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







Thursday, September 24, 2020

The Last Sunset of Summer

 


Good evening, friends. I don't have much to say tonight. Blogger is now awful and no longer fun. And  I'm feeling suddenly a bit sad and hopeless and lonely, as my favorite [but they are all favorites except poor old Spring] season fades away, unused, unloved, unimagined.

The sun sets on summer 2020.
















A short walk to welcome Autumn....




Outer swale, flooded from the storm; it is a natural catchbasin that helps control flooding higher in the dunes.


Grasses are lush; no goldenrod this year.



No treasure yet, just this wooden tray-like piece. Coffee table? Just add legs?



The good news is that H Teddy's big waves washed away all bu thte largest tree forming the Trump eyesore to my west. Photo next time, somehow I lost the one I took yesterday.

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My shell has lost almost all its color. I didn't think Sharpies would wash away so fast.






Volunteers on the dune verge; painful burrs with many tiny barbs. Huge bush. Who let this thing flourish anyway?




Lovely giant sunflower, 8 feet tall, pale lemon yellow, not golden.



Interesting tiny footprints, what creatures was so busy here?








Then---the first sunset of Fall.....


and  the glorious first sunset of Spring down in South Africa, thanks to Penny and Nicky.

I wonder if Mo, too, minds the darkness?


Do you?


love

lizzy

gone to the beach...










PS Do we now need a bigger font? 

Is this better? 

This one?

Sunday, September 20, 2020

Random Bits and Pieces~ September Sunday



"To say it was a beautiful day would not begin to explain it.  It was that day when the end of summer intersects perfectly with the start of Fall. "

~ Ann Patchett     [found the quote on IG]

Hi everyone. I am back and doing fine! The weather has surprised us here at the beach! Suddenly it is very cool, even chilly. Will we have Fall this year? Sweater weather?  I was tempted to put my beloved flannel sheets on my bed, but ya never know---could be 90 next week. 

Maybe it is time o get out my When the Wild Geese Fly quilt? I've been seeing V's of geese lately, and today flocks of tiny blackbirds; also migrating monarch butterflies and dragonflies, even a hummingbird on my neighbor's giant sunflowers. 


We're having high surf and riptide advisories, hurricane waves and dark of the moon tides, plus equinox. Tomorrow I'll go down to see what has tossed up upon the tideline.



My market has beautiful pumpkins [and mums]. Pumpkins are well priced this year, 5.99 for these big beauties. I may pick up a couple this week, because I doubt our annual Pumpkin Patch trip will be happening, how sad!


Marketing...still a scary hassle, though my store is clean and well-distanced, which is more than I can say for the packed -with-people doctor's office I had to sit in for four hours last week. I'm thinking of trying this home delivery service: Fresh Direct HERE. They have  fresh produce from Pennsylvania and local NY farms too. I can stock up on staple goods at my store here but I run out of fresh foods quickly. I know I should try to get out and about more, but having a fresh resource set up would be good to add, I think. 



They feature local heirloom apples and tomatoes, just like the farmers market. I want to try this recipe:


Suncooked Tomato Sauce here [though on close inspection I see the temperature has to be 92* or higher to work, it's hardly ever that hot here, even midsummer, so???

They also have the locally grown produce ''mystery '' boxes, CSA boxes, but delivered to one's home and no yearly subscription is required.



I've been ordering heavy items from Target, very reliable: Dawn dish soap, Mrs Meyers surface cleaner, All and Downy, Clorox Two. They do not have Clorox wipes anywhere though and no paper goods still, though my market does have paper towels and toilet paper now. Sometimes it's Charmin and Bounty but mostly it's not. Next I plan to add shampoo and similar to my Target list.

With my back and hip pain it's better for me if I don't have to load and unload these items from my store.

Price gouging report! I use a certain hypoallergenic baby powder , cornstarch not  talc. My store has it in the Dollar aisle [but not in recent months] for yes, one dollar. On Amazon it is $11.oo, yes eleven dollars. Yeesh.

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Since it is fairly chilly but gorgeous, Mo and I have been sewing each afternoon on the deck. 




I finished the binding of Year in the Country and now--even as I type--the scary wash and dryer cycle is going. I just can't resist that washed, used, primitive look for my quilts.


I made the binding with short lengths opf binding leftover from other quilt projects.




I love how it looks, what fun this entire project has been. 
   
  

Tomorrow or soon, I will sew the buttons and baubles back on the quilt, so that the birds and snowman have faces again. And then it will be done.

Then when the low almost-Autumn sun gets too low in the sky, glaring at us from under my patio umbrella's edge, we've been working on Starry Eyed Jack in the sewing room. Oh he is so cute and just for FUN, so I forced myself not to nitpick and redo, not to insist on perfect corners and points.

And finally, I cut the binding for Baby Pineapples. I want a wide, almost 1", binding, need that final pop of the aqua solid. I haven't done a wide binding in years, I hope it comes out okay. That is a quilt that definitely will improve with shrinking and crumpling, so I'm looking forward to that step, even tho it is always a moment of dread, to stuff the project into the washer and let whatever happens , well, happen.

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I'm reading Kindle Unlimited free books, currently by Barbara O'Neal. They are quite different from my usual mysteries and thrillers, I suppose very ''lite'' reading or women's fic, but her characters are delightful women,  people I would love to call my friends. Often they dabble in the mystical! I am not a spiritual person but when I read about mysticism and psychic powers I am so enthralled. How about you, have you ever had your fortune told? Tarot cards read?  LOL, me neither.

I also read the new J D Robb, won't comment yet as it is brand new. And I have a new Randy Wayne White on my Kindle and a new Vince Flynn. Can't wait to see what Flynn's writer does with hero Mitch Rapp in a Donald Trump world. [Vince Flynn passed away a few years ago, the series is now written by???]

Have a good week!

love

lizzy 

gone to the beach......


















Sunday, September 13, 2020

And so...September




Hi. Not only is it September, it is almost mid-September! Where do the days and month go, each day the same lately, but racing by. We've had a few grey abalone sky days, not really hot, 80-ish, but very humid. Moisture hovering in the high nineties makes it very muggy and some days I have to air condition just to keep things dry and to help Mo breathe.



One morning we had 5 inches of rain, in a ten minute downpour! Wow. Roads flooded, school's first day cancelled. This is why I drive a Jeep.


Grey days are lovely at the beach, not searing sun, interesting  for photos, if we accept ''atmospheric'' instead of sharp and bright.. Let's take a walk?








The beach is less groomed than usual because of the endangered birds and their babies, who are almost grown but still learning to forage.







Gulls with small birds, plovers and sanderlings in front. Ruddy turnstones on the far right.





Gully walked with me for a ways, tho he sticks to his/ my beach.


Porpoises? [sorry thhey were very far away.]



Down the beach to the west I found this large driftood construction or wooden henge.





 Another seashell gathering...



Is it for 9/11 remembrances?


Oh no! Not Trump! I thought it was interesting til I walked around to the front. It was for TRUMP 2020, ghastly. Politics do not belong on my beach. I hope it was promptly removed!


I walked east instead.








Oystercatcher footprints and a crab's hidey-hole.


What was in my pocket:


love 

lizzy

gone to the beach....


Starry-eyed Jack: pieces not sewed.


PS I may be out of touch for a few days, medical treatment tomorrow, so don't worry!