My personal fish bowl

This boat has been stranded on the beach since the winter, but lately it has gradually moved down towards my beach. The power of the tides is really amazing! Last night I noticed that dozens of little fish were inside the boat, having found themselves caught without a ride back to the water. I hope they were able to get back to the bay once the tide came in. I scolded them with my old lecture, "Well, what did you expect would happen once the tide went out?" but they ignored me. The sun is setting much earlier now and most days I don't make it home in time to see it. Last night the sun was gone, but a bright orange band of color still hugged the horizon. The water takes on a silver-gray-metallic blue hue at this time that is so beautiful and impossible to replicate with any paint color or crayon. Who makes a silver-gray-metallic blue? Not Benjamin Moore. Only Mother Nature.

Meteor shower!

This is one of my most favorite events of the summer! THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER: The annual Perseid meteor shower is underway. Earth is passing through a wide stream of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, and each time a fleck of comet dust hits Earth's atmosphere--flash!--there is a meteor. Forecasters say the shower will peak on Thursday, August 12th, and Friday, August 13th. You can see Perseids flitting across the sky at any time between about 10 pm on Thursday evening and sunrise on Friday morning. Observers who get away from city lights can expect to count dozens of meteors per hour, especially during the dark hours before dawn.
I will be out at the beach this evening. Please come down and join me. I will be the woman in the lounge chair staring up at the sky.

YUCK!

Last night the bay spewed reddish-brown disgusting water, almost looking like a blood bath! It must have been caused by a red seaweed or algae that is very abundant right now and then the storm from the other day. But it made swimming last night impossible. My camera is not working so until I get it fixed, you'll have to settle for this photo of red seaweed I got on the internet. It doesn't really illustrate how gross the water was.

Taking terns

I stood in the low tide last night watching three terns take turns dive bombing into the water to catch something to eat. They hit the water with a distinctive "plunk" and worked so quickly and skillfully it made me dizzy. Then I nudged a crab with my foot and it chased me for several feet. He was pissed! The hermit crabs were everywhere probably feeling secure in knowing that their small size doesn't make them worth the time and effort for a bird to catch. The sunset was spectacular after a dreary and rainy day.

You want peanut butter with that jelly?

The jellyfish have invaded the deeper waters of the bay. I saw this one and about 50 more while kayaking late this morning. They are really so beautiful, but I guess not if you find yourself swimming next to one. Thank goodness there are none close to shore so I still went for a swim. The bay was pretty smooth today at high tide but lots of rolling wakes from boats. Still no sign of dolphins. Too many green flies on shore. I HATE green flies.

Where have you been?

Go ahead and ask. Where have I been? In a slump. Not caring. Too tired. Then sick for a week. But during all that time, the sun still rose and set in my beautiful bay and the fish swam and the water changed its mind everyday about what it wanted to be. "I'm rough." "I'm like a mirror today." "I send you jelly fish and seaweed today. Deal with it." and "I am clean and sparkly today and your only escape from the heat." My bay had lots of visitors on July 4. Boats and jet skis and beach goers. I am making an announcement right now that I am BANNING jet skis from my bay. I hate them. The 4th was also the day of my beach party. See photos of friends. We kicked every other beach party's ass!

The Longest Day

What better way to spend the end of the first day of summer? I paddled out on my surfboard into the sunset with the 3/4 moon over my left shoulder. Horse shoe crabs scooted around below my board. Herons and seagulls flew home across the horizon. The bay didn't even have a ripple on it.