It's been typical wintry days here the past week or so. Damp, gray, dismal, and chilly! We are supposed to have a warm-up, with clearing skies for a couple of days, only to have another cold front move in for the week's end. Needless to say, I'm not getting the walking in that I should be doing. Sunday morning, tho, I had to get to the store for milk [if they had it in the coolers] so, I opted to stop along Ocean Drive and walk along the road to the Army/Navy base and peruse the mudflats for wintering waterfowl. I spotted hundreds of skimmers and brown pelicans, gulls, godwits, herons, grackles, sandpipers, dowitchers, terns, ducks, egrets, stilts, willets, and more birds. This is what else I saw...
Intermittent sun trying to come out, fog, nature's winter kill on many plants and wildflowers, etc.:
...as I walked, I could see in front of me, along the bay's shore, fog rolling in. It was swirling rapidly toward my face....beautiful!!
When, I was done, and my outer garment was damp with dew and clinging to me, my shoes heavily laden with mud from walking the mudflats, I headed toward the road to clean my shoes before getting in the car, only to sit on a boulder along the roadside, looking down, face to "face" [literally] with a saltwater, soaked, piece of plywood. Can you see the smiley face?!! I took it home. I would like to think it's a good omen for days to come!?!!
As the wood is drying out in the garage as of Sunday, I am inspecting it...no, it's NOT something carved in the wood...it's a natural phenomenon!! Eventually, I will clean it up, shellac it, and have it hung on the wall somewhere to remind me of a happy day ahead!!



















































