Green Wellies

Whale Wood

The ocean washes up more than just great rock shapes, glass and shells.  I found this piece of wood with traces of blue paint and it looks for all the world like a sperm whale.  It's found a new home on a narrow shelf on the front porch, along with some huge barnacle bits from Tofino, a thrift store fish and the last remains of a Dinky Toy lead boat...another beach find.  What's really cool is that some of the marbles we've tossed into the water have appeared like magic weeks later...frosty-looking from the sand and surf!

Totem #1

Besides the joy and thrill of living near the ocean and being able to walk the beach with Casper, is getting to know the characters who live on the waterfront and stopping for a quick chat each day...the woman who has the jays taking peanuts from her hand on the front porch, the fellow who is always polishing his vintage blue Ford pickup, another who is constantly cutting firewood from the washed-up logs and waves a hello over the sound of the chainsaw and one woman who wouldn't say a word if her life depended on it...takes all kinds!  Then there's the totem carver.  Along the beach and up on a knoll above the sand are several totem poles and the end one is my favourite.  It turns out it was carved by the man on the beach road.  He's just started a new carving...the logs are blessed in a ceremony...and I asked permission to take photos every few days to follow his progress from log to totem.  I missed taking pictures from round log to the trimmed-off version, but here's a shot of the first part of the carving process...

After The Storm

Last month, a winter storm blew in and washed away flotsam and jetsam, along with even the most massive logs, leaving a clean smooth sandy beach.  Then in the wee hours of the morning on the fourth, high winds coupled with a very high tide wreaked havoc...gigantic logs were tossed like matchsticks on top of each other, boulders of granite from the seawall tumbled about like pebbles and the pristine beach became littered from one end to the other.  Casper was in stick heaven and could barely make up his mind which one to run with.  Not me...I ran with an old oar that was lodged against the rocks and now graces the corner of the porch!

Reality Snow Globe

We woke up to more snow...coming down in huge slow flakes and making it seem for all the world like we were walking in our own special snow globe.  It's not supposed to snow much on the Sunshine Coast, but this is the second true snowfall so far.  The beach was beautiful and we knew to make the most of it...rain started a couple of hours later.  The snowy owl that's been at the end of the breakwater for the last two days finally flew the coop and we'll miss looking for him each time we head down for our walks.  I cheated with the photograph.  It's one I took on the last snowy day.  I didn't have my camera with me this morning!

A Seaside Gift

It was one of those rare magic moments.  This morning I was walking Casper in Snickett Park (apparently snickett is an old English word for short-cut) that runs right by the ocean and a female Anna's hummingbird flew past me and hovered for about a minute feeding from some white waxy bells on a bush about three feet away.  I held my breath.  Here I was bundled up with gloves and jacket, it was the last day of November and I was watching a hummingbird!  It was a gift that made my day.  I wish I could say I had my camera...the proof is in the pudding, but you have my word.

Snow Sand and Surf

Let it snow...and it did!  T and I looked out about eight this morning and it was snowing to beat the band.  When we hit the beach, our first glimpse was the breakwater and beacon through the heavy flakes.

Casper didn't know what to make of it.  He's a rescue dog from Louisiana and I somehow doubt that he's ever seen snow.  He waited patiently for us to get to the beach and then ran about like crazy in the snowy sand...shaking every few steps!

Blue Sky and Sunny

Yay, the sun is beaming in every window.  It's brisk out, but it was wonderful to walk the beach with Casper and see the Island with its snow-capped peaks across Georgia Strait, watching the waves hit the sand...sounds like a travel brochure, but that's the mood we were in while the sun warmed our backs.  It looked a little like this 1954 seaside oil painting...a fab garage sale find.

Pea Souper

More fog today...thick and white swirling in from the ocean and covering everything in sight.  The eerie thing about it is that sky and landmarks disappear right before your eyes and it's no stretch of the imagination to see where tales of ghost ships, mermaids and sea creatures worked their magic way into folklore.  Sounds become muffled and there's a strange stillness...a lone seagull calling (maybe) and the odd foghorn from somewhere out in the mist (is anyone crazy enough to go out fishing when it's like this?).  Casper and I walked the beach in the thick of it this afternoon and with nothing but a white wall all around us, I found a bumper crop of beach glass...the only thing I could see clearly was the tip of my wellies.  It was time to call it quits when Casper the friendly WHITE dog kept disappearing into the fog only a few feet away and more than the damp air was giving me goosebumps!

Walking In The Rain

It was a very rainy day and I thank my lucky stars that I decided to tackle the leaves yesterday or it would be one sorry, soggy mess out there in the yard...looks pretty spruced up right now, even if I do say so myself.  In between the heavy rains today, Casper and I got down to the beach for a couple of walks with Janice and my respite child.  The gulls seem to be going mad at the moment eating purple starfish, but they have to stand for ages with two or three legs sticking out of their bills, waiting for dear knows what to happen before they can swallow them.  We all found more beach glass and the dogs played tug-o-war with a stick, until Casper spotted some sort of small animal and almost disappeared into the piles of boulders.  Normally, he'll listen to me, but his bred-for terrier nose got the better of him and I ended up clambering over rocks and logs to retrieve HIM.  He was on short leash for the rest of the walk.  It's not easy climbing in green wellies!

Boots!

What fun!  It's only been four days since I was first introduced to the whole idea of reading and writing blogs...my daughter  Gwen, kick-started it when she sent me a link to a friend's and the dishes have been piling in the sink, emails have gone unanswered, weeds are cropping up in the garden, the dog has had to wait patiently for his walk and I'm caught hook, line and sinker.  There's a domino effect...read one blog, link to another and then another and so on.  The only cure was to have my own and then came the name conundrum until I spied my rubber boots (treasured hand-me-downs from Gwen), covered in sand from walking the dog on the beach and voila...green wellies it is!