Buried Treasure

We are privileged to have long stretches of sandy shorelines where I live and I love to beach comb! The above area was once settled by many homes and in the past a lot of their refuse ended up in the ocean, which makes for interesting finds in the present. Too, our area is known for having very rough seas that no doubt contributed to several shipwrecks that occurred along here many years ago. There have been a couple of occasions over the years where those shipwrecks have become uncovered with the shifting sands.That's the excitement with beach combing, you never know what you'll find when your there!

Even in Winter the sand banks and shorelines are relentlessly being beaten by the wind and the waves which means the beach is always changing.You can go exploring anytime, but you have to dress for the weather as you can see with my sidekick above taken on a cold January day. Jasper is a very, very energetic Bichon Frise who also loves the beach...anytime! This was taken a few years ago and it was after a very violent storm that eroded a lot of the sand dunes there and to my delight uncovered a little gem for me to discover.

It had a plastic brown coloured stopper with internal threads and an orange rubber seal which was unique to me. Curious, I did a little research on the specific details of the bottle and stopper but came up with no concrete source on the origin of the bottle. Have you seen this type anywhere before?

The markings on the bottom of the bottle  were also unique to me as it was 0 comma 5 with a written L  indicating a possible UK origin. If you have any idea as to the origin of the bottle I'd love to hear from you.

I have also recovered old bottles that I knew the history behind them such as this common bleach bottle that many households would have had in them. Today we buy bleach in larger, plastic jugs so it puzzled me as to why the older bottles were so small, was it more potent I wonder? It had a metal screw on cap and it was about a 500 ml size with the word Javex on the side  and base of the bottle.

Then there's the bizarre findings that come about through excavating for a new development or repairs to existing infrastructure. Such was the case when my husband was excavating an old bridge to do upgrades on it due to its deteriorating state. In the process an old, brown bottle was uncovered and brought home to add to my collection, it had been buried for possibly 40 years. It had no distinctive markings other then the scrapes made by the excavator bucket claws!!

Each of these bottles now sits with the rest of my little collection each of them linked to a little piece of our history. Now they have a new story to go with them as to how they were like buried treasure uncovered once again by nature and machine!

Spring to Life

It's that time of the year when all creatures great and small start the new cycle of life to bare and rare or breed and feed their next generation of offspring. There's just something so wonderful about seeing creatures prepare for and nurture their young without the guidebooks that humans use to decide what's best for their baby. The animals just simply are born with that instinct to feed and nurture and at all costs protect their young from any apparent danger!

When I took my mother-in-law for a drive one evening this was the first of many wonderful views we would see, mamma nursing her calf . Mamma, with her maternal instincts kept a close eye on us while the bull just kept on eating were the little things we noted while we watched from a distance. 

The migrating seagulls have returned to mate along our coastline and they have to learn how to provide for their young family. It was so funny that all of the creatures were eating at our evening mealtime,  you'd swear they had clocks to tell them the time! This seagull pair were successful at fishing that day for their meal, they caught a male lump fish. We observed one of them struggling to eat a slippery fish on a slippery dinner plate and yes he lost it, hauled it back up and lost it again! Like all young parents they will get better at honing in on their skills through trial and error!

Driving a little farther along we had the privilege of viewing a group of saltwater ducks that were likely pairing up to start a family. It was very peaceful and rewarding to observe them having an evening diving  into the ocean and feeding.

Along our route back home guess "who" we saw? Yes, we couldn't believe our eyes...or his!!! A great horned owl  nonchalantly perched on the wire with his back towards us, eventually he did turn around and acknowledge us with his grandeur, thankfully.

A few minutes later he flew off hunting for a meal, aren't you glad you are not a mouse or smaller bird that he can get his talons into? But, it's all about survival and for his new family to survive he has to provide for them, to state it simply.

Our evening just kept getting better and better, look what else we spied along the way home... five Canada geese! They were also peacefully swimming, feeding and likely  picking out suitable real estate to build their nest and raise their goslings.

Last, but not least we caught sight of this little rabbit before he sprung off he was quite okay with posing for his pic to end off our evening so picture perfect. Everything had "sprung to life" compared to our observations a few weeks ago and we were so grateful that evening because of it!