Blue Heron Hideaways
Feature Story
Prince Edward Island
RED, GREEN AND GOLD ARE THE COLORS OF CANADA'S GENTLEST
PROVINCE
Barbara McAndrew SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
MEADOW BANK, PEI
It's the time dreamed of all
winter long, we climb up the centre of a giant,
pink sand dune into the
clear blue sky and soft pink beaches that sweep away
for miles. We stand there
as time seems to hold its breath in this private universe and a feeling of
freedom envelopes our city-weary souls. We dash down the sand dune, sliding and
whirling, toward the beach and ocean beyond. That heat of the day is forgotten
as we flop face down in the waves. Every summer P.E.I.
provides sanctuary for people in need of space, freedom and escape from hectic
routine. Here is time and place to nuture life and
return to basics, like eating lobsters on the beach. This shady outpost of a
province in the Gulf of St. Lawrence has long beguiled visitors. The Mi'kmag arrived about 100 AD, as summer
visitors at first, living on the
shore and feasting on the abundance of shellfish. They stayed and called the
island Abegweit, the "land cradled on the
waves".
The French came next.
They built their first permanent settlement. Gradually, other nations
discovered the island. English, Scottish and Irish settlers farmed the land as
tenants of the absentee English landlords who had won the Island
in a London lottery.