Tag:

found on the beach

It’s the little things…

by Kaylah Stroup November 8, 2016

like crisp autumn days + finding all the super tiny pieces of beach glass.

I didn’t mind the winter so much as a child, it meant playing in the snow! These last few years though, the season has hit me harder and harder. It just gets dark so early! It hasn’t snowed yet and it’s not even technically winter but already I feel like it’s taking a toll on me. Each year I understand a little better why people retire to Florida. Although my choice would be Arizona…

Luckily this November has been really, really amazing. Aside from a few rainy days, there has been lots of sunshine! I’ve been trying my best to soak it all up whenever possible. This is my perfect beach weather. Late in the season so there aren’t many people. Its cool enough to wear a coat, and warm enough to not wear gloves. Plus nothing beats the crispness of late autumn! Something about leaves falling on the beach is just really beautiful.

Last week I spent a nice little chunk of my day wandering around the beach, picking up tiny pieces of beach glass, and enjoying the crunch of the leaves underneath my feet. I find searching for glass and arranging it in some sort of order so relaxing. It’s absolutely one of my favorite ways to decompress. I also, of course, love the idea of someone else finding my little arrangement after I’ve left.

I hope we get at least a few more crisp autumn days this year!
xoxo

PS. Don’t forget to check out my tips for finding beach glass!

Dead Horse Bay

by Kaylah Stroup September 7, 2016

The whole reason we dipped down into New York after Maine was Dead Horse Bay. I have wanted to go to this beach for oh so long! While planning the trip and looking for fun things to do along the way I thought “Hmm, I wonder how much time Dead Horse Bay would add to the drive?” Mapping everything out showed that it really wouldn’t add any more time but would simply take us a different route home which is always ideal anyway. I asked Jeff what he thought and since he’s basically down for anything, he agreed it’d be an awesome stop.

The original plan was to hit the beach around sunset on Sunday evening but we spent too much time geocaching and goofing around in Boston. (Totally worth it!) It started to pour the rain down, and I highly highly hiiiighly underestimated what a mess New York City traffic is. So needless to say getting to the beach in time for a beautiful sunset didn’t happen.

I was feeling pretty defeated by the city and how incredibly difficult it is to get around by car. I know, everyone else in the world is like “duhhh!” but I’m used to Cleveland’s easy breezy traffic. I basically sat in the car with my eyes closed while Jeff thoroughly enjoyed the aggressive driving style you have to take on. I honestly didn’t know if we’d make it to Dead Horse Bay at all just because of time constraints and how long it was taking to get around.

I was overjoyed to finally get to the parking lot, gear up in my brand new rubber boots, and start hiking toward the beach. We walked down a road that said it was for those with fishing permits only. The beach was in sight but the second we stepped on to it I knew we were in the wrong spot. Too clean. It was hot, and despite it not being a terribly long walk, both Jeff and I were pooped out. I groveled “We can just leave if you want. It’s not a big deal.”

While we walked back to the car I did a little bit more looking around online for details on where exactly the beach is. We eventually realized we had to cross the road to get to it. There was mention of a wooded trail which we found right away once on the correct side of the road. What everyone failed to mention was the mosquitoes. You guys, I grew up in the country, I am no stranger to mosquito bites. But I have never in my life been bitten SO many times. At any given moment there would be at least six of them biting. It was hell. I was nearly in tears. Yeah, they were that bad. I felt like the path would never end. I couldn’t understand how we hadn’t reached the water yet. We eventually emerged from the woods, the mosquitoes cleared, and it was everything I had hoped it would be!

So, Dead Horse Bay, what the heck is it? One yelp user calls it “an abomination!” Another says “Disgusting! Fascinating! Free souvenirs!” I’m on the side of the second person. In the nineteenth century the area was home to a few horse rendering plants. The harbor was used as a dumping ground for the chopped up bones which would wash up on shore. Later the marsh was used a landfill which quickly filled up and needed to be sealed. Eventually, in the 1950s, that cap broke. Since then garbage has been spewing into the ocean and washing up on shore. The beach is covered in bottles, many of which are completely intact, and tons of other random items that have a hard time decomposing, like soles of shoes. There are even a few abandoned boats! Sooo, it’s basically a trash beach …and it’s amazing.

