And I enjoyed the world aright for the sea itself floweth

[sovay]

spatch and I are on Cape Cod for the weekend. The cuffs of my jeans are full of sand.



We are staying in the spare house of my father's friend who lives here; normally she rents it to summer people, but there has been a dearth of those this summer, and since we both re-tested negative at the beginning of this week, she feels safe with our presence. This afternoon we went to Corporation Beach.



We were not the only people on the beach, because Massachusetts has begun the second phase of reopening and I feel just as ambivalent about it as I do about the concept of reopening at all, but they were scattered widely enough that we could go without masks in public for the first time in three months. Rob took this picture of me as soon as I took off my shoes and socks and waded into the water by a spit of rocks, as the tide was coming in.



I felt like a heliotrope, turning my face to the sea's sun.



I like this rather captainly picture of Rob in turn. We agreed that if we were going to build a house within sight of the sea, we would not skimp on the widow's walk.



I once had a vivid dream of an unraveling edge of water like this one spilling across the threshold of an empty room, turning floorboards into sea. I have never managed to turn it into a story, except that it is so many of the stories I tell.



I would appreciate any help in identifying this jellyfish, which I had to snap as the waves tugged it in and out among bubbles and sand and thin ribbons of bright green weed. We saw a couple of moon jellies both bobbing and beached and a larger gelatinous puddle farther up the beach, but this quite alive specimen resembled none of them.



This was just a lovely piece of bladderwrack.



The tide flows in and the tide flows out.



Twice every day returning.



The beach is full of memento mori: shells of clams and snails and limpets, crab claws and carapaces, the spines and in one case the silvery, slippery, folded-out skin that had covered the head of a fish. I still find them beautiful.



Shell, stone.



My father had advised me that the water was too cold for wading or swimming this early in the year, so I left my swim trunks in my duffel. I forgot that my ideas of reasonable water temperatures are at least ten degrees colder than my father's. I believe in this photo I was retrieving a small white clam shell. My jeans are still drying.



The waves were thick with seaweed. It felt suddenly astonishing to be holding this piece, slick and rust-gold, tooth-white fragments of barnacle still latched to the root.



It is not a dramatic picture, but I like this one. I liked what I was looking at.

I did not appreciate that we were eventually chased off the beach by a large and noisy birthday party converging on the picnic benches, especially since not a one of the children or adults was wearing a mask, but we came home and my father had made us deep-dish pizza from scratch and then we ourselves cooked a piece of salmon we had brought from Boston, very simply, in a pan, with butter and lemon pepper, and it is strange not to have had little cats insinuating themselves into the kitchen, but I trust they will forgive us when we return. We will have more sea first.

Comments

[nineweaving]

We will have more sea first.

How lovely!

Nine

[sovay]

How lovely!

I hadn't been to the sea in six months. It's wonderful.

[thawrecka]

You look great and so does that jellyfish.

[sovay]

You look great and so does that jellyfish.

Thank you!

(I do want to know what it is. I can recognize only either very common or very dramatic jellies.)

[vass]

I'm so glad you got to have sea, and that you shared those beautiful pictures of it.

[sovay]

I'm so glad you got to have sea, and that you shared those beautiful pictures of it.

Thank you!

[strange_complex]

Aw, I am so glad you got some sea at last! I have felt so sad for you about that, and seeing you enjoying it so much in these pictures really made me smile.

Also, your hair is amazing! I knew it was long, but from these pictures I see it is literally twice as long as I'd previously realised. Mine is just too thin and weak to grow out to that length, so I am officially jealous!

[sovay]

Aw, I am so glad you got some sea at last! I have felt so sad for you about that, and seeing you enjoying it so much in these pictures really made me smile.

Thank you! It has been restorative.

Also, your hair is amazing! I knew it was long, but from these pictures I see it is literally twice as long as I'd previously realised. Mine is just too thin and weak to grow out to that length, so I am officially jealous!

There used to be even more of it, but then some things happened to my body and now there is not, so while I am sorry that your hair does not grow as you would prefer, your comment actually means very much to me. Thank you.

[moon_custafer]

I once had a vivid dream of an unraveling edge of water like this one spilling across the threshold of an empty room, turning floorboards into sea.

Did you ever encounter any of the Zoom the Cat books?

https://inside-of-a-dog.net/?tag=zoom-at-sea

[sovay]

Did you ever encounter any of the Zoom the Cat books?

Never, although that's a wonderful picture. When I get home, I'll double-check David Wiesner's illustrations for Jane Yolen's Neptune Rising: Songs & Tales of the Undersea Folk (1982).

