Hammock Beach

I've recently started taking advantage of my early morning hours by walking along Hammock Beach, just a couple of miles away from my new home in Palm Coast. I get there right about sunrise, and stay for about an hour, walking along the shoreline, picking up shells and bits of coquina and coral. Occasionally I find beach glass and driftwood pieces that are used in making my mosaic birdhouses, so that's a plus.

I have a special parking place that I covet, right underneath the golf cart bridge (I drive through the Hammock Beach Resort to get to my little mile of beach). It's one space, next to the outdoor shower and the public facilities. Couldn't be more convenient. And, even on the hottest days, it's shaded, so the truck stays cool as a cucumber.

These mornings that I have to myself are starting to mean more and more to me, and I'm almost crabby if I don't get to walk the beach or sit and watch the life along the shoreline for an hour. Some mornings I can't go, because of work but mostly I can. 

See, this is one of the main reasons I needed to move back to Florida. I have to get my fins wet every so often, and it was becoming more and more evident to me that time might run out before I moved closer to the sea. It could have been anywhere where there is an ocean and a shoreline, such as Maine or Cape Cod. But, Florida is home to me, and this part of Florida just felt right. I would love to have a small beach cottage nearer to a shore, so that I could just walk there every day, and perhaps the Fates will grant that in my elder years. Only time will tell. Maybe it will be in cooler Maine, where the snow coats the rocks along the cliffs or maybe it will be in the Florida Panhandle, where small fishing villages survive and the locals know everyone by name. But, right now, I'm here, where I can smell the salt air and watch the commercial fishing boats offshore. I can see the pelicans in formation, their bellies scraping the salt waves and I can hear the cries of the ospreys, swooping down to snag a fish, carrying it back to the nearest high spot to dine.

Some people are in tune with the mountains and the forests, and I'm in tune with the sea. I don't look like a sea creature, with my freckles and pale skin. But, inside I am. I don't care for the heat and humidity, but it's all part of this grand design called beach. This need to be by the ocean cost me dearly in many ways, but sitting there, journaling and feeling the breeze against the back of my neck is becoming all worth it.