Details from Nature's Paintbrush

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On a recent camping trip to coastal Georgia, I became caught up in the outrageous sand patterns etched by the tides ... the surf-pounded driftwood bent and colored ... and other castaways delivered up by the sea.

Selecting which images to post was a challenge, one more eye-catching than the next, but here are the chosen images from three days of beachcombing for compositions.

First the titanium-laced sand paintings (the "black sand" is titanium and other metals and minerals):







I was like a kid in a candy shop gawking at every drift and swirl, my head spinning with awe of and delight in this eye-candy. I have walked many a beach, and marveled at the sand art, but never have I seen so many different flow patterns in one area.

Next, there was the driftwood. This little barrier island was undergoing great shifts and erosion. The saltmarsh was getting washed over by sand, while the frontline of the beach was being carried seaward and south. The trees long-grown between marsh and beach recently found themselves bare-rooted at water's edge, and then they succumbed to the ocean. After being pounded into sculpted driftwood by wind, sand, and surf, they were finished with a lovely patina of algae, sea creatures, salt and spray.







As low tide exposed the wide rippled shoreline, the treasures rolling in the shorebreak lay exposed. Sand dollars walked along the wet sand on their myriad sticklegs, often carrying a load of sand on their backs. Seashells rolled in the foamy wash. Crabs crawled and darted - some died and lay in parts.