Today is National Parents’ Day.
Continue readingPARENTS DAY
NATURE
BEACH FIRE
The largest fire in the nation is burning south of us. The Bootleg Fire has destroyed nearly 400,000 acres, the third largest fire in Oregon history, and it merged with another fire on the 19th. It is only 38% contained. We have a family member currently fighting that fire. On top of that, firefighters have been testing positive for covid.
Maybe have a care?
Continue readingDON’T SAY “Piece of Cake”!
It’s a line from the RomCom Forget Paris about a couple who fall in love and then suffer a series of (eventually fatal) hardships—each time after they start something that looks like a “piece of cake” aka “easy.” That’s called tempting fate.
Gary believes in fate; I do not. Both of us are probably average in terms of superstition. We step on cracks. We laugh about Friday the 13th. But when we are beach-combing we have our superstitions. If Gary announces he’s going off to check out something a hundred feet or a hundred yards away, I will find glass. [Yeah, right, Gary walking away brings me luck finding glass.] It’s happened just often enough that we smile when it does.
Continue readingFOURTEEN VISITORS
The first years we lived here, we did not see them at all. Perhaps we failed to pay attention when our sons were small, or perhaps they either flew right past or never came close enough to visit for long. Then in the ’90s, fourteen pelicans arrived one August and stayed in the area until the weather changed. Since then we have seen pelicans every summer. Often there have been fourteen.
TREADING LIGHTLY
The coast can be a madhouse sometimes, especially during good weather and a holiday weekend. Like now. The air is already smokey with beach fires this afternoon. We’re not supposed to leave fires untended even in damp weather, our dogs are supposed to be leashed, and most of our footprints in the sand should be gone by morning. All of us are visitors here.
Gary and I walk out around 6am. We are not always the first on the sand. We look for Tammy, Tom, and Larry who are after the same things we are: a good long walk, good empty sand, and a few birds. We see the footprints of raccoons and coyotes and deer, and many birds. They tread all lightly.
OBSERVING PERFECTION
A couple of people have commented that I have not been posting. My husband comments about that every couple of days. [It’s been almost a month, I think.] Gary is worried about me, and maybe I have even been a little worried about myself.
Yesterday, there was a young seal playing in the tide pool at the base of the sea stack we call “the seal.”
THE EAGLES
We have been on long walks lately. “Plenty of beach,” as Gary says while we walk more than two miles north. The young eagles have been around, Crows or a raven most often give warning, scattering black oystercatchers, gulls, whimbrels, and other shorebirds. Most days we see at least two of last year’s now-molting babies are overhead and sometimes their parents.
Continue readingNUMBER 5
To put this into perspective: We have lived in our family house since 1979, and in that time I had found only three glass floats before this week. We have many floats in the house because my family summered here since 1911, and my grandfather lived here year around since the mid-1940s. So most of the floats we have are not only very old, but old in their finding.
Gary has always been lucky about finding things. He has found floats the size of basketballs. But that was years ago he last brought home a float. Yet, twice he’s said, “Wow, you found that! I’m so glad it was you.”
Continue readingHOLD ON
This morning, my fourth glass float—scummy with dying sea life. Gary lost count of his finds long ago.
ON GIVING UP
We walked north all the way around Hug Point and into the next beach last week. All the wave-swept stone was coated in green, like matching jackets. I would have walked to Arcadia, another half mile, but we’d have had to come home on the highway and there are a couple of dangerous stretches I know too well from when I was running.
I meant to share photos. It was an accomplishment to walk that far on the beach before the end of March.
The seaweed will begin to go once the sun is high enough to burn it during low tide.
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