My time at Dead Horse Bay was short but I loved every second. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but this place is exactly my style. I could have poked around for days! It’s an absolute treasure trove. When it comes right down to it, it’s trash, but it’s trash that’s full of history. Many of the bottles were from products no longer manufactured! It breaks my heart that I didn’t have more time to spend there.

I made sure my camera bag was full of other random empty bags for all the treasures I might find. I didn’t know what I’d end up leaving with but I knew there was no way I’d come away from here empty handed. Surprisingly, my pile of loot was fairly small. I brought home four small bottles, two pieces of pottery, a claw, and a shell. My favorite of the bunch is a little brown bottle that has taken on a new shape. I definitely let out an audible noise of approval when I realized it wasn’t broken at all.

If I lived nearby you know darn well that I’d have all sorts of little arrangements of bottles set up around the area. I honestly can’t believe that there weren’t any along the large pieces of driftwood or in the abandoned boats. Apparently from time to time the trees in the area have bottles strung up in them but sadly, I didn’t see any.

New York City, I will be back! I will explore you properly and I will love you. Dead Horse Bay, I already love you. I cannot wait to come back and hunt for more treasures.
xoxo

Lake Erie cairns

by Kaylah Stroup July 18, 2016

Are you guys familiar with cairns? A cairn is literally just a human made pile of rocks. Sometimes they’re used to mark trails, or signify someone has died in a certain spot. In certain areas they’re used as a hunting implement to direct animals toward a game jump. Other times, and in this case, they’re made just because they look really awesome. Basically there are tons of reasons one might build a cairn, and tons of places you might find one!

I remember the first time I saw cairns. I was on a camping trip, and we were kayaking down the river. We rounded a corner and, to the left, the rocky shoreline was covered in these stacks of rocks. There were TONS of them, and some were taller than me. I didn’t know what they were, or why they were there but I instantly loved them. I excitedly took a few photos. It was another year before I saw another one which I shared a photo of here! Four more years passed, and finally last week I spotted another while walking on the beach. It was only three rocks high, so hardly a cairn at all but it inspired me.

Before I knew it I had built a whole bunch of them. Our beaches here in Cleveland aren’t very rocky, at least not the ones I frequent but we do seem to have an abundance of bricks. I used a combination of rocks, bricks, logs, driftwood, styrofoam, and even trash to make mine.

They’re just piles of rocks but I can’t get over how awesome my little creation looked. I built them on a section of the beach that sometimes completely disappears when the tide comes in. I doubt my structures lasted more than a day or two but I hope someone spotted them before they washed back into the water.

Don’t be surprised to see if you see more of these popping up on the blog later this summer. I’m hooked! I’m excited to go back and see what I can do with a little bit more time, and on a day when there are more large pieces of…well, whatever waiting for me! Building things on the beach is easily one of my favorite hobbies.
xoxo

Check out my found on the beach tag for more interesting beach related posts!

two minute beach clean

by Kaylah Stroup May 24, 2016

beach trash, lake erie, cleveland, green, plastic

Since my last found on the beach post there have been some definite improvements to my favorite beach. Judging by the marks in the sand, they did that thing where they just plow everything into a dumpster. It gets rid of all the driftwood, a lot of the sand, and some of the trash. I’m not 100% sold on this method of cleaning up the beach considering the fact that it just pushes a lot of the trash into the remaining sand, making it sort of like buried treasure. Better than nothing, I guess. It does nothing to stop more stuff from washing up though.

I mentioned it briefly in one of my previous beach related posts but I recently started following a bunch of other folks who really love the beach, and all things beach related. Seriously you have to check out plastic monster! I wish they posted more. This fills up my explore feed with even more of these beach lovin’ people. I’m normally a little creeped out by how “smart” the internet it, how it shows me what it thinks I want to see, but I’ve really enjoyed being exposed to more beach combers and their finds.

Something I kept seeing was the hashtag “2minutebeachclean“. I was super excited to find so many other people who helped pick up their beaches. It was also reassuring to see that my beach isn’t the only one with these issues, that it’s a global problem! I mean, obviously it’s not a good thing that it’s a global problem but when I share these posts and everyone comments “MY beach isn’t that dirty! Lake Erie must be gross!” you start to think “Oh no! What if it is only my beach!?”

