Kitchen Party!

 July 11, 2009

Battle Harbor, Labrador                                                                                                                    52°16.4N                                                                                                                                        055°35.2W

Somebody’s got a fiddle

Someone else brought a guitar

Bobby’s got a squeeze box  . . .

 

Goin’ Up - a traditional Newfoundland song

Lantern light spilled from the oldest house in Battle Harbour.  Music slid from the cracks and floated across the quiet harbor.  Crowded into the kitchen were over a dozen men, 3 guitars, an accordion, some harmonicas (played by Russ) and me. 

 Earlier in the day, 2 twenty-foot ski type boats pulled into what’d been known as the “Capitol of Labrador”, Battle Harbor.  The seven occupants were from St. Anthony’s on their yearly fishing, music playing trek down the Labrador and we were lucky enough to share this spot with them.

Gazing around the room it was easy to be transported back in time and wonder how many kitchen parties this particular kitchen had seen.  I think there are more musical instruments and people with musical ability per capita in Newfoundland/Labrador than perhaps anywhere else in the world. 

 Our stay at Battle Harbor was full of magic: a harbor crammed with ice bergs including this fellow.  Is it a sphinx or a lion or something else?

Humpback whales teaming together to chase small fish into a cove, creating a bubble net around the fish and then rising up through the swarm, mouths open were our nighttime show.  Music threaded through it all and on a more mundane note – showers and laundry.