If they could talk...

Spent the day poking around my favourite little

thrift store town, Sidney, B.C.

But before I started 'the hunt' I noticed the tides were

finally low and so I went down to the shore to have a look.

Not much of a beach but sometimes you can find a few

interesting bits and pieces from a fire

in the early 1900's...

I did find one rare piece of red glass...

...the bits of green seemed to be calling my name too and 

a bit of printing on a worn piece of pottery...

I am a sucker for an old suitcase and couldn't resist this 

cute little leather one with a sweet interior...

Whenever I find one I always want to know...

"Where have you been?" 

"Which exotic ports did you see?"

"Did you travel from far away on a train? plane? horseback?"

Who's initials are engraved on some suitcases?

There's also the little metal tag with the number 1819 on it which

I doubt is a date...do you know?

Like I said, I have a small collection of vintage cases that

I use for storage or taking goods to shows.

 

They are sturdy things, for sure, stackable and can take a licking...

The other great find was this whimsical cheese holder and knife!

 It's pewter with the name Metzke printed on it and I researched 

it to find out it was made in Tallahassee, Florida in the mid '70's.

So the hunt was successful! 

Eyes wide open...

I'm always on the look out on my walks with Griffin, for what, I'm never quite sure.

Last week was full of pleasant surprises several days in a row.

One day I found this beautiful brown velvet fungus on the forest floor...

 They're quite tough to pull off a tree so either someone pulled it off or it was

knocked off somehow.

 It's hard to see how soft the dark side is the photo but I thought

I might take a lino cutter to it and carve out a design into the velvety surface...

Later that same day on my afternoon walk I found this...

Yes that would be a wild rabbit tail.

I've found several of these throughout the years and I'm never quite sure

what to think. There is no sign of blood or a struggle.

It's just as if it's fallen off for no reason.

To my knowledge, bunnies don't shed their tails.

Any ideas?

A few days later I went down to the beach and it was such a beautiful

spring day that I ended up walking for a few hours, scouring

the shore like a proper mud lark looking for treasures.

About 10 minutes into my walk I found this...

An expertly carved arrow head.

Worn from the decades of wind and water and rocky shore.

I've found several on this beach in the past and

it's such a thrill. The light was just right and

there it was, just sitting there on top of the stones.

The beach was a popular spot for the natives to make these

long ago. There's always evidence of the flakes (bits of stone chipped away in the making

of arrow heads) and once in a while, the storms and the tides toss up one

of these beauties that was lost by who knows who many years ago.

Down into the mudflats, below the site of the old cannery, I found this...

After much research, I found this image on the web...

The same font of this company who was only in business from 1912 - 1915

so that was a pretty cool find.

Oh and an old marble and a piece of old glass...

Just some of those things that I wish could whisper their tales

to me if I put my ear close enough.

 



To the beach...

Norene came over yesterday with a book she got for her birthday...

We had already planned to go down to the beach for some research into 

a project in the near future, (more on that later!) and after

looking through this book, we were truly inspired!

Lucky for us the day was gloriously sunny, so down the long ramp we went...

With the tide out, it was a perfect day to look for treasures...

 I keep finding weathered fishing lures for a wind chime I'm working on...

A few crab boats pulled up on shore...

Some very funky beach art...

"hello!"

Somebody always finds something to make something out of nothing...love it!

Recycling, cleaning up the beach AND letting loose the creator in ones self.

As we walked along, finding bits and pieces, I saw what I thought was 

a piece of round plastic and ALMOST didn't pick it up.

 But, I couldn't help myself...I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was 

indeed porcelain and even more surprised when I flipped it over...

How cute is that?!

And to think that it's been rolling around on these rocky beaches for who knows how long

and it's only lost it's body! Wouldn't it be something to find that one day?

You can't really tell by the photos, but these are not your smooth, sandy shores.

These are rough, jagged, winter storm, whipped beaches.

But I suppose, because they're also tidal mud flats, things can be buried

deep in the silt and slowly uncovered by time.

It got Norene and I to wondering, as we often do, where this came from?

If only this little country boy in the straw hat could talk!

This is the same beach where Norene once found the tiniest of opium bottles,

complete with Chinese writing on it.

A long time ago there was a fish packing plant here and, no doubt, 

there were many Chinese workers here which would explain the bottle.

I suppose opium could remedy all kinds of things, including

a low paying, slave driving, fish gutting job.

Anyway, one more treasure to add to the pile

and one more day to bask in the (these days) rare sunshine.

Beach day...

Today, I went to visit Norene.

I live in Sooke and she lives in East Sooke. 

From the sea shore, we could probably yell across to each other, 

but to drive to one another's house it takes about half and hour.

It's because there lies a big basin of water between the two areas

and no one has been successful in providing a water taxi/ferry service.

 Anyway, on Norene's 'side' there's a great little beach on the wild east coast

 We were lucky to have a half decent day, feeling a bit of spring in the air...

But mostly we went down to look for treasure...

...the beach glass kind!

This little cove is full of tiny, well worn pieces of glass...

It's the kind of place where you can sit for ages, running your hands through the smooth pebbles,

turning the soft gravel, uncovering the jewels brought by the waves...

People all around the world collect such glass and turn it into all kinds of lovely works of art, including Norene's mosaic work...

...and in the meantime we gab and gab and Griffin swims and swims...

It's the kind of day that breeds ideas and projects for the future.

It's good for the soul.