Summertime knocks on our doors. Little cafes and promenades in Halifax Waterfront are full of people walking, sipping coffee or having romantic suppers. Sailboats leisurely pass the crowds, few guys try their luck at fishing. Almost full moon smiles at us from above. Suddenly the dusk becomes night. It was a pleasant walk.
My favored beach outside of city reach, but very close. Parking could be a problem in summertime. Practically speaking you have to park on the curbside of the road and it could be a long way to walk, but the is no through traffic as the road ends there. The way to the beach is via very long wooden walkway, an it is very picturesque, I have always enjoyed it. Beach is very pleasant with a lot of good sand. For restless souls – a perfect place for nature walks. The sand dunes separate the beach from very interesting narrow walkways through grass and low growth patches of forest alongside the protected lakes-like marches.
I have been there so many times, can’t even remember how many. Swimming is fabulous but not for everyone at this time of the year, as the water is still very cold. But from middle of July to early November – it is a small paradise for swimmers. However – you can try even now. Cold, but manageable. I did.
Enjoyed the walks in that little forest and the sand dunes (there is a few narrow trails and please do use the trails – the ecosystem here is delicate and easily disturbed). The flora and fauna is beautiful. Small and larger birds, occasional deer, flowers, butterflies.
Today I did first time the entire trail, all the way past Conrad’s Beach and Tanner’s Sandy Point to the Stony Beach of Lawrencetown. The Stony Beach is a favored spot for Kitesurfing. Often, when you are on Conrad’s Beach you will see on the horizon to the east colourful kites gliding through the sky – these are the surfers from the Stoney Beach.
The sea has it’s own rules, not everything is manicured and ‘the grass’ is not always cut… . On my way back, by the Tanner’s Sandy Point I have found a relatively fresh dead body of a seal. That point is always very windy and waves are always high and dangerous. She must have been too tired to overcome the waves because otherwise there was no visible signs of any wounds of bites to her body. But to keep things in balance of sad and happy, maybe half an hour earlier, close by, I almost touch a very much alive and startled young deer. I was just walking through a narrow path in the dense forested part and startled suddenly the beautiful creature. She froze for a split second and quickly jumped back to the wood before I had a chance to raise my camera.
A little green gem nestled near Dartmouth, perfect for walking and cycling. It is a typical example of forests in the Eastern shore: with lots of marches, little lakes and streams. The trees are very seldom big and tall due to the impenetrable rocky bed covered with only shallow layer of red soil. Alas the root system is shallow, too, therefore prone to falling during frequent high winds or root rot. The southern end of the forest is located be the entrance to the Halifax peninsula in Cow Bay, the northern by the big marches near Havens Beach, to the west lays Dartmouth – to the east the vast waters of open Atlantic.
An early evening bike ride was a perfect timing as the trail was empty for practical reasons, air was cool, the rain very light and very sporadic.
My second visit in just about as many days. Sometimes an escape to the ocean is the only logical choice when the mundane in the city and at home slowly tightens the noose around your neck. Travels never disappointed me. And that particular beach has many good memories for me: with my husband John, with my family, who visited me from Europe.
It was sunny day, warmer than the last time. But waters still very frigid. No one risked swimming. I did. Took me two tries, though, LOL. The second time the body wasn’t screaming as loudly, ha ha ha. Later I stopped at town center of Musquodoboit Harbour in a little bakery-coffee for a good cup of dark coffee and a sweet snack, relaxed, and drove back home re-charged.
No więc literatura. Bardziej szczegółowo – porównywanie jej, komparatystyka (prawda, że brzmi poważnie, akademicko, LOL?).
A jak praca akademicka to trudno ją robić w domu, bo w domu tysiące zajęć, które co chwila cię od niej odrywają: a to kawę zrobić, a to obraz zdjąć ze ściany, małe pranie, większe gotowanie, odkurzaczem jakiś dywan przelecieć lub wymyć podłogi, albo dłubać w nosie oglądając telewizję. No nie sposób i koniec.
Więc trzeba znaleźć inne miejsce.Więc w samochód i naturalnie pojechać na plażę nad ocean. Tam szum fal kojący, wyciszający, pusto prawie bo plaża odległa, a o tej porze roku w Nowej Szkocji jeszcze woda lodowata i nikt (zdrowy na zmysłach) się nie kąpie.
Więc biorę plecak z napojem, ręcznikiem, kurteczką, bo zimny wiatr od morza może być (może i morze to takie dziwne dwa kompletnie co innego znaczące, a identycznie brzmiące słowa w języku polskim – to moja pierwsza komparatystyczna uwaga! dodatkowo jedno jest mianownikiem, a drugie biernikiem-niepewnikiem: może nie znaczy, że musi!) i aparat fotograficzny. Na opasłe tomiska z esejami Alice Munro i F. Scotta Fitzgeralda (bo ich opowiadania mam porównywać) i jeszcze mojego kajeciku do pisania mądrych uwag – już w plecaku miejsca nie ma, więc pakuje je do innej torby. No i wio koniku (mechaniczny).