[shewhomust]

I'm glad you can have a dose of sea; I wish we could, too. Trying not to be jealous (thanks for sharing your sea.)

[sovay]

I'm glad you can have a dose of sea; I wish we could, too. Trying not to be jealous (thanks for sharing your sea.)

Thank you. (You're welcome.) I hope you can safely have sea soon, too.

[cmcmck]

Sea closest to us is in Wales, so not for a while I fear.

Glad you has a good time!

[sovay]

Sea closest to us is in Wales, so not for a while I fear.

Understood. We couldn't have done it before now: we don't have a car, so we needed to be officially safe to drive with my father. I wish you health.

Glad you has a good time!

Thank you!

[julian]

It is such a goodness to see someone so happy.

[sovay]

It is such a goodness to see someone so happy.

Thank you.

[lauradi7dw]

A friend who rents out her place to summer people has found those that want more than a month, so that intense cleaning to make it safe for new people only has to happen a couple of times. People who are working remotely might as well work in a vacation home as anywhere else, if they can afford it and get there safely.

[sovay]

A friend who rents out her place to summer people has found those that want more than a month, so that intense cleaning to make it safe for new people only has to happen a couple of times.

I would have thought, but she only has tenants for July this summer. In one case I know it was the expense. In the others, I don't know: maybe safety or travel.

[umadoshi]

Beach weekend! I'm so glad you're getting some sea time! *hugs*

[sovay]

Beach weekend! I'm so glad you're getting some sea time!

Thank you!

(Very good icon.)

*hugs*

[asakiyume]

Those photos are magnificent; I feel like I can feel the breeze and that breathtakingly cold water. I love your sea wrack and jellyfish. I'm about to dive into earlier comments to see if someone has given your jellyfish a name.

[sovay]

Those photos are magnificent; I feel like I can feel the breeze and that breathtakingly cold water. I love your sea wrack and jellyfish.

Thank you. I feel so much better right now than I have in months. I know it's not coincidental: just hard to maintain.

I'm about to dive into earlier comments to see if someone has given your jellyfish a name.

selidor believes it to be a juvenile lion's mane, which accords with the photos spatch pulled off the internet. So it was an especially good idea that I didn't try to touch it.

[selkie]

I can identify that jellyfish! It looks like an AAAAAAUGH SWIM AWAAAAY. Edit: if the brown stripeys are on the bell, I think it’s a compass jellyfish, but in that case its horrid little arms don’t look quite right. Augh.

Thank you for sharing more pictures! I so want to be there.

[sovay]

I can identify that jellyfish! It looks like an AAAAAAUGH SWIM AWAAAAY.

According to selidor, your initial identification was correct!

(We are now tentatively assuming it's where the weird stinglike abrasion on my calf came from, which was otherwise mystifying since I didn't remember scraping myself on any rocks.)

Thank you for sharing more pictures! I so want to be there.

I want you to be here! I miss being with the sea and you.

[pameladean]

Oh, you look so happy! And the sea is so beautiful. I can see why the widow's walk, came up, too, as your Rob's stance is a classic captain's one.

P.

[sovay]

Oh, you look so happy! And the sea is so beautiful. I can see why the widow's walk, came up, too, as your Rob's stance is a classic captain's one.

Thank you!

He deserves a proper lookout. And a spyglass.

[gwynnega]

How wonderful!

[sovay]

How wonderful!

Thank you! It really has been.

[selidor]

This sounds like the most perfect of days. So glad you can revisit the sea.

I think it's a young lion's mane jellyfish. I used to see them around similarly cold water in BC.

[sovay]

This sounds like the most perfect of days. So glad you can revisit the sea.

Thank you. It matters so much to me.

I think it's a young lion's mane jellyfish. I used to see them around similarly cold water in BC.

Whoa. In which case they were all over Chapin Beach this afternoon.

[selidor]

Good food for sea turtles!

[sovay]

Good food for sea turtles!

I like sea turtles!

[radiantfracture]

So beautiful. I'm glad you're there!

[sovay]

So beautiful. I'm glad you're there!

Thank you!

[choco_frosh]

I like this rather captainly picture

...I now want to see 'Spatch in a Napoleonic-era naval uniform.

[sovay]

...I now want to see 'Spatch in a Napoleonic-era naval uniform.

I strongly suspect he'd look great.

[swan_tower]

I had not realized your hair is even longer than mine.

[sovay]

I had not realized your hair is even longer than mine.

It just does this if I leave it alone.

[swan_tower]

Sometimes people ask me "how long did it take to grow your hair out?" as if there was a conscious decision to do so, rather than me just forgetting to go for a haircut for a year at a time.