Beaches

I love the beach. LOVE IT. I grew up in deep cove, a beautiful place in an already beautiful place. We lived in a big house that was surrounded by forest, beach and ocean. Our front yard wasn't much. Just a drive was and a busy street called Dollarton Highway. If you were standing on our back deck to your left were some trees and bushes and our neighbours houses, tucked away in more trees. To the right was nothing but forest. Thick and old and filled with wonderful things for kids to do. Straight ahead was a long grass hill that finally reached the beach.
I was never bored growing up. Rain or shine I was outside exploring. My brother and I would play in the forest together building tree houses, picking blackberries, huckle berries or salmon berries and playing in the creek that trickled down to the ocean. We explored our neighbours yards. They grew a lot of fruit. Strawberries, raspberries and a whole whack of cherry trees. We would live off the land and never come in for snacks, just meals.
But the beach was our favorite. I bet if I added up the hours I spent at the beach as a kid it would probably equal a year straight. I would collect shells and beach glass and other treasures for hours. I would catch crabs and build them sand kingdoms. The creek would make small rivers in the sand, so we would have real flowing moats around our castles. When the tide came up really high, there were two rock we could climb up on and jump off into the water. I understood tide changes at a very young age. My mom would come down at low tide and put a large stick somewhere on the beach and say " When the water gets to here it's time to come in for dinner". We even ate dinner at the beach at least twice a week. We had cleared out a spot just above the shore in the trees and would make a bonfire and eat hot dogs. It was surrounded by blackberry bushes. In the summer we never brought down desert, we would just eat berries.
The most fun I had at the beach was by myself. A few minute walk down the beach from "our beach" was a beautiful spot. A tree had grown all tangled and oddly shaped over the water very close to the shore. Under the tree was a very large deposit of crushed shells that made the beach look white. When the tide came up I would climb up the tree and sit with a book and read until the tide went down again. I spent so many hours in that tree. I wonder if it is still there, hanging over the water just waiting for someone to climb in a read for a few hours.

I visited my beach last night. The tide was up so I couldn't make it to my reading tree. I could hardly make it back from the beach before the tide came up. It looks very different now. The dock and stairs to the beach have collapsed, probably in the windstorms of '06. Our barbecue spot has grown in with blackberries so thick I couldn't even find the fire ring. I was so sad to see it like that. Such a beautiful spot of beach that isn't being enjoyed as much as I had enjoyed it. I did enjoy collecting shells and beach glass again. It brought back some great memories. I want to bring my kids down there and spend the whole day on the beach, just like I used to. Maybe one day they will love the beach as much as I do.