Capitals hit the road
A journal about the passage of time on P.E.I.’s serene and slow-paced South Shore
The Summerside Western Capitals have had a lighter schedule so far this season than any other team in the Maritime Junior Hockey League.
There are no dramatic scenes of excitement or terror in this collection of short journal-style essays that capture the passing of seasons on the rural south shore of Prince Edward Island.
It’s rather a slow and comforting read to settle into at night, relax, and recharge while enjoying the smaller moments in life.
There’s a multi-genre approach that is both lyrical and poetic. Whether this writing style is intentional or not, it moves along with the slow and serene pace of rural P.E.I. There’s no hurried action or noise that jumps out from the pages – only for the occasional hum of a motorbike in the summer months.
Each chapter starts with a comic-style illustration before setting the scene that many Islanders can identify. Perhaps that’s why the author, JoDee Samuelson, has been so successful in publishing these essays for the past eight years as a monthly columnist for the local entertainment newspaper The Buzz.
The Cove Journal is a collection of these seasonal essays that braid in a story about a fox, craft fair, Christmas carolling, picking wild mushrooms, frogs crossing the road, and even erosion. But it never dips too deep on emotion or even the serious issues such as, the pawing away of the contours of the land. Weather seems to be a major force to each story, and it’s enough to affect the daily decisions and events for the author. An excerpt goes:
“It was one of those clear calm evenings when you could feel the temperature dropping as the sun sank below the tree line. We picked all the cucumbers and squash, wrapped a blanket snugly around the climbing tomatoes, and reluctantly went indoors. It was time to face the music and start a fire in the woodstove.”
This collection of seasonal essays is in parts monotone as it skims across the surface of events, but despite its lack of engrossing discovery and revelation it does conjure a feeling of warmth for a place that seems almost frozen in time. Samuelson was born and raised in the Canadian prairies, but has lived for the past 30 years on the South Shore of P.E.I. She has created numerous awardwinning animated films. In her spare time she is member of the Canoe Cove Women’s Institute, a wood carver, painter, gardener, and a baker of bread.