Back to the Beach

 

 

Hi everyone! I hope you all had wonderful holidays so far. Here at the beach the weather has been amazing. Almost 60* for the past four days and no wind, brilliant sunshine. Mo and I sat out on the deck! And I was able to begin hand quilting my Peace and Plenty [Cascadia] quilt.

The beach however was the big draw.

 

It called to me, Come out, come out and play!

I'm determined to find time for my daily beach walks this winter, despite walking Mo as much as 4.5 miles a day. The ocean soothes my soul and nourishes my creativity.

One day I went to the surfing beach which is about two miles west of my own beach.

I had not been back, except to walk on the shoreline, since before H Sandy, so about two years. For awhile this area was inaccessible; the boardwalk still has not been rebuilt.

It's a lovely beach, narrower than my beach. A good place to walk when I don't have the time or energy to hike all the way down to my shoreline.

Despite the darkness, these photos were taken at about 3 PM on a sunny day. Darkness comes early still.

 

Many years ago---75? 100? these giant granite boulders were brought here and formed these jetties. The rocks look black but up close are beautiful if functionless glittery bejeweled granite. They are the reason the beach is narrow here, jetties do not ''work''..but they also create the waves that angle smoothly to shore for surfing, so not a total fail, but a serendipitous result.

These are more of the manmade dunes. Maybe 20 feet high?---forming a new cliff of sorts.

This used to be a wide expanse of rolling dunes covered with sea grasses, scrub pine bayberry and bittersweet.

May 2011

 

Same view, December 2014

 

Now a wasteland. This is a narrow, low lying section of my island and here H Sandy's storm surge swept over these dunes all the way to the bay beyond, filling the schools nearby and destroying the school admin building across the street here.
So peaceful now.

Below a few Christmas pictures.

All went well...gifts were good, Santa did a good job. Both dinners were okay.

Here is Mo in his newest jacket, a Puppia parka halter combo!

And riding in his new car seat.

My premature narcissus are so pretty. In full bloom, a hint of spring.

How about you guys, was Santa good to you?


love

lizzy

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

Below: an anonymous beach drawing. What a wonderful folk art Mr. Sunshine. You guys know how much I love Mr. Sunshine images, and I was thrilled to discover this on my own beach. A favorable omen for 2015. I love it.

 

 

 

 

 

inspiration for the artist? same day.

 

 

this isn't fun.

town beach in distance...
all those people!
on ''my'' beach!

Hi guys, cranky blogger here today. It is a beautiful cool and sunny Sunday at the beach.

I was sitting there under my umbrella, working on a future block for the Flag quilt...and I had a revelation. I really, really really do not enjoy doing appliqué work for quilts.

It is just so hard, and I don't think my work is good enough. Or good at all. I get so upset and irritated. I am thinking Why bother? My kids will never want these quilts, as they will someday lead slick NYC lives of stainless steel and sidewalk grey. It's not like I am enjoying the process. Maybe I need a break?

This won't affect my sewing the Flag quilt, for Lori's quilt along, which is always a fun thing to participate it. There's plenty of pieced blocks in that project.

Not so sure about Mr. Sunshine. The zillion leaves in the Tree of Life block didn't defeat me, but perhaps all the tiny stars in the Oceans block will emerge victorious. (They are so tiny. And very hard to do.  Ans so not there yet.)

My friend here, Hunter, quit the Dear Jane quilt about 1/3 of the way through. All those tiny hand pieced blocks. And I don't think she plans to start it up again or even put together what she has in a small quilt. Credit for stopping when she decided enough is enough.
And that's not my only gripe---this week, the last week of official summer, I have to go buy a new car. Hardly anything [well, dentist] is as awful as buying a new car. Did I not just buy the one I have? Can it really be three years?
Tomorrow I shall channel my grumpiness and go into bitch mode, and take it all out on the poor sales guy who does not wish to sell me a new Jeep* for nearly nothing.
Maybe this:

Budget. Right.
Okay, I'll end on a cheery note. The first morning glory bloomed yesterday!

"Flying Saucer". And the sweet peas have sprouted and are about 8" tall.

And look what Mo and I saw on our walk:

A swallowtail butterfly. It was so big and ---hover-y---[I'm terrified of bugs, okay?]---that even Mo noticed it and tried to take a sniff.

Have a good week! Wish me car karma and good luck.....



a few nasturtiums
and a mini cinnamon sunflower...

love

lizzy

gone to the beach

*Why a Jeep? Well 1- I've always owned Jeeps and except for one lemon [its computer] I've never had a bit of trouble. 2- You get a lot of goodies w/out paying for ''extras"--like roof racks come stock. 3-They are 100% off road so when we have floods and crappy weather, they go anywhere, everywhere. 4- after H Sandy, of all the cars owned by friends and family ONLY the Jeeps made it through the storm and were drivable afterward. So---I am hoping for yet another Jeep. I've never had white, it's pretty, isn't it.

 

And No, Jeep did not pay me to say that.

When Christmas Trees Just Aren't Enough

Hi everyone! I ventured out to the beach today!

Yesterday we had what local people sometimes call a *clear storm*---sunny but very high winds. Often caused by a strong low pressure area off the coast, this is lso known as migraine weather.
The Weatherbug sensor thing is over on the golf course, by the bay, so whatever winds it reads, the winds is 10 or more mph greater right here on the open oceanfront. It was blustery---with sustained winds of about 40-45 mph.

One of the neat things about a clear storm is the  [to me, magical] sight of cloud shadows racing across the open beach or water.  Too fast to capture in a photo or vid...

And look who the winds blew in, poor babies. This is the first set of oystercatchers this year, the trio that live on the beach to the west. Some people watch for the first robins, but here we watch for the oystercatchers.

very long distance shot,
they are not used to me yet, of course

This year they are 10 days past their normal arrival date of St Patrick's Day. I hope it's not too cold for them.

Or too---busy? Remember the recycled Christmas trees in the dunes project? here So far, no dunes have begun there [take years]....And the dredging barge that sucked sand out of the channel to the east, was there all January?here We thought that sand was just for the town beach. But No! They are using the sand to rebuild our dunes.

The trucks are mammoth. And a bit scary since I am not at all sure they can see me hustling down the path behind their work site.

And on the open beach, they drive so fast! Right where the oystercatchers mingle and feed.

 

 

The guys are working against the clock, since I am pretty sure they must be done by April 1st when the piping plovers may arrive? The plovers---and , eeew, arctic terns!?--- are more coddled than my adorable OCs, who are not quite totally endangered. Yet.

This is where the boardwalk usually is. It is removed in the fall, except the section that goes over the dunes. That is then removed, repaired in March, and the entire walkway replaced each spring. This is pretty much my only path to the beach unless I drive to a park nearby....

But for the last two or three days an endless stream of big dump trucks has been arriving and dumping sand. The mounds must be 20 feet high?

I have read that artificial dunes like these are not structurally sound compared to natural dunes  where there is debris, driftwood and roots, and and all the tiny sand grains kind of nestle into one another to form a permanent hill of sand. On the other hand , this work area is right between my neighborhood and a park. The high storm tide of H. Sandy swept the dunes away. The water here flooded all the way to the main road, maybe across the entire island.

So whatever is done to repair that dune break [and others] is probably an excellent plan. Even if the trucks do scare me and the birds away...

love

lizzy

gone to the beach