Bernadette Calonego's Blog: Eventful - Posts Tagged "frozen"

My German editor told me recently she had noticed that there are a lot of cabins in my mystery thrillers. She's right. Cabins play an important role im my stories. How could they not: My crime novels are set in northern and other remote areas where a lot of people have cabins. Fishing cabins, hunting cabins, weekend cabins, party cabins, icefishing cabins, cabins along snowmobile trails, cabins in the woods, cabins on the lakes, cabins in the wilderness, cabins to get away from everybody.
There is a distinct cabin culture in isolated and rural areas. It is part of people's lifestyle and traditions. In my small community in northern Newfoundland, not many people can afford to go on cruises or beach holidays in Cuba or even to cities like Halifax or Montreal. But they do build a cabin to enjoy a getaway, especially in the winter when they can reach these wild locations on the snowmobile.
As it is tradition to visit people in their cabin, the cabin dwellers aren't alone for any stretch of time. Usually, visitors are welcome. They are offered tea and some cookies or they bring a bottle of rum or "screetch" with them and the chatting and hollering can begin.
Everything is simple in the cabins: old sofas, used cutlery, worn blankets, ancient calendars on the wall. But it is a great way to spend a day or two, to forget about village life and chores, to gossip and relax.
For me as an author of mystery novels, cabins are a fitting location for crimes, hideouts or eerie encounters. For this reason alone, I cannot promise there won't be any cabin in my next book. There is certainly one in "Missing in the Dark", my latest crime novel! And morbid things are happening there, I can tell you.

February, along with March, is the worst month when the snowstorms whip over Newfoundland and Labrador. Today is such a day, we expect 75 centimeters of snow. I can't see the other end of the bay in the white whirlwind.
So far, however, the winter has been manageable despite the cold. On the really bitterly cold days I wasn't outside at all.
I am lucky that right behind our house there is a hiking trail leading up a hill from which you have fantastic views. Up there, I can let the neighbors' dog, which I take for walks, run free. Maggie follows snow hares and mice and startles the hawk, which is also hunting.
The bays were not frozen over for a long time, and I asked my fisherman if there had been years without ice on the ocean near the settlements in northern Newfoundland (yes, there were, but rarely). Now the most daring among us are already driving their snowmobiles over the thick ice cover on the water. In some places, however, ice floes have piled up and besiege the shore like hungry crocodiles.
During an excursion in the snow, we made an interesting, albeit sad find: a dead whale was pushed to the shore. Some locals claim it is a sperm whale. I can't say for sure, because it would have been too dangerous to get any closer to the poor animal on the ice.
Instinctively, people turn to things that offer warmth, coziness and distraction. I bake Swiss apple pie with puff pastry, play cards with the neighbors, meet other women for a coffee chat, keep the wood fire burning in the oven, plan a vacation in warmer regions and read exciting books (biographies, adventure stories and crime novels). By the way, if you subscribe to "Bernadette's Letter" on the homepage of my website bernadettecalonego.com/eng, you will learn even more about my everyday life in northern Newfoundland. Lots of love from Noddy Bay!