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







Saturday, December 27, 2014

Back to the Beach


 
 
Hi everyone! I hope you all had wonderful holidays so far. Here at the beach the weather has been amazing. Almost 60* for the past four days and no wind, brilliant sunshine. Mo and I sat out on the deck! And I was able to begin hand quilting my Peace and Plenty [Cascadia] quilt.


The beach however was the big draw.

 
It called to me, Come out, come out and play!


I'm determined to find time for my daily beach walks this winter, despite walking Mo as much as 4.5 miles a day. The ocean soothes my soul and nourishes my creativity.



One day I went to the surfing beach which is about two miles west of my own beach.


I had not been back, except to walk on the shoreline, since before H Sandy, so about two years. For awhile this area was inaccessible; the boardwalk still has not been rebuilt.



It's a lovely beach, narrower than my beach. A good place to walk when I don't have the time or energy to hike all the way down to my shoreline.



Despite the darkness, these photos were taken at about 3 PM on a sunny day. Darkness comes early still.

 



Many years ago---75? 100? these giant granite boulders were brought here and formed these jetties. The rocks look black but up close are beautiful if functionless glittery bejeweled granite. They are the reason the beach is narrow here, jetties do not ''work''..but they also create the waves that angle smoothly to shore for surfing, so not a total fail, but a serendipitous result.



These are more of the manmade dunes. Maybe 20 feet high?---forming a new cliff of sorts.


This used to be a wide expanse of rolling dunes covered with sea grasses, scrub pine bayberry and bittersweet.

May 2011
 
Same view, December 2014
 
Now a wasteland. This is a narrow, low lying section of my island and here H Sandy's storm surge swept over these dunes all the way to the bay beyond, filling the schools nearby and destroying the school admin building across the street here.
So peaceful now.



Below a few Christmas pictures.





All went well...gifts were good, Santa did a good job. Both dinners were okay.



Here is Mo in his newest jacket, a Puppia parka halter combo!



And riding in his new car seat.



My premature narcissus are so pretty. In full bloom, a hint of spring.



How about you guys, was Santa good to you?


love

lizzy

gone to the beach............

Below: an anonymous beach drawing. What a wonderful folk art Mr. Sunshine. You guys know how much I love Mr. Sunshine images, and I was thrilled to discover this on my own beach. A favorable omen for 2015. I love it.

 
 

 
 
 
inspiration for the artist? same day.