All posts by GretchenJoanna

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About GretchenJoanna

Orthodox Christian, widowed in 2015; mother, grandmother. Love to read, garden, cook, write letters and a hundred other home-making activities.

Stranded sailors, and resting elephant seals.

family, nature, ocean, , , , , , ,

Daughter “Pippin” and her children were with me for a few happy days. The weather was not forecast to be friendly to our desire to be out of doors the way we like, but it cooperated in the end by bringing rain mostly while we slept, and we managed to go exploring all four days. It would take another full day of blogpost-crafting to tell you about everything that blessed my soul, but I want to share about two surprises we encountered.

At Point Reyes National Seashore, we made a wrong turn and ended up on Drakes Beach, where we thought we might as well get out for a minute and look, before we turned around to go to nearby Chimney Rock. The beach was mostly closed, because elephant seals were currently “pupping” there; several park staff were milling about near the temporary fence to tell us all about the animals. As of the 1st of March, this article says there were 870 weanlings on the Point Reyes beaches.

We watched this big guy above (4,000 to 5,000 pounds, they say) throwing sand onto his back to cool off, and wiggling his whole body down a little farther into his damp bed. It’s curious to watch oneself watching heavy animals doing mostly nothing; I think one reason we don’t get tired of staring is the principle of unpredictable rewards. They lie still for who knows how long — do I get vicarious enjoyment from just watching a seal seemingly sleeping like a log? — and it is rewarding to still be watching when suddenly they lumber across the beach a few feet, or merely lift their heads to check out how close the visitors are getting.

At one point a docent opened the fence and escorted us out on to the beach to get closer to the seals, while keeping at a safe distance. The gigantic males can move pretty quickly if they want, and we watched from afar as a couple of them challenged and threatened each other over territorial rights.

The day before our visit, the last female had left the beach after being impregnated, and it was expected that the males and pups would soon leave, too. In the meantime, they were resting, the pups living off their mothers’ milk of which they would get no more. They’d have to get out into the ocean pretty soon, and learn to find real food, not just whatever trash washed up on the beach. A volunteer was collecting trash even while we leaned against the fence, getting sunburned.

We didn’t go to Chimney Rock after that, but to visit the Point Reyes Lighthouse, where we walked down the 300+ steps and hiked back up again, after eating our picnic lunch beside the path.

Out there we looked at Leathery Polypody, Polypodium scouleri; and Orange Rock Hair, Trentepholia aurea.

The second surprise was the following day, when the ocean tides also were not as convenient as we might have hoped; the moderately low tide would not happen until about 7:00 p.m., and we went out to the coast again, hoping to find some tidepools to explore. At least, Daylight Savings Time was just recently in effect, so we would have sunlight.

What a wonder! After we’d hiked down the path, we realized that the dark ripples on the beach that we’d seen from above were fields of stranded Velella velella, or By-the-wind Sailors. Once upon a time I found one of these creatures on a beach, and it was very small. We never dreamed we’d see them like this, here on our North Coast beaches that are not typically so colorful.

They are described online thus: “This hydroid polyp remains afloat on the suface of the Pacific Ocean for most of its life. It never touches or even comes close to the ocean bottom, and the only stage in its life when it is completely submerged under water is the larval stage. The Velella velella begins its life in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is brought by the wind to the shores, and is usually cast up on a beach where it dies and disentegrates.” source

Sailor with its sail up.

We had to wait around for a while for the tide to go out as far as it would, but what few tidepools we saw were mostly full of sailors.



Ivy and Jamie spent a lot of time collecting pebbles and pieces of shell, and sometimes running in the surf, which throughout the year ranges from 50-55 degrees in temperature.

When we returned home they left their treasures on the front walk, and in the morning sorted them carefully, asking me to choose some to keep. As they were packing up to leave for home, Jamie arranged mine where they will be a daily reminder of our beloved beach outings.

Yours is the name the leaves chatter.

nature, poetry, ,

DEAR ONE ABSENT THIS LONG WHILE

It has been so wet stones glaze in moss;
everything blooms coldly.

I expect you. I thought one night it was you
at the base of the drive, you at the foot of the stairs,

you in a shiver of light, but each time
leaves in wind revealed themselves,

the retreating shadow of a fox, daybreak.
We expect you, cat and I, bluebirds and I, the stove.

In May we dreamed of wreaths burning on bonfires
over which young men and women leapt.

June efforts quietly.
I’ve planted vegetables along each garden wall

so even if spring continues to disappoint
we can say at least the lettuce loved the rain.

I have new gloves and a new hoe.
I practice eulogies. He was a hawk

with white feathered legs. She had the quiet ribs
of a salamander crossing the old pony post road.

Yours is the name the leaves chatter
at the edge of the unrabbited woods.

-Lisa Olstein

 

Sunday of the Last Judgment

church, icons, quotes, ,
Andrei Rublev – The Last Judgment (detail), Assumption Cathedral, Vladimir, Russia, 1408

The Gospel for today: Matthew 25:31-46 

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.

All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.

And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in;

I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’

Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?

When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?

Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’

And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:

for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink;

I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’

Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’

Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’

And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

The soft and white sand.

nature, travel, writing, , , , , ,

My church friend Ana and I flew to Florida last week for the Symbolic World Summit in Tarpon Springs, and returned on Sunday. I am still processing all the quite stimulating and encouraging lectures and discussions we heard; Ana and I also enjoyed the extended time together over five days to talk about our loves and lives, including many books and ideas. We attended services at St. Nicholas Greek Cathedral in town after the event.

In the paragraph above I notice that I effortlessly included six noun or adjective conjunctions; does that habit flow from my general tendency to the “Yes, And” point of view, I wonder? I hope you don’t mind, because I’m not in the mood for polishing up my writing skills right now. It could be that the Summit increased my leanings toward expansiveness… but it’s an effort I am always making to keep the conjoined words to only two.

Orthodox Lent is almost here! And there is plenty for me to focus on, of the sort of things that help us on our Journey to Pascha. A few of the speakers at the conference gave us their unique short list of “action points,” for going forward in our personal lives on the theme of the event. That theme was Reclaiming the Cosmic Image, which right there seems a very Lenten goal. Maybe I will share about it in future posts.

For now, I just wanted to document the Florida sands. I had never been in that part of the country before, or anywhere on the Gulf of Mexico. When we first walked from our car to the beach, the bright whiteness struck me first. And then, to walk barefoot on that soft, soft sand, everywhere full of broken pieces of shells, was such a different experience from California’s North Coast, which is my normal experience. We rarely see any but mussel shells on our beaches, but there in Florida intact shells were also in great abundance, and in places laid out in wide swaths. Of course, the air was balmy, but not hot.

Shells not yet made into sand, and therefore not soft.

We visited Sunset Beach on Friday (at sunset), and Honeymoon Island on our way to the airport Sunday. Both outings were fairly brief, because most of our weekend was at the conference venue.

We collected a few shells, and my purse collected a lot of the fine, glittery sand. I even carried a big handful back to the car, where Ana found a ziplock bag for me to put it in. I have been neglecting my sand collection in the last couple of years, but now I will get it going again, and will have added one little bottle of white sand to show that I truly was once upon a time in Florida.