bayberry & wild roses

Winnie in the wild rose & bayberry pasture

A project that I've been thinking about lately is drawing/illustrating a map of this magical place that I go to, most days, twice a day. Three crescent beaches, a lighthouse, a grass lane and a grass path, a rocky reef that stretches out into the strait – almost entirely exposed at low tide, rolling pastures with grazing dairy cows and a small chunk of forest that is currently home to a colony of 20 or so big blue herons, foxes, raccoons, eagles, hawks...We (Jake, Winnie & I) arrive first thing in the morning, before 7 am this time of the year and I eventually meet up with three other women and a total of 5 dogs. We walk and talk and throw sticks for the two retrievers that love the water and we climb this cliff, nearly every morning, scrunch leaves of bayberry in our fingers and smell that wonderful waft of summer, the smell that takes me back instantly to childhood summers in Prince Edward Island. We stand at the top of the cliff in this overgrown pasture, looking out over the glistening ocean, if the tide is low, to the exposed reef where big fat seals loll in the early morning sun and we say to each other, again almost every morning...we are so lucky.