The "Torn-IDES" of March

Tornadoes. Ides of March. Get it? Maybe not so catchy, but I couldn't NOT try it. Yes, our first TORNADO warning. And it's March. We've been here less than two months. As Amy would say, "Really??" And the weather says, "Yep." --NOTE-- To those who'd like to click on the photos, or the word photo in the text, there is no further link. The pics are mine, (as you all probably know) and if you like one I'll gladly send you a bigger file version to check out, or even to keep as a desktop on your laptops. But there are no hidden depths in this blog. -- -- Several claps of thunder and a lot lighter rain than I would have guessed. And the rain comes and goes - unlike California, where it can rain for two or three days straight. Sure, rain pooled up on the streets, and everything drips for a while afterward, so you're not "safe" to go out and walk the dogs without getting wet, no matter how you time it. But not to be confused with the term, "torrential." Yesterday evening - during the warning -I walked Grover on the beach. He proudly explored a sand castle someone left, and made a move to claim it as his own.

Walking along the beach - yes, get used to that phrase!! - a number of creatures at high were driven to shore, probably helped by the currents of the storm. Several tiny and small crabs, several medium and one very large jellyfish. The two large crabs. Either different species, or male/female specimens. Amy thinks the one with a single large blue claw is a stone crab. I don't know "diddly" about crab species, but it was very photogenic. The beach at high tide is much more narrow than at low tide - by a factor of three or four times the space. But with practically nobody there, it was plenty large for us, (and three surfers in wetsuits, two dogwalkers and a couple walking.) Looking along the grey water under the grey sky, towards the grey horizon created an interesting composition. Blurred and distinctionless shapes, a bit like some of my blurry low-light photographs. Very unlike the long sweeping landscapes of northern California and the West in general. The not-so-good aspect of walking along the beach is that every day turns into a trash pickup exercise. Not that I'd rather let it sit out there. But it's a shame that that much is constantly out there, waiting to jump into the intestines of birds and other aquatic life that knows no better than to ingest brightly colored items. Sigh. More tornado alert - but it's just a"watch" until mid-day today. Cheers.