Semaphore Squares

An unseasonably cold and wet summer continues. There was a slight break in the clouds around the 4th, but things have stayed in a rather Scandinavian state of being in general. So this week I spent cleaning the beach of the wood-slick that washed ashore after the last rains. The silver lining to the wood-slick is that usually if I try to make anything that contains driftwood it is almost immediately burned, but now, there is so much lying about that the pyros are ignoring my piddling wood sculptures. So .... I've been making little squares and filling them in with sticks. I like the woven feel of the wood.
There is something about the way they catch the light when they change direction that makes them infinitely more interesting than your average pile o' sticks...

There is also a pleasing affect caused by the different types of wood, the different colors of bark, thicknesses etc. This circle never got finished because the 4th of July crowd trampled it overnight and I have yet to repair it, but I think it was going in an interesting direction, so I will try to revive it.

Here are the three squares together. They remind me of those little semaphore flags you used to see on boats. I don't know why they remind me of that, but I'm going to stick to that story. If I get a chance and can stay ahead of the ravages of time and indifferent beach-goers I plan a fourth square. We'll see how it plays out.

This week the Stonewave was vandalized again. Somebody keeps pulling stone out of the sculpture. Sometimes it is just malicious stupidity, but this time it was theft. Somebody is hauling the stone away, which I find to be even more maliciously ignorant. When these events occur I go around a couple of days in this kind of fog. I feel dislocated. It is then that I especially appreciate when people give positive feedback about the sculptures. It helps pull me out of the malaise. So thanks for sharing the comment, anonymous.

And to close things out for the day...here is a nice sunset. It's not always about color.

Antediluvian Days

Yesterday the rain came in epic proportions. Some of the worst flooding that I can recall. It fell for hours and at times in sheets that completely obscured vision. I've been in some pretty impressive downpours, especially when in Guatemala during the rainy season. It knows how to rain in Guatemala, but yesterday's rain was impressive for its density. At Tikal you'll get these downpours where the raindrops are the size of tennis balls, but there is an inch or so between the drops, but yesterday the raindrops fell so close together that they rubbed on the way down. It was quite an impressive sight and in this built up environment it had its destructive moments. I haven't been down to the beach yet, but usually downpours such as these have an impact on the bluffs and I even suspect some significant damage to the beachworks. But before the deluge I was working on a companion square to the solstice flower. Right next to it, I squared off a bit and went back to some stick work as there was an abundance of little fits of flotsam wafted ashore as of late. It took an hour or two and if it survives I have plans for a third square and who knows...

I also put a couple of courses of stone on the second wave crest of the Stonewave. This second curve will be a little higher than the first...that is if yesterday's storm didn't undermine things.

We'll pay a visit this afternoon to see how things are.

While biking around the peninsula I came upon a female snapper in the process of excavating a nest. A little late for that I thought and she chose a particualrly bad spot, so I think eventually she will have to move on, but in the mean time she allowed me a photograph or two. Pretty hot, as snappers go.