Po przejściu wydmy rozkładam swój ‘bazarek’. Muzyka oceanu bajeczna istotnie, wyciszająca domowe i osobiste niepokoje i neurastenie. I pusto prawie kompletnie na całej kilkukilometrowej długości. Rozkładam składane krzesło, zakładam kurtkę, bo wiatr jednak ciągnie. I spostrzegam, że nie przyniosłem torby z tomikami. Wracam przez piaski wydmy do samochodu i … torby nie zabrałem z domu! Cała przyczyna przyjazdu tu, w tą ciszę do jasnej Anielci!
Więc decyduję, że by nie zmarnować dnia idę jednak popływać. Pierwszy raz w tym roku, bo Atlantyk ciągle lodowaty tu, niczym jak w lutym lub marcu. Ale idę. Pierwsze spotkanie z wodą jak szpilki po nogach. Ale i radość. Powoli, dalej, krok po kroku. Wiem doskonale, że w pewnym momencie i tak nie zdążę uciec, bo następna fala mnie zaleje. Naturalnie tak się właśnie dzieje i nie ma znaczenia czy zimna czy nie – zalewa i tak, a o ucieczce nie ma mowy. Więc pływam. Jedyny na tej plaży. I ciesze się tym, jak dziecko.
Więc czytajcie literaturę dziatki drogie! Pojęcia nie macie, jakie niespodzianki i przyjemności wam sprawić może – choćby kąpiel w Atlantyku! Jeszcze jedna a niespodziewana przyjemność, jaką mi Alice Munro zgotowała! Jestem pewny, że by się tym uradowała. A ktoś inny i tak mądre słowa na temat morfologii i fleksji jej języka napisze.
When you write for the public you are barring your soul. You are – in some way – an exhibitionist. It doesn’t matter if you are an excellent or mediocre writer. You are barring your soul in front of an audience. In fiction or in documentary, autobiography, poem or novel. Otherwise, you are just a trickster with a talent to put words together – but a trickster nonetheless.
It was a bad day. I know – just the other one, when I saw the flowers in the alleyways of our park in Dartmouth – I was singing the praises, thanking you for coaching me in ways of new life. A better life, a happier one. Go and allow yourself to enjoy it – you said. You said, that you will be at peace knowing that I do. And I tried. And I failed. I failed you as you failed me. Yes, you did. Those last days you did. When we still had a chance to end it together. No, there was no physical chance, no miracle hiding somewhere holding the ray of hope that the outcome will be different or pushed way back into the future. There was no chance. No ray of hope on any horizon. But it meant there was no chance for me. Ever. We should not have gone to the sunny and sheltered lake beach, with shallow warm waters and no angry waves attacking the shoreline.
No. We should have gone to the angry sea, cold waters, powerful waves, strong currents, and whirlpools. I would have helped you carrying you on my back and we would have taken the last glorious swim together. Our swim, ‘us’ being one. There is no ‘me’ anymore, where the is no ‘you’. There cannot be ever. Anywhere. I am left to wonder in constant pain, anger, in constant thirst surrendered by oceans of salt. The sea is calling me a thief, a beggar of scraps, a coward. I have no Eurydice waiting for me somewhere in non-existent Hell. I am the Hell. I am the unanswered cry of pain. I am the gatekeeper and I am the key to Hell. Orpheus can’t pay Charon a few obols to ferry him across the River of Hades. I have fired Charon and sunk the boat. No in or out.
I went to the other beach, the ocean beach, the one we visited last time ever in 2022, and one we visited together for the very first time in 2019. Where we swam together, we laughed together. Where we were kissing.
It was an overcast day today. The sea was grey like steel. It was cold like steel. And I didn’t go for that swim. But let me, please! Give me that nod, tell me you agree, and won’t pull me back. I’m losing my battle.
Just don’t cry. Don’t be sad. Let me have a bad day. Let me wallow in pain and shame that I am and You are not. I was sorry for so long. Let me hear from you this once that you are too – sorry. And I will give you your peace again. Just don’t expect the impossible from me. Don’t expect me to have joy in life. To have pleasures of days and nights. One thing I can promise you in return – those years, these decades we had, made me impossibly happy. I was. And I remember it. All I ask in return is that sometime, on some days (as today) you will share my sorrow, my pain. And then you can have your peace again. But share in it the way we have shared everything else in our life. It is too heavy to carry it all the time alone.
It’s Spring. It’s warm. In the parkways, I talk with you. It is a nice talk. It is a warm talk. You gave me again words of hope, of support. No one can do it as effectively and tenderly as you do. Your innate warmth and goodness are infectious and effective in an instant at the same time. You are a strange traveling monk, who effortlessly and without any heroism simply offers himself to a tired traveler. In a simple, natural way. It appears to be so ordinary, that it is even difficult to notice – as a breath of air.
