#NFLd

[productofnfld]

Playful puffins at Elliston, NL

Elliston is easily my favourite place in Newfoundland for puffin watching. It’s a short walk (<5 minutes) from parking, there are a lot of puffins, and plenty of other wildlife too. I’ve rarely gone puffin watching at Elliston and not spotted whales.

[newfoundlandland]

A Walk in the Park by Karen C

[heavy-nfld]

New music from Lünd!

[mistwalker-official]

Spent the last week back home on The Rock. Rejuvenated, respited, and re-inspired to get back to work on new music. Time to finish this new record.

Shoutout to Viscen for the new and extremely comfortable hoodie.

📸: @/plantgenitals

[coffeenuts]

[ordantorrem]

[ceratinus]

Newfoundland, Part I

[speilsese]

The final pitch bible for Alt Alien Biopunk: Nautical is up!

About an awesome, strong emperor, captain & CEO growing of age. A rebellious revolution seeks to destroy all he & his workers love, worked for & keep them alive. With or without gigantic sea life.

[jelibaen]

We're on the way to the airport now. I'll be home in just over 12 hours and I have to say... I'm both super excited to be back with my pets, but also extremely sad. I dont want to leave. I've said it probably a dozen times in the last two weeks - if I could find a way to get my animals here, I would move back to Newfoundland in a heartbeat. But moving seven snakes, twenty ducks, two geese, two cats and two dogs across the country is a task of its own. I dont even want to think about the conversation I would have to have with my friends. But I miss it.

I may delete this later on. I just need to get the words out.

My heart lives on this island, and yet I've never lived in Newfoundland for longer than a month or two at a time. I was born in Grand Falls. My mum went to Newfoundland to have me, and we went back to Alberta when I was 5 weeks old. And then we would go back and forth every summer, go back for Christmas, pretty consistently until I started school.

My entire family is from Newfoundland. I'm related to literally half of Twillingate. But they don't all live there. When my parents moved to Alberta, a bunch of their friends and cousins came with them and shared a house for a while. I was raised in a very Newfoundland household, even if we were as landlocked as we could get. When I started school, my grandparents would come up for the summer or for Christmas instead of us going there. I was raised with the music, with mummering, with Jiggs dinner, with an aching desire to be near water that somehow has to be genetic.

Then I started school. And I had to push all that down. I had to force myself to change my voice so that my classmates could understand me, or at least stop bullying me about the way I spoke or my accent. Didnt help much, they just found other things. Like how all the music is weird and annoying, how mummering is creepy, how I should stop pretending to be smart because I'm just a stupid Newfie. I stopped telling people I was from Newfoundland because I got tired of people asking me to try and pronounce 'about' and other shit for the next five minutes of the conversation.

That's how Alberta was. You cant talk to anyone because they'll think you're weird. Everything has to be locked up or in your hands, because if you even forget it for a second, someone will take it. People will break locks and cut fences just to get something they want. Guard what you have because someone will try to steal it. Dont walk anywhere after dark because someone will hurt you. Dont walk anywhere alone at any time because someone will hurt you. Dont try to be different. Dont even paint your door a different color because people will think you're weird. Dont trust anyone. That's what Alberta was and still is.

Now Alberta has a very high population of Newfoundlanders. Fort McMurray might as well be called Nfld soil for how many people are here from home. But you still only meet them out and about every once in a while. And when you do, its a totally different experience than meeting a stranger.

As soon as you meet someone from Nfld and they realize you're from there too? Instantly like old friends. There's no awkward introduction. You just start talking like you've known each other all your life, and you'll have to double back at the end of the conversation to ask what their name was because you can be talking for 15 minutes and not even bother introducing yourselves.

Its not rude. Its just the way we are. The default is that everyone is a friend. Alberta is so different. The culture there, especially nowadays, is so cold and caustic. I don't want to go back to clients yelling at me, to snappy people on the street, to the city that has gotten the highest crime rate in Canada five times. I want to be here. I want to be in the place where not a single door is locked, not a car, not a house, because everyone trusts each other. I want to be where I can walk anywhere and know I am loved. I want to be here, where I could go up to any door, even if they had no idea who I was, and be welcomed. I could knock on any stranger's door and ask for a cup of sugar, and end up staying for supper.

I want to be home.

When I flew down two weeks ago, the flights were silent. No chatter. Nobody talking. Until I got on the plane to St. John's from Halifax. It buzzed. People talked the entire flight to complete and total strangers, without hesitation. You walk into a store down here and you can talk to anyone. I was at Walmart the other day looking for rug binding, and I wasn't sure what I needed, but I just stood there looking a bit lost and trying to muster up the courage to ask a staff worker. The next thing I know, this grandmother comes down the aisle with 4 rolls of yarn and new knitting needles, takes one look at me, and asks me what I needed. And then we spent 25 minutes talking about various crafts, what rug binding I would need for what craft, what she'd been working on, what I was working on, and I left that aisle with 3 rolls of the tape I needed and a wonderful feeling of comfort. I didnt even ask her name. She didn't ask mine.

That's the culture in Newfoundland. Everyone is a friend. And by God does my heart ache for it. Not to mention the ocean, the rocks, the sounds of the sea and the wind.

Newfoundland is a struggling little island. Its one of the poorest parts of Canada. The unemployment rate is sky high. The weather is terrible. Everything costs an arm and a leg. But the default here is just... kindness. Everyone is in the same boat, everyone is going through the same struggle, so if you can make the struggle a bit easier, you might as well try.

One day I will be back. One day I will come back, and I will stay. And I will be home.

[muirneach]

its really funny talking to ppl irl about universities because if you mention any semi-rural school so many people invariably are like ‘oh would you be okay there its kind of a small town..’ yeah man i used to live in a town with an entire 1900 people i think ill be okay in an 80k city

[productofnfld]

A beautiful day in Change Islands — Change Islands, NL

[newfoundlandland]

Shadows by Karen Chappell

[heavy-nfld]

Former St. John's musician and bar owner Chris Carter has been found guilty of sexual assault. Full VOCM article will be linked as a response to this post.

[mistwalker-official]

‘Post-Apocalyptic Eras’ by Securitron, my RPM Challenge album from 2024, is out now on Bandcamp!

Huge thanks to José-Gabriel Bazan Gauthier for mixing and mastering this thing.

Also it’s Bandcamp Friday so if you like what you hear consider picking it up!

[coffeenuts]

[ordantorrem]

🇮🇪>🇬🇧 Ná clóscríobh nó ná labhair nuacht diúltach an Bhéarla. An teanga choilíneach chruthaithe atá lán de dhúlagar na cathrach.

Ba cheart don eaglais mise & sinn a leigheas. Scrios an rialtas Cheanada-Angla-Angalach saol baill ordaithe ag tosú ag 3 bliana d'aois. Bhí sé stalctha, náirithe & faoi ghlas suas gach sos. Síos leis an PFN & na Liobrálaithe as a bheith díreach cosúil le J Staleen!