We’ve spent the last four days “down the shore” with friends at our neighbors’ shore house in Ship Bottom on Long Beach Island. For the next few days I’ll be taking you along with me ... down the Jersey shore.
I love early morning walks on the beach before most other people get there. The sands are freshly groomed and all traces of yesterday’s beach goers have been removed, leaving a clean slate for the new day. I share the sand with a few other early morning walkers, an assortment of gulls, and a woman with a metal detector. The other walkers are clutching their coffee mugs in their hands while my hands hold my camera. We nod and say “good morning” to each other, smiling as if to say “isn’t this a beautiful morning?” without saying it out loud.
The gulls eye me warily. Possibly sizing me up for a handout of food.
Gull crossing!
The waves lap at my feet as I walk along, leaving a foamy trail of suds behind.
Upended shells capture “sea suds.”
The water is warm this morning but the waves are mighty as they relentlessly pound the shore.
My footprints behind me in the sand look indelible.
But as the next waves washes over them they disappear as if they never existed.
The sand at the water’s edge is an ever changing canvas whose artwork lies in the shells and other objects left behind. Waves roll in and shells are deposited at its highest point. Some are carried back out, tumbling over and over, caught in the strong pull of the receding water. Each new wave rearranges the objects on the canvas of sand. It never ceases to fascinate me.
For a beachcomber like me, morning is the absolute best time of the day.
Whew. Summer is packing a punch this year. Even though I’ve been enjoying this weather from a pool perspective, it’s getting a bit old. Lots of sun and no rain. It’s starting to feel like Colorado around here, and that is not necessarily a good thing since no one here can water their lawns because most of us are on wells in the country. Even people in larger towns do not have the in-ground sprinkler systems that are absolutely necessary there. Our lawn is crisping up and there isn’t much we can do about it. We water our new landscaping in the front only as needed. Where is the rain? I am tired of seeing the relentless sun every day!
The season is starting its decline though. The sun’s angle is lower week by week. Areas of the pool that used to stay in the sun until late afternoon are now shaded. Soon that will lead to a cooler pool temperature than the steady 82 degrees that it’s been maintaining for a over a month now.
At least one person is benefitting from all these brown, crispy lawns. A man who owns a company spraying lawns green with dye is making lots of money. Can you imagine? What does that say about us culturally? We’re so into our green perfect lawns that we would dye them green and potentially harm the environment? He states that his dye is safe for children and pets but I have to wonder. Unless he’s using food coloring! Will the grass need its roots touched up as well?
The other morning I was in the computer room when I heard Bella bark. I thought she wanted to go out, but when I got to the sun room she was looking up at the screen door. Clinging to the inside of the screen was a large green bug. mom, there’s an intruder in the house and i don’t know what it is! Me either, Bella. Never seen one like this before. When I tried to capture it to take it outside it emitted a noise not unlike a cicada, only it wasn’t a cicada. This got everyone’s attention, cats and dog alike. what is that thing? I took this video so I could try and identify it later on.
Bella was very intrigued by it. I think it was injured to begin with because it could not fly away.
The next morning there was another one clinging to the outside basement wall of the house. I took photos and headed off to Google it. I typed in “green bug that looks like a grasshopper but is not” and came up with a solution. Meet Mr./Mrs. Katydid.
We’ve long thought the the cicadas were getting back up from something else like crickets, and here is the proof. But why haven’t we ever seen one before?
The turkeys come around every day and I usually give in and feed them some sunflower seeds and cracked corn. I have one that comes all by itself early in the morning and it just stands there looking at the house, willing the front door to open and for me to come and throw a few handfuls of food out. The other day around midday the big turkey family came (three hens and assorted aged babies) and I went out to feed them. The dumb clucks left instead of hanging around to eat the food and I figured the squirrels, birds and chipmunks would make short order of it. When I looked out an hour later this is what I saw instead.
oops. I’ve done this countless times before without bear visits. Trust me, this was not intentional! Not the same little cub as in the previous post; this one is probably a yearling.
what do you mean this isn’t my food bowl?
who is that crazy lady hanging out the window up there talking to me?
i think i heard something
Right after I took this photo the cub ran off into the shelter of the woods and halfway up a tree. I don’t know what it heard that spooked it, but it was afraid of something. A few minutes later it decided it was safe and back it came.
I’ve been keeping my eye on these grapes growing by the side of our street. Concord grapes. They are tasty and sweet but have a lot of pits! If we don’t get some rain they will just turn into raisins on the vine! I hope not as I plan to snatch them the minute they get ripe.
We had a full weekend with a picnic to Bear Mountain, dog walks, farmer’s market and pool time. On Saturday night we did something we’ve talked about doing for a long time. We “camped out” in the cabana for a while. After our nighttime swim we brought out the air mattress and pillows and just lay there listening to the cicadas (and katydids!). We both fell asleep and sometime later I felt Rick shaking me awake. Time to go back inside before the dogs miss us.
(taken this way on purpose! I happen to like warped nighttime photos.)
Sorry for the rambling post about a mishmash of things. I just sat down and started typing and this is what came out!
I have more to share this week with photos of our drive to Harriman State Park and Bear Mountain on Saturday and the surprise we got on Sunday morning while washing Mia, so stay tuned!
Yesterday we worshipped in the Temple of Nature. Right here.
And if this little cove was our temple, then this was the altar.
