I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Weather Alert: Coastal Flooding and a Poem


Full moon, high tide....

It behaves
toward the permutations of novelty—
driftwood and shipwreck, last night's
beer cans, spilt oil, the coughed-up
residue of plastic—
with random
impartiality, playing catch or tag
...turning the same thing over and over,
over and over.
For the ocean, nothing
is beneath consideration.
The houses
of so many mussels and periwinkles
have been abandoned here,
it's hopeless
to know which to salvage. Instead
I keep a lookout for beach glass—
amber of Budweiser, chrysoprase
of Almadén and Gallo, lapis
by way of (no getting around it,
I'm afraid) Phillips'Milk of Magnesia,
with now and then a rare
translucent turquoise or blurred amethyst
of no known origin.
The process
goes on forever: they came from sand,
they go back to gravel...


    Beach Glass by Amy Clampitt


A few days after the Big Rain the beach is still quite flooded!


More erosion cuts have formed...


Some quite deep...


The Lifeguard stand is perhaps eight or nine feet high?


The sand is waterlogged, the skimmers love it.

note the dive-bomber chasing me!
center above

They hated my intrusion! It's blurry because they are so fast (and scary!) (and big!)...




Post-prandial gulls, below,...oh garbage, yum! they all squawk, happy not to eat that gourmet artisan bread I bring them,lol.


The weatherman says it rained less than an inch! This is a flower crock on my deck. The Mandevillea vine (pink flowers) floated right out! It's a six gallon pickle crock...full to the brim.


I think we got the "locally heavy at times" segment of the storm?


Food and flowers here tomorrow!

      love

 lizzy

gone to the beach.....