Yesterday we had the the last Open House of the year. After a week of scrubbing, a morning of making homemade cookies (oatmeal scotchies), and setting up the brochures for potential house buyers, we took off for a day at the beach, or as we say in New Jersey, "Down the Shore."
It was a warm day, 73 degrees and the filtered sun brightened the cloud filled sky to an opalescent splendor. This is my favorite time of year to visit the beach as their are no crowds and I can usually get some pretty good beach photos without the sea of oil slicked bodies getting in the way. At first as we walked up the boardwalk, we saw sand that must of washed up from the recent storm and surrounded the park benches on the edge of the boardwalk. It was funny to see small children playing with pails and buckets on the boardwalk instead of the beach. There were several couples who passed us by and they seemed as curious as we were to see a large swath of the beach covered with flocks of seagulls who sat like summertime sun-bathers. After a nice stretch of the legs we went to Jenkinson's Pavillion where we had a lunch of pizza and soda and wondered why there were no seafood items on the winter menu board. Then we headed to the beach where Gerry took off his sandals and proceeded to get his shorts wet while checking the ocean temperature which was cold but not bone chilling. I got right to work exploring the sand for unusual items of my own curious interest. The waves although not gigantic, were bigger than usual and the churn of the recent storm caused big tufts of soapy looking foam to cling in patches to the shoreline. The bubbles glistened brilliantly in the sun! I found a piece of triangular wood with a big splinter pointing out from it. It had just washed up from the sea and was covered with the foamy bubbles. There were feathers and leaves sitting side by side, and collages of debris that were so artfully arranged by Nature that upon seeing the photos at home, Gerry playfully accused me of arranging the shoot... as if! I got excited by a few sparse patches of Kelly green algae with glistening bubbles and odd pieces of bamboo that I had not seen on this beach before but my favorite find was a shell with a butterfly cut-out. On the ride home the sun came out to set on the remaining trees that have held their glowing Autumn color beyond peak season and I was silenced by the beauty of the day and the happy sounds from the radio. Unbeknownst to me, as I was snapping photos on the beach, Gerry was collecting his own treasures for me... treasure more precious than jewels... fragments of colored sea glass that I shall keep in a jar by the windowsill!
