I love Peggy's Cove!  In my opinion, it's the most beautiful, scenic, fishing village on the mainland eastern seacoast. We always take the opportunity to go there whenever we are in the vicinity. It's a 2 hour detour each way, not including visiting time, from the Trans-Canada through Nova Scotia, but well worth it. We stopped in on the way to the ferry, and it was a glorious sunny morning, but I wasn't hardened yet to taking doll photos in public, so didn't take any, even though I did spec out possible photo locations. Two and a half weeks later, on our way past again, it was incredibly foggy with almost zero visibility, and with our lousy, worn windshield wipers we could hardly see anything. Jan suggested we go anyways, since fog does have a certain magic, so he bought some new windshield wipers, and off we went. The place was overrun by tourists. It was still before 9 in the morning and there were already 6 tour buses - some the double, hinged kind. There was no getting around it this time - people were going to notice. One of the spots I'd taken note of on the previous visit was a small two-car, elevated parking spot overlooking the harbour. It had the perfect view down to the iconic fishing village scene. So I sat down on the ground right against the one car's front tire, and proceeded to set up the dolls and props. With my back to the tourists walking up and down the road behind me, I could just pretend that if I didn't see them, they couldn't see me either.

This is one of the few places it really seemed odd to me to have dolls in the scene. 
I've been here so many times, and photographed the village so many times, and it's
 just so funny to have dolls in that iconic "calendar picture" with the red fishing hut.

In the end I was so glad we went. The photos in the fog turned out amazing 
- much better than they would have had it been bright and sunny.

Today is Jan's 60th birthday, and he wanted to have a special tea party with our granddaughters. He asked them to come all dressed up in their finest dress-up clothes. He got out some fine china and set up a little table and chairs in a shady spot in the back garden. I took photos....

Now I have to prep for Saturday's big birthday beach party down by the lake. Everyone is coming, even our son from Vancouver.  We are going to take our RV, so we'll have a much-needed washroom and change-room, and we'll have a fridge and freezer for the food. Gone are the days of lukewarm food cooking in the sun, or drinks bobbing in a cooler full of melted ice.

The nasty heat wave just keeps on and on, and it's too hot to do much of anything - even with the air conditioner on. So, we just continue the look at trip photos. Today I'm sharing pictures of Maya, by Doll Leaves. He's not the most realistic of my guys, and he's from one of the least expensive companies, but I really like him. He's been on several trips now, and he always adds a certain boyish charm. He'll do things my other guys would consider beneath them. 

I really like the sweater I knit for him. In fact, it's my favourite of all the ones I knit for this trip.

He likes to have fun, but is also a good worker, and enjoys helping out....

He found the whole lobster fishing thing totally fascinating....

He also loves to ride his bike, as he is here along the Bay of Islands in Humber Arm. 
The mountains and islands are barely visible in the smokey haze caused by all the 
smoke drifting in from forest fires in Labrador, hundreds of kilometers to the west.

Today is Jan's 60th birthday, and our granddaughters are coming over for a special Birthday Tea Party. I hope it's not going to be too hot out to take nice pictures. The rest of the family is all coming to his Birthday Beach Party Saturday down by the lake. This heat wave is supposed to dissipate Saturday, and it's supposed to go down to a more tolerable 28 degrees. Well, I better get busy, as there's still a lot to get ready before the girls come over.

Even though we took 6 different ferries to, from, and around Newfoundland, I was only brave enough to take doll photos on the final cruise back to the mainland. However I did get one picture with the Labrador ferry in the background - departing without us.....

See that tiny ship sailing off to the left - that's the Apollo, the ferry to Labrador - leaving without us. We had tried to buy a ticket the day before when we first arrived, but they wouldn't let us, claiming passengers couldn't make reservations within 48 hours of sailing. So we'd just have to come two hours before a sailing and hope to make it on as a "walk-on". So when we arrived, nice and early, we were given number 19 - 19th in line after the reservations. Well, they packed that ferry full of transport trucks, cars and campers, but in the end, there were five of us left standing on the dock. So we had to go back to the ticket office and change our ticket to the next sailing five hours later, and this time we'd be #2. So we went back up the coast a little to L'Anse-au-Clair to a great little park with a nice little Inukshuk and lots of icebergs stuck offshore. I took this photo of Nami just in time to capture the ferry sailing off without us. 

