Texture Tuesday & a Perfect Summer Day

Long hot summer at the Jersey Shore.  I've been trapped in my bedroom by my window air conditioner for months because our central air died years ago.  The jeep I drive also has no air but living down the Jersey Shore makes it easy to escape the heat and soak up a little sea breezes in the evening.  The picture below is from an impromptu drive through Belmar and up over the ocean bridge connecting it and Avon-by-the-Sea .  

As I crossed the bridge I saw the beach and the inlet as the sun started slipping down in the west.  I couldn't resist!  I had DH pull over briefly on the other side of the bridge, grabbed my little point & shoot and started hiking back over the bridge snapping along the way.  The natives and tourists were out in force and these folks wanted to be on candid camera so I obliged!

This piece is for "Texture Tuesday".  An informal show and tell at Kim Klassen's Cafe.  The assignment was to use a photograph of "looking down"... I couldn't find a better photograph than this one of happy folks ending a day on the sea.

This was done using my photograph with Kim's Dream It texture.  The blending mode was Linear Light at 32% and the font Papyrus set at 79% opacity.  Life is everywhere you look whether it's up or down so Celebrate it!

Waiting for the Nor'Easter

The skies are ominious and the wind is picking up hour by hour. The first nor'easter of the fall is just hours away, scheduled for sometime mid-PM today. The air always feels electric and makes my skin crawl when a storm is approaching. Growing up so close to the Atlantic makes me super sensitive I guess.

We clamdiggers thought nothing about going out in the height of any storm to check Mother Ocean. She is a powerful force and more so when the north wind is blowing. I can remember the excitement of those times when you would brace yourself against the wet, salty wind and see the power of the churning waves. My father, a WWII photographer, never missed an opportunity to drive the five blocks to the ocean in driving wind and rain and sometimes snow to capture that power of nature.

I miss my Dad and I miss that tingly excitement of a storm at its zenith. Now I just hunker down by the wood stove and ride it out. But there is still that lingering memory of the power and the glory of nature in all her fury. Are you watching, Daddy?