Two blue sky days

We have had two weeks of rain, temperatures in the low single digits and high winds. Sometimes the rain becomes sloppy, wet snow. We haven’t been able to have any picnics and we’ve confined our walks closer to home. Most days, we walk between the raindrops. 

The skies are occasionally dramatic with heavy cloud cover and this recent deep blue with the clouds looked foreboding though beautiful. It was the bluest cloudy sky we’ve ever seen.

On the last beautiful blue sky day prior to the change in the weather, we drove to a beach which is new to us at Tracadie, on the central northeast coast of the island. Tracadie Harbour sits among sand dunes, an area constructed by the sea itself, without the fortification of sandstone cliffs.

In the harbour, the sea is surrounded by flats of sand exposed at low tide and dunes which are farther inland as time and the sea add more sand. The red sandstone cliffs elsewhere on the island are noticeably absent.

Cormorants stood along the shoreline in the harbour, enjoying the October sun, probably anticipating the long flight south.

We walked towards the beach which borders the Gulf of St. Lawrence and a Bald Eagle caught my eye in the distance. It sat surveying the area from atop a dune along the Gulf coast.

Along that coastline, the pristine beach stretches out to the west and appears to go on forever. 

This coastline is not developed although an occasional house/cottage dots the shoreline. To the east, the entrance to the harbour is marked with two buoys. 

The remnants of an old wharf stretch diagonally across part of the beach, some of it submerged at high tide. 

Besides the eagle, 

three other people were on the beach that day but a restaurant near the parking lot was attracting people for lunch. We enjoyed our picnic lunch nearby. 

Tracadie is a place of rare beauty which is peaceful and natural in a modern world. We will be back.

Hanging by a root

It is a small point of land projecting into Malpeque Bay on the north shore of Prince Edward Island. 

This day park has a lovely beach and picnic area which we visit every summer. The effects of erosion are obvious along the coastline in the park where trees hang by their roots over the bank.

My husband and I walked along the shoreline and observed the trees and other vegetation in their eroded state. They hold on to life as long as possible.

The red sandstone, once exposed, is eroded by the wave action. Sharp edges are soon made smooth as exposed pieces of sandstone litter the beach.

In some areas, the exposed soil contains shells. One wonders how long they have been caught in the soil.

Closer to the water’s edge, several species of birds are busy feeding. Least Sandpipers are small birds which can be easily missed along the shoreline if one doesn’t stop and watch for movement.

The Semipalmated Plovers are easier to identify but blend in so well too.

A larger bird, a Willet, likes this area and we see them here every year.

The picnic table above the beach gets a bit closer to the edge every year. For now, there is space to move it.

When we compare an area of shoreline from 2017 to 2022, one can see how much the bank and sandstone have eroded.

                                                                                     2017

                                                                                     2022

This park will disappear eventually, a victim of the changing climate. We will enjoy it as long as possible.

Touch of colour

It was a dry summer and many trees are showing the effects of the dry weather. Leaves are withering away on some trees making us wonder if there’ll be much fall colour this year. Regardless, the Rotary Friendship Trail was welcoming as we headed out, drawing us into the forested greens along the trail on a cool but pleasant day.

While some of the deciduous trees look spent, the conifers are vibrant and full. The shortening daylight hasn’t affected them yet, not that we can see.

Many deciduous greens are beautiful although they look muted. As we continued, shocks of autumn maple red dotted the canopy, 

lifting the eyes and us with them. Along the ground, young trees stood out among the ferns which were far from spent.

Sometimes an area looked verdant, with hardly a hint of autumn colour. Other times, around a turn, one arrived at sunlit beauty, teasing us about the weeks to come.

Some wildflowers, such as aster and goldenrod are hanging on to their blooms for another few days. They make a beautiful September garden. 

Behind some goldenrod, the colour of fireweed which has gone to seed makes an autumn scene. 

On the boardwalk by the harbour the next day, the wind was blowing as we looked out over the scene from the gazebo as we always do. 

However, the shoreline had the appearance of autumn which had developed over the previous days.

A few days later, we cycled on the Confederation Trail. We can comfortably do 16 kilometres or 10 miles now. We headed west, driving through a small community with a lovely park and farm country where cattle were our companions 

as potato fields waited for harvest. 

Autumn will continue to sprinkle her magic over the island.

 

Golden sunshine

Each bloom is perfect,

Tiny rays reaching from a golden centre.

A bouquet on a stem named goldenrod,

The late summer wildflower which brightens our day.

Despite the weather, the yellow glory remains,

Dispelling the foggy gloom. 

It lifts the spirits of those who pass

Through the gallery.

The sunny blooms shine their best

Along the woodland paths or shoreline.

Bees come to visit, sweet nectar will become honey

And pollen spreads from bloom to bloom. 

Goldenrod will shine again next year.

 

Blurred lines

The latest snowfall created blurred lines between land and sea, making it difficult to distinguish where the shoreline ended and the ocean began. The land appeared to continue into the horizon, although sky blue provided some definition to the setting.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                  The beach is a meter from the trees. 

There were human footprints on the bay. Animal tracks went down to the shoreline too. Another walker saw a fox on the ice, about fifty meters from shore.

Blurred lines make land and sea available to everyone.