After browsing instagram for a little bit I felt inspired to do my own two minute beach clean. The photos below show everything green I picked up in a short stroll from one side of the beach to the other. It’s a fairly quick walk. I just used google maps to measure it, 530ft wide. I was planning on writing “this was obviously longer than a two minute beach clean” but I guess technically it could have been since it’s such a short distance. It definitely didn’t take long to pick it up. As with every one of my found on the beach posts, I spent more time organizing it all for photos than I did picking it up.

lake erie, great lakes, trash, beach trash

According to the 2 Minute Beach Clean website, June 11th is first annual beach clean up day. Even if you don’t live near a beach, take a few minutes out of your day pick up some litter on your daily walk, from the parking lot, from the ditch, etc. Every little piece counts!
xoxo

7 tips for finding beach glass

by Kaylah Stroup May 4, 2016

blue beach glass, green beach glass, lake erie, beach glass

When I first got into finding beach glass I was surprised to learn that we even had some in Ohio. I guess in my mind it was probably only in Florida. I dunno why, I just imagine that the beaches in FL have lots of treasures. That combined with the fact I had only heard of it referred to as “sea glass” meant it definitely wasn’t going to be in any of the Great Lakes. I was so very wrong. The Great Lakes, as well as many other bodies of water, have incredible treasures just waiting to be found! I get a lot of questions about beach glass whenever I share photos so I thought it’d be fun to share some tips. I’ve only been doing this for around four years but I’ve learned so much in that time.

lake erie, cleveland, beach glass, mermaid tears

First, lets talk about little bit about the what and where. Beach glass is formed when broken bottles are tumbled in a body of water until the sharp edges are round and smooth. This usually takes twenty to thirty years but sometimes even longer. Glass from the sea, or ocean is slightly different from that of glass from bodies of fresh water. Generally it’s more frosted, and the edges are smoother than that which comes from fresh water. That’s definitely not to say we don’t have some really great stuff in the Great Lakes!

Different beaches all have different things that wash up. I frequent four separate beaches along Lake Erie in the Cleveland area and none of them wash up the same types of items or colors of glass. One of my beaches has tons of glass but most isn’t tumbled very smoothly, and another produces gorgeous, smooth, frosty glass but a very small quantity. It’s tempting to want to ask people which beaches they go to but most won’t share their highly treasured spots. Your best bet is to get out there and do some exploring for yourself. I think it’s important to visit a beach multiple times before crossing it off your list. Like I said earlier, I don’t know how long I went thinking we didn’t have beach glass simply because I was looking at the right time of the day, or carefully enough.

7 tips for finding beach glass!

▴ Slow down. Lets be real, this is a great tip for just about everything in life. Seriously though, unless you have a SUPER sharp eye even walking at a regular pace is too fast. Take your time wandering the beach, you’ll have a much better chance of spotting something.

▴ Get low! Obviously things are easier to see when you’re closer. On a warm day there is nothing more relaxing than plopping down in the sand and looking for glass. Which brings me to my next tip…

▴ Dig a little. Not with a shovel or anything but sometimes I actually do use a piece of driftwood just to give my hand a break. Tiny shells can be shaaaarp! The photo above? That is prime for beach glass, the thing is it might not all be on the surface. Simply removing the top layer is likely to reveal more glass.

▴ Rocky beaches! Have you noticed something about all the photos I’ve shared in this post? The beach is rocky. Choose beaches that have rocks and tiny pebbles near the waterline, in that mix will most likely be beach glass. Some beaches never really wash this stuff up though. Super smooth, sandy beaches that are very well maintained aren’t likely to yield too much. Tides obviously effect how rocky a beach is and subsequently what you’re going to find. Low tide is best but I’ve found beach glass at all times of the day.

▴ Go after storms, or even better during the rain. Any sort of inclement weather is your friend for two main reasons. One – it’ll most likely be wavier than normal which means more things being washed ashore. Two – there are less people there. While I try not to be dumb and competitive with other beachcombers (hey, we both think trash is treasure!) the fact of the matter is they could find something before me.

▴ Wear rain boots. Wet feet on a chilly day is awful. I can’t tell you how many times I went to the beach with the intention of staying dry and drove home barefoot because a wave I wasn’t expecting got me. Not to mention the fact that sometimes you’ll spot a piece of glass that hasn’t washed in yet. I swear, it’s always a color you’re looking for too! Boots mean you can get those pieces without hesitation. My fox boots are from Joules a few years ago. I had these babies for three years before I finally got a tiny hole in them last week and I am ROUGH on boots. I would highly recommend them!

