Things I Stumbled Upon

Port Townsend is an environmentally aware town, with little trash along the paths and roads. Today I explored the tide pools at North Beach, and picked up more human paraphernalia than usual- this soggy shoe, a large plastic straw, and my second golf ball. Other days I’ve stumbled upon every size and shape of plastic and styrofoam, candy wrappers, innumerable Bic lighters, and once a syringe. I’ve also carried home two unusual finds. The first was a necklace trapped under barnacle-encrusted rocks, with three long strands of glass beads. (Tossed into the sea by a scorned lover?) The second was a huge expensive fender, just perfect for my husband’s sailboat. I was happy to also find life along North Beach today- enormous hermaphroditic acorn barnacles, a chiton firmly stuck to a rock, glistening pink and beige anemones filled with sand, and a distressed blue and orange starfish that, of course, I rescued.

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