Sand, sea, and eventually sky.

A happy New Year, everyone! We've got ourselves a whole fresh, new decade to play with; let's make it a great one.

Of course, I'm still posting photos from the last decade. I'll catch up one of these days.

Along the White Rock beach, the sand goes out forever, easing down slowly into the deep water. The tide slides in; the tide drains out; not much else happens. The sand is clean and hard-packed, good for digging, for running, for sand castles and dozing. On the Semiahmoo end, things change. Here, the bay ends, and slow-moving rivers from flat farm lands bring in silt. On the Canadian side, the Little Campbell River washes through a weedy slough onto the beach. Across the border, several streams empty into Drayton Harbor, which collects them and dumps them all together into the bay.

At the inner edge, beyond the Little Campbell outlet, the sand gradually becomes muddier, and blackish. On the west, between the pier and the river, there is a mix of sandy and rocky areas; some of the sand is as firm as on the other side. But the varying currents shape it according to their whims.

Here are some of the patterns from this area:

Sand, stones, and shorebird prints.

Worm poop.

Smooth slope

Knife-edged ridges

Chopped dough

Smooth, with human prints

A pterodactyl?

Rolling dunes, with rotting eelgrass

Shallow running water

Pockets, each with its own shorebird print

Ironed sheet, with yellow-legs trail

Overview, from the shore of the Little Campbell River. The pier is barely visible in the distance. Sea, sand, and sky.

This is sort of, almost, maybe, a Skywatch post. At least, at the end.