Moolack Beach and Oyster Catchers

What a fabulous sunny, clear day on the Oregon Coast – late afternoon sunshine glinting on silver sand! Could not believe that it was December in the Pacific Northwest!  Taking advantage of a low tide, we scrambled down the steep hill trail connected to our hotel to take an afternoon walk on Moolack Beach.  Moolack is just a tiny speck of beach south of Beverly Beach State Park, great for beach strolling with not a lot of shells to pick up,  but you can find some agates and also  driftwood.

Incredibly beautiful!  Doesn’t take a whole lot to make me happy… holding hands with Tom and sharing a microbrew beer, clean salt and sea air, sunshine.   (Don’t worry, we DID NOT litter!) Blue sky stretched in every direction with not a cloud to be seen - sparkling sand, and the constant roar of the Pacific Ocean - for me, this is just about perfection.


After walking about 1/4 of a mile we came upon a really interesting  rock and clay formation, pitted with holes bored by some kind of sea worm, reminded me of black lava rock.  Tidepools galore in this display of rock, full of anemones and tiny little fish. A veritable feast for shorebirds with barnacles and limpets perched precariously everywhere!

Looked up from our perusal of sea life in the tidepools and  what did we see -- black oyster catchers running in and out of the incoming tide! Tom was a great tri-pod, hanging on to me so that I could get these pictures.  (I have a tendency to slip and fall, not exactly graceful)

It might be the way they hop from rock to rock, happily gorging on small sea creatures, calling with their distinctive voices to  each other to come join the party, or maybe it’s just the sight of their long, bright red beaks?  Not really sure what it is about  black oyster catchers, but I fell in love while watching these shorebirds scurry on the Oregon Coast rocks about 12 years ago.  Little black bodies, tall skinny legs, beady rimmed yellow eyes and those characteristic scarlet beaks…..

Moon Snail Shell

Found this lovely moon snail shell on my beach travails earlier this week; a walk in the rain and the gray to escape writing and the depression of living indoors in January. 


The more I look at it, the more fascinating it is to me... Look closely at its center, swirling in perfection to create a safe haven for a sea creature to call home.  


Measuring approximately 3" x 3", it is only medium sized, and obviously a little battered and bruised by the tossing in the Puget Sound.  The shell is thick, always cool to the touch,and the inside is worn smooth by living in the sea. Completed by shades of  the color white and streaks of variations of sand and of brown, this moon snail shell s now a new favorite shell in my collection.  


Where to put it so that all of my friends can see its' beauty is now the dilemna....

January in the Pacific Northwest

Feel a little bad complaining about our gray and wet winters when there is so much of the country buried deep in snow.  After 45 (almost 46) years, I think maybe I am entitled to whine a little.  REALLY hoping that this will be my last January in Washington. For those of you that know me, also know how much I struggle with the rain and gray, and also how hard I have to work at overcoming the annual onset of the blahs...

When I first opened "Caron's" in Poulsbo, that was one of my goals - not only for myself, but for especially for our customers.  It seemed to have worked. Cannot tell you the number of people that would come into our light-filled store, painted in the colors of a summer sea,  filled to the brim with beach and coastal reminders, to simply walk around, smell the candles, listen to some jazz,  and would always leave feeling better.

Now, that I am creating a new kind of business, (online, not brick and mortar) I am using those lessons to help me make it through another January, February, March, April and possibly part of May...   Always making sure that I work in a light filled space,  taking breaks to look out at the sound and the ever changing water-landscape, and talking to friends to help beat the Northwest Blues.  Many days, the water is so quiet, hardly a ripple is reflected, all the easier to see the surprise of a sea lion trolling for salmon, or the darting of a bald eagle in search of prey.

Walking helps tremendously, even if it is raining! Here's some photos from a very gray morning today, there's very little color, but brilliant color when I could catch it in the dripping rain. There's also something very beautiful about nature hiding, waiting patiently, silently sleeping, storing up energy to wake up with the coming of spring.