It’s been extremely hot here this past week with no rain, temperatures in the 90’s and the heat index up to 107! Saturday morning the heat wave finally broke and we got over 2 inches of much needed rain.
We vowed to each other that when we woke on Sunday morning we would feed the dogs and cats, throw on some clothes, toss the canoe on top of the truck and head out to Green Turtle pond again. We were on the pond by 7:30 a.m., which is pretty good for us.
The morning mist was still hovering near the surface of the water, leaving an almost monochromatic look to the scene.
But soon the sun burned off the mist and we were left with beautiful blue sky and still waters.
And look who was back again: Mr. Great Blue Heron. Same bird (probably). Same rock. Only this time I had my zoom lens.
A morning perfect for paddling as no breeze had yet started. We’ve figured out that the breeze starts around 8:15 and it usually catches us paddling back up the opposite side of the pond. We timed this trip just right.
My muscles were still a bit sore from last week, but it still felt good. I can’t tell you how peaceful it is out there in the early morning. Birdsong floats down through the trees and bullfrogs croak from the reeds.
I liked the colors and reflection of this fisherman.
After our paddle around the pond we came home, took showers, and headed off in Mia to the market in Warwick. Goat cheese (for our lunch), bread, and blueberries were on our list.
Lunch was a new recipe of Planked Figs: fresh halved figs dipped in Calvados and ground pepper, left to marinate for about 20 minutes, then wrapped in pancetta and topped with fresh goat cheese and a little fried pancetta and cooked on a cedar plank on the grill. After cooking they were drizzled with wildflower honey. Delicious!
Eaten poolside, of course.
The rest of the day was spent in and around the pool. All in all, another lovely Sunday.
Yesterday we threw the canoe on top of the Suburban and headed down to Green Turtle Pond before it got too hot. The road, which was never very good, is deteriorating back to dirt. Not much is left of the pavement and what is still there makes for a very slow and bumpy ride. It is pretty though, like a dark green tunnel.
The pond was pretty quiet at that hour of the morning with only a few fisherman bobbing around the edges in their boats.
The canoe is such a thing of beauty, isn’t it?
It was a lovely morning to be paddling around. No breeze had as yet kicked up and the only ripples on the pond surface were from the prow of our canoe breaking the glass-like surface. Our oars dipped in and out of the water with a satisfying rhythm. As we passed the shoreline we heard a big PLOP! and looked in time to see the leftover wake of what was probably a turtle awakened from his on-shore slumber by our passing.
We stopped often to admire the view and the reflections.
We weren’t the only ones enjoying this beautiful morning. We disturbed a heron along the way.
(Sorry for the blur but I didn’t have a chance to change settings. Even though it’s blurry I still wanted to include it here.)
Some areas along the shoreline look like little planted-on-purpose gardens; like these reeds.
And these—all shimmery with sunlight.
I was totally captivated by the damsel flies and dragon flies in the shallow, more boggy parts of the pond. They zoomed and zipped around us at death defying speeds. I tried to capture a few flying by in the sunlight, but this was as close as I got. Can you see them?
Some used us a landing pad, either on my paddle or on the canoe, like these beautiful turquoise damsel flies. I remember my Mom used to call them ‘darning needles.’
We found this smallish bird hopping around in the reeds and spooked him up into the trees. We think it’s an immature double-crested cormorant. We watched him for quite a while.
(Right about now I was truly kicking myself for not bringing along my big zoom lens! Darn!)
They don’t call it Green Turtle pond for nothing! This turtle was sunning on a log until we paddled by.
We saw several other turtles in our trip around the pond; just heads poking up above the surface of the water. Every time I tried to capture them with the camera they ducked back underwater. Sly turtles!
A new category has been added to my blog. Since the addition to our family of our Miata, (more commonly known to us as Mia) I foresee new adventures in our future in which she plays a major role. Therefore she deserves her very own category: Driving Miss Mia. The blog posts will range from me snapping photos along the way, to photos once we reach our destination and who knows what else.
It was a beautiful weekend. Perfect “top-down” weather for sure. On Saturday morning we started our drive up to Monroe, New York and Warwick.
Our drive took us along the shore of Greenwood Lake.
A stop for ice cream at Bellvale Farms. They have the best view of the lovely Warwick valley.
A funny sign on the way back from the Warwick Winery. It says something completely different on the other side as you approach the Winery but we didn’t realize it until we were past it. Next time…
And no, we didn’t taste. We just drove there to find out where it was never having been there before.
An old barn along the way.
Look who’s driving!
Later on that day friends Bill and Carol called to see if we wanted to take a drive down to Lake Mohawk in the Sparta area. They have a convertible too, you see. On glorious days the “Convertible Club” (which also consists of neighbors Kim and Mark) get together and go for drives, usually ending up somewhere to eat.
It was a beautiful drive down and I can’t wait to do it again once the trees are out.
It’s a quaint little town with odd architecture here and there.
We walked along the boardwalk next to the lake.
We stopped into a local pub and had a beer, then a slice of pizza and headed home.
After watching this pretty hawk fly over us I had to wonder ... do people in convertibles get bird poop on their heads very often? Certainly something to ponder.
Welcome, I'm Lynne. You know me better as a 'new' Jersey Girl. But now I've moved once again, this time to North Carolina. Here I write about my thoughts, good food, and of course, dogs.
