A Walk On The Beach

The beach in front our house is narrow and rocky. Narrower at high tide. There all different kinds of rocks and if I remembered anything from my geology class, I could tell you what they are. There are lots of gray ones, some veined or flecked with BC jade or quartz. All have been rolled and washed back and forth so many times that they're smooth and rounded. These are some that I picked up. My favorites are the speckled ones shaped like eggs.

   

There all kinds of things on the beach: giant, entire logs escaped from some logging site, twisted pieces of driftwood, the bodies of tiny red crabs left for dead by whatever eats them and bleached white clam shells looking like pairs of discarded wings. People cut up the bigger logs for firewood. On our evening walks the air is full of the smell of wood smoke.

My question is, though, how do things like this rusting whachamacallit get on the beach. It must be a mighty wind or tide to push something like that ashore. The best thing on the beach, though, is sea glass. It's been scrubbed and scoured until it's a pale, smooth, frosty version of itself. I have a small basket full of pieces that Margaret and I have collected over the years. On the right is a piece Anna Short made from glass she collected when she came here on vacation with us,16 years ago.

If you look toward the shore, you see the variety of houses that are our neighbors on Fir street, all stamped with the personality of their owners. Some new and pristine, others with moss on the roof and and faded to shades of gray (more than 50).

The widow of an artist lives here. I love the blue bottles she embedded in the stone facing of the house. I think her husband carved the killer whale rising up out of the yard. He studied carving with some of the local carvers from the Namgis band (the local First Nation people, Native American in the US).

A fairly new house recently on the market for between $200 and $300 thousand.  

This unusual building with the inverted roof was built as a studio/workshop/residence by another man who does something with wood. I think he remodeled an old structure that was already there. He spends about four months a year here.

This house was built in 1921. There a lot of houses built in this style along Fir Street, again, in varying states of repair or disrepair. They're very sturdy little houses.

Dan and his wife are very fond of driftwood.

Once in a while these massive things cruise by. The port in Alert Bay isn't equipped to accommodate them so they don't stop here. You can hear the PA system on the ship extolling the quaint virtues of Cormorant Island to the passengers, though.