Scusset, Part 2

Continuing on with Sunday's walk at the beach.

Forgot to check the tide tables before I left and was really happy to catch the last of the outgoing tide and watch the sandbars appear.  It's much better for beach combing!

 

It is my hope to get a microscope someday and examine the sand under it. 

I saw two black helicopters!  Don't tell me they don't exist!!!!

Epic Scusset Scores!  We have the coolest rocks in the world.  I would love to know what they are.  So many look to me to be quartz, in all colours, like deep reds and yellows.  Sometimes you get pinkish/purple ones too.  I've googled 'what kinds of rocks are found on Cape Cod' but received no clear answers.  

29 pieces of glass!  Not too shabby!  Plus that metal car.  All the paint is stripped off and it's missing the front wheels too.

I can't believe I found these.  They are the smallest sand dollars I've ever seen. Sadly the smallest one fell apart when I bleached it.

Wordless Wednesday

Seen on Rte. 6A in Sagamore

Finally!

I hate to jinx anything but I think winter might finally be over.  At least the snowy part.  Yesterday was gorgeous.  I got up at 7, downed my coffee and was on Scusset Beach by 8:30.  Haven't been there since last fall, so I didn't know what to expect after the brutal winter storms that battered the beaches.  This is Part 1 of my pics.

Last year I could sit on this bench and swing my feet.  OK granted, I'm really short, but still.  

Quite a few lobster traps have washed up.  I don't believe that it's legal to remove them and I've never seen anyone do it.  I can't find the state regulations about it, but I don't think it's allowed.  Stealing from fishermen is extremely frowned upon and that includes their gear, no matter how battered it is and how picturesque it would look in your garden or front yard.  There are plenty of junk shops that sell them.

I was comfortable in a long sleeved tshirt and my jean jacket, but I did see a few other people bundled up in winter jackets with scarves around their faces & wearing hats.

 Lots of stuff washed on shore from the storms.  Nothing much worth taking though. 

I think this is a piping plover.  The dunes are home to their nests and they are a protected species (much to the chagrin of avid four-wheelers, who complain about limited access to Sandy Neck beach in spring and early summer).

Marin 20 Years Ago

Twenty Years.  How in the world has it been two decades since I lived in Marin County, CA?  We moved to San Rafael in August of 1993, and bought our townhouse in Fairfax, in the summer of 1994.  Sometimes when I hear people say '10 years ago', I first think of 1994 then realize that's 2004.... Like Washington, California has some words that people find hard to pronounce or say incorrectly.  I was guilty of it myself when I first moved there, so I've included pronunciation where needed.

This is sunset and Mt. Tamalpais (tam-ull-PIE-uss) was taken in the late winter of 1994 from my bedroom window at the apartment in San Rafael. 

That spring of 94 I was on a three week medical leave because I had developed bad repetitive motion injury issues in my wrists and arms from typing so much.  My bosses were preparing for a huge trial and I was typing nonstop for over 8 hours a day.  During my time off, I was able to take a lot of hikes and walks around my neighbourhood, on Mt. Tamalpais and in the Marin County Watershed.  It was my arms that hurt, not my legs/feet, so talk about a great little mini vacation!  I was super into hiking in those days too and we went frequently on the weekends, and I went alone a few times too.  I used to hike alone without any fear at all.

Lake Lagunitas (LAH-goo-NEE-tuss).

That hill is called Pilot Knob and it was a grueling hike to the top on a very narrow, overgrown trail through the woods on the other side of the hill.  I would never attempt it now.

Top of Mt. Tam, taken from the top of Pilot Knob

Looking down at Lake Lagunitas from Pilot Knob.

This is from a hike on the north side of Mt. Tam, which was a little bit wetter than the rest of the mountain. You accessed it from a small parking lot near Alpine Lake and it was easily the worst trail I have ever been on. This is another trail that I would never attempt it now.  Back then I was in way better shape too and it just about killed me.  It's called the Cataract Gulch Trail and goes from the lake, straight up to the top of Tam.  We got as far as this bridge before turning around, and going down was worse than the climb.  

It was worth it to see the waterfalls.

Marin's biggest town and county seat is San Rafael (ra-FELL, not 'rah-FY-ell'). This is the old Rafael theatre which was closed at the time.  It's on 4th Street, which was featured in some of the cruising scenes in George Lucas' classic movie 'American Graffiti'.  

