Life Happenings: the Best Sea Glass Haul!

Thursday's morning walk was full of nice surprises! I woke up feeling a little cranky because I'm in the 3rd week of the Whole30 program, but I decided to walk off my frustrations. I'm glad I did, because the ocean waves were fabulous today. 

My favorite finds of the day:

• A lime-green glass piece with swirls 
• A triangular mint piece
• A nice chunky piece of light blue sea glass
• A piece of red sea glass

I'm especially stoked with the red piece. When I took a trip to Fort Bragg, I stopped by a Sea Glass Museum, and I read that red sea glass is especially rare, because most of the red glass comes from old taillights from cars. Nowadays most taillights are plastic, so it's very rare to find a nice, pitted piece of red glass. HOW EXCITING~~

[Those Little Moments] The Ocean is my Life Force

I love the beach. I don't know if it's just my Piscean nature (and I kind of laugh at myself when I refer to my astrological sign) or just the sense of peace I get from the ocean, but whatever-- I love the ocean. There is something about watching the waves afar and at the shoreline that just centers me whenever I feel out of place, tense, or anxious. The water constantly moves, as should I.

I love walking along the shoreline where I can beach-comb, and see what washes up on shore. I am always in search of blue sea glass--my eyes just spot them and I get super excited because blue glass is a rarity.  Just from walking along the beach in search of the coveted blue sea glass, I realized something: everything you're looking for, whether it be questions or things, they already exist. You just have to place yourself in the situation and be ready. Hah, I get these moments of clarity when I'm alone in nature.

I've been pretty inactive on this blog lately. I recently started working full-time, and I need to make more time to stop at the beach and write. Yesterday I walked along the shore and it felt so refreshing to be outside, breathing fresh air, feeling the air against my face, and watching those gorgeous waves. The experience of being outside is so liberating for me, and I need to make more time to go outside. I'm starting to feel the energy being sucked out of me, my creative juices need to start flowing again! In addition to being outside, I want to paint more mushrooms. I need inspiration. This weekend I'm heading back to the redwoods to go mushroom spotting. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, hopefully mushrooms will come out and I'll have something to blog about.

Even as the rains are about to arrive, the beach is a beautiful place on an overcast day.

~Toodles

Adventures: Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, CA

 Lately I've been craving more beach time, so my partner and I made a (very unplanned) day trip to Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, CA. We planned on waking up early so we could also visit the Botanical Gardens and the Pygmy Forest in Jughandle State Reserve, but we ended up arriving around 4pm. Nevertheless, the beach was beautiful and we got to watch the sun set. We thought about spending the night there but after getting spooked by strange folks at the local Safeway, we decided to return home for the evening. I still enjoyed the trip and we'll definitely return later this month.

On hwy 20-- 3 hours North from San Francisco and the scenery completely changes...

 

...and so does the leaf "litter"

Mushrooms: little surprises in places you normally overlook!

Glass Beach at dusk

 Collecting is not allowed in at Glass Beach, however there are areas right outside the state park boundary where you can look for sea glass. 

Glass Beach is comprised of mostly sea glass and occasional pottery that came about from years of dumping garbage over the cliffs of Fort Bragg.

 My handmade collection jar necklace filled with sea glass collected near Fort Bragg, CA

 Looking forward to tomorrow's adventure: Muir Woods!