Hoping for Icebergs!

I'm all excited about the prospect of seeing icebergs soon. This morning there was an article in the paper saying the concentration of icebergs heading south along the Labrador coast was the highest they've seen in years. There's over 250 in a 100 km radius of Belle Isle. They credit the increase to a huge calving of glaciers in Greenland in 2011 and 2012. 

We had a run in with the most beautiful iceberg five years ago, last time we visited the "Rock". It was stranded right along the coast of Durrell near Twillingate, and the town had opened the road to the town dump where there was a spectacular view from the cliffs.

We were even given a close-up tour by Melvin, a retired fisherman who lives in Durrell. Melvin has, in my opinion, the most picturesque dock in all of Newfoundland, and the people at Frommers trip guides must have though so too, because they put a photo of his dock on the cover of their new 2009 Newfoundland trip guide. I showed Melvin the travel guide, and he asked us if we could send him a copy when we got back home. But, when we were in St. John's, we went to a Chapters and found another copy. So, on the way back across the island, we just had to go check on the iceberg another time, and deliver the travel guide to Melvin.

He was so thrilled, and asked if we'd taken the iceberg tour out of Twillingate yet. We hadn't. So he offered to take us out in his boat for a private tour. We told us to came back around 8 pm when the tide would be back in - which we did. He took us out of the harbour, out onto the open ocean as it heaved and swelled, and then right in close to the iceberg. I was both awestruck and terrified at the same time. What an experience!  We even took home a chunk of ancient ice.

So, here's hoping we get to see some spectacular icebergs on this trip too!

I'm frantically working on final things for the trip. I managed to finish knitting Maya's sweater - which looks amazing. Best sweater yet, I'd say. The whole time I was knitting I was stressed thinking it was going to be way too big, but it turned out the perfect size. Funny how I tend to always want to make the sweaters smaller. Even as a kid when I knit sweaters for my Barbies, I'd always make them too small. Anyway, I tried to just trust my observations I'd made when Maya tried on Lonnie's sweater, and trust it would work out. The sweater still needs to be finished (plackets and buttons), but I had to get a start on the teal green sweater for Erin. I estimate it will take at least another two hours of knitting to finish, and then there's the finishing.  I also painted some more "floats" - wooden oblong ones, inspired by floats I photographed in a colourful collection in New England.  I still need to twist some "ropes" for the floats.

I'm hoping for a final group shot of everyone in their travel clothes, before we leave, so better get busy.