▴ Don’t forget to look further up the shore. Beach glass shines beautifully in the sun when it’s wet, making it pretty easy to spot. That doesn’t mean right along the water is where you should look though. Lots of large pieces go overlooked in dry spots. In the two photos above you can see the difference between wet and dry. Look at it shine while wet but just a few more feet up the beach a similar blue piece is nearly camouflaged.

Over time you’ll develop an eye for it. Even when I’m not at the beach I catch myself noticing pieces of glass and thinking “oh my gosh, bluuuue!” only to realize it’s literally just a broken bottle. You may even start to find other things in the sand you want to collect. Pottery shards are one of my favorites. Someone on instagram was actually able to identify the china pattern on the blue shard below. Although it’s probably the most common pattern, being able to trace it is beyond cool in my book!

Looking for beach glass is honestly one of my favorite hobbies (and I sure do have a lot of hobbies!) It’s incredibly relaxing. I’d consider it my favorite way to decompress. If you’re looking for a stress free hobby, that super easy, and super satisfying – you’ve found it. Every single person I’ve ever taken to look for beach glass has gotten into it. It’s a blast! One last thing, I must warn you, searching for beach glass is ADDICTING. Once you get started, you’ll never want to stop. Good luck!
xoxo

Check out some of my favorite spots in Cleveland to beachcomb!

another beach fort

by Kaylah Stroup April 7, 2016

I was just about to type that Spring is here as an excuse why I have another one of my beach forts to share with you today it’s actually been really cold this week. The other night it was hailing snow, or something?, so loudly that it woke both Jeff and I up in the middle of the night. When I took Klaus outside the next morning the ground was just covered in tiny snowballs! We’re only a few days in but it’s been a crazy April so far. Regardless, it’s like I can’t help it. My mind knows it’s beach season, even if the weather doesn’t agree with me, so I’ve been heading there without even really thinking about it.

My last big trip to the beach including making this mini fort on a secluded section of my favorite Cleveland beach. I liked the spot because 1) there was a lot of driftwood there just begging for me to do something with it, and 2) you can see part of the skyline from here. While it didn’t photograph as beautifully as planned I still really like it.

As I made my way over to this spot I picked up all the beach glass I found. I ended up leaving the majority of it inside the fort for someone else to enjoy but had to take the piece above home. It just looked like a huge chunk of green but when I held it up to the light I saw that it had a bit of a pattern inside. I’m not really sure where glass like the comes from but I dig it! I’ve been finding a lot of really awesome stuff lately. I’m sure I’ll write a whole post about it soon, I have lots of pictures to share.

I went back a few days after building this fort and this section of the beach had actually kind of just disappeared. The water was so high that there wasn’t a trace left of my fort, or anything else for that matter. I hope someone got to enjoy it before the waves washed it away.

I’m itching to get back. I’ve always kind of been an all or nothing kind of person in regards to my hobbies. I’m either completely obsessed or not really interested and it tends to come in waves. Last year I took it easy on the beach, I actually barely spent any time there. Right now the beach is all I can think about. I think it’s safe to say its my “happy place”. I’m looking forward to the weather warming up a bit more and getting back to making my found on the beach arrangements! I have a feeling by the end of the summer y’all are going to be like “Kaylah, shut up about beach forts” so sorry, not sorry in advance. Building these is really relaxing to me and leaving things for others to find makes my heart happy!

Hope you’re having a lovely Thursday! Maybe go spend some time at the beach for me today if you get a chance?
xoxo

driftwood beach fort

by Kaylah Stroup March 23, 2016

Trying to get more steps on my Fitbit means a lot more of me getting out and wandering around. It’s definitely a win/win situation. I’m getting more exercise, and I’m also out doing more of my favorite activities without feeling guilty that I should be at home working. Last week I hit up the beach. I collected some beach glass, and then noticed some nice looking drift wood that was perfect for building a fort. Forty five minutes later I finished her up and put a bunch of the beach glass I had collected earlier inside. I took a handful of photos but wasn’t all that impressed with what I shot. I was still excited to share those photos here because I was proud of my little fort. As I was leaving the desolate beach a woman walked over to a bench to eat her lunch but before sitting snapped a few photos of my fort. I was so excited that I took a crappy photo of her taking a picture of my creation.

