With apologies to Edward Bulwer-Lytton; but when I see a bunch of stormy clouds I always think of this line from Paul Clifford, the 1830 novel from which the phrase, It was a dark and stormy night, comes. Here's the original opening sentence of the novel:
It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents - except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.
The phrase is considered to represent "the archetypal example of a florid, melodramatic style of fiction writing," also known as purple prose. I mention this because, I must admit, on occasion I am a wee bit guilty of some aureate (It's a real word, look it up!! Hahahaha) writing.
So, having established that I have close ties with a world-famous author, what say we kick the tires and light the fires on this Bad Boy!!
Flame On!!
As The Human Torch used to say in those great Marvel Comics of the Sixties!
Flame On!!
As The Human Torch used to say in those great Marvel Comics of the Sixties!
Oh, btw, the storms will come later in the day. Be patient.
First off, it was a pleasant morning. Took care of some easy business and even went out without a jacket it was that nice. After all the errands there was nothing else for a retired boy to do but kick back and enjoy the day.
While I was camped out on Fort Couch, I heard a sharp yelp from Carol and, BOOM!! she was off!!
She'd spotted, (and this is the girl who is always complaining about her poor eye-sight) from the couch mind you, a whale spout...way out there...in the ocean.
And so she grabbed her binoculars and a lawn chair from the back and set up shop on the grassy knoll overlooking the ocean. And she spotted several whales. They were even rolling around out there, breaking the water with their flukes. She was even able to help some of the beach goers to zone in on the whales.
Nothing but fun and excitement here.
Later, having occupied the Ol' Couch for the best part of the afternoon, I was feeling like I should go out for a walk and so, after watching Bill O'Reilly, Carol and I set out for a nice walk. It was 1800 and we still had around two and a half hours of daylight left.
We're still so new here that if we walk anywhere it is still a fresh and novel experience. So far when we've gone out for walks, we've headed towards the beach. We've not been disappointed at all with those walks.
But today I was thinking we'd shake things up a bit and walk for a while down our street, NW Jetty Avenue. Hey, that's why they call me Adventure Jackie!!
Hahahaha, right!!
So we set off heading south down NW Jetty Avenue. We've driven it but not walked it as far as we did today. And it is Spring now...and even here, next to the beach, there are still some flowers. Not a lot, mind you, but enough.
We'd gone about 3/10ths of a mile when I turned around and got this shot looking back toward our place. There's the mini on the left. Our house lies in a slight depression with a small hill to the north and a slight rise to the south.
And we have learned there is a lot of pedestrian traffic up and down The Jetty. (Hint: That's the new name for our street...The Jetty. I will use that from now on. Ain't I the cool one, eh?)
And just down from our place, near The Surftides Motel, is Wecoma Park. You remember I've mentioned that Lincoln City is a consolidation of six small communities into the one larger one? Where we live was once Wecoma, which they think is Chinook greeting for being happy to see the waters. Now they call it a neighborhood. We're in the Wecoma neighborhood.
So just down from us is this small park with a small playset on it. More important, especially with the summer coming up, is the public bathroom facilities there. They will become very important on this beach. You see, there are just a few public facilities within a couple of miles along the beach.
Gives new meaning to that old Chinook greeting, doesn't it.
And, no surprise here, it started to spritz a bit. We were prepared with the BIG umbrella. Hahaha, we're learning!!
CB
OK, I invite you to open up a new window and get Google Maps on it. Go ahead, I'll wait.
OK, got it?
Good, now enter our address in it.
Now I want you to go to the satellite view, you know, the one where it shows you the pictures of the area looking down from the sky.
Got it? Now I want you to zoom in on our house and then follow The Jetty down to the south until you get to Wecoma Park. Notice all the buildings all around the area? Now, find the open area between 26th and 28th Streets along The Jetty. See that one small area completely surrounded by homes?
Yeah, well, we're walking by that small open area when Carol, you remember her, don't you? The one with the bad eyesight? Hahaha, spots this guy about 60 yards away in this 'field'.
What the...!?!?!
And he wasn't alone!!
Geez, is this place amazing or what!?!?!
Whale watching from the front yard in the afternoon and then later we just stroll down about six blocks from our place and watch the deer as they graze in a small field.
This is the field we spotted them in. You can see them if you squint your eyes and use a magnifying glass. There they are about a third of the way across the picture from the left.
A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.
I got a grab off the Internet to show you the field where we spotted the deer...
I gotta admit, not many people can say they watched whales and deer feeding all in the same afternoon.
Here's a look towards the south down The Jetty.
Not all that pedestrian friendly but it fits the bill for Carol and I.
