There is nothing quite as therapeutic as Nature to calm my spirit.
Even when travelling, my best-loved sites are natural scenery:
… but few places make me as calm as right here at home.
It is nice to find that place where you can just go and relax.— Moises Arias
*Ragtag Daily Prompt: Calm
*All photos are my own – JKP
*This is my last instalment of Summer Memories, previously shared on September 15, 2014.
As the last tranquil days of summer disappear, I am drawn to the warmth of the sandy beaches that encircle Perry’s Point.
For a few moments, I can almost forget colder days are approaching…
This stretch of sand is begging for bare feet.
“To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower,
hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.”
~ William Blake
It’s good to see that the beach birds are still around.
The sandpipers and plovers seem to be in no hurry to wing their way south for the winter.
Among the strands and clumps of kelp, there must be lots of yummy tidbits for them to eat.
Notice how some like to stand on one leg.
The different species get along fairly well, sharing Nature’s bounty.
Flight!
Due to global warming, many species of birds in North America are dwindling in numbers, and the numbers on protected and endangered lists are increasing.
I hope you never face extinction, my precious feathered friends.
This one appears to have something to say about it all.
I love their plump little bodies…
…and their long beaks!
Vivian doesn’t go down to the beach unless she has company…
Good thing for the beach birds!
“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.” ~ Charles Darwin
Thank you for stopping by to enjoy the beach with me, and Summer’s last hurrah. 🙂
Has Fall arrived where you live?
What is it that inspires our desire to create?
What moves an artist to draw or to paint a picture? What sparks the passion in a writer to pen a poem or a story? What is it that prompts a photographer to run for her camera and try to capture that perfect shot?
Here are a few things that give me continued inspiration:
1. The ocean, which surrounds me. No surprise there, right?
Every day, it is a slightly different colour, morphing between shades of blue sapphire, steel grey, or deep, dark navy with racing waves and frothy white-caps. On other days, it is as calm and flat as a mirror. The sea is a living thing: mercurial, organic, merciless, and endlessly beautiful.
2. I’ve always had a passion for all animals (no, not just my cats! 😉 ). Horses, dogs, whales, and birds… …natural beings of the forest and untamed creatures of the sea and sky.
3. Teaching children about Nature, and why we need to respect it, appreciate it and care for it is a spark for my imagination. I love answering their many questions…… and listening to them tell of their own experiences in the beautiful, natural world.
Have you ever noticed how Children and Nature go so happily together?
“As a child, one has that magical capacity to move among the many eras of the earth; to see the land as an animal does; to experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; to feel the earth quiver and breathe beneath us..”
~ Valerie Andrews, A Passion for this Earth
“Children are born naturalists. They explore the world with all of their senses, experiment in the environment, and communicate their discoveries to those around them.”
~ Audubon Nature Preschool
Do you have special childhood memories of exploring Nature?
What fills you with inspiration? Do tell!
First posted on this date, August 5, 2015
This evergreen post first appeared on today’s date in 2014. (Gosh, did life seem simpler back then?) We had planned to visit Lead Cove last summer, but couldn’t because of all the wildfire alerts in the area. We are fervently hoping we get to visit there in August. 🙏
☀️☀️☀️
Summer in my province of Newfoundland and Labrador, compared to most of North America, is short but ever so sweet. What makes it so cherished, to my mind?
The following photos were all taken in Lead Cove, the little community where I raised my children.
I love my home for its natural beauty,
its refreshing, rugged and
unspoiled charm,
for its clear and wide blue skies
without a whisper of smog.
I love the clean, sparkling water
and the glistening rocks adorning the coastline
that beg to be traced
and trod upon by eager footsteps.
I love summer in Newfoundland
for its breathtaking views
of seascapes and landscapes
when I embark on a hike.
Whether I traverse
its beaches of sand or
climb its rocky windswept hills,
I know my camera will find its aim.
I embrace it because
the bushes and shrubs,
green and lush,
are heavy with fragrance
and of wild roses in bloom…
…while in the gardens,
the planted perennials are brilliant with colour,
delighted at last
to spread their bright petals to the sun.
I love the hardy trees of Newfoundland…
…as they stretch
their ripe foliage to the sky.
Shot through with rays of sunlight,
a shimmering haze settles over the treetops
like a warm summer veil.
After a long winter and dismal spring
of cold, naked branches,
they, as I do,
breathe a sigh of gratitude
at the return of this warm and golden season.
Are your days filled with Summer Lovin’
where you live?
