Earth Day 2011

Hello everyone! Hope the sun is shining for you wherever you are for this holiday weekend!

Warning: nature girl rant today!

Because...

Did you know there is a garbage dump the size of TWO Texas-es...slowly swirling in the Pacific Ocean?!

Pcific Ocean trash from Google pix

It's the biggest garbage dump/"landfill" in the world. Think about it---twice the size of Texas! And other gyres or circular currents in all other oceans have similar, if smaller swirls of trash---mostly plastic---too! Just google the phrase great Pacific Garbage Dump and you'll see myriad stories, research, from National Geographic to Wikipedia. This is NOT  an urban (maritime?) legend, even though the very concept boggles my mind.



Googled photo: Yes! That IS a PERSON
walking on the trash "island"!
click to enlarge

 My own beach is relatively pristine, somewhat surprising when we think how close to all the big east coast cities my little sand bar lies.
                                  

Over the past year or so I've been photographing these enormous bundles of rope and netting that wash ashore even here....

Sometimes they do good things, helping to hold the sand in place during storms...

And sometimes, they almost seem like beach treasure, when they are made of decorative ( to me) nets and floats....

There's even a woman who studies these net messes, for her art. Here's  last year's post, mentioning her site....

On a grassroots level, activist groups like the  Surfrider Foundation try to bring awareness to the public: their message, Respect the Beach rings true to me, as the beach---any beach, but especially my own, is my spiritual and artistic home.

This is a link to a fascinating slideshow from Surfrider showing the awful wash-ashore on what should have been a pristine Hawaiian beach, now named Plastic Beach. The sand itself is made from tiny flakes of non-biodegradable plastic.

Yet, again, to me---the eternal beachcomber, some of the trash there (and yes, here at home) seems like treasure...

late 1800s patent medicine bottle fragment from my beach

Seaglass is, after all, simply trash. Old and interesting---romanticized and treasured, but trash it is!

seaglass bottle, c.1890, Irish ale, from my beach

I'd be thrilled beyond words to find a glass float at the beach instead of at the flea market! Did you see the one in the slide show of Plastic Beach? sigh....

                        

Or even turquoise netting...or one of  the small rubber ducks whose ocean journey is chronicled in Moby Duck , by Donovan Hohn.  The sales blurb says: "Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them. " 

It seems a crate of toys from China fell off a ship years ago; the escaped toys, icluding thousands of Rubber Duckies, have roamed the oceans of the world ever since! How, uh, fun? And why have I never found one??? Huh?
(I just downloaded it onto my Kindle...I'll review it when I am done reading.)

Here is the ultimate wash-ashore find! (Though I'd rather find a glass float! Or a tarnished pirate's doubloon...)....

 When this small sailboat drifted ashore and washed up on the dunes in a late winter storm, all I could think was that my dad---an inveterate reuser/ recycler---could have, would have, salvaged that little boat and fixed it for summertime sailing fun.

I love my beach...and hope it is not too late to save our Earth, that we can change and preserve it for our future generations....

Note: Surfrider Foundation is the world's leading non-profit environmental organization working to protect and preserve our world's oceans, waves and beaches. Please take the time to look at their site, read their mission statement. Thank you!

love

                 lizzy

gone to the beach

note: all photos taken by me, here at my beach,  except the two Pacific Trash pix and Moby Duck's cover. My thx for their use...

Foggy, with a Pocketfulful of Treasure

Hi, everyone!

yes this is a picture of---something



Mr South Wind has blown himself out and Lady Spring Full Moon has come and gone, both bringing high tides and beach floods. Now comes the fog....

I'm being fanciful---the spooky foggy days inspire strangeness...

...So still....so silent, fog enshrouds the April beach.

Fog forms when the air is warmer than the ocean.

Sometimes we have windy fog, when a warm front blows in from the west or south. Other times, especially if we have very dense fog, the beach's wind falls motionless and all is stopped, except the waves.

this is how the same view normally looks

Today's was a quiet fog.
So I walked in the mist...

With the softly curling waves....
 Bringing treasure...?

Everything is is soggy, even the bayberry scrub drips...

The few birds do not look happy, do they? They are all hunched and hostile looking, poor things!

I treasure hunted some more, because it was nice to be outside. I love fog.
Here's what was in one of my pockets:

And the other, from a different foggy day...

Fog is good for the complexion, right?

And so peaceful...

PS Here is a closer view of the first photo above... a ghostly V of geese or ducks flying over the ocean. See the lead bird, off to the right? Guess he knows where to go by instinct, because he probably can't see too much. Bon voyage!

love

              lizzy

gone to the beach

Ranunculus and Pink Narcissus

Hi! Forget the rain and fog---I just had to show you all my spring flowers! Earlier this week before the rains started I received a Trader Joe's (grocery) flier in the mail....

and it said that the Ranunculus were in!

web photo, via Google

So I hustled over to get some, just can't resist them.

I guess no one else can either because there was only one bunch left! White, hmmm. Usually I buy the pink or orange but white is nice. And there were pink!!! narcissus from Ireland, only 1.49 a dozen.

"Pink" daffodils aren't very pink, of course. They are creamy white with peachy centers. But they are a favorite of mine too.(You get it, right? Lizzy loves flowers, lol!)

Sarah, who writes one of my fave blogs, A Beach Cottage, is always writing about "foofing about with flowers"...she is English-Australian  and has a real way with words!

So this is me foofing with my ranunculus and daffodils......

My small white hearts look cute tied on the pitcher, don't they. This one was too prim, the old quilt bit just too, well, old (grungy) to offer for sale...so I kept it.

Love the putty suspender button!

Does anyone remember a fun little toy, from years ago...Chinese or Japanese tissue paper flowers that came in teeny tiny clamshells, sealed shut with the tiniest bit of Chinese newsprint tape? You put them in water and..

Oh...

so...

slowly...

a flower appeared!

Magic!

My mother always brought them home from New York or San Francisco Chinatowns, along with those crepe paper balls, like rag balls, filled with charms, trinkets, and a fortune. And tiny wooden nodder dolls? Oh I loved all that stuff! They'd be in my Easter basket some years too.

Anyway, ranunculus [-es? ranunculae?) look just like those tiny water flowers.

And they are one of the few flowers that even in this modern 24/7/365 world, are only available for a few short days in April.

Well worth a trip over the bridge and 4 dollars!

BTW, those little flower toys do not seem to exist anymore. But a similar craft and magical transformation can be found in "Blooming Teas" .

The flowers are, I think, real tea leaves though? Very pretty if somewhat unusable unless you have glass teacups or mugs? Fun for Mothers Day brunch?

Have a good weekend!

love

          lizzy

                        

.......gone to the beach