Shi Shi Beach

island times

I had a camera developed after spending a weekend with friends in the San Juans. Most of the roll was from last weekend's trip (which was glorious!) but the rest was from this summer. Johnnie's birthday and our week camping on Lopez specifically, I think. It's so nice to get a little kiss from summer time just when fall/winter is starting to hit hard. I walked to work with frost on the ground and wore my big winter coat today, both firsts of the season. These goofball summer time faces made me smile despite being quite a grump this morning. :)

I don't remember taking these ones with the fingers in the frames, I think maybe it was Johnnie. ;)

razor clam + barnacle

A couple tidal friends found their way into my new and still enormous sketch book. The first, as you can see because it's neatly labelled, is a razor clam - a Pacific razor clam, more specifically. Johnnie and I were watching Chopped one night and razor clams were in the chefs' baskets. I bragged about being familiar with razor clams as my family made what seemed to be several clam digging trips per year during my youth to Westport, Grayland and Ocean Shores beaches - but when the close up came the clams on TV appeared a bit...foreign. I think they must have been Atlantic razor clams. I was rattled but I quickly drew up this clam completely from memory to prove that I am, in fact, familiar with razor clams. Pacific razor clams. 

Next we have barnacles. Now, recently I took a stroll along the beach at Discovery Park with my friend Elliot when we happened upon a group of boulders half buried in the sand; normally they would've been underwater but they were exposed that day by a particularly low tide we'd come to see. The rocks were covered in barnacles and the barnacles were making that noise that they do - a chorus of light clicking, sucking and popping sounds, reminiscent of a bowl of rice krispies - when Elliot explained to me that barnacles gross him out. "GROSS!" he exclaimed over and over again. I don't remember why they gross him out but I made sure we looked at more barnacles during our walk back. These were drawn using an old timey Nat Geo image for reference whilst listening to "The Mollusk" by Ween.

gournal share

I have a few journal pages to share before I head to the river and the woods for a night or two:

A swirling river bank, my musings on the oyster shell (again), a bit of energy mapping, and a small tribute to dear Bob Ross, most gentle of gentlemen.

zen on the beach

I don't want to admit it, but it seems true summer days are gonna be rare again this year. On Monday I seized a beautiful opportunity and biked to Golden Gardens after work.

It was a warm sandy glorious sunbathing time. And I had one helluva Zen moment with an oyster shell! Let's do it again summer!