Tag Archives: outdoors

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Local lions

Our local lions are sea lions! I don’t think of sea lions as being good tempered, with the movies of them chasing prey. But out of the water in the sun off of Marrowstone Island, they seem pretty calm and I did not see displays of bad temper.

Sea lions can dive more deeply than seems reasonable because they slow their heart rates, to use less oxygen, and slow digestion. When they arrive back on the surface, they can get oxygen quickly but getting rid of the CO2 is slower. They have to sit around on the surface and the head back posture helps. I’ll bet they can beat any high school or college student in a burping contest. And as you can see, some of these are just huge. We wondered how they got on the rock. Do they have to at low tide or do they just jump?

I do like to hear them roar. Hooray for our local lions.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: temper.

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Rock surfaces

Happy Earth Day!

I walked North Beach twice this week and Marrowstone Island once so far this week. This is from North Beach yesterday. This rock makes me a little anxious because I think it will come down. It’s well above my head and is probably 5 feet by 5 feet. Bits of the cliffs fall and I do not want to be under them.

There is another, a little smaller, a bit further along. Those are not small trees on the top of the cliffs, so the scale becomes clearer.

Another of the huge rocks has been on the beach for a while. Look who is living on the surface, while the tides roll in and out. An amazing surface, right?

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: surface.

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Daily Evil: S is for Sneaky

Sneaky. One thing that I think really is evil is gossip. Talking about someone behind their back and spreading rumors and never speaking to the person themselves. But I do not need to punish anyone. The gossip will eat them from the inside, like a cancer, and they will look like fools when they are proven wrong. Curling churlishly with guilt.

I look at the sea and I let it all go.

This watercolor by Helen Burling Ottaway does not have a date. I love the whitecaps using the paper. Tricky to do that, I have tried. My daughter also draws horizons and seascapes, over and over. This is 11 by 15. I suspect it is from the late 1970s or early 1980s, because there is a watercolor of my sister on the beach, similar to this. My paternal grandparents lived on Topsail Island in North Carolina and that is the most likely location.

S is for sneaky and snarky and sea. Here is a snarky song.

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Roof tiles

The roof tiles are imbricated. This is from my travels in March 2022. What do you call a female gargoyle?

Maybe it’s better not to call one.

I also have assisted at imbrication in the operating room. I did obstetrics as part of Family Medicine for 19 years. During a cesarean section, we do a double layer of stitches on the uterus, imbricating it. Enough said.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: imbricate.

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Inadvisable

Don’t be flippant with this one.

Taken on Marrowstone Island earlier this week. I was so busy watching this eagle that I tripped over a rock and face planted. If I’d hit a rock I would have lost teeth or knocked myself out. Luckily both I and the camera did fine.

I tend to spot the eagles in the trees by sound. I do watch for them as well. This one called to another, who circled towards the tree. Sound locates them.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: flippant.