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Elevate Your Summer Salads
$4.99 July 2026
Vol 39 • No 02
The Trouble with Fishing Roots & Retreats in Dildo Adventures with GeoToken
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life is better Published monthly in St. John’s by Downhome Publishing Inc. 43 James Lane, St. John’s, NL, A1E 3H3 Tel: 709-726-5113 • Fax: 709-726-2135 • Toll Free: 1-888-588-6353 E-mail: mail@downhomelife.com Website: www.downhomelife.com Editorial Editor-in-Chief Dillon Collins Assistant Editor Nicola Ryan Editor Lila Young
Warehouse Operations Warehouse Operator Josephine Collins Shipping/Receiving Clerk Jonathon Organ Shipping/Receiving Clerk Kim Tucker
Art and Production Art Director Vince Marsh Illustrator Mel D’Souza Illustrator Snowden Walters
Retail Operations Retail Operations Director Jackie Rice Retail Manager, Water Steet Crystal Rose Retail Manager, Avalon Mall Emma Luscombe Retail Manager, Twillingate Donna Keefe Retail Sales Associates Destinee Rogers,
Advertising Sales Marketing & Advertising Director Tiffany Brett Finance and Administration Accountant Marlena Grant Accountant Sandra Gosse Operations Manager, Twillingate Nicole Mehaney
Emily Snelgrove, Alexandria Skinner, Colleen Giovannini, Morgan Powless, Adriana Hann, Keith Lamkin, Martina Rogers, Hayley Warren, Annie Woelfel, Bridgette Bartlett, Maggie Fenton, Nikeah Bennett, Jessica Newman
Subscriptions Customer Service Associate Jennifer Kane Customer Service Associate Jacinta Squires Founding Editor Ron Young Chief Executive Officer/Publisher Grant Young General Manager/Assistant Publisher Tina Bromley
To subscribe, renew or change address use the contact information above. Subscriptions 1-Year term total inc. taxes, postage and handling: for residents in NL, NB, PE $49.44; NS $49.01; ON $48.58; QC, SK, MB, AB, BC, NU, NT, YT $45.14. US $54.99; International $59.99
Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement #40062919 The advertiser agrees that the publisher shall not be liable for damages arising out of errors in advertisements beyond the amount paid for the space actually occupied by the portion of the advertisement in which the error occurred, whether such error is due to the negligence of the servants or otherwise, and there shall be no liability beyond the amount of such advertisement. The Letters to the Editor section is open to all letter writers providing the letters are in good taste, not libelous, and can be verified as true, correct and written by the person signing the letter. Pen names and anonymous letters will not be published. The publisher reserves the right to edit, revise, classify, or reject any advertisement or letter. © Downhome Publishing Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission of the publisher. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada.
Printed in Canada
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Wayne Parsons photo
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46 must gos
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46 Adventures at Home The story behind the growing community StaycationNL
54 These Gallant Men The Newfoundland Mi’Kmaq at Beaumont-Hamel Maura C. Hanrahan
70 The Broadcast - An Enduring Voice
54 heroes & heritage
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The Fisherman’s Broadcast marks its milestone 75th anniversary Kim Ploughman
82 Downhome Recipes Summer salads to elevate your BBQ
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homefront 8 Between the Lines A note from the Editor
10 Letters From Our Readers Daisy Days, Can’t Please Everybody and Summer Swimming.
16 Then & There Downhome catches readers up on major recent news, notes, events, anniversaries and acknowledgements across Newfoundland and Labrador and beyond.
18 Downhome Tours The Mediterranean
20 GeoToken: Share the Story A fresh new take on geocaching
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downhome vacay
28 dog days of summer
24 Life’s Funny The Bath Rowena Parsons
25 Say What? A contest that puts words in someone else’s mouth
26 Lil Charmers By the Seashore 28 Pets of the Month Summer Days 30 Book Nook Downhome dives into the latest and greatest in NL literature
32 Fresh Tracks Wendy Rose reviews In-Yun by The Way East
36 Adventures Outdoors Back Into the Outdoors Gord Follett
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lest we forget
40 dream homes
features 40 The Birdhouse and The Nest Family Roots & Relaxing Retreats in Dildo Pam Pardy
62 A Living Memorial A Centennial Project Reimagines the Danger Tree Nicola Ryan
home and cabin 76 Stuff We Love Fun and Games
78 Plates and Passages Riverside Memories Bobbi Pike
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100 paying tribute
reminiscing 90 Flashbacks Classic photos of people and places.
91 This Month in History Edward Joseph Duff
92 Visions and Vignettes Adventures of two young scallywags in an imaginary outport in days gone by. Harold N. Walters
96 Two Journeys to Scotland Pt. 1 Robert Lilley
92 wild times!
