Friday, August 16, 2013

Quiet afternoon

The tide was high. It had been raining, just a sprinkle, but enough to clear the beach. With no wind to stir it up, the water was glassy, grey-blue like the sky. In the distance, an eagle called.


We walked along the high tide line, picking up bits of eelgrass for my critters. I turned a rock or two, and watched the crabs scuttle for cover. Turning back, we dawdled through the dunes. I sat on a log to look at the sand.

Sand from Beach Grove upper beach.

Each shore has its own distinctive mix of sand ingredients. This one, from our usual height, looks grey, but it's a mix of many colours and shapes. White quartz, in jagged, sharp-edged chunks. Mottled, chunky conglomerates, mostly black. Traslucent pale green stones, rounded lumps. Pale pink ditto. And a surprising number of deep pink, transparent beads, not quite polished. One dark, opaque red stone.

I expected to find shell fragments, but in this handful, there may be only a couple.

Sea rocket, Cakile edentula, gamely struggling to produce its seed in deep, shifting sand.

Grass grown from the remains of last year's sandbag, dried up now that the seeds are set.

In the weeds on the path back to the street, we found this plant. Someone had given it a protective driftwood "fence".

I don't recognize these flowers. Do you?

Update: Biobabbler recognizes them; they're four o'clocks.

A Skywatch post.

8 comments:

  1. I love that picture of sand!

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  2. How beautiful! I love it! The close-up of the pebbles is my favourite.
    Cheers from Cottage Country!

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  3. Gorgeous photos! I love the reflection of the boat in the water.

    Happy Friday!
    ~ Joy @ Joysweb

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  4. feels like a nice day outdoors, dreamy!

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  5. Looks like four o'clocks? In my experience they are SUPER TOUGH and lovely flowers. =)

    I just love getting to take virtual trips to the beach through your blog--I was born in San Diego and for a while had a job/life routine where I saw the ocean about 4hrs/day. HEA-VEN.

    LOVE close up shots of sand. Reminds you it's not a thing, it's many, many different things. =)

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  6. Thanks, biobabbler. They're four o'clocks. Wikipedia says the flowers open in the afternoon. (Around 4:00?) We were there at 2:00, so we got buds.

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  7. what a beautiful series!

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  8. As much as I enjoy the beach on a sunny day, a day like yours here is so much more peaceful. Four o'clocks? I've often wondered what they look like. I'd love to see them when the blooms open.

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I'm having to moderate all comments because Blogger seems to have a problem notifying me. Sorry about that. I will review them several times daily, though, until this issue is fixed.

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