Periwinkle

These shots (along with Friday's) were taken from the public landing at the end of Town Point Landing road just below the Court House.

That public landing used to be a prime place from which to view submarine races back in the day.  Not that I personally know anything about any of that; it was just common knowledge.

Moving right along.

Those little creatures clinging to the reeds of grass are periwinkle snails, which are very common around here.

Of course, we never called them periwinkles when we were kids.  They were just snails.  And they were a source of amusement, believe it or not.  I remember sitting down along the shoreline staring intently at them for hours on end, there was nothing else to do around here an inordinate amount of time.

What kind of a kid finds amusement staring at snails?  Probably the same sort of person who finds great joy in wearing a crab hat, would be my guess. One thing's for sure, this person is a tad off kilter, if not bizarre very easily entertained.

According to my BFF Wikipedia, periwinkles were introduced to the Atlantic coast of North America possibly by rock ballast in the mid-19th century.

Another site stated that they are among the few sea creatures which breathe air, and their name comes from the Old English "penny winkle," since you could buy them for a penny per handful or two pennies per pound.

According to this site, they are believed to climb the marsh grass to avoid predators such as the blue crab.

I wonder if I could get any sort of reaction out of them by wearing my crab hat down by the shoreline? Guess who's just silly enough to try?

Last but not least, whenever I see the word "periwinkle" I think of the Crayola crayons shade of blue. Aside from staring at snails, coloring was a big activity in the Chesapeake Bay Family household. One of my favorite shades was cornflower blue.

This concludes our brief look at how little there was to do around here as a kid periwinkles.

Have a great day.

Hunting

Yesterday morning I drove down to Aaron's Beach to see how The Green was coming along. In the winter, the marsh grasses and reeds turn brown and grey just like my hair everything else. When the green finally returns all is right with my world.

As it turns out, The Green has taken over most of The Gray, but these reeds have some more growing to do. Normally they're over my head, just like my laundry pile.

But today is not about laundry piles because if it were I'd be asking how it is humanly possible for there to be 4,685--and a half--white socks and nary a one matches. Or perhaps it's just more difficult to match 4,685 1/2 white socks when you are blinking back tears because you've never seen so many unmatched socks in your life.

No, rather than ascend Mt. Laundrest, today I am going on a Blog Hunt with Mathews Mark and possibly Bay Man, if he can make it off the island at all in time.

(Bay Man has his own pace--I'll call it on par with a periwinkle--as well as his own time zone over there. Although Mathews Mark and I are meeting at 8:30 a.m., that translates into 10:00 Eastern (not so) Standard Gwynns Island time. Hi, Bay Man!)

Anyway, Mathews Mark, possibly Bay Man and I are going on a Blog Hunt, which is not where we stalk blogs but where we search for places, things or people to blog about.

Based on what Mathews Mark has told me, there are some very exciting prospects lined up for this hunt, although with Mathews Mark I'd have enough to blog about in the first five minutes of conversation, which may or may not involve blow toads (see yesterday's comments).

Stay tuned early next week for the results of this Blog Hunt. I'll be off-line most of the weekend and it will take me atl least that long to download, then upload, the photos from today's escapades.

Hope your weekend is fantastic, devoid of unmatched socks and blow toads.

And now a few questions for you, even though this post was declared a laundry-free zone a few paragraphs earlier:

1. For those of you who are organized types, what is the secret to taming these beasts known as mismatched white socks?

2. How often do you do laundry?

3. From the clean clothes basket to the kids' closets and drawers - how does this happen? When I make them do it, they stuff the basket in a corner of their room, then pile dirty clothes on top of that, and then I end up inadvertently doing loads of already-clean laundry, which is truly the last indignity.