Treatment is going well. My friend has cancer and has had surgery, chemotherapy and now immunotherapy. Stage 4 cancer doesn’t leave you much hope but compared to a year ago, she has more energy and is embracing life. After her latest treatment, we headed to a nearby park for a picnic and time on the beach.
The Belmont Day Use Park is on the north shore of Prince Edward Island. A tiny triangle of grass covered red earth on a sandstone ledge overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the park has the essentials, plus trees to provide shade and a beach, perfect for a few hours in nature.
It was hot and humid but the island breeze made it bearable, as usual. We sat facing the empty beach and talked of the last year, about life and death and embracing the moments when all feels right.
After lunch we walked the beach and noticed how erosion, the ever present force of nature and threat, has felled great trees and threatened others.
Further along, the sandstone ledge dominates the landscape and the sand gives way to rock and seaweed. We sat and talked as tiny fish, Silversides, leapt from the water and swam past in schools, as we watched from a sandstone bench.
We ventured further around the point and noticed a bird busy along the shoreline.
We thought it was catching Silversides. It looked like a Willet but on the two occasions I had seen Willets previously, they were in salt marshes. That wasn’t the case here.
We sat on some sandstone and watched the bird, later confirmed a Willet, mere metres away. I thought it would fly off as we settled there. However it must have found the eating too good and ignored us. We discovered as we watched, it was crabbing,
not fishing.
I took many photos as the bird posed but ignored us as it stealthily approached its prey. We watched for an hour and chatted, soaking up the atmosphere along the Gulf, sat atop the red sandstone with the bird below us along the shoreline, busy eating its fill.
The sun and the breeze were perfect. The bird was quiet but I heard another Willet in the area, knowing their sounds from previous encounters.
Cares and worries fell away as we sat there engrossed in this bird crabbing and enjoying its lunch as we had enjoyed ours. You can’t beat lunch with friends.