This is here just for the name they have on their garage. This house is at a point where the beach goes out a bit further and so The Jetty isn't the street fronting the ocean. Which means that the name for this house (and many people here in Wecoma do this, name their houses), is very appropriate.
See it? There on the garage?
Nadavue.
Which is funny because so many places are named something or other + Vue.
OK, and this is here just because it is Spring.
'Nuff said.
What a great house, eh?
And topping it off is a Widow's Walk.
Fun Facts: A widow's walk is frequently found on 19th-century coastal houses. The romantic myth is that the wives of mariners would use them to watch for their husband's ship to return home, often in vain, as the sea would claim many of them leaving the women widows. Sounds good but, unfortunately, it's a myth.
The Widow's Walks are, in fact, a standard decorative feature of Italianate architecture, which was popular during the Age of Sail in many coastal communities. It's a variation of the Italianate cupola.
Beyond their use as viewing platforms, the Widow's Walks were often built around the chimney of the residence creating access to the structure. This allowed the residents of the home to pour sand down burning chimneys in the event of a chimney fire in the hope of keeping the house from burning down. Oh, these small platforms are also known as a Captain's Walk, too.
We were able to get a good view of the ocean there...and the dramatic sunset.
There will be more pictures of this sunset.
Count on it.
From whales to deer to sunsets.
We've got it all.
And it's all there just for the taking.
All you gotta do is make the effort.
And sometimes, if you look down, you can get good shots, too. Yeah, I know it sounds corny but it really does pay to look down, too.
And then, quick now, look up again.
I can't do this too often because I get dizzy and fall down.
A lot.
This is just a fun looking beach cottage. Very nice.
We're trying to figure out how to approach this, but we want to do a project on the decorations found on all these beachside houses. Like this, a street number done up in a....lighthouse!! Hahaha, there it is again, another lighthouse.
Annnnnd, Spring, again. A broom plant.
And a couple of European Starlings.
Oh, and we saw a couple of Stellar's Jays, too.
There's all kinds of interesting stuff to shoot on the houses.
Like this tuna...done up out of license plates.
Where'd they get the red?
I got an interesting shot shooting almost directly into the sun. The road leads up to the bluff overlooking the beach.
And this one found a new friend. He couldn't play with us as he's at work hawking the Nordic Oceanfront Inn.
Watch your hands, there, Missy!!
We made it down to 21st Street and decided to walk back on the beach. They have a beach access at 21st Street which made the decision all the easier.
I've mentioned the bluff before. The Jetty rises as it moves south and the beach doesn't and so there's a pretty significant drop to get down to the beach. There are 131 steps to get from the bluff to the beach...and vice versa.
One Hundred and Thirty-One Freakin' Steps!!
There is no way I'm going up these. Ever.
Down I do. Reluctantly.
Going up? Fuhgettabout it!!
We were almost all the way down when Carol spotted this little guy. A Song Sparrow.
 |
| Whatchu lookin' at, Willis? |
Hahaha, I admit it. Just walking down all those steps put a strain on my knees. I can do it once a day...maybe.
No mas.
But look at our reward!!
What a kick!!
The tide was going out. We still had maybe an hour and a half, maybe two hours before low tide. These folks are looking for the tide pools.
And then out to the sea for the sunset.
OK, we're on the beach walking back home now. Most everything now will be of the sun...setting.
Hey, it's still a novel experience for me...the sun...setting...over the ocean.
And this one was having a great time...
I'm walkin' on the beach
Just walkin' on the beach,
What a glorious feelin'
I'm happy again
I'm laughing at clouds
So dark up above...
Yada, yada, yada.
She's off exploring.
I had shoes on so I stayed a bit inland. And while Carol explored, I looked and shot pictures.
There's just so much to see and to shoot.
And I'm still crappy at editing out pictures.
But sometimes it's epic what the camera can do with Mother Nature.
It's awe-inspiring.
There is a design here. This didn't just happen.
And we can come out here and be a part of this every day.
How lucky are we?
I'm thinking I'd like to do something just on clouds.
With an occasional seagull thrown in for laughs and giggles.
Then we saw these kids (everyone under the age of 50 is a kid to me) boogey-boarding. See the three off to the right side? The one in the middle was taking movies of the others and two of them are checking out what she shot of them on their boards.
The fourth guy is still out there riding the water.
And quick as that, we were back. Carol got in one last selfie with her cell.
Let's see, whale watching!! Check!!
Deer watching!! Check!!
Sunset watching? Check!!
Havin' fun? Double-Check!!
Hahahaha, what a day. When we got up there were no expectations but this day turned out to be awesome!!
Life is good!!
Hooah!!
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