Mission San Rafael and a chalk festival, June 1994

This was taken from The West Point trail on Mt. Tam, late spring 1994.

Trail

West Point Inn on Mt. Tam.  You can only access it by hiking there.  It's a day inn...you can play checkers on the porch and get a snack or something to drink.

I shot this picture behind the townhouse we lived at in Fairfax, where we moved in the summr of 94.  Mule deer were a common sight and they had absolutely no fear of humans.  I once heard a weird noise outside the kitchen and looked out the window to see one dining on the shrubs next to the front door.

Our townhouse place, Cañon Village, backed up to the Loma Alta Open Space Reserve and it was full of hiking trails.  I only went to the top once...it was a long hike and there were mountain lions in those hills. You could also hike up to a steep hill above a water tower, but it was treacherous coming down.  This is Mt. Tam from up on those trails.

Looking up at the hill above the water tower.

That's the top of Loma Alta.  I never actually made it to the top, but very close.

It's hard to believe it was so long ago.  I hadn't yet turned 30, and now I'm gonna be 50.  Time flies.  

Temporarily Sidelined

We recently came into a bumper crop of Snocaps candies, which was always my fave movie candy.  But I certainly didn't need 50 or 60 boxes of them so I started doling them out to my friends, esp. after a Triple Choc Chip Cookie recipe showed up on Pinterest, which called for Snocaps.  You can find the recipe HERE.  Let me just add that the raw dough is pretty darn delish too.  I substituted peanut butter chips for the white chox in the recipe.  They should be called 'Triple Chip Drops of Heaven'.  I got about 33 cookies from the recipe.  Oh, the peanut M&Ms are Russell's.

Peepers peepin'

It was my honey's birthday at the end of March.  

I decided to make him a pineapple upside down cake, from scratch no less.  I'd also bought the box mix as a backup plan.  What I liked about the scratch one was that the ingredients seemed much healthier, plus it was going to make a smaller square cake, not the 9x13 pan size, which neither of us needed to be consuming. HERE is the recipe for it, which is from the Betty Crocker website.  It came out pretty good....I only encountered one problem with a pineapple sticking to the dish but it flipped without breaking.  The brown sugar also kinda pooled around the sides and edges more than in the middle.  But hey, he loved it and that's all I care about.  This is, incidentally, the first from-scratch cake I ever made.

All he said he wanted for his bday was a kiss from me, but I got him the M&Ms and a scratch ticket too.

We went to visit his family over the weekend and his sis treated us all to Seafood Sam's take out for his birthday lunch. "Himself" borrowing someone's reading glasses in order to see the menu and sticking his tongue out at me for taking a picture.

One brother and one sister weren't there but I still took a fam photo of his other brother Jimmy, their dad Jim, sister Grace, Russell and Ma.

Carrie and her adorable kids Katie & Abi were there, and my future sister in law Janice (she's married to Jimmy, and we went to high school together too; she was in Russell's class and her sister was in mine).

So anyways, I'm sidelined from doing crafts and anything else that requires the use of my right arm.  We had torrential downpours on Sunday and I slipped on the wooden deck and went down in a crumpled heap on my right side.  I spent that day watching a bunch of Harry Potter movies and weeping off and on.  Finally saw 'Deathly Hallows Part 2' and the floodgates really opened then.  Wow, that was a sad film.  The fall also affected muscles on the left side as well including a slight twist of my left ankle.  Back hurts, neck hurts, every goddamn thing hurts.  That means I can't craft, clean, grocery shop, or do anything else for that matter.  Taking the dogs out is really, really hard because I have to have both leads in my left hand and they are very strong dogs. I still can't go on any day trips yet because it's still icky off and on, and while there are sunny, clear days, everything is in that post-winter drab & yucky mode. Nothing's in bloom.  I have no further blog posts drafted at the mo past 4/3, because I haven't taken any new pics or done anything of import in the craft room.  I'm still working on the butterfly cross stitch and I started a new project, both on hold till my arm stops hurting.  I will be minioning with Tina's Terrific Team for Blogging from A-Z April 2014 but am not participating as a blogger.  I am sure I will get back to a regular posting schedule by next week, hopefully, but I just need to take a little break for a few days till I get better.