*All photos and prose are from 2014
The Ragtag Daily Prompt today is Summer Memories! I thought I’d share this favourite evergreen post as an introduction to a summer series I plan to showcase in the next few months. ☀️
*Ragtag Daily Prompt: Summer Memories
All poetry and images are my own.
This is Part Two of the Calmer Girls series setting in pictures.
Calmer Secrets takes place in Newfoundland in 1997-98, four years later than the first book. (The Calmer Girls Book One setting pictorial can be seen here.)
First, let’s take a look at Samantha’s school in Corner Brook, Memorial University’s Grenfell Campus on the west coast of the province. Samantha is enrolled in the Visual Arts program there.
Later in the story, tragedy strikes.
The youngest character in the book is brought to the Janeway Children’s Hospital,
the one that existed at that time.
A new facility was built a couple of years later.
Photo sources: Grenfell College, NL Tourism, Eastern Health, Pinterest, Google (public domain)
Thanks for coming along!
There is only now.
An open window
a fresh breeze
to welcome
this bright and beautiful
April day.
– J. Kelland Perry
As I have mentioned on my blog before, spring takes its own sweet time to show its face on the island of Newfoundland. The arrival is gradual, just as it is on most northern coastlines, with cold temperatures accompanied by the odd snowfall or sleet storm.
I love the anticipation of warmer days ahead. And there are still some lovely moments, particularly when the wind is light, the water is calm, and the sun begins to set. These photos were taken on the peaceful evening of April 2nd, and since then most of the snow and ice has disappeared.
Another reason I love spring here on Perry’s Point: the pleasure to witness the renewal of nature by observing our seabirds. Two weeks ago, it started—the sudden appearance of seagulls and other salt water birds pairing off to mate. Everyday, we now see them huddled—and even cuddled!—together on rocks and small islets off the point, or gliding through the water side by side: herring gulls, saddlebacks, black ducks, and pintails.
Seagulls squeal a spring duet
swim in pairs around ice and rock
glide as swans in graceful tandem
hush broken by caw and squawk *
*excerpt from Seagull Spring by J. Kelland Perry, April 2015
“April is the gateway to the joys of summer.” ― Fennel Hudson
“Oh, the lovely fickleness of an April day!” – W. H. Gibson
Ten years ago today, my first novel Calmer Girls was published. I’m sharing a post from one year later, Calmer Girls Setting in Pictures, to give you an idea of how my birthplace of St. John’s, NL made for such a wonderful setting.
CALMER GIRLS SETTING IN PICTURES
Although Calmer Girls is a fictional tale, its Canadian setting certainly isn’t.
It was fun writing a pair of novels set in my birthplace of St. John’s, Newfoundland, and perhaps the following pictorial will better explain why it had inspired me. After all, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!
All of these locations are featured in scenes throughout the first novel. Calmer Cove is not included as it is semi-fictional.
Samantha and her sister took their first ride in Ben Swift’s T-bird to Signal Hill and along the harbourfront. Later, Samantha took pictures of a cruise ship in the Narrows.
Thanks for visiting my hometown, which is, in my opinion,
one of the most vibrant and colourful places on earth.
Photo sources: NL Tourism, Government sites, Wikipedia, Google (public domain)
While I was writing my novel The Women of Wild Cove, I visualized what my beloved island of Newfoundland would look like in the year 2203. Following the science of sea level rise—due to melting glaciers, ice sheets, and the thermal expansion of water—I imagined it would appear something like this.
My husband Paul drew the map for me. I wanted it to show the renaming of some communities, and where my fictional Wild Cove is located (there are two other actual Wild Coves in the province). But more importantly, I wanted to show how this large island had shrunk from over 40,000 square miles to nearly half that, with peninsulas reduced to archipelagos, tiny islands and shoals. (By the way, Red Indian Lake had a name change after this map was made. It was changed to Beothuk Lake.)
A friend wondered to me why sea level is rising while many lakes are now showing lower levels. So I asked Google: “Yes, you can have sea level rise and low water levels in lakes simultaneously, because they are different phenomena influenced by different, though sometimes connected, factors. Sea levels are rising globally due to climate change, while individual lake levels fluctuate based on local factors like precipitation, evaporation, snowmelt, and water usage, and can also be impacted indirectly by rising sea levels.”
And of course, science tells us sea level rise is due to human activity.
Have you noticed changes in water levels in your neck of the woods? Do you think there is any possibility of a reversal at this point?
