Games
Come in. Pull up a chair.
Them days you sent a youngster up the road to say there was a game on. Now you send the code, and if a chair's still empty when you deal, one of the regulars takes it.
Advertise here
Skipper
Got a place worth the drive?
Down the road
Well, Sunday after Mass we'd walk it. Start at the gate and go down, and every house along here I'll tell you who's in it.
The ugly stick: mop handle, boot, bottle caps
The ugly stick is an ancient Newfoundland instrument passed down for centuries.
The ugly stick is a real Newfoundland percussion instrument: a mop or broom handle mounted in a rubber boot, studded with bottle caps, tin cans and bells, thumped and struck in rhythm. CBC has profiled it, children's author Josh Goudie built a book around it, and it belongs squarely to kitchen parties and mummering. Its documented history is short and its origins debated - it sits in a family of improvised folk instruments elsewhere too, and its fame spread with the folk revival and the touring of Come From Away.
The story they tell
The origin stories: every second family claims a grandfather invented it, and guides stretch it back centuries as an unbroken Irish tradition. Its roots are genuinely murky - which is exactly why everyone gets to claim it.
Some story
Where that comes from
On the go
Them days the garden party was the whole summer. Here's what's on the go now, and when.
The kitchen
Well, Sunday the pot was on before Mass and the smell of it met you at the gate. Here's what was in it, and how it's done.
The hall
Them days the hall had a dance Saturday and the kitchen had music the rest of the week. It's still playing. Come in and listen.
The yarns
He said, you know the one about the light on the water. I said, I do. That's a story, mind, and I'll tell you which parts.
Not the house
No, I said, that's not the house. It was down just below there. Go back up the road.
Back up the road
