Aarons Beach

These were taken a few weeks ago from Aarons Beach.  

The boat was off in the distance fishing gill nets.

Have a great weekend.

Boats

They're fishin' nets now.

These photos were taken off the shore of Aarons Beach last week.

Click here for a post from almost a year ago relating to gill nets, among other things.

When I was comin' along, we didn't have any fancy equipment to pull the nets in, only elbow grease and fortitude.  I'll never forget those cold, rough, rainy days going out with my father to the mouth of the Piankatank to haul in stinkin', nasty nets full of fish.

Oh, what the children of today are missing.

Click here for Ann Marie's blog post on the topic. Her roots in Mathews County run deep enough to support a lighthouse and it's nice to know I wasn't the only teenaged girl out on rough waters pullin' in nets.

Wandering Wednesday

Today we wander down to my dock, which was built by my father and some of his friends many moons ago. The dock is a museum filled with things that haven't moved or changed since Walter Cronkite delivered the evening news I was a kid.

For example, a bucket full of gill nets is still there in spite of multiple hurricanes and countless nor'easters.

I used to go out with my father on cold, rough days to help him haul those very same nets in.  Although at the time I hated it wasn't particularly fond of those trips, I did learn a lot and in hindsight am very grateful for those times.

No matter how much the wind was blowin', or how cold you were, or how much something on that boat stunk, eventually it was time to turn green  head home and the whole thing was behind you. Plus, how many girls can say their fathers took them to fish gill nets?  (Ann Marie, put your hand down.)

Since I'm not even showing pictures of the gill nets, let's move on to something else, like the view from the old fish cleaning area below.



This was a covered area rigged with disco lights so they could clean at night.  Windows provided protection from the northeasterly winds and horizontal rain.

  My father and his buddies often came home with what seemed like hundreds of fish to clean.We always ran out to the dock to see how many they caught.  But you wouldn't find me hanging around too long once they started cutting. Blech.





Inside the boat house, there are some oyster tongs. Of course, Chesapeake Bay Woman has been known to incorrectly identify things once or twice a week on this blog, but I have no doubt that someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

But to the best of my knowledge, these are oyster tongs.




This is the dock inside the boat house.  I sort of liked all the lines and angles in this particular shot, especially the triangle of sun. The squiggly lines of the rope and that dangling wire add to the fiesta of shapes.  But I tend to say weird things like fiesta of shapes focus in on weird things, so don't pay me any mind.




Speaking of weird, below is a strange angle of the aforementioned fish cleaning table.  Notice the missing dock planks there on the right.

This old dock, while in need of some TLC and attention, is full of many wonderful memories and never fails to make me feel good whenever I go down there for a visit. (Unless that visit is during a nor'easter and I am wading through knee-high tide to retrieve lawn furniture.  For example.)

If you have any fond memories of a dock, please feel free to share them.  If you've ever fished gill nets, I'd like to hear about that too. If you've never heard of gill nets, Ann Marie will explain what they are since I won't be back on here until very late tonight or tomorrow.


Happy Wednesday.