Treasure

Yesterday, completely on a whim, I decided to bring the kids to the beach.  Alex is in the middle of a 4-week study of the oceans and sea creatures of all kinds, so I figured this would be especially cool for him.  It was a gorgeous day, too.  And the best part was, I didn't tell the kids where we were going.  Just bundled them up, gave them rubber gardening gloves to wear in case it was cold (and because we'd be collecting sandy, wet treasures along the shoreline) and off we went. 

We went to Oakland Beach, in Warwick, because it was close by.  We drove past the little house that Bill and I rented for a few years way back when, and we got chowder and clamcakes and lemonade at Iggy's.

We filled my deep coat pocket with all sorts of shells and rocks and crab claws, and I took a bunch of pictures.  The kids chased seagulls...we climbed on rocks...we saw 4 dead jellyfish...and we were out in the fresh air for a couple of hours. 

The kids see our collection of shells as their bounty, but I look through the pictures and see our time spent together as the real treasure.  I've included a few shots in this post, but if you want to see the rest of them, you can go here.

 

(and I didn't put that little starburst highlight on the shell - it just came out that way.)

and lastly - a bit of dabbling with artistic effects...we saw a pair of swans on the way home...here's one shot:

and here's what happened after I played with it a bit:

Fun stuff, huh?

Anyway, like I said, if you want to see all of them, you can go to my Oakland Beach set on flickr.

Good thing we went yesterday...it's pouring rain today.

Comments

[Jen - The Alien Spouse]

Lovely pictures! I remember running into the wind with my coat billowing out, just like Alex is doing here. So much fun!

On the photo editing theme, have you tried Picnik.com?
It's on-line photo editing, you can do all sorts of cool things with it and basic membership is free.
The best bit is you can e-mail photos directly to a website from there, so you only have to upload once.

My husband is sick of hearing about Picnik, but it is definitely my new favourite thing on-line. (I don't work for them or anything, I just REALLY like it!)

[Jayne]

I haven't tried out Picnik.com - I'll definitely do that. I've got photo editing software that came with my camera, and I still haven't fully explored that yet. Thanks for the tip!

[Donna]

WOW! Oakland Beach looks so different as seen from your eyes. I've only looked at it as just a beach, but you gave me another glimpse into the beauty of that area. Thanks!
I love your photos!