Grand Bruit, Newfoundland, I'll miss you!

I had only been to Grand Bruit once in my life and now it is gone forever.

Yes, this little community on Newfoundland's South coast is now resettled and exists no more. What I feel bad about is that of all the communities I have visited in Newfoundland, I thought this little place was the best. It had character, beauty, history, peace, solitude, and a small population. But what made it picture perfect was how it looked from from Cindy Billard's house and cabins on the hill. You could see everything and walk from one end to the other in about 12 minutes. See the painting above next to the arial shot? No roads, no cars....yet the paths were paved. It had won the Tidy Town Award as each property was kept wonderful and clean. The old merchant's house just across a small causeway was old, slanted
and immense. There's definitely history and the Newfoundland way of life there for sure!

I hope somehow I can return to this community. If anyone knows how, please let me know as there is no ferry service there now.

Grand Bruit...a place of no roads, no pollution,... and now - no people. Sad indeed.

Ben Sands, a wonderful singer from Ireland

Whenever I look at the picture above, I smile. Here is Kathy, the love of my life, Ben Sands, and me sitting at the table, happy as can be. We were over at LLoyd Hollets house for a meal with Ben and his lovely wife. Ben promised to us that evening that he would sing a song off his cd that we love called Lady Take your Time. It's a beautiful song that means so much to us....a song about decision making....and a decision we made for ourselves and our future. And I'm glad Kathy and I did. Ben may or may not be aware, but his song drove home the fact of being happy and being together.

So Ben sang the song in Woody Point that special evening and we ended up buying a house in Woody Point that summer. It's all connected.

Ben is a wonderful man who told me that sometimes the musician is also the listener, the doctor, the therapist, the "friend" to many. I know what he means. But it's good to have poets who are good singers and "friends" to listeners like us.

If you like good music and well written lyrics, I suggest you try a cd by Ben Sands. He's at www.bensands.com
You'll love him.

A cinquain on "Wine"

Well, actually I am waiting for a cinquain on wine. This other Mike Madigan I bumped into on the blog site lives in California and writes about his love for wine. So I recently wrote him this:

Hi Mike,
I was wondering who are your readers. I was once in a class in the 70s where a prof taught us a poetry form called the Cinquain. Seemed pretty elementary, I thought. He basically said it was five lines, each line increasing by one word until you reached the last line which was one word again. The method was first line - topic....using one word. Second line was two words describing topic. Third line was three words expressing an action of the topic. Fourth line...and most crucial line, was four words expressing an emotion about the topic. Then the fifth line, back to one word, was to be a synonym of the topic. Then the prof said to us, "Okay, try a cinquain...any topic will do." So I chose to write a cinquain about my younger sister Angela. I wrote this in class:
Angela
My sister
Growing up fast
Without my being there
Miss

The prof gave me an A+...and said the last line was especially good, as it served a double purpose.
So Mike Madigan, if you were to write a cinquain about "Wine", what would it look like?

So I am hoping this other Mike will write me about wine in cinquain form.