Equinox on the Beach...almost

So a couple of years ago we had a little equinox party on the beach. Last year we fell foul of the weather gods, but this year we were back in their good graces so the tradition continued (tradition being very loosely interpreted here).

The weather was glorious and the libations were uplifting and there was a pleasant coming and going of people which lasted until sunset. At that point the remaining ten sacrificed the goat, watched summer slip away and then made the long climb back up the bluff to their lives.

I must say that there is nothing quite like spending the day on the shore with its repetitious rush of wave to beach, accompanied by the wind in the leaves, shishing back and forth like calloused hands rubbing together. All this lit by the yellow sun that has lost its white summer intensity and glows instead of shines in a soft blue sky.

Brian brought some fish and we put them out in the water a ways. It was a bit tricky getting them into the bottom of the lake because of all of the stone, and then at the moment we decided to put them in the water, the surf decided to kick up. Although the water was actually warmer than the air, I was a bit offended at the assault. The way the fish were leaping out of the water was made even more appealing by their movements caused by the waves. It was a nice little kinetic effect and in the end well worth the dampening of our parts.

I made a couple of circles while we were there. The stick circle really looked nice in the afternoon light and made an interesting counterpoint to the setting sun. This weekend I will go down and see what is left of the pieces and I may have some time to do a little work.

And when the sunset finally came it was a beauty as several have been of late. And so we mark the end of another summer and enter into Erie's most beautiful months...September and October. In the perfect world they have our September and October every month.

Happy Equinox.

Revisiting Some Old Work

I have not been able to go down to the beach in a while, and when that happens I always get a little jumpy, not getting my fix. I also worry about the vandalism, which always puts me in a dark place. I suppose I should practice a little Buddhist detachment, but that just might be something I won't be able to get to in this incarnation. If the waves swept things clear, I could live with that, but human folly...

This Saturday in the afternoon, weather permitting, there will be a little equinoctial gathering of some of the tribe. Some art types, colleague types, friend types, neighbor types, so if you are in the neighborhood and care to stop by and share a moment, you are welcome. If the lake gods cooperate we'll stay for the sunset.

I was just going through my files and pulled up a few images from the past to post for the selfish purpose of seeing them again....

This is the time of year when any new stone comes as a gift of storms. So additional work on the Stonewave will be minimal for the most part and I'll start working on some smaller temporary pieces and do repairs on the vandalized parts and other touch-up work before the snow flies, at least that is what the sunset usually says around the equinox.

Crazy Things Washing Ashore

So, on the actual day of Labor Day, I couldn't really do much stone work because of the conditions, so in keeping with the Dao of the beach, I spent the evening working with sticks. Of which there is an abundance as of late. Little sticks. Nice little sticks most of them. It's like the Exxon Valdez crashed off the coast carrying a cargo of sticks. So, I went back to the circle idea and tried a couple of variations. I'm getting better at these things and in the end, I liked the way this looked in the raking light of the afternoon sun.

And there was a beautiful sunset to finish the day off, so I guess this counts as a pretty good day to be alive.

And for you recent commenters, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

The New Wave Grows

Well, the Labor Day weekend turned out to be laborious. I spent about 4 hours a day on the beach as the water was calm and clear and the weather warm. Ideal conditions that have occurred only three times this summer. So the Stonewave has grown substantially. This is what it looks like from out on the water a ways. Took a little boat ride courtesy of a beach neighbor. The forms are not exactly what I'm shooting for, but once weather turns I can rework the wave crests to make them closer to what I want. If the elements permit, I might also get the fourth wave crest in before winter.


This is what it looks like from land and at this angle the waves look more like what I want them to look like.


Just since this Fall, the wall has stopped so much sediment from running into the lake that the ground at the back of the wall is now two feet higher than the beach side. The plant life is pretty lush as well.

The view from behind the wall out towards the lake is kind of interesting in the light at this time of the year as the sun barely clears the bluffs to light up the back of the wall.

I like the curve of the front of this wave and the color of stone and vegetation is quite pleasant. Very late summer in feel, if you ask me.

In the last two photos, the late afternoon sun really changes the stones' attitudes and they start to feel quite pleased with themselves, almost to the point where they imagine themselves stonework fit for El Dorado.

Prehistoric Beast Washes Ashore

Well, imagine you are walking along the shore of the lake. The water is calm and clear for the first time all summer. So you wade in and begin to pull out the trash that washes in with regularity from who knows where...bricks, chunks of concrete, rusted metal pipes, broken glass, etc. Then, about fifteen feet away, from out of the water, a head arises on a long slender neck. It hovers above you suggesting the creature may be thirty feet in length! Its small head lowers and you can see its mouth lined with tiny sharp teeth, perfect for snatching small fish. It looks directly into your face with its large lidless eyes and then backs away slowly and slips into the water and with a powerful sweep of its hind quarters it is gone. That most certainly has never happened to me. But wouldn't it be cool if it did! Instead what happened was, as I was wading along pulling crap out of the lake, I thought I saw a smashed can so I reached down and it turned out not to be a can at all, but rather a prehistoric beast that had washed ashore, just like I said in the title, but it was fossilized of course. Almost as cool as seeing a live lake monster.

It is about 7 inches in diameter and sliced about 3/4 of an inch thick. The back is the shell, but this view shows the inner structure. It is some kind of nautaloid/snaily looking thing with the inner chambers filled with different materials. Right near the opening there appears to be hardened sand. The next several chambers have a more quartz-like look. Some of the chambers are filled with dark brown material and some with a raw umber colored material. It's absolutely beautiful as you can see. If anybody out there knows what this is and when it lived in Lake Erie, I'd be curious to find out.

The stone wave is slowly growing as well. Here is what it looked like two weeks ago. It is starting to gather some momentum.

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.