From the Shore

When you live in a very cold climate zone, as I do, you know that there are many plants that won't survive, so are happy with the ones that thrive. But my plant envy was in full stride when I saw all the flowering blue and pink hydrangeas, too tender for Vermont, down on the New Jersey shore. They make such a beautiful display, looking grand and generous in their large masses. The lovely specimen above was photographed in my sister's garden, which included may other types of colored hydrangeas.




I was very happy to find some of the old fashioned honeysuckle, remembered from childhood, mentioned before in this post. What I hadn't remembered is the intense sweet scent of the flower; it's delightful to bury your nose in a group of them, and the bees agree: you can see one deep in a flower on the lower right.




I saw many plants on the shore that were unfamiliar. This vine, entwined within a privet hedge, had a spray of flowers with a very interesting growth pattern. The small cream-colored flower (I think it's a flower) has at its center a green 'button', which then enlarges into circular ribbed forms, which I assume are seed pods. I found the structure very engaging, even cheerful, like little dangling candies.




Of course I went to the beach, and what a treat it was to splash in the ocean. The beaches I visited had dark colored sand, which might come from all the mussel shells that cling to the jetties and are then crushed by the action of waves. It's a minor treasure hunt to sift the sand and find small particles of rock and shell that are part of it.

I couldn't resist including the following image, of a surfer's sandals left waiting on a wall, with seagulls watching along the water's edge, a cliched/iconic image of the sea, and summer.