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







Showing posts with label shorebirds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shorebirds. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

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.





Monday, October 1, 2018

~ October ~




Good morning, friends.

Welcome October, one of the year's finest months.


''October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins.... Merry October! ''

                        ~Rainbow Rowell (b.1973), Attachments, 2011





"October inherits summer's hand-me-downs: the last of the ironweed, its purple silken tatters turning brown, and the tiny starry white asters tumbling untidily on the ground like children rolling with laughter; stiff, drying black-eyed Susans whose dark eyes gleamed from July's roadsides; coneflowers with deep yellow petals surrounding brown pincushion centers from which bumblebees still are sipping honey.  The assignment of yellow is taken up now by thin-leafed wild sunflowers and artichokes."
-   Rachel Peden



"Well, it's a marvelous night for a Moondance
'Neath the cover of October skies
And all the leaves on the trees are falling
To the sound of the breezes that blow

-  Van Morrison, Moondance




love

lizzy

gone to the beach......

sanderlings




gulls




sanderlings




Black skimmers, quite rare/ endangered
the grey ones are the babies







Friday, February 23, 2018

Nothing Much



Happy Friday! Today's blog is "about nothing"---anyone remember the old Seinfeld episode about the TV show about nothing, lol.  It's been a quiet week here at the beach, grey, drizzling, not too cold, but not warm either---35, 40*? I noticed the city was very warm, almost 70* one day. I thought I'd have Fall Festival to show you guys today, but no. I am working intentionally slowly, measuring each piece many times. My ''word'' of the past year and for 2018 is good craftsmanship, and I think it shows in FF.



The beach is foggy and desolate, but the spring cleanup earth movers have arrived already. They started early, Feb 15 instead of March 1. Maybe all my complaints about scaring the migratory endangered birds has paid off? Oystercatchers will return March 17! Plovers April 1st.


I'm always wary of walking on the beach when the trucks are working. Last year they ran over someone, in a town nearby! Sure they paid him a few million bucks but still.


New candle for March: "Happiness", a mix of bergamot and mandarin. I love it, though I'm not thrilled with the jar , too dark.


And I treated myself to a trial 3 pack of perfumes from PHLUR. $18.oo. here I love the idea of an aware and ecologically good perfume company with natural ingredients. Not crazy about the scents themselves though, or the name Hepcat, yeeesh. Bad choice, they just could have called it Brooklyn instead? I have worn Angel from Thierry Mugler for years and it's hard to change. I love perfume and wear it daily, just a light spritz, even on days I'm home alone in old sweats. Like brushing my teeth, just something I do.



The flowers of the week are pussy willows. I went to a different market and they had these exceptionally lovely grey velvet plushy branches. Usually the PW branches are scrawny and rustic--- yes, charming, but not gorgeous like these.
















 Ten stems $3.oo.



I like winter-y branches. Mo and I collect them after windy days. Sometimes they flower or sprout tiny leaves, you never know.


Even if not, the linear dark lines appeal to my eyes.


I am learning to use my new "Rolls Royce" printer. I bought special fabric paper pages for it. Here is the first  label.


Too expensive though, I think it was 14.99 for 4 sheets of printer fabric. Is that possible? More experimentation is needed.
*********
Thinking ahead, once Fall Festival is done---I have had requests from etsy customers for more of my velvet strawberries w silver caps or handles., so if you would like one pls let me know!


Then, when FF is done, I can begin new projects! I joined an online group to make this beautiful quilt this year.


I haven't dared start yet though. The project includes the option of buying a monthly kit. It's fun to see what someone else chooses and so far the fabrics are lovely. I always have wanted to make a Feathered Star block, but I think it was the inspirational words on the corners that sold me. Lots of nice applique for next summer on the beach, too.


I won't try to keep up with the group, of course. lol. Did I tell you about the Block of the Month [different project] group on FB, I had to resign? They kick you out if you do not make each month's block on time!? How anal is that!--- I can't think of any nicer way to put it. So I bowed out; I have the pattern anyway, I just would have enjoyed seeing other peoples' work.
I'm also still dithering about Antebellum Album colorways. The taupe is eliminated. Blue the front runner.



For the person (Denno / Denise) who asked me about the Covered Wagon fabric, you are a NO Reply blogger! I put ordering info on the blog post you wrote to me. Right now I do not have scraps as it will be the backing of WW, using full length and width til trimmed---and it is very costly to mail to Australia. Fat Quarters Shop will sell you a one yard for under 9.oo USD and mail it, they're set up for international shipping. I am sorry I am not, even for a freebie. Send me your email though if you want me to contact you when my quilt is finished; it could be months though.


Today's chores include mending socks and nightgowns, pinching pennies here! But mostly I mend socks because I can no longer find the soft puffy ankle socks I love. I also have to do alterations on Mo's newer raincoat. You can see his opinion of a walk in the sleety rain, below.



The newer raincoat is too long and he can't potty with it on, poor little man. It also had armholes like sleeves! This one has sleeves too.


How many dogs will let you put them into a coat w plastic sleeves, so stupid. Not Mo, he cries.


So I better get busy here,  I'll see you all soon. Have a good weekend.

love 

lizzy 

gone to the beach....