Just memories now, of a beach walk, August 19, 2020
6:17 am: Accepting an intertidal invitation.
7:02 am: Touching base with an old friend, a study in zonation.
7:58 am: A pause to take in morning sunlight on exposed surfgrass.
8:19 am: A fortunate turn of my gaze, just in time to discover sunbeams penetrating the spruce forest above.
8:58 – 8:59 am: At my turnaround, purple olives leave love letters in the sand.
9:01 am: Passing the Submarine on the side not everybody gets to see. Hot coffee just ahead. On the way, let’s see what’s washed up on the beach.
9:12 am (estimated- different camera): It didn’t take long to come across this pink crust in a mass of washed up surfgrass. It’s Melobesia, a coralline crust on seagrasses.
I want to close by acknowledging my thankfulness for the scenes I encountered. And there’s something I’d like to clean up. Purple olives – the ones leaving cryptic love letters in the sand – those are sand-dwelling snails, Callianax biplicata. The inscrutable messages left behind are their under-sand shows.