou Run. One could spend a lot of time wandering those trails and go much farther a field if you wanted. There are always plenty of moose tracks, but the moose are being chased all over the place this time of year. There are bird boxes on several trees, and you're invited to "hug" the Lone Pine, or wonder exactly what species of tree a "Skull Maple" is. The multi-page 8 by 10 information booklet
(prepared by Henry Mann) which you can pick up at the entrance to the
property (put it back when you're finished) will allow you to take your time
and learn about everything you see on the sides of the trail. Everything is
numbered/labelled on the trail itself,The Looper especially, and less
so on other trails. You can find corresponding detailed descriptions on the
booklet.
So, all those of you who take your early morning walks around Pasadena, if you want to try something a little different, make your way to the Pasadena Ski and Nature Park and try out their trails. They're well prepared for your spring, summer, and fall walking. In the winter, you can, of course, ski. :-) If you haven't seen the lodge itself, it's a beautiful building and members of the club spend many wonderful hours in front of the stove both after skiing and during winter evenings when there are often club sponsored events. What a magnificent addition to our community this lodge is. The ski club and its executive are continually making improvements to the trails and the property. We enjoy having the trails to ourselves on these lovely fall days, but, I guess we can't be selfish. Hopefully this little article will drawn a few more of you out into the woods for your daily walks. The colours are just about all gone, but for another week of so the walking will still be great. Visit the Pasadena Ski and Nature Park website if you're looking for more information. Just click HERE. Happy trails to you. Let's hope for lots of snow, very little rain, no mild spells and excellent skiing both Alpine and Nordic. Pasadena Ski and Nature Park
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Over
the past few weeks, through the peak of the fall colours, we've been walking
those trails with our dogs. We haven't met anyone on the trails, except
those up there preparing for the winter season. They're presently in the
process of cutting snowshoe trails and patching up the ski trails.
Our doors are always open. There are five
churches. We have a population of approximately 3500. There are no police. The
RCMP have an office here that they can use when they do their occasional patrols
through the community. There's a nice primary/elementary school; there's a nice
high school. The high school is always competitive in the provincial volleyball
tournaments. The band program serves roast beef dinners during carnival week.
On streets near the woods or highway, skidoos make their way slowly to the
skidoo trails, with the occasional one not so slow. On summer evenings
you'll have to find a spot so you can do your walk - everyone's out. There's a
cross-country ski club. There's an incubator mall for developing entrepreneurs.
There
are many small and home based businesses. Thriving we are.
Canada has consistently been ranked by the United Nations as number one or close to number one as the best country in which to live. Grand Falls Windsor (Newfoundland) has been identified as the best place in Canada to live. There are numerous communities in Newfoundland and Labrador that would contest this. Pasadena would certainly be one of them.
I consider myself very lucky to live in Canada, in Newfoundland, and in Pasadena. I think we had vandalism here once. My neighbour uses his snow blower in my driveway (and I in his, depending on who gets out there first). He gives me a moose roast when he gets his moose; he also sells fish for his friends down the coast; it's good fish.
Carol brought a Christmas gift to the post office to put in an express post package. "You're not going to pack it like that," they said. They gift wrapped it for her.
The
community Christmas Hamper Committee collected more than enough to pack 80
Christmas hampers; they were impressive hampers. Folks like to be on the
committee; folks like to help.
Now it's not a community where everyone necessarily knows everyone else. It's, for the most part, a bedroom community. Most work in Corner Brook, at the mill, at the hospital, teaching. More and more of us are retired. Often you don't really get to know your neighbours, but you'll get to know them if you need help. Lots of RCMP and NL Constabulary live in Pasadena; they prefer to live here to living in the place where they work; it's also between the two larger communities of Deer Lake and Corner Brook. RCMP members can transfer from one to the other and still live in Pasadena.
There's a big resort going up across the Lake; Europeans realize what we have here; they're spending a lot of money to live in our midst; it's a gated community; however, we let them out occasionally. There are "resorts" going up all around the lake.
So what exactly DO we have?
Well, we have Gros Morne National park about 45 minutes away; we have Marble Mountain; we have skidoo trails; we have cross country skiing; we have a lake; we have golf courses; we have safe, clean, friendly communities; we have one of the world's great salmon rivers; the scenery is spectacular; we have nice summers and honest winters; we don't have a McDonalds. We're as close as you can get to pristine. The entertainment at the Arts and Culture Centre in Corner Brook is quite impressive; the festivals and classical music programs at Gros Morne are world class. The hiking is unsurpassed. Why would you want to live anywhere else?
Pasadena makes an exceptional retirement community. Taxes are low; real estate is extremely reasonable; it's flat; it's safe. We could use a few more sidewalks. It's not as young a community as it once was. The schools have shrunk (as they have all over Newfoundland and Labrador). It may not be a good community for teenagers if they're not involved in school stuff, but the school is good and there's lots of quality stuff for them to do if they want. It's a great place for younger children.
(Click on any of the thumbnails (tiny pictures above) so see a larger version of the picture. These pictures were taken Feb 19, 2005 all within a 10 minute walk from our house.)
One year from now you'll be able to follow links below to see what we do throughout the year here in our town. (Apologies to TW.) So stay tuned. Winter Carnival will be the first link.
January 26, 2005 - The pre-sale for winter
carnival event tickets was last night. I went over to the Lion's Club. Wow! All
those folks volunteering to sell the tickets for the volunteers who will make
the meals and the volunteers who will run the events, perform
in
the skits, wait the tables, clean up, and enjoy each other's company. The
biggest lineups were for events I had little interest in; there ya go; people
have different interests; who wudda thunk it. It seems like interest and
participation is growing each year. I'm looking forward to carnival. (Corner
Brook's carnival is even bigger. But maybe not better.) Stay tuned as the
carnival unfolds.
(All of the pictures above were taken during my regular morning walk with Piqa. The stroll takes me 45 minutes to an hour. We walk down the road, up to the field, on to the skidoo trail, and circle back to the house.)
Everything's up to date in Pasadena.
You start to see all kinds of exciting events
cropping up all over the province these days, you know, things like Targa
Newfoundland, and the
Corner Brook International Triathlon. Now, our modest little bicycle race
today wasn't in the same class as those, but it was exciting none the less, and
it was well organized and attracted some great racers. It was even a test event
for the Canada Games team, which brought some good young riders to Pasadena.
Today's event was an 80km race. Bruce Hamlyn, a masters rider, told me that this was about double what most of the riders were used to doing. It would take the better riders about two hours, and some of the masters riders and younger riders would take from three to four hours.
Pasadena is a pretty flat place, and the roads are in decent condition, so it made for pretty good racing. There were flagmen at all the corners, and the lead riders were led by a police car. Traffic and pedestrians still moved freely, so the racers had to be pretty careful. As a matter of fact, I almost got clobbered myself as I was standing off the edge of one curb on the tight side of a corner, not realizing how close they'd cut the corner. I was in the way; I was told.
It was also quite cool, another welcome condition for the riders, even though spectators were dressed in their woolies. Carl Barrett commented that if the weather changed drastically over the three hours, as it was supposed to, then the way they were dressed at the beginning of the race would start to torture them a little in the hotter conditions.
You may see more pictures of the race HERE.
We've added a new page called "Happenings". It contains community events we've covered, such as the opening of Serenity Esthetique. Click on the link below.
