I love Cape Cod in winter.
The once-smooth beaches get covered with jagged edges where the tidewater recedes…
Leaving behind long, glassy shards along the shore in its wake.
Broken chunks of sand and ice, in all shapes and sizes, get left behind too; revealing a process that is anything but a gentle one!
And there’s even more than sand that gets left behind.
Tiny treasures, churned up from the ocean bottom, are just waiting to be discovered!
Stones, shells and bits of seaweed await the curious eyes and minds…
Of those who get close enough to look for them. 😉
Quahog shells, scattered about by the tide, cast long shadows in the early morning sun.
Ordinary broken shell pieces are transformed by the simple forces of tide, wind and temperature into something quite magical.
Slipper shells, encrusted with tidewater in their cracks and crannies…
Join larger shells that get sand-sprinkled, oh-so-delicately, “under glass”…
Or hook up with clumps of seaweed glued together by thick globs of donut-like glaze.
Yet even with the cold, there are always new friends to meet out on the Cape beaches in wintertime.
Some seem to ignore the cold; preferring instead to bask in whatever sunshine peeks from behind billowy clouds.
Yet the shoreline isn’t the only thing that gets layered with ice.
The receding tide coats the jettys in ice as well…
Leaving treasures behind there, too…
On glazed, jagged boulders.
Glorious finds, for those with careful eyes.
Now I know that some come to the Cape only in summertime; eager for the shorebirds, sunbathing and sailing.
I find such incredible beauty in all of the seasons along these sandy shores.
But none more exquisite, than the beauty that I find here in winter!
❤
Images of Cape Cod 