Wednesday morning came early and we were ready for another delicious breakfast, only this morning there were plans to meet up with friends from the OKP. It is a strange coincidence that there were several of us in St. John 's at the same time.   It was breakfast at Velma's with Sandy and from Philly, Renate from New York and Candace.   Candace is local to St. John 's .   I didn't realize, however that they were going to wait for me before ordering. I'm never really on time.   I hadn't seen Anne since we had dinner at Arner's in Delaware the summer we went to Longwood Gardens .   She was in Newfoundland to attend the Terra Nova folk Festival.   Anne is good friends with Jim Fidler and Lillian. Renata is not known to me. She's adventurous with a great sense of humor and charming personality.   She hails from New York . Candace is a student at MUN but I'm not sure she is local to St. John 's .   It turns out she's camera shy and I have no pictures of her.   We had lots of laughs over breakfast and it was hard to break away when we had to get on with our plans.

  It's funny to realize how fast we can become friends when all we have in common is appreciation for a band or style of music.   GPS has done so much for tourism in Newfoundland .   On any given week through the warm months there will be someone from their fans a visiting. How we all got together ,   connected and enjoy each other's company over the years is nothing short of amazing.

Sandy moved to St. John 's after losing the job she held for 17 years Sandy was like me and that she also wanted to retire to Newfoundland .   She felt that if she was going to have to look for work, she might just as well do it here.   So on April 1, no jokes please end, she arrived at YYT to start her new life.   Sandy has made lots of new friends.   She is not afraid to approach people.   On top of that she's made an excellent host and tour guide.   I love her for that.   Well done Sandy .

Our next off today will be Fred's records on Duckworth Street .   Fred's has been a staple among the St. John 's music scene for years.   They have a huge mail-order business and seem to have music from all corners of the province.   The store layout and decor is reminiscent of Sam's on Yonge Street .   Hardwood floors with vintage posters and autographed framed photos all about.   Fred's has been there as long as anyone can remember. Sandy found me exactly what I was looking for as well as CDs that I didn't know I wanted until I heard them.   You sentence the clerk was a little surprised with our selection and asked how we knew about some of the artists. Sandy introduced me to a new artist Eamonn Dillon…….. it was just about this time that the sales clerk notices it was starting to hail outside he stopped wrapping our purchases, walked to the f ron t of the store. The door had been propped open and he stood there with his hands on his hips. ‘ what you think of that?'.   Sandy and I just stared at each other until we started to laugh.   The sales clerk continued watching the hail, watched it pile up on the cars, watched it flow down Duckworth Street .   It was like he'd never seen it before.   Well we stood and watched for a few minutes. The torrents of rain were flowing down the street we decided now was time to move on.   We convince the sales clerk to wrap our purchases and off we went.   Jumping over puddles to get into the car and absolutely soaked my feet. Who would have thought it would be so difficult to hop over a 4 foot puddle.

          So back to Conception Bay South S. to pick up mom and once again we are heading off to Bay Bull's and Ferryland .   We have heard so much about the picnics at the Ferryland lighthouse.   After speaking with our hosts Fraser and Elaine, Sandy was confident she knew how to get to Pouch Cove from Conception Bay South S.   It's only a 20 minute drive from St. John 's but coming from Conception Bay South would be a different story.

  We drove along the shore and headed inland, crossed the peninsula towards Pouch Cove.   We had a map but Sandy wasn't ready to concede defeat.   We drove a few more miles or 20 minutes before we took out the map and decided we were way off base.   Pouch Cove should be just around the corner.   Aah , there it

is .

  Mom wanted to go touch Cove on behalf of Jean Sparrey you see Jean Sparrey's father grandpa Moulton was born in Pouch Cove.   Mom also was ready look to look for a bathroom a restroom.   We stopped to the little café/gift shop for coffee in the facilities. The artwork we found was amazing.   There were some beautiful paintings abstract paintings not large in size framed at a reasonable price.   I thought it would like to buy one I had trouble deciding so as usual for me I picked all three pieces at the cash we noticed a young Asian woman was serving as a rare to see Asian people in the St. John 's area were especially in the Avalon but what I also noticed was that the artwork that I was purchasing was signed by an Asian woman..   We chatted and yes in fact she was the artist.   Her and her husband found the Avalon to be a spectacular place for their subjects of their art they moved in for the summer.   And like a typical Newfoundlander she invited us to come and visit her studio her studio with the middle house four houses down the road.   The piece is that she showed us were 40" x 40" and they were just as spectacular as the small pieces that we put purchased.