Hmmmm...I am sitting here, reading Susan Branch's lovely blog...and she is all about summer and gorgeous weather and sun tea. And she lives on Martha's Vineyard, not all that far from me, same-ish maritime climate and so on...and I am sitting here wearing jeans and woolly socks and a ratty old cashmere turtleneck, wondering why it is summer on the Vineyard and winter here a hundred miles away, at the beach.
No sun tea here. Rainy, rain, rain. On Friday it rained 6 inches! My palm trees floated right out of their deck crocks and begged to come back inside where it is cozy. The water [which has nowhere to drain to, we're only a few feet above sea level] was sloshing at the edge of my jeep's running boards. Nastily flooding my wellies too.
And it's raining again again today. The flooding is back. The swales have refilled finally. And you can see the dune grass is regrowing, a few dark green hardy bayberry bushes too. Maybe we'll have ducks and peepers after all? Even a blackbird or two?
We did have one nice half day yesterday. Took me quite by surprise. I was not organized for the flea market, having planned for rain. I just tossed my quilting into my beach bag and ran out looking for the sun....
Nowhere is better for fine hand sewing than a sunny beach. The brilliant light is unequalled. No halogen, no high tech lighting, can come close. I sewed almost all of the first panel of the Mr Sunshine quilt....I can sew tiny stitches, and so fast.
A few other people were out too...
The oystercatchers were out with their big teenage babies.
How fast they grow up! This group was the three eggs I showed you in May.
There are baby piping plovers running around in this area.
See them? No? LOL. I can't see them either. They are tiny dandelion puffballs, only visible if you wait and watch for motion across the matching sand. There at least six of them and a pitifully worried mom bird. She is tiny, like a sparrow, but crisply tan, white and black.
Not many gulls, most are nesting still. Only the second year youngsters are here, their ugly spotty grey feathers turning slowly all white and grey. They won't mate until next year...
But look who is here.
Gully.
Is it really him?
They do all look alike, and yet...he comes and stands. And stares. And is very tame. Next time I'll sneak him some bread.
No sanderlings. They are off to Alaska to lay their eggs in the tundra. But we have a new nearby colony of tiny Arctic and least terns. They've moved into the flat spot where the outer dune used to be. Off to the very far left.
They're so mean! One of them attacked me! I wasn't looking and was just hiking along on the boardwalk path. It flew into my face then it pooped on me! Eeeew. I'm a little scared of them...
By dinnertime it was too cold and windy to BBQ. But a good day, with hopes of more sunny days ahead...and some fresh brewed sun tea.
love
sunny
......gone to the beach
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