Beach Roses and Honeysuckle

Hello! This weekend was glorious, in a chilly sort of way. The sun was bright and the roses and honeysuckle burst into bloom on the dunes. Oh the scent! Salt air and flowers! Take a deep breath...

I wish I could send it to you over the blog-waves.

No fancy French perfume smells as delicious as a June afternoon at the beach, when the dunes are filled with roses and honeysuckle and wild sweet pea.

The bumblebees are drunk with pleasure.

The white roses are much rarer, this is the only white beach rose on my dunes. Behind this dune is the cache of recycled Christmas trees which is building the dune higher and wider.

 

 

 

 

Out by the shoreline, the oystercatchers patiently await the birth of their babies.



mama on the nest, far left edge.
Daddy on guard on right.

 Closer looks, but taken from a distance so not to distress them.

 

 

 

 

And look what self-seeded in my deck planter. What is this pretty weed? I thought it was ragweed, I am glad I didn't pull it out, but waited. Maybe Sweet William?

A fine day. Hope you had a good day too.

love
 
lizzy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~gone to the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

June (soon)

 

 

Hi guys!
Ah---June. A time of change, uncertainty, a time of anticipation, of pothole repair crews and traffic jams. Sweaters and windjackets/ shorts and flipflops.
Nowhere, anywhere, to park.

June at the beach has an odd air of frenzy, or desperation...we [they?] just cannot WAIT! to get out there on the beach.
Hurry Up! We gotta relax! Now! 

go awaaaaay! go awaaaay!

LOL.
Anyway I just adore the beachy tchotcka aisles at the supermarkets and beach shops.

 My kids are too old, to blase', now but once upon a time, a June long ago, it seems, we'd pore endlessly over the baskets of sandcastle molds and pails and shovels. So exciting to choose just the right one! (And as if we didn't have washbaskets full of same, from other years or beachcombed. But still.).

I kinda miss all that. Though sandcastle construction is, like kite flying, a lot of hard work and not quite as much fun as you think it'll be.

I do less machine sewing, more handwork in the summer when I can see my stitches in the bright sun. Today I dyed some natural linen green, for June strawberry leaves.

I painted the thrifted pantry boxes. The new-to-me chalk paint is very pretty and easy to work with, great coverage.

 This chalk paint will be great next spring for eggs...

I picked up a few useful things at Marshall's. A huge beach basket hamper for all the beach towels.

I have a zillion towels.

Somehow no matter how often you gently ask guests to bring their own towels and beach chairs---well, they don't. And kids only use a sandy towel once, right. ''EEeew, ma, it's all sandy."

A couple other Marshall's things: Pretty stationary to write to friends who do not use email or text. (Yes! They exist!) Or for the ones who send email but never write back when you respond, one of my little peeves.

A wooden spool of cord, bought mainly for the neat fat flat spool. They had a bunch of them but $$$. No bargains there.

A beautifully colorful Provencal tablecloth, 100% cotton. Maybe for a quilt back someday? How fun to flip over a drab Civil War repro quilt and find this! Authentic in its way, as in the early 1800s India block printed muslin was ''all the rage''.

And I bought a little pot of daisies for my graniteware blueberry bucket.

A little skimpy, but I haven't found just the right thing, and these were cute and cheap.

So. For now.

A visitor. Not Kitty, one of her Twins. Kitty , Smokey and Junior have not been around for months. I hope, as Kelley suggested, they found better ''homes'' during the long hard winter. Only Stripey, the patriarch---and the Twins remain.

Let's hope for a warm sunny weekend!  Any plans?
 
love
 
lizzy

gone to the beach...

 

 

Pictures from the Weekend: Summer

Hi guys! Before I fire up the barbie for today's classic burgers and corn and hotdogs BBQ, I have some first weekend of Summer photos of my beach to share. Just in case you're tired of crafty stuff!

The first beach roses are in bloom.

The long holiday weekend started out rainy. See the sheets of rain, off to the far western horizon?

 

Then it was cold. With a very low tide.

 

 

 

 

 

 Today was breezy and pleasant.

 Look! The crowds came. All clustered around a lifeguard stand at a section of the beach with village access, maybe a 1/4 mile away?.

When the people disperse in the late afternoon, the birds return and begin to feed. Only the piping plovers will run along the shoreline when there are a lot of strange people present.

 

Here's a plover nest, in its cage:

 

 

 

My birdies:

 

Gully.

 

 

A very pretty Laughing gull who did not want his picture taken. I love these beautiful small gulls, rare here.

The pair of oystercatchers who nest on the western dune of my beach, whether the dune is there or not.

 

I was very worried about this pair, they must be 10 years old or more. And I had only seen one of them all spring. Today I found the nest, with the pair trading off to watch the eggs and/ or feed. OCs are very good parents. The male also chased away a group of least terns, which further endeared the OCs to me. (We know how I hate the terns, right?)
One of the western open beach pair, below. They are also quite old, I think, and nest right in their exact spot each summer.

And always a thrill---the US Navy Blue Angels overhead!

Gotta go! Beach-hungry folks await their first summer dinner here at the beach. Hope your holiday was good.

love
 
lizzy

    gone to the beach

sheets of rain, a squall out at sea.