EARLY SUMMER ON LONG BEACH ISLAND

We have been back at the New Jersey Shore for almost 2 months and I have totally neglected my blog. Thus far the weather here has been very "iffy" and my camera has not left our house very often. But in spite of our late arrival, I did get the flowers planted before the rains settled in. Generally it has been abnormally cool on our island for this time of the yer, with cold water and a strong south breeze, but if one wants some heat all one has to do is cross the bridge to the mainland. We know it will be coming.

However, when we arrived, anxious to see the recovery of the beach after the devastation brought upon most of the Island by "Superstorm Sandy" last November we were pleasantly surprised.  The beach size was ample with the addition of a pseudo smaller island in the water at low tide.

Brenda - a well know surfer and beach walker had added shell topping to the fence in front of the home where she lives.

The tides had left their marks in the wet sands at the end of the tidal pools.

And the "Laughing Gulls" paid little attention to any temporary changes in their beach.  They were just happy to have it mostly to to themselves before the summer crowds arrive.

But the small local children love playing in the pools and beach away from the main ocean waves.

A yearly visit from our Pittsburgh "cousins" and their friends is always a special treat, and you can see from their tans that they had taken advantage of the sunny days.

But then the rains started!!  The flowers on the dunes bloomed with the added moisture, but some of the annuals in my pots drowned.  But rain came many, many days - rain I would have liked to send to Colorado as we watched the terrible fires on TV.  Thankfully, for us,  the fires were on the other side of the Rockies from our town of Crested Butte.