By the time we had to take the Marine Atlantic ferry back to the mainland, I was pretty much over being self-conscious of taking doll photos in public. Here's the girls watching the ferry from  North Sydney arrive at Channel Port-au-Basques early in the morning.....

We had noticed that there were fewer crossings to Newfoundland than we remembered in the past, but Marine Atlantic apparently had some new ferries made that can hold way more vehicles. As a result, they don't have to sail as often. Personally I preferred the old ferries. They looked like huge cruise ships. These new ones were "ugly", but they certainly did hold an incredible number of vehicles. The ferry we came on had all kinds of modern passenger amenities, but no place to be up on deck. This second ferry was even less attractive than the first one, but it at least had a sun deck on top - behind the helicopter pad. Because we wouldn't be allowed back down to our vehicle during the crossing (a whole 7 1/2 hours) I only took Byuri and Nami along - their boxes fit nicely in my carry-on bag.      

The girls watch as the ferry sails out of Channel Port-au-Basques. "Good-bye Newfoundland!" 
It's a long crossing, so they have to find ways to entertain themselves. It's also bright and sunny, so Byuri needs to stay out of the sun as much as possible. She doesn't want to turn green.

Then they spot some whales......a pod of humpbacks.......
The light turquoise areas alongside the whales are their white fins and undersides.

Many hours later approaching North Sydney, they pass a cruise ship - the SS Maasdam, from Holland America Line - the same company who owned the SS Ryndam, the ship I emigrated to Canada on over 50 years ago. Back in those days they were huge two-class passenger steamships for people wanting to move to the New World. Now they just have cruise ships, and they still re-use the same old names.

Even though it's been four days since we came home, I'm still working on putting all my trip stuff away. It's so boiling hot outside, that even with air conditioner on, it's too warm to work hard at anything. All the trip dolls have been changed into cool sundresses, as It was making me sweat just looking at them in those sweaters. I still have to put away the last of the props. I'm hoping next week I'll be able to start some doll-work again.

I've started the first of what will probably be several photo albums of the trip. It's a "works in progress" starting from the beginning and will follow the timeline of the trip itself, and I will be adding to them as time permits and I process more photos. I'll still post my favourites here on my Blog, but to see more complete coverage, and photos not shown here, you can check out the trip albums. Just click on the photo below of the girls in Goose Cove to go to the first one. There's not a lot there yet, but I'll continue adding more when I can.

Before showing anymore trip photos of the dolls, I really need to take a moment and thank my husband Jan, for all his help with my doll photos - carrying the doll boxes and props, helping with posing, and putting everything back into the RV into cupboards I can't reach. Without his help most of my doll photos would not have been possible. And then there's the fact that I don't drive, and would never get to any of these places on my own. 

When I find a spot I think will work, I do the preliminary set-up, then get down on the ground so I'm closer to the doll's eye level. Of course, once I'm down, I can't get up or reach the dolls to make any final adjustments, so Jan does that - a head might need a slight turn, a stand needs to be hidden a bit more, a chin needs to go up or down a bit more, clothes need adjusting, and so on. And then he often gets his own ideas for a pose - something I hadn't thought of. While he's busy making adjustments, I'll sometimes take a photo. 

From my angle down on the ground, he becomes a giant in a doll's world....

And when I'm struggling to get up off the ground, he'll collect the dolls....

Every photographer needs a good assistant, and I've got the best! Thanks Jan!!

Back to cooler weather and the land of icebergs. We saw a lot of icebergs on our trip to Newfoundland, but they were all up at the tip of the northern peninsula and along the coast of Labrador. There were none in the usual places along "Iceberg Alley" this year. It was fun trying to take doll photos with icebergs in the background. Here's Nami posing with one....

The same iceberg from another viewpoint....the surrounding water is full of bergie bits.....

Everyone playing around at L'Anse au Clair, in Labrador, with several icebergs in the background

Those same icebergs from another viewpoint.....totally different.....

