The middle

Our recent visit to Belmont Park, Prince Edward Island, was a day spent with our granddaughter, Caitlin, who is four years old. 

Caitlin is now the middle child in her family, after the birth of her brother Owen. This was her day with her grandfather and I, accompanied by the family dog, Georgie.

Belmont is a day-use park which is never crowded. It has a lovely beach,  

 

playground, picnic facilities, washrooms and is well maintained. That day, there was a breeze which helped keep the mosquitos at bay, while swallows danced overhead.

It was low tide when we arrived so we could explore the beach. Numerous jellyfish were stranded. 

 

We walked along and Caitlin led the conversation, which usually came back to,”What’s this?” as she explored the beach.

Before we had lunch, a group of young people, dressed in waders, approached the beach, walked into the water with a net, catching something in its mesh. Thinking this was a new fishery I was unfamiliar with, I approached them and queried their purpose. 

 

They were part of the CAMP program run by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Canada. It is an on-going project which is tasked with sampling the flora and fauna of the shores and estuaries around Prince Edward Island, parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Such monitoring is vital to the continued health of our marine environment.

Meanwhile I took a few minutes to walk along the forested part of the shoreline while Caitlin played in the sand. Many trees are precariously perched, 

 

as if attempting to grow horizontally along the bank. 

 

Stormy seas or wind will one day topple these beauties as it has other trees.

 

After lunch, as the tide is returning, Caitlin and I walked along that same shoreline, though not under the dangling trees. We looked for a talking rock, a rock big enough for us to sit on, where we could chat and watch the scene before us.

 

She liked the idea of the rock as a talking place and found several where we could sit and chat as we moved along the shoreline. 

One of Caitlin’s favourite games that day was Ready, Steady, Jump. She tried to leap higher with each successive jump. After each attempt, she said, “Again,” as I repeated the three words. Poppy took lots of photos and Caitlin has looked at them numerous times since then. 

 

Simple pleasures make wonderful memories.

Caitlin may be the middle child now but she is as treasured as she's always been.