Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Bethel Beach III: Sand


Today I'm sharing some kindergarten artwork more photos from Bethel Beach.

If you've never been there, the exact location from which these were taken is sort of hard to describe, however I think it's important for posterity's sake that I do so.  One or two good storms and this landscape will change into seascape forever.

To start off, I was not facing east looking out towards the bay; I was sort of facing southwest, on the backside of the main beach down near the bird's nest stand.

Let me see if I can illustrate it for you:



The photos were taken from that curvy bit of beach closest to the "More Water" section of the kindergarten artwork diagram above.

Since I had so much fun with that drawing, I decided to enhance it a little more; so I added some color and a few other unnecessary details:



Here we have a prime example of how less is truly more, because this "enhanced" diagram is so confusing I'm not sure whether I'm looking at a map of Bethel Beach or the Internal Revenue code.

Either way, these photos were taken from the red dot above.

In other words, facing south/southwest.




I love the curves and the bends along the shoreline, and the swirls in the sand.


Now, to offset Chesapeake Bay Woman's childish words and artwork, she offers the following interesting information from the Bethel Beach Natural Area site (click here to read more):


"...On the back portions of the beach, in the overwash zone where high water tends to drain away from the bay and into the inlet behind the spit (illustrated in CBW's primitive diagram above) a rare plant , called sea-beach knotweed (Polygonum glaucum) can be found. An annual, sea-beach knotweed has a blue-green coloration with a whitish waxy coating. It tends to sprawl along the ground with upturned branches and has narrow fleshy leaves."

Also,"a globally rare coastal insect, rare colonial and marsh nesting birds, and a rare beach plant are protected on the site."

Colonial nesting birds? (I'd heard about the insect.)

Deltaville Jamie?  If you're reading today, perhaps you can fill us in on these birds who have been nesting since colonial times. Or is it that they nest in colonies? Actually the link above answers this question, but Jamie's answer would be way more fun to read.

Thanks, as always, for visiting.

11 comments:

Kay L. Davies said...

Got me all confusled there, CBW. The beach looked lovely until you tried to explain it, and then I was lost. Must be bedtime.
Take care now, y'hear?
-- K

Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

Chesapeake Bay Woman said...

Kay, I even confused myself, which isn't hard to do these days. The excerpted text references the "overwash zone" which is the area I was trying to illustrate.

I had fun drawing though.

Jamie said...

Is it sad or scary that I knew EXACTLY where you were when you took those photos based on your exemplary cartography skills? Right, we'll go with brilliant. As for the "colonial bird", I first thought of a Dodo bird because despite the misconception that it's extinct, it is actually alive and well and has evolved into what we now call the human male. But I've never seen a dodo nesting (that requires work resembling household chores and childrearing) so I'm assuming it's probably the tern that nests there. I didn't realize they could live that long. (my apologies to those human males that are fine upstanding examples of men... I know you're out there, I'm just not currently dealing with any)

WV: lasterse- "lasterse same as the first! I 'Enery the 8th I am...."

Mental P Mama said...

Wait. What?

Karen Deborah said...

your such a hoot woman I love the kindergarten artwork.

maria_nj said...

I loved the curve in the beach too, ours are as straight as a pin.

Did you get all the wash done? I hope so, and had some time for some R&R.

Every body have a wonderful blessed day...

TTFN

deborah said...

studio art, that is!
Love the curves of the beach and water and always enjoy the natural history links you provide!

Happy Hump Day:)

wv: sanico I present as sanico, even though I'm not

Daryl said...

LOVE these shots .. the windy angle is very involving .. making me want to be there .. even more than I usually do ..

Anonymous said...

I'd have stuck with illustration A, you went over the top with illustration B ;-)

Chesapeake Bay Woman said...

Jamie-Thank you, particularly for the excellent details on that dodo bird. I had a sneaking suspicion they were in our midst.

MPM-Wait. You've been drinking too much kale juice.

KD - Thank you! Now that I know how to upload this so-called artwork there may be more to come (unfortunately).

maria - Yes, I did get all that laundry done. Also, I wondered if the two marias the other day were the same, but I never assume. There was a maria from nj who used to comment about a year or so ago - is that you too? Regardless, glad to have you here and hope your week is going well. Still hoping you win that Blog Cabin house.

deborah - I can't even present as sanico! Gave up trying a long time ago.

Daryl - Thank you. Hope Ray is doing better and you're able to get back to some semblance of normal.

Anonymous - I couldn't agree more. It's the same thing with the way I write a blog post. If I'd just stick with the original write-up, which is usually way more straight forward, I'd be better off. Instead I have to mess with it and wander and amble and before you know it I'm talking about things like Laverne and Shirley instead of trees at Bethel Beach. Just need to learn to stop while I'm ahead.


Happy Wednesday!

Country Girl said...

I am confused too. I saw no red dot on the shore.

Sorry. I am in George mode. He's been on FB professing his love of the Singing Survivor Show.