I have an album titled "Things on a Beach" in Picasa. https://picasaweb.google.com/lisau65/ThingsOnABeach I don't know what prompted me to start it. Maybe after walking up on a clorox bottle with little barnacles on it got my attention somehow. It was pretty neat to see. I wondered how long it had been in the ocean before settling on the sand finally. After that, it seemed like every time I'd take a walk on the beach I'd come across something that was not supposed to be there to spoil the natural beauty of the sand and environment.
I took a walk one time and about every few feet (no lie!) there would be peanut shells. These weren't scattered just in one specific area where a group of people would be but literally all along the dune edge. Very weird. It was like everybody, for a short while decided at that moment in time to eat peanuts and leave the shells as evidence of a mass peanut-eating frenzy. Other walks have produced toys that kids have left behind or balls that a dog didn't bring back. There have been a few sunglasses in disrepair, cigars, of course and a couple of hair decoration items. Quite an abundance of cigarette butts littering the beach and whatever can held the beverage of choice for the day has been found. The majority of "finds" has been man produced and manmade litter. Even so, you still can't rule out the washing ashore of things that have long been in the water, the waves and wind creating havoc with our stuff or the accidental forgetfulness of picking up after yourself. And I say that with maybe the teensiest-tiniest, smallest bit of sarcasm.
There has also been natural things left ashore after high tides, some sights you'd expect to see on the sand and evidence of creatures doing their thing to survive. If you look for those things that don't belong, the beach holds a fascination, as weird as it seems. Whatever or however odd it makes me appear, I almost now look forward to coming across something in the sand that is out of place to photograph and put in my album. And that album is growing fast. It's become almost more of a treasure to find trash or a bit of an oddity along with the effects of nature on a beach, than a shell that's not common.
Here's to the hunt.
