Will it ever warm up?

It's almost April but it is still in the 20's at night. The last 2 days have been sunny but still in the 40's with wicked winds blowing. Will it ever really feel like spring? This is Spring further up North, the kind that comes in June! I'm wanting to start digging in the garden, preparing the soil, starting some seeds indoors. I can't get motivated because its so cold. The spring flowers are coming up downtown near the shore, but up here on the hill there is so little to see of Spring. Still waiting...

Crepidula fornicata-Common Atlantic Slipper Snail

My favorite mollusk, the Common Slipper Snail, likes to stack on top of one another with the female snail underneath the male snail. Thus the Latin species name? They don't stop at two though. A stack of pancakes is what they remind me of-one that would more than likely fall over on itself. These animals also attach to inanimate objects as a way of anchoring themselves to one area. (eg. Slipper shells on Golfball)

Dogs at the Beach

From the signs along the beach I visit most it says dogs aren't allowed on the beach, yet dogs are almost always enjoying the beach with the humans. The dogs don't seem to disturb anyone and I've never stepped into anything questionable on my walks. It's actually fun to see them having as good a time as the humans. Some swim. Some run. Others walk. They seem to great each other with civility. It would be hard to have a lot of them wandering around during the summer when it is so crowded on the sand. In the off season it adds to the charm of the beach-side community.

March Beach Walk

At the beach Sunday I was greeted by a beautiful sunny day. The low tide left large swatches of sand peaking through water with a very distinctive pattern of lines etched in the surface sand. Imprints of ripples of water? What created this texture across the sand bar?

In any event, it was and inviting place to visit and look for interesting shells which, to my disappointment, I didn't find. I did come away with this photo of human and dog impact on this place.

This sunny day there was a huge crowd walking, running and playing on the beach. It was in the 50's yet I saw a jogger running shirt-less on the sand and several dogs fetching sticks in the water. Kites were flying and kids were digging in the sand.


AND...then, on Monday it snowed. Yes, the snow was mixed in with the raindrops falling in large flakes before the rain turned completely to snow. It still isn't spring!

Seashore in the Garden

I'm linking my love of the seashore to my interest in gardening by adding Google for Gardeners search engine (look left). In my small garden in back of my house I use shells as a decorative feature. It's also fun to decorate inside with shells. I've made windchimes, mosaics and have bowls and jars of pretty shells inside my house. There are many examples of home decorating with shells. Try searching in Google for Gardeners and let me know what you come up with!

Common Reeds Grace the Wintertime Beach

These reeds, with their feathery tops are common all along the shoreline. From another blog (Quincy Daily Post) I found out that this perennial grass is called Phragmites. Phragmites australis, called "the common reed," is a grass ubiquitous along the shore and in wetlands actually around the world. There is interesting detail about a European species that successfully competed with our domestic species in the USA and now covers New England. A mention of the scientific paper in which the genetics of these reeds in New England (K. Saltonstall, Yale, 2002) was uncovered is noted in the website www.invasiveplants.net/phragmites/natint.htm. The plants are invasive crowding out other wetland plants. The health of some wetlands has been evaluated by measuring the success of these reeds in an area although the usual causes of decline of a population of plants, urbanization, pollution etc., seems to hinder growth in the USA and stimulate growth in Europe. Information now coming in from scientists seems to support the rational that the invasive qualities of the plants parallel the replacement of the native American species with the European variety.

These reeds are very tall. So tall in places, where the shoreline is very close to a roadway, they form a natural thatched wall blocking the shoreline view. In the winter their presence gives shape and variation to the landscape.

Slipper Shells (pictures at bottom of blog)

Prominent on the beach in Connecticut are what are called "Slipper Shells." These are mollusks, animals related to snails that form shells. Slipper shells are in the family of gastropods, or mollusks that form a single shell as opposed to a bivalve, like a clam, that form 2 connected shells. Slipper shells are cap-like, not as complicated as the snail shells that twist in a coil or shells like whelks and conches that twist to a pointed shell. They are simple. The name slipper come from the underside where there is a shelf for the animal to hide under. Perhaps this was a precursor of a crude bivalve-like type shell a rudimentary snail shell.

The handbook I have on shells describes 2 types of Slipper Shells along the Atlantic shore. The Common Atlantic Slipper Shell (Crepidula fonicata) the larger species with little color in its shell and the smaller Convex Slipper Shell (Crepidula convexa) that is a reddish to purple color. The Convex Slipper Shells are more common further down the coast of the US and less arched, more oval than the Common Atlantic variety.

Definitely NOT Spring

Well I wrote about seeing Robins and how this might be a harbinger of Spring...not quite. It's been snowing all day. We have about 6-7 inches by now I'd guess and it is still snowing. Things are being canceled: school, choir rehearsal. I've decided not to go out.... unless I do so to go cross county skiing. I haven't put the skis away yet from a few snows ago. I'll have to do it soon though as it will get colder and dark. Probably not.

This weekend I was surprised on the way home from downtown by the sight of a wild turkey "in flight." The turkeys are about the size of a medium breed dog so the fact that it got quite a bit of height was impressive. Seeing wild turkeys is one of my favorite things about where I live on the Shoreline. Being situated in a wooded area with nature preserve land near by we have a lot of wildlife roaming our neighborhood. The turkeys are so interesting. They travel in groups with a lookout bird watching as the rest of the group forages for food. Sometimes the males will display their feathers. They puff up to look like the familiar Thanksgiving Day picture of a turkey with it's tail feathers in a fan. In the spring your in its luck to come upon a brood of chicks (young turkeys) following their mother along the road. Only once have I come upon a turkey road kill, making me pretty sad since they are such interesting birds to watch. They are not very quick-you have to slow or stop to let them cross the road and it takes a while because they are in a group-and most always travel in a group. Well I hope they are hunkering down in this weather.