Back to the Beach ~ Winter

January! The first blast of winter has arrived! And "blast" is exactly how it's has been the past few days, with bright skies but frigid temps and strong gale winds, in the 40 mph range. So cold your bones cringe, so cold you must snuggle with your pug and drink hot chocolate. Tea is no longer enough.
The wind blew out all wifi and internet and TV for three days. Even my phone had no internet.

Earlier in the week I had to go into the bigger town for a doctor visit.  They always make me check in in January, I  hate being blackmailed/ coerced by doctors! The office was empty. I could see they were drumming up business, scheduling well-patient checkups. The good news is there's a place to park, hallelujah, and the unpeopled office meant I wasn't sitting in the waiting room next to someone gasping with the flu; the bad news is the doctor has free time to to experiment with new drugs he's been sold on. I get suspicious when the secretary checks my Rx insurance coverage ahead of time. Well people do not belong in doctors offices, in my opinion. Afterwards I treated myself to a short walk along the deserted boardwalk.

This car caught my eye. I've never seen a Range Rover SUV convertible, have you!? Pretty cool. If it had NJ plates we'd know which fictional guy bought it for his equally fictional not-girlfriend, wouldn't we. {Plum series.] Range Rover Evoque

The planks are so pretty. I must come back to photograph them for string quilt inspiration. [more on that in a later post.]

It was warmish, before the wind started up. Monochromatic, greys, tans, black. Desolate? But then just think: parking.....

I liked the wreaths on the benches, old fashioned and festive, fun that they were still here in January.

This beach is clean, white, big and beautiful but urbanized. ''They" are trying to restore it to a more natural state now. The plantings, looking like hair transplants!---will fill in and naturalize as well as over many years  rebuilding long gone dunes.

The planting is somewhat odd, bayberry and roses mixed densely with beach grasses. Dune shrubs never grow within grassy areas, but in protected areas, on edges and in hollows. Nor do they grow in such close proximity to one another. I don't think sand has enough nutrients for dense shrubbery, nor will grass grow underneath or alongside. [Who chooses this stuff anyway?]

I'll be interested to see what grows over the coming years.

And the mystery of the wooden piling construction, the Stonehenges, here and on my beach, is now solved! These are not sand catchers or dune underpinnings. They are the foundations of permanent wooden boardwalks that will arch over the growing dunes.

Meanwhile, dredgers added sand to the beach's edge, even though it looks no different. All this effort is both ecologically inspired as well as hurricane protection readiness. Storm surges will have to go higher and further to again devastate the town as Sandy did. [It is hoped.].

...
Another day I bundled up and walked out onto my own beach. I mostly stayed up by the dunes to get some shelter from the blowing sand,

Full moon tides a few weeks ago brought some large driftwood. Wouldn't this make a great shelf! Big, maybe 8  feet long 12" high.

Someone else likes it too. See the tiny foot prints scurrying into the tiny cavelike opening! I have to think it was a small bird; it's much too cold for it to be an insect or a sand creature like a crab,  I think.

Later, home for the mentioned hot chocolate and a quiet hour with Mo while I knit. I have decided  I'll take time for handwork this winter, if possible. Every free moment need not be busily sewing at my machine. Mo of course is so pleased.

The house is drafty and cold. I try to make Mo wear a t-shirt indoors but somehow he removes his shirts after an hour or so. If he is cold he prefers the new heated throw we indulged in instead.

Despite less hours sewing I couldn't resist making a brief trial block for Blue Baskets. It is really fast and fun! No corners, no points! No cutting even, I just tear strips from the plaid shirt pile.

---But more on this project next week.

For now, have a great weekend! I plan to bake bread and make a huge pot of Bolognese sauce , red meat sauce, for nice hot spaghetti dinners this weekend. What are your plans?

"Easy" Artisanal Bread

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....