Glory hallelujah sunrise

There's not much I can say about this morning's sunrise... it speaks for itself. What? Me? Speechless? Well just for now, enjoy the rising sun just as I did.

The sun is just a dot of red on the edge of the horizon.

Here finally is the fire of the early morning sun. Oh happy day!


Guarding Ms. Ducky


I was amused when I saw the golf cart crossing sign and two ducks waiting at the edge of the street to cross by the sign. As I approached on my bike, I realized that the little female duck was taking a bath in the puddle left over from the night's rain shower. The male duck was carefully watching over her industrious personal grooming.
She was quite intent on her task... dipping and cleaning under her wings each in turn, cleaning her feet, swishing her feathers in the water then shaking the water out of them. All the while the male was looking left and right like a palace guard.

Not wanting to get too close, I kept my distance but stood by for at least three minutes and they never ventured from the spot. She continued her spa treatment the whole time, without even giving me a glance. A golf course pond was very close by but she chose this tiny little puddle at the edge of the road. Wouldn't have been my choice but I'm no duck.

Finally, I moved along but was touched by what a sweet gesture the male duck was making. Now the question... is this normal behavior? Do male ducks protect their females in this fashion or am I just being anthropomorphic? I'll have to research that but the tender moment seemed real and it was one I'll cherish for a while.

Change of venue

This week I decided to go to the farmer's market in a neighboring county. The vendors set up on a square right by the beach and with a full plate for the day my plan was to combine my beach walk with a visit to the market. It is amazing that just 12 miles up the road the beach is so different from what I've become used to. It was low tide and there is still plenty of our red coquina sand just like at my local beach. With the numerous tidal pools it was reminiscent of some strange Martian landscape. Very interesting and visually stimulating topography.
There is a pier where fishermen and sightseers gather and the coastal road runs right at the edge of the beach. I'm not used to the sounds of cars and trucks mixing with the sounds of the gulls and ocean. Nor am I accustomed to the smells wafting from the numerous restaurants along the roadway, but it made for some extraordinary sensory stimulation. 'Twas a new venture to say the least and I enjoyed it, but there's nothing quite so comforting as the familiar and I'll look forward to again walking along the sands at home.

Sax on the beach

Approaching a flock of Royal terns on the beach, I heard a single strange bird cry. It was a loud call I had not heard before and I ran through my mental rolodex trying to place it. Finally I was close enough to figure it out. Well, I should have known that being springtime one may be privy to various bird mating rituals. Glad to know this lovely species will continue for a little longer.
It was delightful to realize that I had also captured a flock of pelicans flying close to the waves in the background, while fellow terns ignored the antics in their midst. I decided to move on before I turned from interested photographer to prurient voyeur.

Double delights

Today was a day of beach delights, as usual, but even more delights when I got back home.

At the beach even the ordinary is pleasing to me. I saw the cell phone lady (see earlier post) still talking on the phone. I laughed out loud when I saw her and she turned to give me a strange look. The winds had calmed so the ocean was not quite so wild. The sky was pure blue with some interesting streaky clouds pictured here. It was lovely, invigorating and just plain smile producing.


When I got home I was about to water the plants on my porch when I caught a glimpse of BLTs to come. Almost like visions of sugar plums dancing in your head at Christmas. I've started one tomato plant on the porch since I'm a little behind in preparing a growing bed and today I noticed the very tiniest, wee little nubbins of tomatoes. They were not even as large as marbles. Still fuzzy with new growth but there they were!


Joy is where you find it and I found it today in streaky clouds at the beach and tiny tomato nubbins at home.


Onions on the beach?

Winds were strong out of the East and I could hear the ocean's roar as I approached. I do wish I was technically advanced enough to include sound with this blog. The waves were huge and there is nothing like the sound of the ocean on a perfect beach day, the temperature was just right, the sun was shining, and there were... onions on the beach, huh?

No kidding, my first thought was that someone had spilled a jar of those little white pearl onions. They were everywhere, hundreds of them, little jellyfish that looked just like onions. I'd never seen anything like them. Big ones, tiny ones and every size in between. The farther I walked the more of them I saw. There must have been thousands. Incredible.

But that's not all, there were also many, many little Portuguese men-of-war washed up on the shore. See my Feb. 2009 post on these creatures. They were no larger than three to four inches but could still deliver quite a sting to the uninformed.
Then lo and behold after seeing so many little jellyfish I came across a very large one. This big guy must have been 14 to 16 inches across. My oh my, those strong East winds were blowing all kinds of critters ashore.
What a squishy beach day it turned out to be and believe me... I loved every delicious minute of it.

