Reflections of an 8-Year-Old Visitor

I thought your readers might enjoy the enclosed poem written by our eight-year-old granddaughter from Scotland. Following is a brief introduction providing background to the poem.

My wife Carmel and I grew up in outport Newfoundland, spent 30 years living/working in various countries, and have now settled in St. Philip's. Our daughter Kimberley settled in Scotland, but comes "home" to Newfoundland each summer, along with her husband and our two granddaughters...Ishbel, age 8, and Niamh, age 5.
Our granddaughters have fallen in love with Newfoundland. In addition to meeting cousins and friends, they absolutely love the many outdoor, marine-related and other holiday activities so different from what they experience in Scotland. Just this summer alone they experienced whales, dolphins, puffins, seals, eagles, moose, catching cod (legally!), learning to row a dory, trouting, walking on real beaches (beach rocks and kelp included), swimming in freshwater lakes, sailing, ATV rides, etc, etc.

They also managed to spend a few days on Bar Haven, visiting places and hearing stories about the island where their grandmother grew up before resettlement.
Needless to say, Ishbel and Niamh hate to leave after each summer holiday, and cannot wait for the next year. It is safe to say that many people in Scotland, both young and old alike, hear lots of good things about Newfoundland!

Enclosed is a poem, "Holiday in Newfoundland 2010," written by Ishbel and sent to us after her latest holiday this past summer. Although we may be somewhat biased, we feel the poem speaks volumes about what a little eight-year-old Scottish girl thinks about holidays in Newfoundland.

I should add that Ishbel is an avid reader of Downhome, and looks forward to the many issues we send her. We thought it might be appropriate to include her poem in an upcoming issue of Downhome.

Holiday in Newfoundland 2010

(Written by Ishbel Duncan, age 8)

On Wednesday, seventh of July,
We went on an aeroplane high in the sky,
We came down with an awful bump,
I'm sure the poor aeroplane had a sore lump.

Then we flew over London, sea and ocean,
But when we came down we felt sick from the motion,
We were over the moon when we saw you two,
We were happy and hugged and kissed you.

A couple o' days later we went to Sunshine Park,
Where we frisked around and had a happy lark,
There were lots of sticklebacks, and to tell you the truth,
I don't think any of them had a single tooth.

About a week later we went to Bar Haven,
It was a great place for walks and for caverns,
We caught some conners and I caught a tomcod,
If I got the chance to go there again I would nod.

Two weeks later we went in a boat,
In the Atlantic we stayed afloat,
I caught the biggest cod and we took it back,
During the fishing time my line was hardly slack.

On long journeys we watched DVDs,
Including green eggs and ham if you please,
Then on the morning of Niamh's birthday,
we made them and shouted "Hooray, Hooray!"

We went for a sail, it was fun, fun, fun,
Especially as it was in the blazing hot sun,
We put up the sails and we rocked along,
We saw whales and a seal before long.

We met Uncle Paddy's girlfriend Josie,
Her hair was red and her cheeks were rosy,
With Aunt Josie we had fun,
In the rain, the fog and the sun.

Meeting up with everybody was fun, too,
We even saw Lily, Lily's quite new,
There were weddings, birthdays, parties as well,
How much fun we had, you could never tell.

Sadly it was time to go,
We hugged and kissed and said "cheerio,"
We had seen whales and dolphins too,
But nothing in Newfoundland is better than you!   Submitted By: NULL