Clouds

One day last week, I started out for the supermarket. The wind was picking up, and when I looked up I saw the sky full of dark, threatening clouds in beautiful formations. I changed direction - something I seem to do a lot of these days - and headed for the bay. There is a stretch of Beach Drive that runs along the edge of the Townbank area of North Cape May that I always like to traverse from end to end whenever I get the chance.


I have watched this tree for thirty years. Every time I see it, leaning away from the water, battered by the wind, losing the fight a little at a time, I wonder how long it will survive.


The water was very rough that day. I actually shivered as I looked out to the west, and was very grateful that I was inside the car. These pictures were taken through the windshield.


At other times of the year I might be concerned if the wind was so high and the car windows were open. Just past the road where the land drops off sharply, it slopes down to the narrow beach, and is held together by a dense growth of poison ivy. It's a pretty plant, but even windborn poison has been known to make life miserable for me.



Each time I drive this route I look at the houses along the way - some of them year-round homes, and some for the summer people - and I marvel that they, and the road itself, still remain. Like the old tree, they are living on borrowed time. The history of the coast shows us whole neighborhoods that once existed, disappeared under the sea or the bay.


This day, the air was full of gulls, seemingly being blown around the sky. If you click on the picture, you can see them up there.



At the end of Beach Drive, the road is continued on the property of the Cape May-Lewes Ferry. You can drive to the end, where there are some picnic tables under a roof. Many, many people seem to like to gather there each time a ferry is leaving North Cape May or arriving from Lewes, Delaware. They wave to the passengers, and the passengers wave back, and the gulls swirl around above. I'm really not sure what that is all about, but they seem to get pleasure from it.



The day I was there, it was between arrivals or departures, so there were relatively few people in the parking area. I sat for a while in the car, then braved the cold wind to take a couple of pictures. Despite the stormy sky, the water in the channel seemed calm and when the sun managed to break through a little, it was sparkling.



There is a fascination in water, be it the ocean, river, lake or stream, or just a quiet pond. It's calming and soothing. We need that.

I would never want to live in a place too far from the water.