Remember this now, and now, and now.
Live it, feel it, cling to it.
I want to become acutely aware of all I’ve taken for granted.
— Sylvia Plath

It’s no secret that the ocean is our happy place. It is why we decided to make Nova Scotia our home base. We love it best in the summer but genuinely love our winter explorations on ice on Nova Scotia’s north shore. We love walking on water, water that is frozen solid. We marvel at the frozen-in-place waves and ripples, the windswept patterns of sand and snow. We love the winter quiet of the ocean and the subtle shifts and sounds during a melt. The north shore beaches are places of wonder on any given day, more so in the winter.

Every beach reveals new wonders. In early January, we encountered giant mounds of snow covered in sand with honeycomb-like patterns left behind by the incredible storm surge a few days prior. And over at Caribou Beach, we were overcome by massive piles of frozen anthropomorphic seaweed. A couple weeks later, we encountered ice as far as the eye can see at Blue Sea Beach on the Northumberland Strait. Waterfalls were frozen in place at Arisaig. A week after that, ice floes co-mingled with open water. And this week, we could have walked across the Strait to Prince Edward Island.

We have made a point of visiting as many beaches on the north shore as often as possible. Temperature, wind, freeze and thaw, sun, and clouds all collaborate to create conditions that shape an ever-changing coastal experience. Each day, the experience is different: open water one day, massive floes and packs of ice the next. It is never the same, never boring, always beautiful, and often extremely cold.

This year, we seem to be like those Canadian geese who make us wonder why they didn’t fly south with the rest of the flock. Are we literal snowbirds?! We revel in the snow and ice rather than fleeing. In the winter, we become ice-loving explorers.

The sea, once it casts its spell,
holds one in its net of wonder forever.
— Jacques Cousteau