Newfoundland is green, green, green. Until it’s not. What is going on with all the dying trees? I wish Thompson was here; he would have told me immediately. Thompson, an entomologist, was my mother’s second husband. I would go on a nature walk with him and return transformed by all that he taught me…

Never have I pondered this question until I visited Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse historical museum near Gros Morne National Park. Lighthouse keeping is a family business. You are a keeper until you die, then your eldest son becomes keeper. A keeper never leaves the lighthouse; if there is business to be conducted with the keeper…

The island of Newfoundland has a population of 525,000 and a third of these inhabitants live in the capital of St. John’s. Corner Brook, the second largest city, where I stayed upon arrival, has about 20,000 residents, a veritable metropolis compared to Glenbournie-Birchy Head- Shoal Brook, where I am lodging for the next three days…

Why Newfoundland? First, because of the Broadway play “ Come From Away” about the town of Gander that took in 7,000 stranded airline passengers on 9/11. I had to meet these generous people. Second, I read Michael Crummey novels about the early settlements along the harsh, unforgiving coastal areas in Eastern New Foundland. What a…