Accommodating Matey

Saturday when I took Matey out for his morning walk he wouldn’t walk. I urged him about 150 feet, then carried him a bit further to a patch of grass. I took off his leash and started to walk forward thinking he would want to follow and roll in the grass. He did not. I carried him back and we sat outside in the shade for a couple of hours. Finally he got up and shook and we took a short walk.

Bud and I agreed not to go anywhere. Matey is 14 and has a bad heart valve and an enlarged heart. His respiration rate was way up. He is on three medications but I had started the third one, a diuretic, not long ago because his coughing had suddenly increased. Our vet told me that was a sign he had too much fluid around his heart. I started him on half a dose and he seemed much better, but after yesterday I decided to switch him to a full dose.

He finally walked a bit over half a mile and seemed more his old self.

Today we planned an easy day for Matey. It stopped drizzling about 10 AM but was still cloudy. We decided to drive up to the end of route 410 to the town of Fleur de Lys to a museum and soapstone quarry.

We thought we could leave Matey in the truck as it was still cool and cloudy. We needn’t have worried, pets were allowed in the little museum.

Inside it explained that the quarry behind the museum had been written about in 1915, but at the time they didn’t realize that it was used by Paleo-Eskimos, now described as the Dorset peoples, 1600 years ago.

Soapstone is a soft rock with a slippery feel that holds heat. It was used to make cooking pots and smaller vessels that were used as lamps.

Outside a short boardwalk led up to the quarry.

What you are seeing are the impressions left behind after the pots have been cut out.

It was a large outcrop that had been used for many years.

The softest soapstone was below ground level where it hadn’t weathered.

Bud noticed one place…

where they had chiseled around the rock for a pot but hadn’t finished. It showed the technique, but we wondered why they quit. Perhaps, we thought, there was some flaw in that rock.

It was a lovely spot…

and you could be distracted by the scenery and miss the carving. We missed these impressions on our way up, they were on the other side of the walkway.

We left the quarry and drove another block or so to the end of route 410. It ended at a turnaround that was the trailhead for this little trail. I would have liked to walk it, but Bud was worried the three short flights of steps would be too much for Matey, so we skipped it.

We’d seen this little island as we went by. A local pulled into the turnaround. “G’dday,” he said; the standard Newfie greeting. Bud asked if we could go out on the little island. “Sure!” he said, “You can go anywhere, do anything you want. There’s no restrictions.” That’s Newfoundland for you.

So we scared the crows away…

and enjoyed the little island.

When we first passed the island I saw this little blue building. “Is that an outhouse? If it is I’m not sure I’d want to use it.”

It is an outhouse.

We didn’t use it!

I did take this video to show the entrance and the harbor. I’d remarked to the local what a fine harbor it was, so well protected. “Best on the coast.” He said. The video starts looking towards the Atlantic, which is just past where you can see, pans across the entrance and ends looking towards the inner harbor which is again, just past where you can see.

I also took a picture of this memorial, still well tended. I wasn’t going to include it in the blog, but decided those who put this up might approve of others thinking kindly of Dougie and with sympathy for his family.

Shelley’s Island was indeed a place to stir your heart…

and bring you peace.

After a quick stop to view Fleur de Lys…

and its inlet from the wharf we headed out.

We hadn’t gone far when we saw a turn-off for Coachman’s Cove. Since we were all the way up there on 410 we decided to check it out.

I’m glad we did. The end of that road was a neck of land between Coachman’s Cove and Baie Verte. This is a little park on the Baie Verte side. Bud is walking past the French Oven, a replica of one found here from the days when the French fished here. It is used for demonstrations.

On the other side you could look out over Coachman’s Cove.

Someone had a nice little garden going here. There are little gardens all around on public land since many folks don’t have enough soil around their houses for a garden.

There were also some incredible rocks.

I can’t imagine the forces that could have twisted these layers so tightly.

I would love to travel here with a geologist to explain what we are seeing.

I just find it beautiful.

There were inclusions of quartz and this one looked like a fossil to me.

It’s easier for me to deal with the flowers, like these beauties. These are Harebells, Campanula gieseckiana.

This wasn’t nearly as nice a harbor as Fleur de Lys but it did have a small wharf and an old fish factory, now unused since the moratorium on commercial cod fishing.

And it still had its beauty.

There was another trail there I would have loved to take but we decided to bring Matey back and let him rest. Happily, even without the trails there was a lot to enjoy.