Views from Cow Bay

View from Cow Bay Road looking towards Lawrencetown

The above view struck me as the most awesome in the area when I first saw it. Like a tourist, I often used to pull over while driving, just to admire this view from Cow Bay Road.

This week marks twenty years since we moved to Cow Bay.  Back in 1989, there was only the odd tree in the front yard and the house was totally visible from the road.  I soon got to work transplanting trees from the backyard to the front.  Today, a wooded area affords more privacy while also providing a barrier to sound, wind and dust from the road.

View from the top of Flandrum Hill Road looking towards Lawrencetown

Fog and mist are common here, but on clear days, views of the Atlantic Ocean are possible.

Looking towards Osborne Head

Views of Osborne Head became visible once trees were cut down to make way for the construction of new homes in the subdivision.  Paved streets gradually replaced the peaceful forest trails where I used to hike with my children.  What trails remained  became impassable due to fallen trees after Hurricane Juan in 2003.

More than the landscape changes over time.  One facet of aging is the tendency to become more insular with the passing years.  While youth looks out and expands its territory, as we age our focus is directed inward and we more often look within for reason and meaning.  These days I spend more time in my own yard, exploring less the landscape beyond the surveyors’ lines.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the best views are yet to be discovered.

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Searching for Meanings at the Beach

Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war… Mostly the animals understand their roles, but man, by comparison, seems troubled by a message that, it is often said, he cannot quite remember or has gotten wrong… Bereft of instinct, he must search continually for meanings… Man was a reader before he became a writer, a reader of what Coleridge once called the mighty alphabet of the universe.
~ from The Unexpected Universe by Loren Eiseley

 

Rainbow Haven at Low Tide

Despite differences in sand colour and texture, the presence of pebbles, stones or rocks, all of the earth’s beaches have a similar effect on humans.  Times converge where water meets the shore.  These are places where long buried ideas and memories are dug up and future dreams loom on the horizon.  

Even people unaccustomed to spending time in nature warm quickly to the outdoor experience offered by the shore. Whether the day is bright and sunny or misty and overcast, a walk along the beach puts one into a detached frame of mind that is above and beyond the day’s weather forecast. 

Some days we might look at what’s drifted ashore with the tide or pick up a shell to examine more closely.  Tidepools are full of interesting creatures.  The Blue Mussel bed at Rainbow Haven beach is always a great place to find rock crabs, whelks, starfish and moon shells at low tide.   Much in nature (and life) can be taken for granted unless we patiently give it a more careful look.   

On other days we might look out at the seascape that encompasses the shore, sea and sky.  When searching for new meanings to life’s events and purposes it’s often helpful to step back from the details and take a good, long look at the big picture.  Few experiences put a sparkle on the day as much as witnessing a sunrise or sunset at the beach. 

Each stage of life seems to present us with a quest for new meanings and purposes.  Though these may be hard sought and won, they can also easily be washed away by the tides of time.   It’s best to not leave too much space in between visits to the shore. 

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