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As I write this article, I am sitting outside; bathed in sunshine, infused with warmth, gazing out the mouth of the inlet to the vast ocean beyond. On a clear day, we can see Amet's Island where the seals hang out. Other times, we see Prince Edward Island, Canada's Ocean Playground, in the Northumberland Strait. The subdivision where I live goes by several names: Brule, Sand Point, Barrachois Harbour, and the village of Tatamagouche in the Maritime province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The post office clerks know me by name and whatever comes in the mail that I read. No matter what name we choose to use; the unrivaled beauty of the landscape does not change; only the constant rising and ebbing of the tides to signal yet another day.

As I sit, the stillness of the air is occasionally interrupted by a soft breeze blowing through leafless swaying trees. The quiet lapping of water against the shore is accompanied by periodic thumps of a hammer at a nearby construction site. Still another house being built.

Barrachois Harbour boasts the warmest waters north of North Carolina, the sweetest raw oysters to be gathered from our backyard, and the largest lobsters this side of the Atlantic. On clear-blue sunny days, sailboats come out to frolic in the Bay, and I watch for my favorite; a brown-colored sail reminiscent of a Chinese sampan, standing out from the rest of the lily-white sails. They dot the horizon for the day, forming a seascape much like yellow shooting ducks at a carnival or fair; sometimes visible, sometimes disappearing.

The nearby town of Tatamagouche is an artist's enclave: from painter to writer, to sculptor to potter. They all gather to show their talents. Tatamagouche is also a food lover's heaven: boasting of free-range poultry to organic farming, vineyards where no sulphates are used in the aging process of wines, not to mention homemade rustic breads. We are near the blueberry capital of Oxford, a famous maple bush and restaurant, an organic lavender farm, all just minutes away.

Here at Sand Point, we are one with nature, or is it the other way around? Families of deer, rabbits, ducks, pheasants, and even raccoons leave their daily calling card. The raccoon competes with our birds and squirrels for a meal from the bird feeder. Rabbits come to nibble the needles of the spruce tree under the guest bedroom. The occasional woodpecker has been disappointed twice when it failed to find insects in the sealed logs of our home. Some days we can sight the majestic

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