The next day it was SUPER foggy. I ran around town taking pictures, and eventually made my way back to the beach. You can see my photos here! I wasn’t too confident that my little fort from the previous day would still be standing, people love to knock stuff down and I wasn’t sure if the waves might have gotten too close, but to my delight it was still there and HOLY COW, it looked awesome in the fog! I took so many photos and couldn’t be happier with how they turned out. The bare trees, the fog, the colors! Everything just came together so wonderfully.

Most importantly though, there were little doggy footprints leading right up to it and the glass had all been taken. Someone else (and their pup!) enjoyed it, and that makes me happy!

glitter rain boots from Modcloth, no longer available. Found them here though!

beach glass for me, beach glass for you

by Kaylah Stroup March 10, 2016

It’s been a while since I rambled about how much I loved the beach, huh? I guess I kind of took the winter off, which is fairly unusual for me. Over the weekend Jeff and I stopped at a random little beach and it got me thinking how much I missed “my” beach… plus the beach sounded like an excellent way to rack up steps and that’s basically all I think about since I got a Fitbit. First thing Monday morning I headed to my secluded little spot which was full of driftwood, trash, and beautifully tumbled beach glass. If there was any one spot in Cleveland that felt like home to me, it would be this beach. It was good to be back.

I’ve slowed down my beach glass picking habits in the last year. Not because I don’t like it anymore, quite the contrary, but because I really don’t need to bring it all home. When I lived in Geneva I barely found any glass so every single piece, no matter how tiny, was a huge deal. I brought it all home but it never really seemed to accumulate. Now I’m a five minute bike ride away from a beach that is almost always ripe for the picking! If I brought home everything I picked up my apartment would probably have a whole room just full of glass. I spent more time arranging this little collection than I did finding it.

Something I’ve always liked to do is leave things behind that will make people smile, like beach forts made of driftwood. I wish I could leave my “found on the beach” arrangements as is after I photograph them but I debate back and forth in my head whether or not that defeats the whole purpose. Leaving pretty little arrangements of beach glass seems just fine so that’s exactly what I did. It’s a win/win because I get to pick up beach glass which I find incredibly relaxing, create something and then leave it for someone else to find. I hope it was found before it washed away.

I did end up taking home a few pieces from the day though. Blue and red are two of the harder colors to find so I almost never leave either of those behind. But the find of the day or month?! possibly year?!! has to be the piece below which basically just looks like a gummy bear made of glass. I’ve never found a multicolored piece like that. I just thought it was a regular old brown piece until I held it up to the sky. I must find more!!!

backpack and lapel pin from Moorea Seal.

on the cutting room floor – pt. 1

by Kaylah Stroup October 8, 2015

I took these photos the other day at the beach. I had a horrible, horrible headache and hoped some fresh air would help. (It didn’t. I couldn’t get back to the couch soon enough…) While
I strolled the beach I picked up glass, which isn’t something I really
do anymore. Despite not feeling well I took a handful of photos of my
finds, and I ended up really loving them. I tried so hard to think of something to write along side these
photos and was kind of just stumped…

One way that blogging has effected the way I take photos is that if I know that I’m planning on sharing something I will shoot more photos than needed. I’ll take the extra effort to search for angles I may not usually go for, and find as many ways as possible to visually represent whatever the post is about. It’s great because it pushes me out of my creative comfort zone sometimes, and it encourages me to take more photos which is always a good thing. But upon looking back through my folders I realized that this leaves me with a lot of photos that never make it blog posts. Sometimes because I don’t think they’re good enough but more often than not it’s because I don’t know what to say about them.

When I look back through some of my older posts something that bothers me is that I didn’t write much. Things seemed to apparent at the time why would I take the effort to write more? But I see now that I should have typed more to go along with photos. Lately I’ve been trying my hardest to write more in posts when I can. I hope that it shows, I know that I’m a lot happier with my posts. The bad thing about that is that are so many photos I don’t share and just end up forgetting about.

As a way to get those photos up on the blog I’m starting a new little series called “on the cutting room floor”. In this series I’ll just be sharing photos that I’ve taken recently but haven’t blogged about for one reason or another. Unlike the ones in this post the photos I share most likely won’t have a theme but I’m not really giving this series any rules! It’ll just be a fun little way to mix things up and share more of my photos.

xoxo

Ps that’s the first bottle neck I’ve found washed up on the beach! I don’t know how it took like four years for me to finally find one but WAHOOO!

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