But I’m still overwhelmed by the lack of your physical presence, which gave some peace to my vortex of thoughts. It arranged them in neat order, peaceful, void of instant hunger and need of life.
I can’t comprehend the mistake of fate, which took you away. You occupied such a tiny space in this world. You were almost like an invisible speck of pollen, a tiny flower on a vast meadow, a small wheel in this huge machine called World.
When I struggled with the huge wheels of History – you simply ensured that the coffee was good, and the dinner was served pleasantly. Because of this tender care that huge world could function and Wheels of Time could turn.
Without this small pinion, the Big Wheel stopped, and my important and huge world – collapsed. And I am lost.
But in the coldest moments, I am wrapping myself in the shawl of memories and it is bearable, warmer. I can function because of it.
I notice the tiny flowers under my feet and the fresh leaves on tree branches. I hear the birds singing their love songs and the buzz of bees in flowering bushes. And Your whisper to my ear: go, enjoy it. I want you to enjoy it. You must for us and for me. I can’t have peace without knowing it.
With a tear leaving a wet mark on my cheek – I go and I will. You deserve peace and no one but I have to give it to You, my Flower of Spring.
Wiosna. W alejkach parku jest ciepło i rozmawiam z Tobą. To miła pogawędka. Dawałeś mi zawsze otuchę. Nikt inny tego robić tak, jak Ty nie potrafił. Przyszły złe chwile i trudne momenty, które mi znowu pętały życie, gotowy byłem już się poddać zniechęcony tym nieustannym pojedynkiem z losem. Ale poszedłem to tego właśnie parku, gdzie tylekroć chodziliśmy na spacery razem. Nawet w te dni przedostatnie.
I Twoje naturalne ciepło i dobroć wróciły do mnie. Jesteś jakimś dziwnym wędrującym mnichem, który bez hałasu i heroizmu po prostu rozdaje się, ofiarowuje się. Tak zwyczajnie, jak rzecz najbardziej naturalną z naturalnych. Trudno to nawet zauważyć, bo wydaje się takie zwykłe, codzienne jak oddech powietrza.
Ale brak mi okrutnie twojej fizycznej obecności. Przynosiła jakiś spokój mym pędzącym kłębom myśli. Wprowadzała ład w tym zgiełku i hałasie wokół i wewnątrz. I ciągle nie mogę zrozumieć tej okrutnej pomyłki Losu, który Cię zabrał ode mnie. Zabierałeś tak mało miejsca w świecie, byłeś prawie niezauważalnym pyłkiem, jakimś drobiazgiem na drodze, maleńkim trybikiem w olbrzymiej Machinie Dziejów.
Gdy ja zmagałem się z tymi wielkimi kołami Historii, ty po prostu dbałeś aby kawa była smaczna, a obiad ładnie podany. To dzięki tym drobiazgom ten wielki świat funkcjonował. Teraz, bez tego najmniejszego z najmniejszych trybików – Maszyna zatrzymała się. Zatrzymał się mój świat, ten Wielki i Ważny. Koło Historii stanęło w miejscu. I jestem zagubiony.
Ale w momentach najzimniejszych otulam się Toba, jak szalikiem naszych wspomnień i jest cieplej. Mogę funkcjonować. Zauważam drobne kwiatki pod nogami, świeżą delikatna zieleń na gałęziach drzew. Słyszę brzęczenie pszczół w kwitnących krzewach. I Twój szept do mojego ucha: idź, ciesz się tym. Chcę żebyś się cieszył. Musisz – dla nas i dla mnie. Bez tego nie mogę mieć spokoju.
I ze spływającą po policzku łzą – idę. Będę. Nikt inny prócz mnie nie może dać Ci tego spokoju, a na spokój zasłużyłeś, jak rzadko kto. Ty – mój Kwiat Wiosny.
A very recent young immigrant to Canada, a handsome fellow from Ivory Coast in Africa. And striking exotic beauty. Met him and told him a bit of the history of Black people in Nova Scotia going back all the way to the first settlements in Nova Scotia, both French (New France Acadia) and the British fort of Halifax soon after that. I researched a very important part of that history a few years ago and wrote about it on this blog in a series of articles. Like most young people settling from abroad in Halifax and facing the shockingly high cost of renting he doesn’t own a car and his Nova Scotian experience is somewhat limited to Halifax proper.
The day was nice, sunny, although cold, and I took him for a ride and ‘beachcombing’ on the Eastern Shore. The most magical place in this province to meet the ocean. The same ocean (just opposite shore) he faced in his home country. A sweet accent of it was his recent visit to … my hometown – Warsaw in Poland. I was just about his age when I left Warsaw. He was also surprisingly glamorous and a’la mode in his attire. That was such a photogenic contrast with the wild surroundings of our trek.
Therefore let me introduce the exotic features and alluring beauty of Ismael, voila!
The photographer was there, too (LOL). The entire session was done on Conrad Beach and on the high cliffs by the coffee shop near Lawrencetown.