once more, with feeling

we were at the beach last week.  i know.  i know, i know that you must be weary of all of my beach love talk.  i know.

the thing is, i adore the beach.  i adore every single thing about the beach.  all of it.  

i love the ocean, of course, with it's crashing waves and it's endless views and that horizon line.  i love the sky over the ocean and how it can be such a saturated shade of grey, or blue, or full of big white clouds, and how it can change on a dime.  

and the sand.  i love the sand.  my preference is for the coarse, grainy sand rather than the fine powdery sort, but really, i'll take any of it.  i love the way it feels between my toes.  i love to lie down flat on the sand, looking up at the sky and feel the entire length of my body warmed by the sun-baked sand.  i love the way it feels when i scoop up a big handful and let it slide through my fingers.  i even love finding it in the corners of cars and at the bottom of backpacks days later, when we're home and missing the beach.

there's more.  

i love the sun.  i love the shade of the beach umbrella, too.  i love sitting in those little folding low-to-the-ground beach chairs, especially when i set them right at the surf line and the waves are crashing in my lap.  i love to read at the beach, wearing big plastic-y sunglasses and maybe a hat.  and i love to color at the beach too (i have a set of colored pencils and watercolor paints just for this purpose - there's sand in both boxes.) - i love sitting on a towel with my children with little yogurt-cups of saltwater between us and paintbrushes poking up from the sand all around us.

and i love evening on the beach, when the sun is dipping low and i begin to feel the need for a sweatshirt.  i love watching the sun set from the beach, sinking below the horizon - whether over the water or over the dunes.  (oh!  the dunes.  i love the dunes and their spiky grasses and squat bushes.)   i love grey days at the beach too - the haze, the cool, the way the colors of the sand and the sea change when they're free from the blazing sun.  

i love lunch on the beach; sandwiches packed in coolers, and grocery bags full of grapes that get a tiny bit crunchy once those sandy hands have visited the bag, peach pits buried in the sand.  i love how pretzels taste extra salty there, and how dessert is never necessary because i know there's a walk to town for an ice cream cone in my future.  

i love how time seems to move differently at the beach.  how i can sit on the beach for hours and the day seems to melt by like honey.  how i can spend an entire day looking out over that ocean, laying in that sand, eating sandwiches smushed from the cooler, painting, swimming, gathering rocks (don't get me started on the beach rocks!), walking, talking, napping, reading, looking out at the ocean some more, and suddenly the sun is starting to set and the day has gone by in what feels like an instant.  i love that.  all of it.

we're home now.  the light has already turned; it's not quite so bright when i wake in the mornings, there's more of a warm glow instead.  my favorite dogwood tree is turning the color of macintosh apples.  there are leaves on the ground.  school starts in twelve days.  summer is slipping through my fingers like that last handful of sand.

Comments

[RW]

lovely
and
evocative
prose
and
beautiful
calm
images

peace to you.

[Katie @ cakes, tea and dreams]

oh, gorgeous photos. you make the beach sound like heaven.

welcome back. (by the way, I made zucchini bread using the recipe you linked to - and it's delicious.)

[Tracy]

"the day seems to melt by like honey,"

that is exactly right. And I think it's my favorite part about the beach, although I love everything, just like you. but I love that I have the ability to LET time melt by like honey at the beach.

Someday, I'd like to go to the beach with you.

[Sarah Jackson]

I want to go back to the beach. I feel like my summer ended 3 weeks ago when I left it. Someday we should all go to the beach together.

[Tara Thayer]

oh, thank you, emily. this was beautiful. and the "peach pits buried in the sand"...well, an image of myself at eleven or so came right before my eyes.

[erin]

your love for the beach makes me smile.

[Ali]

I so so so miss living by the beach. Beautiful words and pictures.

[Rose]

Well, you just wrote the post I was planning in my head as I walked back from the beach today. I agree with all of it!

[Nancy]

Love your evocative photos. I've been beach-obsessed here as well--can't get it out of my head--and our trip was nearly two weeks ago...

[Allison]

Yes.

[Leonie]

Oh so eloquent, beautiful.

[Janice]

my sentiments exactly!!! we (me and my little family) are never more content than we are at the beach. i love these photos and your thoughts. thanks you.

[rachel]

oh, I couldn't agree with you more Emily. I have always adored the way I could just sit at the beach all day long, letting time pass by. And I looked out of my window this evening to notice the back yard is already confetti-strewn with leaves. sigh.

[beth]

I love all that, too !

wow....I got goose bumps from your words but now I'm depressed that I'm sitting in wisconsin and not in the sand listening to the waves....

I feel some whining coming to the surface !

[Vanessa Rae]

I miss the beach and these pictures have brought the pleasure of the ocean right to me. Thanks for sharing and glad you're back!

[Elizabeth]

I really like the sand photos--the texture and different colors are so beautiful

[cloth.paper.string]

oh emily, your words pull me in like the undertow. i'm so glad you continue to share your love for a place that is so dear to me.

[Mama Urchin]

goodness, you just described my last week

[Ink Cartridge Recycling]

I loved the way you exlpained things. Much better many here

Regards
Kristina