Although the camera stopped the action -
these sandpipers are running to beat the band!
Up and down the wave as it ebbs and flows,
faster than anything,
and then flying to the next wave, and running again,
and again and again.
They tickle the funny bone,
these masters of slapstick,
making any willing heart lighter.
St. Augustine Beach, May 2014
It is still the birds that bring me back to the wonder of this world, flying over the waves or diving for their dinner, wild and free and alive!
As Mary Chapin Carpenter sings,
Why walk when you can fly?
(It's not just for the birds.)
Sanderlings, St. Augustine Beach.
The perfect afternoon at the beach.
The perfect thing to do...
Get sandy and wet!
And later?
Have a drink with friends!
St. Augustine Beach pier, and Aden playing in the tidal pool and later at the Conch House with friends.
Getting a closer look at a large piece of driftwood on the beach,
reveals some of its secrets.
Can you see the river and the mountains?
And a Ram?
The interior life of a tree...
Anastasia Island State Park, St. Augustine, Florida.
On a cloudy afternoon,
sometimes,
all you have to do is turn a corner
for something wonderful and cheering to come your way.
The sun pops out and illuminates the clouds over the harbor.
A little bit of a rainbow on the way to the beach and then this sunset -
It's hard to be miserable under these circumstances.
St. Augustine Harbor and Beach.
After a day of storms,
the beach beckons
and there's a wedding against the backdrop of the green water
under a canopy of clouds.
Meanwhile...
Life goes on-
surfers surf,
and birds scamper for their food,
while folks walk or ride their bikes or swim,
oblivious to the special moment that is paramount to the people attending,
especially, one could hope, to the hapless couple!
All best to one and all!
St. Augustine Beach, Anastasia State Park, September 12th, 2015.
When our lives become more outward,
for whatever reason,
we get really busy
or
find a new friend
or
become a grandparent
or
a parent,
then there is less time to ponder our inner world.
This is not bad or good,
it just is!
So long as we enjoy the cacophony that is living.
St. Augustine Beach, June 2015.
This morning person in training
caught the sun rising.
Footprints sinking into oblivion.
Leave nothing behind...
St. Augustine Beach, sunrise and sandpipers, August 6th, 2015.
At the end of the day.
The end of a world.
The end of a life.
Doors close.
Chapters end.
And then it begins again.
The sea oats
going by
will be back in the spring.
The sun that sets
rises again.
The mystery is solved in 533 pages,
yet some things
will remain
forever
beyond our
reach,
just the other side of certainty.
Sea oats and sunset with painterly effect, St. Augustine Beach.
From Laines Blog, October 2013.
Standing in line at the Winn Dixie one morning,
someone said something that stayed with me...
It went something like this in response to another person apologizing for taking so long...
If I was in a hurry, I would have gotten here earlier...
I liked that.
Once in awhile, we do hurry, but it is all the same in the end, isn't it?
A minute here and a minute there.
As Rumi says,
We are all going through the same gate.
Egret in a great hurry! Or so I imagine in St. Augustine, Florida!
On summer's beach...
a nearly full and a blue moon rising just over there...
Life is good!
St. Augustine Beach, Florida, last evening...
Gravity, according to Webster, is the force of attraction
by which terrestrial bodies tend to fall toward the
center of the earth.
Tilting the camera, does not affect the effect of gravity,
but it might make you dizzy!
(Hey, where'd the ball go?)
St. Augustine Beach, tilted and not tilted.
Reprinted from Laines Blog, July 2014, with permission!
Thanks to David Gardner, our resident morning person for sharing his sunrise photographs.
This stunner is from yesterday, July 7th, 2015.
Wish I had been there!
St. Augustine Beach, ©David Gardner, 2015.
The sea oats are greening up again.
There was a chorus of frogs in the marsh as I drove by,
praising the rain.
Summer's in full swing.
St. Augustine Beach.
Maybe my phone really is smarter than I am...
It took this photo when I wasn't looking.
Saturday's twilight taken by the Samsun Galaxy S4 without my knowing it, St. Augustine Beach, Florida.
A new chair for the beach.
Ahhhhh.
A short walk.
Low tide, blue sky, and the lowering sun
shining across it all.
St. Augustine Beach, June 2015.
...not from New York!
My favorite Ice Cream at the beach, St. Augustine Beach.
A little blue memorial for all lives lost,
on the ground, in the air and at sea.
May we find peaceful solutions to complicated conflicts
so that we never have to ask the ultimate sacrifice of our women and men in uniform.
St. Augustine Beach.
And we walk together on the beach like old friends.
Shadows, yours and mine! St. Augustine Beach.
Our little dunes are flowering again.
Sandy soil, sunshine, salty breezes...
Some of us thrive under these conditions!
St. Augustine Beach, Florida.
Well, not having mastered the art of stitching photos together,
I still had to share this imperfect attempt.
St. Augustine Beach, Anastasia Island State Park.
And those pelicans flying so close to the water you think they might trip.
But they don't!
They don't!
Pelicans, St. Augustine Beach, April Fools Day, 2015.
They say, if you're lucky enough to live near the beach,
you're lucky enough.
I concur.
It's just a hop, skip and a jump away,
lucky me!
St. Augustine Beach, February 26, 2015.
The sun setting and the moon rising...
Everything back in place for now!
St. Augustine Beach, March 4th, 2015.
The other day at the beach,
there was a pelican sitting in the water minding her own business,
who would stretch her long neck and reach into the water.
Then she would point her beak up to the sky revealing a full gullet,
swallow and go on minding her own business.
When a wave threatened her, would she rise into the air,
only to return again on top of the sea and wait,
and not long,
as there must have been a lot of fish in those waves.
Sometimes life's blessings just come to us,
with little or no effort,
all we have to do is show up!
Pelicans, St. Augustine Beach, February 2015.
It isn't really how BIG your friends are,
it's how big they are in your heart.
And they don't have to be going in the same direction as you either.
And they might have a goofy grin,
but
love works,
it just does.
Alligator and lizard pals shot at the Alligator Farm, in St. Augustine, Florida,
This post, originally entitled, Big Friends, reprinted from Laine's Blog, February 2012, with permission!
Big sky,
big beach,
big wind,
big day,
big life...
St. Augustine Beach, 10 days ago, before the sun came back.
High Surf Advisory: Coastal Hazard Statement
These words are music to a surfer's ears.
And wonderful to watch from the safety of the shore,
the wind blowing back the spray of the elegant swells.
Wild horses, indeed.
St. Augustine Beach, just one of those days!
Check.
Landing gear up...
Check.
These Brown Pelicans, up close enough to see the accordion wings against the sky,
are proof positive that we live in a very beautiful, complex,
and fascinating world.
You are clear for takeoff!
Saint Augustine Beach Pier, once again hosting the people who fish and the birds who love them.
Folks have been missing the sun around here,
and they say there's a comet hiding behind the clouds too.
Soon we'll have our sunny sky, blue sky, clear night sky,
back again,
soon.
St. Augustine Beach, sunrise, November 22, 2013.
The fog comes and goes,
and there is always cold air in it.
Of course that is what is causing the fog,
but it's collar up and hands in your pockets,
when you see it rolling in,
but the feet are still in the water!
What can you do?
It's irresistible and not too cold!
St. Augustine Beach, still gray and misty, January 13, 2015.