Rock Hound

Rocks are so cool, I love them.  I pick them up everywhere, but I've bad about writing down where they came from.  Unfortunately I don't know anything about rocks, what kinds they are or anything.  All I know is they are so pretty, and sparkle like jewels when wet, which is why I pick them up to save.  I either need a rock tumbler or some way of making them look wet all the time w/o leaving them in water. 

Most of these rocks (and shells) I believe are from my trips to the Cape in the mid-2000s, prior to my moving back.  I think it was 2005 when I brought my package to the post office to mail home to Washington, prior to my flight back.  (I always shipped my clothes & stuff ahead of my trips).  The woman at the post office, Paula, knew me and my family from forever.  She grabbed my box, not expecting it's weight.  She grunted with surprise then said, "My god Joanne! What have you got in here?  Rocks?"  I said, "Um....well..actually...yeah, from Sandy Neck and Spring Hill."  She looks over her glasses at me and says, "Don't you have rocks in Washington?"  I said, "Yeah, but not like these."  

From Ruby Beach, Washington.

These are all from since I've been here last summer; there's a dish of them on the kitchen table as well.  Some of them sparkle with gold and silver flakes!

Kalaloch, Washington.  The dark red piece with the 2 stones on it is actually a piece of wood, not a rock.

These are all from Willows Beach, in Victoria, BC.

Quahog

People from outside New England see the word 'quahog' and pronounce it "Kwa-hog'.  This is how we know who is an outsider and who isn't.  "The Family Guy" has helped many people to realize that the proper pronunciation is "Co-hog", as the show is set in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island.  But what is it?

Quahogs are a specific kind of clam.  Most everyone in this area has been quahogging at some point in their lives.  My dad took me a couple times when I was little.  It was one of his fave things to do, to don his hip waders, grab his quahog bucket and rake, and head out to the shellfishing grounds all over the Upper Cape, best harvested from the sandbars at low tide.  Mom and I would eagerly await his arrival home because that meant stuffed quahogs later that day!!!!

How does one find these buried clams without spending hours of fruitless digging?  You look for little holes in the sand, which means there's a clam underneath using the hole to breathe.  I remember one time my dad was digging for them on a huge sand bar and I was walking around, poking holes in the sand with a stick, as a joke.  He did not think it was at all amusing.  Come to think of it that was the last time I was invited....lol

The local Native Americans made wampum from the purple part of the shells, which is what they used as currency.  I can't stop myself from picking up the shards of deep purple shells that litter the beaches here.  

Cape Cod is now apparently known as "Quahog Nation".  This is new since I last lived here.

Every child thinks their parents make the best stuffed quahogs, and I am no different.  My dad's looked like these except he garnished the top with a small piece of bacon before putting it in the oven to bake.  I couldn't WAIT for them to come out.  He'd caution me, "Watch out! Those shells are extremely hot!", but being a kid I'd still end up with a couple burned fingertips from grabbing at them.  I'll have to see if my mom remembers dad's recipe.   All I know is that the clam is chopped really fine and mixed with bread crumbs and spices, and then is served with melted butter.    

Who knows, maybe I'll send the squeeze out to dig for some this summer and make them myself!! 

Project 365 Update

Well I'm still toughing it out with Project 365 although it's damn hard to find stuff to shoot every day. Harder than I thought it'd be.  Here are some recent entries:

Port O'Call Bar, one of BBay's erm.....'finer' establishments....It used to be a Hells Angels bar but not sure of the status now.  

Beautiful crocuses in downtown Sandwich.

Dew drops on the kitchen window screen.

Crossing the Bourne Bridge because the Sagamore Bridge is under construction for the next few months.

We had the most amazing weather one week in mid-March.  Everyone was in shorts and tshirts.  I enjoyed a couple of relaxing days reading on the deck with the pups.

This is a good example of what I call the 'sheer desperation' photo.  It's of part of the stacks on the back of my squeeze's semi truck, which was parked in the yard.  I thought the circles and their shadows looked interesting.

My family chillaxin' one Saturday morning, right before I left to have lunch with a bunch of friends from SHS.

