Beachcombing in the snow is an adventure. Climbing down the rocky bluff to the Hulls Cove beach, I misjudged the depth of snow over a stone and tumbled awkwardly down the hill. Not quite head-over-heels, more of a shoulder-over-shoulder roll. A year ago, even with the snow cushioning the rocks, it would have been excruciatingly painful. Today I scooted down to terra firma on my bottom, looked around sheepishly to see if anyone on the road had seen me, then laughed and dusted myself off. I bumped my knee a little, but the sheer joy of being able to take a little tumble in stride again more than made up for looking like an idiot.

And I’m sure I did look like an idiot to someone, because Hulls Cove is right on the main road, and even at this time of year it gets plenty of traffic. This photo is of a more sheltered area where Duck Brook comes down and carves itself a channel. You can see the main road there in the background, where the bridge crosses the brook.

 You can also see that it was gray and overcast, so the lighting is awful. None of my photos came out very well. (I was using a Panasonic Lumix, not the massive new Nikon. Thank goodness, because if Ginormica had landed on me when I rolled down the hill, one of us would have been badly injured!)

Do you have any tales of beachcombing adventure? Share them in the comments, please!

On New Year’s Day I climbed down the snow-covered rocks to spend a lovely half hour on the beach. The day was unusually warm, maybe in the high 40s and the sun even came out for a bit! I haven’t been on a beach since Thanksgiving as I’ve had some health trouble. The first thing I noticed was blue mussels everywhere. As I wandered I slowly became aware of a soft steady ‘thump…thump…thump.’ My constant companions, the seagulls, were leisurely dropping mussels on to the rocks for their lunch. Ah.

I recently finished Curtis Ebbesmeyer’s book, Flotsametrics, which I highly recommend and will probably mention more than once here. Essentially an autobiographical account of how the author helped map the greater currents that circle the oceans, driving trash to certain places and bewildering beachcombers. Entertaining, anecdotal, extremely informative, with impeccable science. Loved it! And he gets his secondary message across clearly. Plastic can be deadly to marine life, and it lasts for decades in the water. As a result, I looked harder for plastic bits than I usually do, just to get them off the beach. Turns out that it is better to send it to the landfill after all. Not ideal, mind you, just safer for wildlife.

And from an artistic point of view, I found several plastic bits that were downright lovely. That star, for one, and those gorgeous mysterious blue pieces. Also shown are a razor clam shell, a spruce cone, 2 blue mussel shells, a weathered bit of silver metal that feels like thick aluminum, the remains of a blue plastic toy propeller, half a weathered peach pit (I frequently find them on this beach), a seed pod I half-recognize, part of an acorn, and some driftwood.