The Sandcastle Lady

My cousin, Bron, from Bromyard, Herefordshire, England was here today, and said she’d love to be on this website, but for me NOT to reveal her age. All I’ll say is that she’s just a year older than I am. (Did you all know that my birthday was this past Monday, and I turned 66?) Bron helped me carry water and pile up sand. She also packed a mold, but needed a little help getting it unmolded. The castle turned out lovely, and she wanted to be in the picture – here she is!

Carly is 5, and is from Milford, Delaware, and was a good listener, and built a very nice castle today, complete with trees, and with steps.

It was another beautiful day today. The weather said we’d have wind from the Southeast, but it was coming from the North, onshore, and cool.
Yesterday’s castle was crumbling, from the sun and wind, but still standing – so I wet it down, and added a village.

Today was a gorgeous day, with a nice onshore breeze from the North. The water had cleared up from Tuesday, when I was there last. There was a beautiful scent on the dunes as I walked through – not sure if it was the last of the beachplums, or some hidden flowers, but lovely.

I built and carved a castle on the beach late today – would have liked to have finished, but Irish Eyes was calling. Tonight was Danny Fisher’s last performance for the summer there.

We’ve had company from Houston, TX, and have taken them up to Pennsylvania, to see the Brandywine River Museum and Longwood Gardens, and haven’t had very much time on the beach.
We did get there for a little bit between rain storms.

I had a nice start on a castle today, but the storm clouds came rolling in fast, and I had to get off the beach fast. Luckily, Jack came down to save me!

The rain will help keep the sand wet for building tomorrow.

Here’s a photo of my yesterday’s castle, as I found it last night, when we went to watch the sky lanterns. And another today, when I went to build.
I just don’t understand why people would destroy and step on a sandcastle – it takes SO much work to do the preparation work before I can even think about carving. Very inconsiderate and destructive. I just don’t get it.
That’s one of the reasons I teach so many families and kids how to build them. I figure each one I teach will be one more creator (and not a destroyer!)

My brother, Bill, and his wife, Jill, invited us to watch them put their last three sky lanterns aloft last night. They are rice paper lanterns, about 3′ high, and 18″ diameter, with a small rectangular piece of paraffin soaked cardboard, suspended just inside the bottom of the lantern. The paraffin is ignited, and the lantern held upright, until enough heat gives it the lift it needs. They were mesmerizing, rising above the bay, reflecting the flame you could see through the thin rice paper. We watched them until they were just a tiny speck in the sky.