Friday, July 4, 2014

the beach and...can you guess?


My grandgirl Autumn is here for her week and we have been busy!

We spent the day at the beach in Matagorda yesterday. It was hot but not too hot, it was windy but not too windy, and we had shade via the patio umbrella and stand we brought.

This is the beach at Matagorda on the Gulf Coast. The water was pleasantly and surprisingly clear, for the Gulf Coast. Visibility was about 12” deep. The Gulf, for those of you who are not coastal residents, is usually very muddy looking due to the currents that keep the fine sand granules suspended in the water.


This time of year the sargasso seaweed comes in and blankets the shore. It's in the water too.


This flock of brown pelicans was trailing this fishing boat, or so it seemed to me.


Four seagulls poking around in the beached seaweed.


It rained inland.


Autumn and I body surfed in the waves or hung out in the swells in the space between the sandbars. We had a lot of surf in the morning but by the time we left the breakers were only happening on the closest sandbar.


In the dunes there were white and pink goatsfoot morning glories and something similar that was yellow. Their blooms had closed by the time we left and I stopped to take pictures, but this little pink star was blooming. It's about the size of a dime.


Last year Autumn daintily applied (old) sunscreen and came home with a bad sunburn that peeled. So this time I got new super sunscreen and made sure she applied it liberally and reapplied a couple of hours later.

She did not get sunburned.

I, on the other hand, did not reapply sunscreen and I did get red.


It's not actually as bad as it looks. I get red but I don't burn easily. It isn't and hasn't been the least bit painful.

The downside is that I don't hold a tan either. Any tan I get fades pretty quickly.



12 comments:

  1. oh, dear! that does look bad, but i'll take your word for it that you're okay. :)

    looks like a really fun day for you!

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  2. Looks like Lake Michigan except for the seaweed. Love the big cloud pic.

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  3. You are such a good grandmother. May you not suffer tonight from the burn.

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  4. What a glorious way to spend the day. Looking good Ellen

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  5. I don't tan either. Thanks for the pics of the beach! I've never been to beaches in your part of the world so it was interesting to see what they look like. Have you ever been to the coast in Brazoria? I've heard there's great birdwatching there.

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  6. Oh, Ellen, you really took me back in time with this post. As much of a Minnesota North Woods girl as I am, I will never get the Gulf Coast out of my blood. I've spend many many summers imbibing that sticky air and sunshine on east beach in Galveston. Remembering the crazy stinky seaweed and the temptation to pop the bulbs, and the delicate angel-wing bi-valve shells crunching underfoot if I wasn't picking them up to save for God knows what, the sandpipers and the noisy seagulls. The murky warm waters and how I always managed to step on a fin or something walking out into the waves. I love it that you spent such beautiful time with your grandgirl. She is so fortunate to have you in her life! Thanks for the memories. Wonderful evocative post.

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  7. The surf sounds fun, the red not. I keep sunscreen in all my vehicles.

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  8. It seems there was no one on the beach but you two and seagulls and sun.

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  9. Ouch on the sunburn. I really applied lots of sunscreen my last trip and am so glad that I did.

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  10. oops. A sunburn. Oh well. You will survive I'm sure.

    The gulf coast is so primal. The seaweed, the sandy water, the pelicans. It's like being transported to another age. I haven't been in a long time but I remember. Wow.

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  11. The idea of body-surfing sounds so refreshing right now. It's sooo hot in New York. We haven't gone to the beach this summer and I don't think we will. Not we my surgeries.

    Love the wee flower. It looks like jewel in the sand.

    Sooo happy you didn't really get sunburned.

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