A two turtle day

During my walk this morning I was thinking that it won't be long before the giant sea turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. That is an exciting time but one fraught with hazards for the turtles, especially the man-made hazards when people dig huge holes in the sand and don't fill them in before leaving the beach. These holes are death traps for the huge sea turtles, so it helps turtles, the turtle patrol and gives me extra exercise when I try to fill the holes along my route. With these thoughts running around my brain, I came across my first turtle of the day. Nicely sculptured in the sand this almost life-sized rendition of what is to come fit nicely into my musings. It was almost as if I had conjured it up.
Later I was enjoying lunch in my back yard when I noticed a cute little box turtle in the leaves, probably covered up by my yardman earlier in the day. I gently placed him on the step and went inside to find lunch for him too. Like my salad, he got French romaine, spinach and the wonderful new lettuce variety I found called salad bowl. I left him eating in private and when I checked later he had eaten the spinach and the romaine... the salad bowl lettuce was snubbed and still on the step. Little turtle was long gone. But I got to enjoy a two-turtle day, land and sand varieties, how grand is that!

Why, why, why?

One of my goals in this little blog was to not make it opinionated, not to discuss politics or religion, but to help find little things in life to be grateful for. Today I had a beach experience that just got my hackles up. For me the beach is peaceful, soul inspiring and rejuvenating in the pure rawness of the nature found there.
This morning it was verging on rain and the air was heavy with moisture, the sun was trying to break through the clouds and I love the sight of rain at sea and the sun shining behind the clouds making gold highlights on the tips of the waves as in the photo above. As I stopped to take the shot, a woman passed by talking on a cell phone, talking quite loudly in fact. I fell in behind her and was amused at how intent she was on her conversation. I'm sure that if her hands had been tied behind her back she would not have been able to say a word so demonstrative was she. I walked behind her for close to a half hour and gladly let her and her conversation go as I turned around and headed back north.
Pausing along the way to take another photo I heard the voice... she was back and still talking and gesturing. Hadn't missed a beat. I followed her again for another 25 or 30 minutes and she never stopped. She missed laughing with the laughing gulls, she missed the rain clouds rolling in, she missed the wonderful sounds and scents of the ocean. Why, oh why?
But I must remember... this is a "Grateful Blog" and I guess I'm grateful that while on her cell phone, she was passing me on the beach and not in her car passing me on the highway.

As an aside, the rain finally let loose. It started to pour. I had my umbrella. I wonder if her conversation got drowned out. Naw, probably not.

Cotton ball clouds

A friend of mine is from England and what we call cotton balls, she refers to as cotton wool. The term seems like an oxymoron to me, but nonetheless the cloud cover this morning was definitely cottony and wooly. It was an interesting sight. A very interesting walk with dabs of sunshine, dabs of shade and just plain pleasant. Not a complaint in sight!

Sensational Shuttle

It was just before dawn, still almost hard dark when the Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Monday, April 5. I was on the beach with hundreds of others who got the thrill of seeing the launch. Amazing that I still get such pleasure at the sights, sounds and rumbling earth associated with shuttle launches. Oh how sad to think there are only three launches left before the program shuts down. I'll be sure to savor every one.

But today it was wonderful and reportedly NASA called this predawn launch "spectacular, picture-perfect and one of its most visually beautiful." I agree! The photo above is not one of mine, unfortunately. Imagine my disappointment when I downloaded 20 solid black images. So the above was taken from one of our local TV station's viewer photos. Thanks for sharing!
When the sun started to crest the horizon the disintegrating contrail picked up the colors of the spectrum and it was such an unusual sight. The other two photos I call "scrambled contrail" and are my own. A most exceptional sight indeed.
Believe me, I realize how lucky I am to be able to start my day in such a sensational way. Wow!

Easter sunrise and barking dogs

It has been a long time since I managed a dawn walk on the beach but our weather has finally turned and with things to do later in the day I decided that today was the day to get back to the early morning routine which cold weather forced me to abandon. What a dawn it was. First just a glimpse of sun on the horizon, then full-blown brilliance.
Not only did I see many of the regular morning walkers that I've missed seeing over the winter but there were two Easter sunrise services taking place on the beach about a mile apart and I was treated to the strains of some lovely hymns along the way. I also have to admit that getting back to a routine is more than comfortable. Felt like putting on an old pair of shoes. But that's another story...

Unfortunately my old shoes finally fell apart and the new ones I was wearing today though comfortable in the store and around the house proved to be less than kind to my feet after a mile or so. I finally understood the old Southern expression "my dogs are barking" because by the time I got home, I was more than happy to let my poor dogs escape from those new shoes. Pleasures in small things like taking off some hurting shoes is what makes life grand.

Bathing suit weather

We went from wearing jackets to putting on a bathing suit in one day and you won't hear one word of complaint from me. These uncooked-chicken-white legs of mine need to be remedied but other than that spring weather is officially here.

The photos with this post are not exciting, actually rather ordinary, but I found that being exciting is unsustainable. Finding peace and beauty in the ordinary is actually quite fulfilling and I revel in it. White legs and all.

It was low tide and the tidal pools caused by sand bars gave areas of the shoreline unique wading and swimming opportunities. (Looks like good exercise.)

Other than that, chatting at ocean's edge or just enjoying sun, sand and friends made it an extraordinary day. Lucky that I was a part of it and will be able to enjoy more like this in the days, weeks and months ahead.