Out and About March ~ Houses Peeping.and The Beach

I woke up March 1 to No Trucks on the beach! Was it a union holiday or are they abiding by the rule that all trucks stop on March 1st due to the returning endangered birds? I'd love to think they have quit for the year and I can again safely walk out there.  The flocks of sanderlings are already here, on the way to the Arctic tundra nesting grounds. They are oblivious to humans, they live to scurry, to eat.

The Oystercatcheres return in exactly ten days, March 17, followed by the plovers by April 1. The terns and skimmers come much later, and despite their endangered status the terns not really welcomed as they are vicious little birds. [Skimmers are gentle but enormous and somewhat scary if they fly close.]

Not captured on camera, but there were ocean ducks and  and a few large heads that were possibly seals [or debris of some sort?].

More sandpipers.

Found washers this week.

A little plastic vet nurse and puppy to live with the troll lighthouse keeper, in my wooden Nauset Light. [they look so forlorn on the winter beach, and so cold; I have to bring them home.]

No coins. Gull eye and bill shaped driftwood, a pretty scalloped pearl button, above the pebble.

One errand day last week I was with a friend who obligingly double parked while I took photos of new or reconstructed houses in the area. Hurricane Sandy was six and a half years ago, yet many homes are still being restored or demolished and the land reused for new and bigger homes.

We've been watching this house for years, as it was completely devastated during the storm, then it was slowly raised, a concrete block foundation built. Later the lower level was finished and windows and a porch appeared this winter. It's on a busy corner but it now is quite lovely.

Ghostly figure at the front door, how odd.

Watching this house get raised was nerve wracking. It's an amazing feat of engineering that is being done everywhere now. But oops do happen. HERE   and HERE

What if if your already storm destroyed home's pathetic shell got, well, dropped. Boom.

...

Then there are new houses being built in the village to the east. The smaller houses on this bayfront street were torn down after the storm. Both homes are built on two lots, yet have no yard, no garden, no pool! I am guessing they're in the two to three million price range, with waterviews on four sides.

This is my favorite. I love this house. [It's not finished....]

Look at the little staircase up to the roof deck! How cute is that. Imagine a bright summer morning, going up there with your coffee, the bay in front of you, the ocean just behind?

These homes, across the lane,  are finished and occupied. Not fabulous from the street but the bayfacing facades , not visible here, are lovely. One house I didn't get a picture of is enormous, taking up perhaps four lots. It is big and square with glass walls and oddly unbeachy pink granite bricks and looks like a boutique department store or a museum.

Today is cold, but bright. The dreaded Daylight Savings thing, fall forward? arrives Sunday. Another  bureaucratic abomination. Like someone's wall.

I'll leave you with a link to read. I loved this story, picturing the dad  drawing a picture every single day for his little girl.  I hope his heart doesn't break some preteen morning when his love, expressed on a brown lunch bag, is no longer wanted. Enjoy.   here

love

 lizzy 

gone to the beach....

PS The trucks are back today, Wednesday, frantically plowing in large numbers.