An old jewelry box with all my childhood jewelry and treasures, including my high school class ring.

I still have a loooooooong way to go till December 31st, my 366th (thanks to Leap Year) and final day of this endeavor!!

Onset

We had the most amazingly warm day in mid-March.  And by amazingly warm I mean about 60*.  I wore shorts for the first time this season!  So I decided to take the furkids out for walkies in Onset.  Saw a ton of glass but none of it was worn at all.  It was all pretty fresh.  If it was worn down, it'd be a beach glass junky's paradise.

I let them off leash at Riverside Beach for a bit.

Then I took them over to Onset Beach.

Dump duck with his catch of the day.

A woman and her daughter, who I'd say was no more than 3, were flying this kite.

Narnia

I struggled to find a topic for  the letter N for weeks.  A number of subjects went through my head, none of which floated my boat.  I couldn't think of what to write about that began with N, in which I took an interest.  I nearly settled on doing a post about the New Wave music of the early 80s that I loved, but my M topic was already music-related.  Then it hit me with a big fat "DUH!!"  Narnia!!!

My first experience with these books was in the 8th grade.  My English class straddled all of the lunch periods for the day, so my teacher set it up that the first lunch was our 'silent reading' time.  Then our class had second lunch.  3rd and 4th were for our one hour class.  Mrs. Webster had tons of books available to read and one day I picked up The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis.  I fell in love with it, but I had no idea it was part of a set of books.  

That summer of 78 started cold and rainy, and I ended up spending most of my time reading in my room.  My dad was gathering stuff for a Lions Club yard sale and brought home boxes of books.  In one of the boxes, I found one called The Horse and His Boy, also by C.S. Lewis, so I snatched it up to read.  It was then that I noticed the list of 7 Narnia books on the dust jacket.

My parents, being the practical people that they were, didn't believe in buying books if you could get them from the library.  I pestered my mom to take me there so that I could check out the rest of the series.  That was pretty much the theme that whole summer.  Checking them out constantly and reading them over and over. And over.  I don't think anyone else had a chance to read them that summer because I had them!!!  Needless to say, I was sooooo excited to get the entire set for my birthday in November!!!  Did you know that the British editions are different than the American ones?  C.S. Lewis rewrote parts of them for the American release.  And yes, I own both versions.  Of the 7, Voyage of the Dawn Treader is my fave one and I was greatly disappointed in the movie that came out a few years ago.  While "LWW" and "Caspian" stayed true to the books, "Dawn Treader" veered wildly off plot, which I ranted about HERE.

I found the poster of the Map of Narnia at a shop in Hyannis the in the summer of 1979, and I used my allowance to buy it and have it mounted on foam board.  I may be 47, but it still hangs on my wall to this day.

I still love to read these books every now and again, and can't help but wish that C.S. Lewis could have fleshed them out more. I kinda wish that J.K. Rowling could take a crack at them and make them as long as her Potter books!!!

Music I Can Go the Rest of My Life Without Hearing Ever Again

While I am a music lover, I am kind of stuck in a certain time period when it comes to what I listen to.  So when I'm in the car, all my stations are ones that play Classic Rock and/or Oldies.  When I was growing up, the Oldies station played stuff from the 1950's.  Now they play stuff from the 70's.  Songs I once loved, and now loathe, due to being over played.  

There was a time when I would drop what I was doing to listen to "Layla" or "Light My Fire."  Now I hear them on the radio, yell out "BORING!" as I furiously punch the next button, and the next one, trying to find something I'm not sick of, something that hasn't been played to absolute death.  I go up the wall whenever a DJ puts on someone requesting a song.  It's always some lame, overplayed, oh-god-if-I-hear-this-again-I'm-taking-hostages song or band.  That's when I yell out, "CLICHE!!!!"  It's usually at this point when all 6 of my programmed stations are playing shit or commercials, that I pop in a mix tape.  And some of the songs on my mix tapes, which weren't in the 'oldies' category when I made the tapes, are now overplayed on the radio so I fast forward through them too.  Like the Police.  I was never a fan of "Roxanne" even when it was a new song, but I find myself growing weary of the stuff from the "Synchronicity" album, my fave, which bums me out.  

