jimsjournal

jimsjournal

A walk on a different beach -- 03/12/07

Sunday was a beautiful day -- sunny and mild -- and I asked Nancy if she would like to go for a walk on a beach. Last weekend we had walked on the Narragansett Town Beach so this time we decided to walk on East Matunuck State Beach. (There are so many beaches around here -- one of the advantages of living on the Rhode Island coast. While we walked we talked about going for a walk on a different beach each weekend.)

This one of several short paths that pass through the dunes and grasses from the parking lots to the beach.
Matunuck is the beach we visit the most during the summer so this is a familiar perspective.

The beach itself is about a mile long (curved) from one end to the other. The far end is the rocky breakwater at the entrance to Point Judith Pond... The curve of land at the far end is on the opposite side of the channel through which the Block Island Ferry passes.

This is about a third of a mile from where the previous picture was taken -- that one was looking eastward, this one is looking westward as we follow Nancy along a steep (and somewhat tilted) wooden walkway to the top of a rock wall.

This is one of the houses in the neighborhood that clings to the coastline going westward from East Matunuck State Beach. This Victorian beauty -- built in 1896 -- survived many storms, including the Hurricane of 1938. Most of the houses then in this neighborhood were swept away or badly damaged. Today it is mostly a summer rental area with a winter population composed mostly of URI students just as with similar neighborhoods in Narragansett. Uh, no, I don't think this looks like the kind of house that is rented to college students for the winter -- *grin* -- This house is in an area with a number of homes that probably carry similar price tags -- but the students are just a block or two away -- and about ten or fifteen feet lower.

The picture on the right is in answer to a question that Bonnie asked last week about sea shells. We get lots of shells washed ashore on every beach I've ever been to in Rhode Island. These shells are about the size of my hand -- you can find all sizes, although these are probably in the larger range, as well as many broken fragments of shells.

Matunuck seems to be Nancy's favorite beach -- as well as one of the favorites of her out-of-town siblings when they come visiting in the summer with their families. I especially enjoy it when the tide is low, leaving a wide space of hard-packed wet sand between the water and the loose softly piled dry sand above the high tide mark. That is perfect for running (assuming the beach is not terribly crowded). We usually seem to have staked out an area somewhere near where the second photo was taken... so if I start there and run to the eastmost end of the beach, then turn and run to the westmost end (near that wooden walkway) and then back to where I started, I will have covered about two miles (on hard-packed sand, good for running traction without the jolting of pounding on pavement) -- and if I do it again, I've got four miles. (That's enough -- running in the hot sun is tiring and dehydrating -- there is no shade on a beach -- I don't think I've ever done more than five miles on the beach.)

I had planned on putting this entry up last night -- but I didn't get any further than moving the photographs from camera to PC, selecting the ones I wanted to use, and then resizing them. Was too tired by the time I got that done. Actually, I'm tired right now, too.

I started work at home, early this morning, then went to the office for a meeting, got back home with just enough time to feed Tiger his lunch before it was time for my weekly Monday at 1:30 telephone conference call, then work until a bit past five... fix dinner fairly early (for us)... sat down to dinner about quarter past six because Nancy is taking a Monday night knitting class that starts at seven.

So, clean up after dinner. Cut up about three and a half pounds of boneless chicken breast and put it in a glass bowl to marinate in the refrigerator in Spiedie sauce -- then trim and rinse and season another three and a half pounds of boneless chicken breast and put in in the oven in one of those plastic oven cooking bags. (Because cooked chicken breast is very handy to have around -- make chicken salad, make a chicken pizza, make a quick chicken pot pie, etc.) Then I cleaned up from my chicken processing (scrubbing the counter, loading and running the dishwasher). Then finish putting away the canned goods from yesterday's grocery shopping. Then clean Tiger's liter box. Sweep the kitchen.

Wonder if I have any energy left for working out. Go down into the basement and do about ten minutes of leg lifts, rows, and lifting. Nope. My back is not happy. Go back up stairs and take chicken out of oven. Sit down at computer to start this entry. Three minutes later Nancy comes home. Join her in drinking a glass of wine and eating a couple of Girls Scout cookies. She goes upstairs to grade papers and plan lessons while I come back into my office and type this.

Good night.

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