Beach House Diaries: Looking Back ... and Planning Ahead

So this is it. My summer sojourn on Pictou Island is ending and the whole back-to-work, back-to-school shtick is about to begin -- but not before Mother Nature stages a grand finale. What my family refers to as "the show" would more accurately be called the running of the herring. Now, this is not to be confused with the famous Running of the Bulls in Pamplona: you won't see drunken daredevils racing down labyrinthine alleys with angry fish in hot pursuit. Rather it's akin to a run of ready-to-spawn salmon, and the huge schools of herring that swim into our strait attract voracious seals, the occasional whale, plus flocks of hungry gannets that barrel out of the clouds at breakneck speed like rockets in reverse.