100 Fighting Newfoundlanders Master Corporal Terence R. Dalley
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making the climb
108 Puzzles 120 Colouring Page 122 Classifieds 124 Mail Order About the cover Newfoundland and Labrador is filled with hidden gems just begging to be discovered ahead of your summer staycation. Our cover features one of the spectacular puffins of Elliston, photographed by Sheldon Hicks. Elsewhere, The Broadcast celebrates 75 years of connection, and we honour those gallant men, the NL Mi’Kmaq at Beaumont-Hamel.
Cover Index Elevate Your Summer Salads • 82 The Broadcast • 70 These Gallant Men • 54 Hidden Gems of Home • 46 The Trouble with Fishing • 128 Root & Retreats in Dildo • 40 Adventures with GeoToken • 20 www.downhomelife.com
128 The Labrador Current The Trouble With Fishing Nathan Freake
130 What Odds Paul Warford’s Expo odyssey
132 Ties to Home Tufted With Love Dianna Brown
136 Climbing Gros Morne in the ’40s Gerine Collingwood 140 My Private Paradise Sarah Lambert-Vey
144 Photo Finish July 2026
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Hello Downhome Magazine Crew
Today, as I was burning some old school papers, exams, notes, handouts, etc, I came across several issues of the Downhomer magazine and couldn’t help but photograph the front-page heading of one issue and share it with you. It was a nostalgic moment for sure. I retired from teaching in Harbour Breton in 2005 and taught Cultural Heritage 1200 for about 20 years. I used the Downhomer in my teaching on a regular basis; it became a part of the curriculum and helped in teaching many of the learning outcomes in the course. The stories on NL communities, history, culture, people, puzzles, etc., inspired students to research cultural stories on a local level. Their stories ended up being published in the local newspaper as Culture Corner, with 150 stories published. It also inspired me to work with the class to create a Harbour Breton Trivial Game, a photo game with questions and answers, on various community history and culture. Please see the attached photo showing your issue for October 1995. The class was especially pleased and proud that you used a photo of the Newman & Co. port wine bottle as a part of your logo, knowing the connection Harbour Breton had with the maturing of Newman’s port wine in Harbour Breton for approximately 100 years. Doug Wells Harbour Breton
What a blast from the past, Doug. Thanks for this. We’re thrilled that you were able to use Downhome as a valued resource of all things Newfoundland and Labrador in your classroom for years. That’s about the highest praise we can think of!
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the summer food fishery, so I might get a meal of “fish.” As a last comment, under New Brunswick law, any person born in the province or owning real property here can hunt and fish as a resident, no matter where they reside. Many of us Newfoundlanders who left the province to make a living long for a similar law in our home province. Many of us would be back more often and for longer if that were the case. B. Rendell Miramichi, NB
Thanks for the opinions and insights! We appreciate a strong debate and dialogue surrounding Gord’s columns, which are always written from a place of passion. Anyone who’d like to weigh in on this issue is encouraged to reach out to editorial@downhomelife.com
Summer Swimming Memories Oh, the joys I recall of growing up in
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the outport. In those days of my childhood, summer was like a beautiful dream come true. School was finished, the days were warm, and you were free to enjoy the simple pastimes that whiled away those carefree days of the summer. Swimming was a regular pastime during the warm days of summer and indeed the not-so-warm. For many a time, I can remember ascending from the cool pond waters a brilliant shade of iceberg blue. How did we learn to swim back when there were no instructional classes, you wonder? Have you heard the expression ‘a self-made man’? Well, all outharbour juveniles were self-made swimmers. Back then, learning to swim was like playing a hand of poker. It was all in using what you had and calling the bluff. First, you casually watched, a safe distance from the actual water, how those who were proficient in the sport
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features
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Artist Brittany Mitchell adds some finishing touches to the Danger Tree replica Richard Blenkinsopp, Memorial University photo
A Living Memorial A Centennial Project Reimagines the Danger Tree By Nicola Ryan
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The Rooms Archives
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It’s a photo from 1924, carefully stored in the archives at The Rooms. Sepia-toned and solemn, it shows a young man in a three-piece suit standing beside the trunk of a ruined tree. Razor wire circles its base. His arm rests around a broken branch as he looks at the ground, his inscrutable expression marked by sorrow.
The man is Gerald Joseph Whitty, a veteran of The Royal Newfoundland Regiment, visiting France in the early 1920s with the Great War Veterans Association. Beside him is the Danger Tree, one of the most enduring symbols of the battle of Beaumont-Hamel. Whitty had served with the regiment at Gallipoli in 1915 but later came down with typhoid fever. Though he repeatedly requested to return to the front, he was deemed unfit for service due to his health and was not present on July 1, 1916, when his comrades advanced into No Man’s Land. Standing there years later, Whitty was looking at the very ground where so many of them fell.
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More than a century later, that photo would become the foundation for a thought-provoking project: the recreation of the Danger Tree by Memorial University, a modern act of remembrance rooted in the university’s original purpose as a living memorial. Beaumont-Hamel The Danger Tree evokes one of the most harrowing images of the battlefield that morning in July. The splin-
vance. Moving through trenches crowded with the wounded, deafened by artillery fire, they emerged into the open and pushed toward the only visible landmark ahead. Most never made it farther. In less than an hour, nearly 90 percent of the Regiment’s men were killed, wounded or missing. For Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, the Danger Tree became a symbol of courage and sacrifice.
