Monday Sunrise

I awoke in time for the sunrise this morning - Tai Chi out on the walkway in a still-frigid breeze, but not as strong as yesterday.  Except for the breeze rattling the palm trees and rustling the shore grass, it was absolutely quiet.  A single gull winged overhead, and then a large flock out over the ocean, east to west.  The adjoining houses stood out in silhouette against the brightening sky.

I love how every single day is different here!  I notice this in Highlands, too, but here the sky is so immense and the colors so brilliant that the differences between one day and another seem more marked.  This morning there was a broad, crooked line of dark blue clouds out on the horizon, like a mirror-image of the ocean. 

Temperatures are expected to go above freezing this afternoon, and then for the rest of the week to rise buoyantly higher and higher into the 50s and 60s, which will be very welcome!  It looks like we will be able to take our daily walk down to the pier in more comfort in coming days.

When afternoon slowly came round - I think we have finally almost reached that state of being we refer to as "Beach Time" - we bundled up and walked on the beach again, still a little brisk but much better than yesterday afternoon.  The light was just perfect!

Martha saw two or three dolphins leaping in the ocean, but too far away to photograph.  We have never seen them leap so high! - sometimes they were entirely out of the water.  I  thought they might be cavorting, leaping for joy, but I know it might be a mistake to ascribe joy to dolphins.

We saw plenty of interesting sights along the way.  There was a small kind of bench between two layers of sand at one point, perhaps a foot high, but this photo creates the impression that the houses behind the beach are going to fall into the ocean at any moment.  I thought of posting it on Facebook with the caption, "Beach erosion has gotten pretty bad out here," but thought better of it; people evidently believe all sorts of things on the internet these days.

We strolled and held hands and crouched to look closely at the millions of little shells and sea creatures.  But no sand dollars today, only a few half-dollars strewn carelessly on the sand.

Far across the empty beach
the tide has left this world
old men in tweed find study there

Holding whelks and periwinkles
tingling in his hand
little does he know they hold him too

 (Donovan, Starfish on the Toast)

Another beautiful sunset with fiery skies on both sides of us, and purple and lavender spread out like colors that have come to life out on the horizon.

And that ship is still hovering out there - a freighter?  I have been doing some research and it may be part of a phosphate mining operation out in Onslow Bay.  It is in the same place every morning, as reliable as the pole star, and by night it is outlined in lights.