Challenge

 "The trash and litter of nature disappears into the ground with the passing of each year, but man’s litter has more permanence."

John Steinbeck

It's past time to get off my butt and get back to picking up other people's nasty butts.  Cigarette butts, that is.  They are everywhere.  Flicked out of windows, rubbed out underneath flip flops, stuck bottom-side-up in the sand.  The smell of tobacco rivals the scent of salt water as this beautiful beach remains a smoking beach.

The determination to begin this project again comes at the urging of friend and new Life Coach, Bo Mackison.  Bo is trying to jump start my creative again.  We agreed that this project is a good way to get my feet wet...and sandy...and do some good.

Consider these statistics, all of which vary slightly according to sources.  I imagine these decomp estimates must be taken with a grain of salt.  Bright, hot sunshine and fresh air hastens the process while junk buried underneath sand and soil or waves enjoy a much longer process of decomposition...if ever.  Still, all are lengthy regardless:  (oceanconnection.org, thegoodhuman.com)

Paper towel - 2-4 weeks
Paper bag - 1 month
Apple core - 2 months
Cigarette butts - 1-5 years
Milk cartons - 5 years
Plastic six-pack holders - 400 years
Orange and banana peels - 2-5 weeks
Balloons - 6 months
Plastic coated paper - 6 months
Tinned steel can - 5 years
Plastic bags -  20-1,000 years
Aluminum cans - 50 years
Wool socks - 1-5 years
Plastic bottles - 450 years
Nylon string - 600 years
Leather - 50-80 years
Glass bottles - 1,000 years

My friend, Danielle, at It Starts With Me has been logging trash and cigarette butts for quite some time now.  My intentions to help her came from a good spot in my heart but I was simply unable to carry the action forward in positive fashion.  I'm coming clean.  In more ways than one.  I mean to do this.  It's good for me and it's good for the ocean, for our planet.  Moreover, it makes me feel like I'm doing something, however small my contribution. 

Sea turtles cannot distinguish between a free-floating plastic bag and a jellyfish, its usual diet.  Birds and turtles, dolphins and whales - creatures of sea and of earth - are filling up on our refuse and dying all around this planet of ours.  And we call ourselves sentient beings, humans.

Edited to "Fossils" by Aoife O'Donovan

Ocean Karma

Beach living usually involves churning sand and foaming waves, soft sounds of laughter muted by the ocean winds, shells and sunrises, cold beers and hot, good reads under canopies, sweat-cooled skin that smells of coconuts.  Simple acts of swimming and walking, watching and enjoying.  Oftentimes, however, events snap you out of your walking Zen and remind you just how wild this place really is.  Recently, several instances of happenstance did just that to me.

We were walking on the pier with friends seeing what the local fishermen/women were pulling in out of the depths.  Young men were wave boarding on the north side of the beach close to the pier.  Kinda like skate boarding but they pop up the waves, skimming flat boards along the surf out into the ocean and pop, pop, pop up the waves, curling around just like skateboards on concrete curls.  Fascinating.  And not only to me.  As we were watching from high above an 8 foot shark - sand or bull - got within mere feet of these boys before the lifeguards blew whistles and closed the beach.  Right behind the shark cruised a massive southern stingray, easily 4 feet wide.  They circled around for some time before disappearing into the gloom.

 

The most wonderful blessing of ALL came the next day.  A completely mind-blowing split second in time.  A happenstance.  A stroke of luck.  A looking in the right place at the right time thing.  A friend and I were sitting on the beach, reading.  Being quiet.  Just us.  The weather was blustery and partly cloudy.  We couldn't put up the canopy for the winds, which were all wild and willy-nilly.  I was reading the latest from a local author titled "Cape Fear Murders," a piece of fiction by an author wanting to be like Janet Evanovitch.  The ocean was the color of bronze, and I found myself fascinated by the waves which came ashore crossing each other from different directions, creating these swirling eddys of foam and ripples as they washed high ashore.  It was so pretty, mesmerizing, zen, meditative.  The waves were coming in from the southwest, basically, and were huge, massive things.  Swimming was impossible.  Shorebirds were feasting in the foam and pelicans and terns were struggling in the winds.  I found it impossible to read because the sight before me was more interesting.  I've got to set this up for you just right because the sighting was very short.  But important.  Life-changing?  Maybe.  Likely.  Anyway, to the thing.  I was just sitting and staring and suddenly a whale breached the surface.  Seriously.  It jumped up in my direction, like heading toward me.  It was right beyond the point where the waves break - very close.  I made some noise and pointed out toward the ocean.  My friend was like, "What?!  What?!"  I couldn't speak, I was so stunned.  Her eyes followed my pointing finger and a few seconds later we saw it's tail fluke flipping up.  My first thought before seeing the tail fluke was that it was a manta ray because of the coloration and lack of dorsal fin, except that it was huge, massive, thick.  The tail fluke cemented the fact that we saw a friggin' whale off the coast of North Carolina.  My friend had her smart phone and did some research.  We determined that it must have been a right whale, although their migration is usually December-March.  Still, whales don't read so they can traverse that path whenever they damn well please. 

I saw a whale.  A.  Whale.  To this day I am dumbfounded.  So, that's the best news, the best time, an event that I can still "feel," if you know what I mean.  Oh, and immediately after the whale breached the surface I looked around and no one else had seen it.  People were playing in the sand, walking the shore, the lifeguard was bored, sunbathers and book readers and shark-teeth finders - not one had noticed the whale.  How many whales have breached while I had my nose pointed toward the sand looking for fossils?  What a sobering thought.

