Monday, October 20, 2008

On the beach

Big, big tire. Yeah, but you should have seen the one that got away. It's cool the way these rocks are smoothed by the endless sea.
These flowers were wafting a wonderful perfume fifty yards downwind along the beach. It was quite amazing. Someone was grilling steak, too, and the smell alternated with the perfume. Also, some Orthodox kids were playing hoops and yelling “fuck you” to each other.

If you don’t find a coconut along our Atlantic shore, then you haven’t had a good beachcombing day.
Kinda looks like this cormorant shouldn't have been smoking.... There were about a half dozen dead birds along the shore, mostly gulls, which is normal. But one of them seemed to be a headless chicken, which was weird and probably ritualistic.

1 comment:

Tanya said...

Yeah-- likely that it was sacrificial. In Orthodox neighborhoods, in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, people are supposed to take a chicken (technically a white rooster for men and a hen for women, but I've never seen them be sticklers for that) and wave it around their heads, reciting a prayer saying that the chicken is going to die in their place while they go on to live a long and prosperous life. Then, the chicken is slaughtered and it or a cash equivalent is given to the poor. I was raised Jewish, so I'd heard of it, but living in Hasidic Williamsburg gave me my first opportunity to see the ritual in person this year. And, well... it's messy and smelly and chaotic.

Beautiful pictures though.