And one evening overlooking the inner harbour at Red Bay, Labrador.......

I wish I'd paid more attention to the tension point with Nami and the one iceberg, but it was one of those situations where I was being eaten alive by black-flies - so I was distracted. 

Here's another view of the one iceberg - shot directly into the sun. If you look closely on the right side you can see all the water dripping off as it melts. Once grounded, icebergs don't last very long - especially smaller ones.

Here I am just one day back from our trip, and taking "special days" photos already. But this one was just begging to be taken. It's "National Nude Day" today - or it was - it's a bit late in the day now to go running around in the buff trying to get that perfect all-over tan. It would have been a nice day for it though - all hot and sunny. But without adequate sun-screen, it was also a good day for an all-over sunburn - which would have meant the next few days would have become "Nude" days too. So good thing the sun is almost down.

My girls knew what day it was though, and were happy to get out of those long-sleeved layers and warm sweaters they've been wearing the last few weeks. I let them run through the sprinkler for a while to cool off. I was glad none of the neighbours looked over the fence to see what was going on in my backyard - me laying flat on the grass shooting photos of naked dolls.

There's still a few hours left, so if you feel you really, really, really want to, you can still participate, however, I think the neighbours might prefer it if you waited until after dark.

On July 1st we were at Cape Bonavista with it's famous red and white lighthouse complex - the perfect spot to celebrate Canada Day. In the morning the girls had a picnic. They brought flags and balloons, and Lonnie brought the most Canadian of all - a box of Tim Horton's donuts....

In the evening they wanted to have a parade, but the wind had gotten so fierce 
they could barely stand upright, let alone hold up a flag. 

I had to take a lot of photos in order to get one that even partially showed the maple leaf on the flag - they were whipping in the wind so much. Balloons had to be weighted down by some rocks or they'd have disappeared in a moment and danced out to sea. I found that as long as the wind was blowing towards my intended background, I could at least pose the girls looking into the wind towards me, and no matter how wind-swept their hair became, I could still see their little faces. Which is why so many of the trip pictures are "smile and look at the camera" type photos.

We just got home! We had a good trip to Newfoundland, saw lots of old favourites and visited several new sites. It was hot and sunny almost the whole time, which is very unusual weather for the "Rock". And here I thought we'd be going someplace cool.

It was fun taking doll photos, and I'm very pleased with how they've turned out. I managed to take some in places I'd wanted to, and had to miss out on some others. All in all, I have quite some collection. Taking the doll photos was quite some challenge though. There was either blazing sun, ferocious winds, or hordes of black-flies to deal with. If you've ever seen one of those documentaries about summer in the Arctic, and seen the researchers and film crew all covered from head to toe, with gloves and hats with netting, it was almost like that - not quite as bad yet so early in the year - but the park ranger said it would be getting a lot worse. We'd be raising our windows as we pulled into a place to stop, and the black-flies would come swarming all over the windows as if to check out what was on the dinner menu. Us! Well, ME actually. They didn't seem to bother Jan. So, he'd set up the dolls while I frantically waved the bugs away from my face, and then away from in front of my lens. A quick photo or two, and then pack everything back in the RV. So, there wasn't a lot of opportunity for creative posing, or lengthy photo shoots. Unless it was very windy - then there were no bugs. But that had it's own set of issues.

Anyway, I know you've all been waiting, so here's a few photos from the doll's trip....

Visiting the village of Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, on a very foggy morning.....

On the ferry. It's a 7 1/2 hour sail to Newfoundland, and you aren't allowed back 
down on the vehicle decks, so I just took Nami and Byuri up on deck with me.

Looking for whales on the eastern-most point of the western world - Cape Spear - the very first place in North America to see the sun rise each morning.....and also the first place to see it set.

Checking out an Inukshuk in the wilderness of Labrador...

Taking a closer look at some lobster in Twillingate....

..and watching the icebergs at Goose Cove on the tip of the northern peninsula, 
as they float by on the Labrador current.

I'll be posting more photos in coming days, and eventually making a photo gallery of all the trip photos, but for now there's a lot to do unpacking, doing laundry, putting things away, reclaiming my house - and it's so very warm. But it's nice to be home!