Treasure

This is treasure from my Mendocino trip - shells, and sea glass. No jewels and gold in my treasure chest (although that would be really useful). I love shells, rocks, bits of driftwood or anything that calls to me. With an entire beach to choose from these must have been very special. I like them for their colors, or shapes. All of the shells are broken but that just adds to their character.

I might make jewelry from some of them. If I spray them with a sealer that will bring out all the lovely colors on them that are more vibrant when they're wet. The almost transparent piece of sea glass in the near center is frosted and translucent white when dry (these are all sitting in a bowl of water for the photo).



 The shell at the very top, slightly left of center has bands of yellow, silverish pearl, and very dark brown, black or blue. Such beautiful, rich colors!

Yeah, this one! Not a very good picture. Maybe I'll take a better one over the weekend.




 This one looks like a bird beak!

 

This one has some beautiful colors as well and is floating around in my brain trying to figure out how to be a necklace.

I believe these are pieces of milk glass.

People used to throw their dishware in the dump (hopefully only the broken pieces). Milk glass used to be much more common than it is now. I remember my grandmother had a milk glass pitcher and a hobnail glass bowl when I was a kid. I only see these in antique stores and thrift stores now.

So, these are the treasures I brought back from my trip. For now they're residing on my fireplace mantle along with all the other bits of things I pick up here and there.

Beach Magick

 Beaches are magickal places. They're a place of transition between land and sea, between solid and liquid. The slow wearing down of the solid earth by the power of water.

The ocean is vast and powerful, always moving and churning. I love to watch the waves crashing on the rocks. The ever changing colors play across the surface.

I loved the textures in the sand under the water here as this tiny river makes it's short journey to the sea.

Glass Beach

Glass Beach, Fort Bragg, California.

A beach made of glass! For real - all of that is glass and rocks - and shells and seaweed and the usual stuff you see on a beach.

You see, not so long ago people thought it was ok to place dump sites at the ocean. Just dump your trash at the shore and the ocean will wash it away. It was more common than you might think.
This was a dump site as late as 1959.

Everything was dumped in this site - cars, bottles, pottery, etc. The interesting thing about this area is that the position of the rocks along the coastline prevented anything from being washed out to the sea. It just churned up in the tide and was deposited back on the shore.

According to the information I read at the Glass Beach Museum the white (not clear) glass was milk glass - usually dinnerware. Green was bottles. Clear (frosted) was bottles and dinnerware. Red and orange were car tail lights. Brown were bottles. Lavender were actually clear leaded glass exposed to sunlight.

Mostly there are only tiny bits of glass left on the beach now. Locals and visitors have taken away most of the larger pieces (to make into jewelry or to otherwise sell), Because so much glass has been carted off by people the Museum sells "seed glass" for $5/bag. It's recycled glass that has been tumbled enough to knock off the sharp edges. The idea is to throw this into the surf so that it will get tumbled and polished and wash back up onto the beach to "preserve" the Glass Beach.

During my wanderings on the beach I was impress by the tenacity of the plant life. Look at these plants that are growing on the side of a rock. There's no "soil" there. Do the roots of the plant get nourishment from the rock? It must, since there's nothing else there to feed it.

Something I never expected to see at the beach - squirrels. I was actually watching mother seals teaching their pups to swim when this squirrel comes within a foot of me. They must be used to being fed by people. When I didn't offer it any food it went back into the grass to eat the tops of the flowers. It wasn't the least bit afraid of me.

I don't think these crabs were too happy with the bright light that was illuminating their little hidey hole. There were a great many crabs on the beach if one had the patience to sit by tide pools or need crevices and be very still until they came out.