Summer Stock Sunday - 41

Robin's Summer Stock Sunday meme invites all to post summery photos, and to visit other bloggers who share their feelings and memories about this magical season.
















This is one of the most iconic photos from my childhood.

My sister and I grew up alongside my two cousins as a group of four, with our two families spending both quantity and quality time together.

Because our two dads were scuba divers, we spent many magical days at Polly Cove, near Peggy's Cove. The men dived, the women set up the day's base camp and enjoyed one another's company - while we kids ran over the rocks, climbed, ran, explored, watched the waves, made return visits to the moms for snacks and juice, and generally made the kinds of memories that loom the largest when I think of the happiest times of my life.

Clockwise from left, back row: my sister Michelle, my cousin Charlie, me, and my cousin Julianne











This is my dad with Polly Cove in the background.













This photo was taken by my uncle, Charles E. Doucet - it's one of my favorites of his art photography pieces.

Taken out where we had so many great times together.

Summer Stock Sunday - 1

My blog buddy Robin at Around the Island is launching a brand new photo meme today. It's called Summer Stock Sunday.

"Each Sunday, beginning 31 May, Around the Island will be hosting a brand new summer photo project and you're invited!

Share your barbecues, your beaches, your cannonballing kids, that island sunset, an old pair of flip flops, anything that says summer to you." - Robin






































These are pictures taken in the 70's when both my uncle's family and our family would spend the day out at Polly Cove, Nova Scotia here on Canada's east coast while the men went scuba diving. The moms would set out the blankets and fix snacks and lunches, and of course hang out together, while the four of us kids - two sets of siblings, making four cousins - would run all over the rocks having a grand old time.

If you click on the link, scroll down ten rows and you will find slideshows for Polly Cove.

That's Uncle Charlie at top, and my dad below.

These are my happiest childhood memories.












Robin says Great choice for Summer Stock. Look at those wetsuits though - that water must have been FREEZING

Bim says Hello fellow (ex)film-person! I love this colour quality of prints from a time when I was a child, too.

Hip Chick says I love the 70's of it. That is one beautiful part of the world. I haven't been up there in about 20 years but I remember it as being very pretty.

Poetry Train Monday - 8 - Polly Cove

With yesterday being Canada Day, I was drawn to this poem about my favorite spot on earth. Polly Cove is just a little ways along the coast from Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia. My dad and uncle used to go scuba diving on a wreck there, and my mom and aunt would hang out at the picnic blankets having chick time while my cousins, my sister and I would run around on the rocks. The coastline there is nothing but giant boulders and endless stretches of rock.

It's quite a trek from the road to the cove. Everyone had to carry supplies for the day, and the path wound down a very steep cliff. It's not merely a childhood-only place. It's a 45-minute drive from where I live, and I return every summer if I can. But my best memories are from those days when I could still run and leap over that incredible landscape.


Polly Cove

The slow dip
A seagull skims
The clouds slide

We leap from the crag
And the lichen springs

Below yawns the whispering seethe of the salt
The drop looks enticing

The lazy coil of the seaweed
A maid's demure flirtations

Behind us
Scraggling pines huddle
The cliff face

Far beyond
The frightening power
Of swelling froth

While here
The air skids to a stop
Your eyes look at me

And the sun snags in the tangly growth

Copyright Julia Smith 1985