The original Danger Tree
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tered trunk of a solitary tree on a slight rise in an otherwise featureless chaos of mud, shell craters and machine-gun fire. It stood approximately 200 metres from The Newfoundland Regiment’s front line, midway across No Man’s Land. When the order came at 9:15 a.m. on July 1, 1916, the soldiers of The Newfoundland Regiment began their ad-
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Though heavily damaged, the original tree remained standing for years after the battle and was preserved in its place on the battlefield. Eventually, time and the elements took their toll. Replacement trees were installed over the decades, preserving the location’s symbolic significance, but they were spindly, and none closely resembled the original.
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Richard Blenkinsopp, Memorial University photo
Machinists Chris Ryan and Simon Ernst from Memorial University Department of Technical Services piece together the Danger Tree. A Centennial Project The idea for a new replica began during planning for Memorial University’s 100th anniversary celebrations. MUN was founded in 1925 as a memorial to Newfoundlanders who served and died in the First World War. Not as a static monument, but a living memorial. As planning began for the university’s centennial, Veterans Affairs Canada, a key partner in those discussions, raised the possibility of creating a more historically accurate replica of the Danger Tree for permanent installation at the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial in France ahead of the battle’s 110th anniversary this July. For those involved, the project was a 66
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natural fit. If Memorial was founded to honour sacrifice through learning and growth, then recreating one of Beaumont-Hamel’s most powerful symbols through Memorial’s own technical expertise was itself an act of living remembrance. Building History The work fell to Memorial University’s Department of Technical Services, which provides specialized fabrication, engineering and technical support for projects across the university. Richard (Rick) Meaney, director of Technical Services, says the technical challenge was an interesting and deeply meaningful one. “We started with a couple of archival photographs,” he explains. “There 1-888-588-6353
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expensive material, and you want to make sure everything’s working right, you would use this composite material. It’s easy to form, easy to machine and very durable.” Primary machinists Chris Ryan and Simon Ernst assembled the replica in sections, carefully aligning each piece with precision dowels and industrial epoxy. Glenn Rice and Andrew Meaney then applied a fibreglass coating to ensure the structure could withstand decades of exposure to the elements at Beaumont-Hamel. Finally, local artist BritDetailed artwork and razor wire tany Mitchell added give the replica a haunting realism the finishing details Richard Blenkinsopp, Memorial University photo through paintwork two-dimensional archival image into a that brought texture, age and realism detailed three-dimensional model to the replica. The result is a tree that using computer-aided design software. is not merely symbolic, but strikingly The physical replica was then ma- authentic. “I think the intention is have it fairly chined from RenShape, a durable composite material commonly used authentic-looking, and I think it is,” Rick says. “Our folks were really comfor prototyping. “It’s a common material used in ma- mitted to it, and they were really enchine shops,” Rick explains. “If you’re gaged with it, and they all understand going to machine something in a fairly the significance of it.” were only one or two, so we had to estimate the scale of the tree using the people in the images and work out the dimensions from there.” From those photographs, Jason Stevens, manager of the department’s mechanical division, transformed the
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More Than a Replica For Meaney, the project carries meaning beyond its technical complexity. “If you think about the significance the university has had in this province, it’s huge,” he says, pointing to generations of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians whose lives were transformed through Memorial: doctors, lawyers, scientists, musicians, teachers and researchers whose education became possible because the people of Newfoundland chose to commemorate loss by investing in the future. Rather than simply preserving the tree as an artifact, the project reimagines its commemoration through collaboration, innovation and craftsmanship. It brought together engineers, artists, Veterans Affairs Canada, Memorial’s 100th Anniversary Committee, The Rooms and the Canadian Armed Forces, which will transport the structure overseas for installation. Project manager Andrea Warman coordinated many of those moving parts, helping guide the effort from concept to completion. “It was a huge team effort,” Rick says.
Richard Blenkinsopp, Memorial University photo
Returning to Beaumont-Hamel The replica of the Danger Tree is destined for permanent installation outdoors at the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial in France. Built to withstand harsh conditions, the structure has been engineered with Newfoundland weather in mind. “We used the wind forces from here,” Rick says with a laugh. “I’m fairly confident it’s going to stand up very well to the elements for quite some time. “There were a good few unknowns when we started,” he continues, “but we really feel good about it. It’s well on track to be in place and installed for the July 1st ceremony. And I believe there will be an official unveiling on June 30th.” At Beaumont-Hamel, the tree will stand once again where so many Newfoundlanders fell. But this version carries something new. It’s not simply a reconstruction of what was lost, it’s a powerful reminder that remembrance is not only about preserving the past but about carrying its meaning forward. More than a century after Gerald Whitty stood before the original Danger Tree in silent grief, hundreds of people working together have ensured that the symbol endures. Not as a relic frozen in time, but as something living.
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