This morning I just happened to wake early and decided to go take sunrise photos.  The sunrise was pretty, and I did get some photos.  However, walking south to check on the two turtle nests just down the beach I spied these little tracks.  Lots of these little tracks.  They look just like the baby turtle track images on my Pleasure Island Sea Turtle Project t-shirt.  I flagged down the sea turtle patrol to ask, but he said they weren't baby turtle tracks.  I'm not sure what they are.  Any idea? That's my footprint lower left for scale.  Beach tracks fascinate me.  Foxes, cats, crabs, birds and now these.  How fun is this? 

Enjoy the happenstances in your life.

Sunrise

I sat on the beach, one idyllic spring dawn
I was witness to a miracle
A miracle that happens every day
As I gazed out into the Atlantic, to the far horizon
I saw it happening....

And out of nothing, the horizon transmutated
From the deep indigo-black, to an amazing crimson
With splashs of orange, yellow and teal
And then....the most amazing thing of all
This giant red ball of celestial luminosity
Rising out of the ashes of yesterday
A perfectly symmetrical ball of pulsating energy

Transitioning....vermillion to pale crimson to bright saffron yellow
The horizon was on fire with colour
The deeper shades gave way
The sky now totally involved, becomes cerulean blue
The fire subsides, clouds open like the gates of Heaven
Once again, Apollo races across the sky on his Pegasus

Welcoming morning to us mortals
And he brings the giver of life to his place in the sky
That spectacular, luminous sphere of light and boundless energy
Yes, mighty Sol, our benevolent sun, takes his throne
And this miracle, this everyday miracle....Sunrise
Mine eyes have seen the glory!

Poem by Tomahawk

I've been busy with projects and health issues - nothing particularly blog-worthy but each necessary and very time consuming.  And soul consuming.  I hope to get back on track with my life next week.  Please say some prayers and keep your fingers crossed - whatever works for you.  In the meantime please enjoy these sunrise shots and this lovely poem by Tomahawk that fits exactly the way I felt while witnessing this miracle.

Day on the Beach

Laughing Gull

The past couple of days have been very, very windy.  Still, we braved the breezes to sit on the beach and relax after days of working on the house.  Laughing Gulls think people are meal tickets.  They were sadly mistaken in our case, but at least I got some good shots as they crept closer and closer before flying off in search of better opportunities.

Cormorant

Enjoying the beach yesterday was a challenge.  White caps as far as the eye can see, wind blowing over chairs and tumbling cups and shells and sand.  Still, we insisted because ... well, we could.  This cormorant was a delightful surprise.  Facing the wind he stretched out his wings to dry them in the breeze.  I got fairly close to him but not close enough to scare him off.  It's his beach, too.

The longer we sat the lower the sun sank behind us, casting an unusual glow onto the waves.  The gusts sent choppy ocean waves roaring toward the beach in rapid succession, each on the heels of the other.

We were transfixed and could have sat there for hours if not for the temperature dropping. There was a wind chill cutting through our sweatshirts, for after all, it IS only April.  With lowering temps, rising winds and an ocean spray beginning to hit us it was time to put the camera back into the safety of its case.

But first....just one more shot....

Vacation

The week before all hell broke loose in the Southland we were vacationing on the beach.

I love beaches of all sorts but my favorites tend to be those along the Atlantic. Shells in abundance, driftwood, fossils, sea glass, shark's teeth and all manner of treasures come ashore, best found at low tide when the waters are far, far away.

Walking the shell line is my beach-time passion. Not one for hot sun you'll find me walking the lines early mornings and late afternoons "assuming the position," cup or bucket in hand, leaning over in hopes of finding another olive shell, cockle shell, calico scallop, angel wing, baby's ear, whelk and other beauties. I have even found seahorses lodged amid tangles of kelp, sadly no longer living. Once I found a fossilized sea biscuit which are millions of years old. Egg casings of various creatures wash ashore alongside the odd jellyfish. Each finding piques my interest in the ocean, stoking the embers of my curiosity.

Skimming the crest of waves were the ubiquitous brown pelicans and gulls but also a few surprises - cormorants and swallows. Various long-legged shorebirds skimmed wet sands for tasty meals, comically avoiding waves at the last second.

The weather wasn't sunny-beach-perfect, thank goodness. I am so odd that way but I prefer beaches with clouds and wind with waves crashing high and hard. The ocean changes color depending upon the skies, which I adore. The deep grayed blue green of a stormy ocean is one of my favorite colors. And yes, it reminds me of my lake albeit a "bit" more dramatic.

Walking to the beach that first day I could smell the ocean before I saw it. I threw my arms open wide and gulped in the salty taste, laughed at the sky, ran to the water and put let the salty waves crash upon my toes. Life is GOOD.

More to come.....

Sunrise on the Beach

Sunrises are always beautiful regardless of where one is viewed. However, to me they seem more magical when there's water involved. Especially dynamic coastal waters with waves and foam, splashing and loud and salty with reflections of color and light that shifts with the rise and fall of the tide.

Jess and I rose at 5:15am and switched on the coffee maker which we'd set up the night before to save time. Sand colored coffee cups in one hand, cameras around our necks we struck off for the beach in the early morning gloom. Not another soul was stirring. The waking beach and ocean were grayed violet blue, the sky the color of a pale opal. A diminishing thunderhead to the east blocked the sunrise for the longest time.

The opposite direction demanded attention as a vase of blue pushed upward into the sky, water and sand reflecting the spectacle in symphony.

Jessica was spellbound, meditative. I left her alone to her thoughts as she stared eastward awaiting the sun's arrival.

The scattering, dark clouds began exhibiting pink-silver linings, a glorious announcement that things were about to change.

The sun breaks free of the clouds and the beach lights up...

...as do the waves, water and foam.

We both stop walking and watch the show, committing the smells and sounds to memory.

As the waters dance...

...and create joyful beauty.

Soak it in.