High winds and stormy waves have thrown heaps of marsh grass across the salt marsh trail. They’ll freeze into ragged mounds that will make passage here more difficult through the winter months. But grass isn’t the only thing that the storm blew in…
Who would have thought one could find so many different types of sports balls in one morning’s walk?
The trap and skeet club might be missing a rack…
Does the discovery of this vacuum cleaner attachment mean that there’s also a vacuum cleaner out in the marsh somewhere?
The sudden presence of this enormous waste bin is a testament to the power of the winds and waves. I wonder if someone should call Waste Management and let them know?
That must have been one big storm! I’ve never found a waste bin at the beach 🙂
There is a funny book about what washes ashore written by Skye Moody – Washed up: The curious journey of flotsam and jetsam
http://www.powells.com/biblio?show=TRADE%20PAPER:USED:9781570614637:11.50
Dawn, it can get pretty stormy in the North Atlantic.
The book by Skye Moody would be a very interesting read for anyone who enjoys beach- and marsh-combing.
Jessica at http://natureinfocus.wordpress.com
often writes about jetsam and flotsam. Her finds are absolutely amazing compared to mine.
Lots of treasures on your walk, hey? I wonder how many of my dogs’ yellow tennis balls are floating around Lk. Superior? If they drift out too far for the dogs to go after them and it’s too cold for me to go in after them, they’re allowed to just drift on to a new adventure somewhere!
Cindy, the balls I found were probably all ones that dogs failed to retrieve. The baseball had several tooth marks on it.
I’m with sahlah, that is an amazing storm. Sounds more like an inland hurricane.
Yousei, the wind is still howling this morning. The waves are still probably pounding the shore. I wouldn’t be surprised to see surfers out there today.
Too cold to imagine. Those would be absolute crazy diehards. 😉
Good grief! I’ve run into a lot of odd things washed up on the shores of Grand Traverse Bay, but nothing so large as that! Maybe the park should haul the waste bin to a sheltered location where people can deposit everything else they find on their walks . . . Wonder how long it would take to fill it?
Gerry, it was certainly an odd find. It’s amazing what gets coughed up during a storm. I also found a carcass of a dog/coyote that seemed to have been placed in a green garbage bag. Clammers and hunters must dump a lot of stuff from their boats for all the garbage that seems to wash ashore. There are garbage cans located along the trail.
The vacuum cleaner attachment cracked me up. I was staring at it, thinking it couldn’t be what it looked like, and then I saw your accompanying text and realized, yes, it was. I know that book WASHED UP. Sold a copy at Dog Ears Books to a woman who was buying it for her husband’s birthday. Never one to refuse a sale, I hesitated before writing it up and asked her if her husband might not take the title as a comment on his age and feel bad. She said no. I hope she was right.
Pamela, yes the attachment gave me a smile too. I wonder what the story was behind that. Who knows what could be found if one actually set out to proactively find stuff out there, as opposed to stumbling across it.
We lost a blue and orange ball there just last week.
Sybil
Sybil, I’ll keep my eyes peeled for it 🙂
Hi flandrumhill,
Got to your site through Forest Rat’s, where you left that comment quoting the value of space from Anne Morrow Lindberg… wonderful quote, I’m going to squirrel it away somewhere for reference in the future.
Enjoyed your photos of the marsh and the objects to be found there!
Regards
Nice to see you here fencer. I think I’ve had that quotation squirreled away since 1974. I figured I’d have a need for it someday 🙂
Here it is for my readers too. It’s especially applicable to beachcombers:
“One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few. Gradually, one discards and keeps just the perfect specimen. One sets it apart by itself, ringed around by space… like the island.
For it is only framed in space that beauty blooms. Only in space are events and objects and people unique and significant – and therefore beautiful. Even small and casual things take on significance if they are washed in space, like a few autumn grasses in one corner of an Oriental painting, the rest of the page bare.”
Forest Rat has an excellent post on photography and Oriental painting at
http://forestrat.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/photography-and-sumi-e/
Hilarious, all the stuff you found! I like Gerry’s idea of using the bin to collect the marsh’s Lost and Found stuff. I must read that book!
Joan, that bin could be filled up with just discarded Tim Hortons coffee cups 😉
I am surprised to see no snow! I am beginning to wonder if it only snows above my house here?! Love the post-storm discoveries walk, fascinating! And that bin is quite shocking.
How interesting your family food tradition this time of year is a tourtiere, lovely. Oh I would love to hear your nuts and bolts recipe! I have only made that once and lost the recipe. Thanks for the comment!
Hi Suzie,
Glad you liked the post. This morning’s rain melted the rest of the snow. Hopefully we’ll have a bit for Christmas.
I’ll send you the nuts and bolts recipe by email.
You have Waste Management all the way up there too? They’re everywhere, they’re everywhere!!
WM is indeed everywhere across North America. They’re huge.
Definitely shocking.
In Oregon, several times a year, many citizens from throughout the state, get together to clean-up. The beach is especially targeted, but S.O.L.V. also targets land in the interior, and spaces with non-native invasive plants.
It’s something every community needs to organize.
Em, there are annual beach clean-ups here too. It’s interesting that you also clean up non-native invasive plants.