I could go the rest of my life without ever hearing the following songs and/or bands:  

Bruce Springsteen, nearly everything by Bob Seger & the Rolling Stones, Eurythmics, The Doors, a lot of Eric Clapton songs, Aerosmith, Journey, Steve Miller Band, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Squier, 38 Special, James Taylor, Boston, Robert Palmer (except "Every Kinda People"), the Beatles (sorry Val), those sexist pigs ZZ Top (I've actually hated them my whole life), Blondie, REO Shitwagon, Van Morrison, Queen (except for "Killer Queen") (sorry Madi),  J. Geils Band, the Cars, the Who *coughoverratedcough*, Madonna, Fleetwood Mac (except for "Hypnotised" which never, ever gets played anyway).  More than a handful of Elton John songs; quite a few in fact.  U2, except for their first album & one other song.  I used to love Dire Straits.  Not so much anymore, but for "Skateaway", which also never gets played.  All the Led Zeppelin songs except "Hey Hey What Can I Do"......you know come to think of it, I'm glad the songs that I really like don't get played because I don't wanna become sick of them too.  But I digress..... 

"Maggie May", "Jack & Diane,  John Lennon's "Imagine".   "Boys of Summer", "Cuts like a knife", "My Sharona", "You shook me all night long" (*yawn*), "Only the good die young", "Arthur's Theme", "Bad Bad Leroy Brown",  "Hotel California", "Take it Easy", "Life in the Fast Lane",  "Life's Been Good" (can you see an Eagles theme here?), "Do you believe in love", "I will survive", "My Sharona", "Runnin on Empty".  I used to love "I Melt with you" till the Hershey company started inundating us with it in their candy commercials.  David Bowie's "Changes".  The Clash's big hits "Should I stay or should I go" and "Rock the Casbah".   "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Show me the way".  "Barracuda" and "Magic Man". Van Halen's "Jump".  Free's "All right now" and Thin Lizzy's "Boys are back in town" are two of my most despised songs ever.

This is really just the tip of the iceberg.  I know there are plenty more songs and bands that I have come to loathe but I just can't think of them off the top of my pointed head.  See, this is why I make mix tapes.  If I had any idea how to use the iPod Jaime sent me, I'd start transferring music onto it now!!  Till then, I'll just keep rotating my giant collection of mix tapes in and out of my car.

Laughter: Good for the Soul

Those of you who know me really well, which is most if not all of you, know my sense of humour is more than a little offbeat.  And based on the hilarious stuff I see on Pinterest and Facebook, it seems I'm in the majority.  I love to laugh.  I'll burst out laughing at stuff that happened days ago.  No matter how crappy a day I'm having, my friends always find a way to make me laugh and it makes me feel better.  

Here are some of the more recent things that have cracked me up every time I see them, no matter what.  Hope you think they are as funny as I did:

Win.

For those of you who have never seen "Spongebob Squarepants", Patrick is his pink starfish bff.

Now where are my Samoas?

*Cackle*

Kalaloch

I was really stuck for the letter "K" for our Alphabetical April Blogging Challenge, so I thought I would revisit a few photos of Kalaloch Beach, in Washington State.  Since I've been posting so many east coast beach photos since moving back, and I have new readers, I wanted to show how much wilder the Washington Coast is than here.  

I shot these in March, 2010.  Kalaloch is pronounced "Clay-lock", and the original blog post is HERE.  It was an almost 4 hour drive from my former home in Bonney Lake, near Tacoma, out to the Olympic Peninsula coastline, but SO worth it!

The beaches on the coast are littered with beach logs, and you never ever want to turn your back to the Pacific Ocean.  Beach logs will kill and they are tossed ashore by the waves.

Kalaloch Lagoon.

View through the arch at the Lodge.

Kalaloch Lodge.  I didn't stay inside the main building, but in a cute cabin on the property.

The sun sets into the Pacific Ocean.