Hulls Cove, Maine; January 2, 2012  (Beachcombing series No.59)

It was the last day of winter vacation, and I had just dropped my daughter off at her friend’s house for the afternoon. On the way home, I stopped at Hulls Cove to enjoy the warm spell and the fitful sunshine. The temperature was about 50ºF and the sky was overcast, but the tide was low, the sun kept breaking out, and the wind was not very brisk. I wandered over to the creek edge where it empties into the cove, and was surprised to see footprints in the mud. There was no one in sight. There were two different print sets, although I couldn’t tell if they were walking together. One of the prints was bigger than mine, and I have big feet, so it was probably a guy. And they only went in one direction. As I wandered, I daydreamed about who else had walked there and why. A man and a woman, maybe, out for a romantic stroll. (In the smelly tidal mud? Maybe not.) Teenagers up to mischief? (On a midwinter mudflat? Unlikely.) Gotta be more beachcombers! (I wonder what they found?)

Further down the beach, where the mud gives way to firmer sand and small stones, I found signs that lots of people had been enjoying the mild weather on the beach, including a child’s footprints playing a hopping and dragging game in the damp sand.

Harborview Park, Bar Harbor, Maine; December 2, 2011 (Beachcombing series No.56)

The Bar Harbor Harbormaster’s office sits on a small wooden dock next to the Town Pier. It’s a little tricky to get down there, and you have to watch the tides carefully to make sure you can get back, but not a lot of people bother, so there’s a lot to see. (The Town Pier itself is built of enormous stone blocks, so you can’t beachcomb under it.) There’s a restaurant on the pier next to it, and it always shocks me a little to find so much restaurant trash down on the shore. Usually it’s generic trash; lobster claw bands, bottle tops, plastic lobster forks, and so forth, but down here I find broken pint glasses with that particular restaurant’s logo printed on them and other identifiable refuse. Makes me want to bundle it all up and bring it back to them! I think the oyster shell in the photo is also restaurant trash.

On the brighter side, the round bottle bottom (middle row) was a popular form in the late 1800s, so that’s been in the water for a long time, even though it was broken pretty recently (very sharp edges). There’s also an old Coke bottle (2nd row from the right) and a pair of binoculars (bet there was some swearing when those got dropped in the sea!)

We were supposed to drive south today so we could spend Thanksgiving with my family, but a nasty storm blew in overnight and we decided to stay put. It’s wet, driving, sleety, slushy stuff; not the kind that’s fun to play in. I’ve certainly driven in worse storms, but just did not feel like tackling this one. Must be getting old.

I took my daughter over to a friend’s house and on the way back noticed the tide was out at Hulls Cove. I figured I’d earn myself a cup of hot chocolate by going beachcombing. Total fail! The sleet stung my eyes so I couldn’t look around much, and there was just enough snow accumulating to hide the bits of flotsam that I could see.

So I had a brisk, muddy walk and snapped a few pictures with my eyes squinted shut against the sleet. Here you go – Happy Thanksgiving from Maine!