Excursions & Decisions

Duke and I had a lovely little getaway night aboard our sailing vessel Virtue which is tied up at Terra Nova National Park’s wharf. Such a beautiful spot! We had a gorgeous moonlit night and spent our morning on a little hike on one of the trails…

Along this boardwalk, we saw gulls, crows, a bald eagle, and some greater yellowlegs bobbing their beaks into the kelp.

And this Spruce Grouse, or Partridge, stood perfectly still as a defence mechanism, which made for an easy photo target! Hunters must have a real easy time with these birds.

The forest is unfamiliar territory for me, who lives on a granite outcropping next to the Atlantic Ocean. The trees were creaking in the little gusts of wind, and as I made my way through the floor of tree roots, I was imagining how spooky the hike would have been in the moonlight last night!

While I enjoyed this little excursion very much, there was the stress of wondering what’s going to happen with our business this coming week always hanging a shadow over me. Last week we saw such a significant dip in business at the studio and café that I had to dip into personal debt in order to pay the weekly bills. I can’t afford to do that much more, and we have four weeks left in the season yet. What to do? Do I risk personal debt in order to keep 8 valued staff-members employed for the next four weeks? Do I disappoint the few customers who have made reservations for special occasions? We really do need to be going full tilt to pay the bills. This week I will keep going, run the risk, and reassess on Saturday. Fingers toes and eyes crossed that I can keep going until Thanksgiving as planned!

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Norton’s Cove Weekends

I haven’t been posting much lately, and I have a pretty good excuse… One of the Café servers left us, leaving me to fill in, and so my workweek was a wee bit longer than is conducive to keeping up with everything on my to-do-list! (14 hour days really make me notice how old I have gotten!)

Thankfully, we’ve hired a new part-time employee and adjusted our schedules and now I am much more ready to take on all the things.

With such a busy summer happening here in Norton’s Cove, my time off has become more important to me than ever before. Being productive really does require a person to be well rested. And I’ve been making good use of my Norton’s Cove Weekends (NCW: Sunday night, Monday, & Tuesday).

Some of you may have noticed that SS Virtue is now back at home port. (And doesn’t the harbour look even better with her in it?) Duke and I motor-sailed her to Terra Nova National Park from the marina in Glovertown, and then back to Norton’s Cove the following week. Two glorious days! And we bought a season pass at the park, so we hope to visit there again soon.