under grey skies : 53 project week 27

Low grey skies and the threat of rain.  A summer Sunday, and Long Beach was practically empty.  I found surprising colors, wonderful shapes, and beautiful textures hiding just off the path along the river and in among the dune grasses.  Take a look:

the 53 project : week 7

I had a hard time deciding what to share with you this week.

 Should it be lines and shadows?

 Cute bird antics?

 Amazing wave action?

But the seagulls at the beach caught my attention again, 

fishing for supper and skimming along the waves.

 This seagull has particularly nice armpits, wouldn't you say?

 They lined up to watch the sunset along with the rest of us crazy beachgoers.

It was 10 degrees with a stiff winter wind.

Even the clouds looked like they were flying.  Beautiful.

behold the mighty skunknet stream

In a previous post I wrote about the origin of our street name: Skunknet. We live in the rabbit's warren of houses that is typical in this neighborhood, with most houses built back to back. The thing that attracted me to this house is that we have woods behind us rather than neighbors, and if you sit on the deck you can pretend you're secluded, if you ignore the road noise from Route 28, which is on the other side of the woods.

So the woods are a nice buffer, but not so great for walking. The mighty Skunknet stream flows along in a dark copper-colored line, barely moving its way to the Skunknet River, which I guess widens somewhere on the other side of Route 28. The woods are filled with brambles and blow-downs, which makes walking precarious except along the edge of the stream. In places it resembles a sort of swamp -- you can imagine strange creatures heaving themselves up out of the muck.

Here are some photos I took today that make it look less prehistoric and more idyllic. There are just a few remnants of last week's snow left, and lots of bright green moss.