Hot Weather Means Beach Time

Greetings from the island everyone, I hope all of you are doing well and had a wonderful July 4th holiday. The fireworks display in Port O’Connor was amazing, and seems to get better with each passing year. I watched them from my upstairs deck across the bay on the island, but next year I might venture out in the boat to get a closer look at them. I have friends that did just that, and said it was a great experience. The annual POC fireworks display is funded by donations, so please help to see that this great tradition continues.

Well we are definitely underway with the dog days of south Texas summer right now. Not having AC, my mid-afternoons are wisely spent in the shade with a cold iced tea or flavored water, with hopefully a nice breeze. Early mornings and late evenings are much nicer, and these times are set aside for any outdoor chores or projects. Even the cats stay in the shade on the front porch deck in this heat. . maybe they are not so dumb after all.

The very early mornings are also a great time to take a nice walk on the beach, seeing the beautiful sunrise lifting above the gulf waters. If you’re gonna exercise by walking, which I have found is very rewarding, the beach is a perfect place to do just that. It’s a very tranquil and peaceful setting, listening to the seagulls and watching the pelicans gracefully glide through the sky. On occasion I’ve even been fortunate enough to see dolphins performing complete jumps out of the water. Oh yes, the beach is a great place to walk, and I’ll need to continue doing it, if I keep reaching into those bags of powdered donuts!

Speaking of the island beach, this is the time of year that the tropical sea-beans are washing up on the beaches. Sea-beans, which are actually seeds, grow on trees and bushes in South America, Central America and the Caribbean. These seeds fall into rivers and streams, and the tides and currents eventually wash them across the ocean and Gulf of Mexico onto our beaches. It’s a lot of fun to walk the beach searching for these sea-beans, which come in different shapes and sizes, and even have their own names, such as hamburger, heart, purse and Mary’s sea-bean, to name only a few. So do a little research as to what they look like, there are various books on them, and try to find a few the next time you are enjoying a walk on the beach.

Well my gardening is nearing the end, the temps becoming too hot for my vegetables to do well. My tomatoes did great this year, no doubt getting a boost from 20 inches of rain in 32 days that we had at one point. A few pepper plants produced more peppers than I know what to do with, and the melons, especially the cantaloupes, did fantastic.

I had one cantaloupe that tipped the scales at 12.4 pounds, now that’s a big cantaloupe! It was 28 1/2” in circumference, and had a wonderful taste. I actually have another one still on the vine that I believe might be a tad bigger than that one. We shall see. I give away most of my vegetables that I grow to friends, my joy is in the growing from seed that I do out here.

Well that’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and stay cool.

Various Seabeans

Island Tomatoes

12.4 lb. Cantaloupe
from Clint’s island garden