Back to the Beach!

 

 

Look! Look! Beach pictures!

I made it to the beach today...and what a gorgeous, perfect late summer day it was.

Just beautiful. White sand, fresh air, clear blue water....

I was so happy to see my beach. It has been two months and two days since I was down to the shoreline. Too long.

The summer beach has become huge, so wide and flat and empty. It was a loooong walk for me.

So quiet, all the intruders, I mean visitors, are gone. So silly. They are missing the best days of summer, indoors, glued to football, I guess.

Just me and a few gulls. See the sooty not-so-pretty babies? It will take them two years to become snowy white.

A flock of piping plovers scurried in the dunes. But no oystercatchers on the tideline. I was sad to have missed them...but then later, so wonderful! A huge flock---hundreds--- appeared in the sky! Many more than our native half dozen pairs and new offspring. They are grouping up for their flight south.
Can't you just hear them, last April: ''Let's meet in mid-September, at the secret swale high in the dunes, by Lizzy's beach."
I wonder if they wonder why there is no water in the pond? [a dry summer]....

 

 

 

 

 

love,

 

lizzy

 

gone to the beach!

 

 

 

lifeguard stand, in winter storage, and below,
a self portrait...

Dragonflies' Migration

[one of my nature-nerd posts, lol.]

Hi! The other day just before the first end of summer cool front blew through, the sky over the dunes was filled with dragonflies! Like a swarm of tiny birds or planes....dozens, maybe thousands. The air was still and hot and sunny.

I am  not afraid of dragonflies---I find them beautiful and interesting. But these were quite large and busy and...intimidating. I estimate they are 3- 4" in size, not the small, pretty, iridescent green dragonflies of the swales and marshes. And now and then they'd hit my big window with a definite bang. Not a day to sit outside and sew....
They were entirely gone the following day.
These guys look black! I don't know what kind they are...

I checked my nature diary, and I see they have appeared every year since I began this diary in 2004. Either the last week of August or first weeks of September. I looked them up online and it seems they do migrate...somewhere. Not a huge amount is known but---so cool-- now scientists have invented tiny trackers that they can glue to the dragonflies' undersides. Then they are set free and their migratory trip south are being studied. Can you imagine a tracker so minute that it doesn't weigh down the little creatures---they can fly and live and go to the Caribbean, trackers on bellies. link, here

Here is the only photo I was able to take this week, cropped for ''detail"...they don't hold still!

Lots of cloud shots though. The dragonflies would alight on my deck rail, but as soon as I'd aim the camera, off they'd go.

You can google dragonfly images if you want to see better photos; the dragonflies, up close, are quite beautiful. here
 I did find some drawings in my sketchbooks....

This is a Cape Cod version.....

Do you enjoy watching and learning about nature? Do you notice the flocks of migrating birds and butterflies? I picked it up from my parents...and much to my pleasure and surprise, I now see that my kids are taking an interest too.

love

      lizzy

gone to the beach

 

 

Faded Beauties

Hi! I LOVE hydrangeas, don't you? And since  I have worked my way up to having   nice small afternoon walk each day---just around my small neighborhood---  I've been indulging in a little snoop and peek at everyone's late summer gardens!

I have a friend who loves BLUE hydrangeas. Only blue...

and since he hopes to redo his garden at some point, I have been watching the local hydrangeas and checking on their blueness. Also their rather spectacular ability to have weathered the salt water flooding of H. Sandy! Where the sycamore trees are all dead, and most evergreens died, the local hydrangeas are as good as ever.

So...they were blue, mostly...in July. This is the above bush, now pink in early September. [below]

What makes them blue? Aluminum sulfate. And then they don't stay blue! here

I'll experiment with mine in their deck pots next spring, because M is not gonna be happy if his blue hydrangeas turn pink.

Even the blue flower heads turn pink at this time of year....

This is the time to cut them and dry them.

I want to fill my favorite stoneware crocks...first hint of Fall? [along with the LL Bean catalog, which arrived today!]

love


         lizzy

gone to the beach