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.

A Winter Walk ~ February Thaw

Hi! It's the February Thaw, tah-dah, winter's version of "Indian Summer".

Oh what a difference a week makes. Many of us went from single digit temps to this week's balmy almost-60 degrees. Yesterday I  set aside projects and housework and headed down to the beach to see what was going on.

It takes a true beach lover to discern beauty in this wintry landscape. The high winds last week brought down many of the beautiful tall beach grasses and sent the birds off and away to more hospitable areas. It's hard to find color or beauty but there is peace and calm instead. [sort of...]

Even the sand is ugly, marred by footprints and the deep gouges from the trucks' tires, that black line on the horizon.

On the boardwalk, I looked down as always...

...seeing the tiny tracks of the hidden residents of the dune.

Amusing how they follow our man made path.

Up close there are beautiful patterns, berries and weeds to admire.

The red berry and single thin grass stem centered themselves and drew this perfect circle.

But then as I approached the open beach, ahead loomed the huge work trucks.

They are so big and loud and scary. I  know they are doing good work, but I kinda hate them. The winter peace of my beach is mauled and shattered, starting dawn, through til late afternoon.

They've made themselves quite the little city out here: porta-potties, office trailers, a wind break truck, massive stacks of supplies, and SUVs galore.

The big trucks have created, uncaring, a deeply dug and ugly highway in the empty winter sand.

The ruts are deep and wide, and for me, with my sometimes hip pain it was hard to step down into the knee deep ruts then climb back up--again and again. Or--jump over, step over? Hahaha. It was too big a workout for me, I admit. I was very exhausted by the time I reached water's edge, had a brief panicked moment, could I manage the walk back home?

I stood and studied the waves, regrouping.

This is nice, isn't it.

So far the truck invasion has not damaged the ocean itself.

The shoreline is very barren, though.

Only a few bits came home in my pockets.

An angel wing shell, a red berry, and a washer for my oh-so-weird washer collection.

This collection is new and eccentric in an unattractively hoarder sort of way, I admit.

So strange, but starting at Christmas, every day when I walked Mo, I'd find a washer or a lugnut or a weird metal piece. I couldn't resist, I'd bring them home. Finally I started threading them onto an old piece of chain. There's one on the dunes that I can't reach, but it's painted bright turquoise. I can see it! I want it.

Found objects. Coin of the realm.

Do you find odd small objects? Do you bring them home? I passed up this treasure trove, below. Four big sturdy bushel [5 bushel?] baskets. They were waterlogged and too heavy for me to carry. The bases are wonderfully useful round wooden disks, 5/8" pine.

Once scrubbed and dried for months I use them for artwork and to cover my large  bowls of herbs.

Later Mo and I enjoyed the ''warm'' day.

We found, despite the 5* days, that the daffodils are bravely peeking out about 2 " already! So hopeful.

Indoor paper whites, after one week:

love


lizzy


gone to the beach...

 ***these photos were taken by a neighbor who I do not know and published on a local website. It seems our beach is graced with a snowy owl! I'm surprised because of the truck havoc. And I would dearly love to see the owl in real life.

Photos by MK.