Living On The Edge
My nana may not have known how to navigate a boat safely along the new england coast, where sand and rock meet ocean and waves, but she knew that the granite ledges, that can be so hidden from and menacing to boaters at high tide, would protect her beachfront cottage.
Having already loved the ocean before my family acquired nana's cottage as our own, it was a natural fit that i would enjoy living here, and love the beach and granite ledges just as much. How could i not love the very place where the ocean begins? But living here means that you have to accept all kinds of weather. Winter storms, as well as intense heat when low tide comes midday in August. There has been a cottage on this spot since 1863, but the first succumbed to a blizzard and beach erosion. Our current home, more house than cottage, bravely stands against, hurricane force winds, driven rain and snow and all the other extremes of weather that occur at the ocean's edge, or as i prefer to say, on the edge of the continent. Maybe geologists wouldn't agree that the edge of the continent exists right here within view of my porch, but i'm an artist. I am a visual person. I love the sea. I love living on the beach. For me, the edge of the continent is that meeting point of salt water and salty sand. It is the edge that spans the width of my front yard and is 40' from my stairs at high tide, several hundred feet from my stairs at low tide, and past the stairs and under the house when the wind blows NE at 55 knots on an 11' moon tide. The edge where water, wet and usually cold, meets sand, dry and either warm or cold depending on the season. The edge, that on NOAA's navigational charts is the line that defines the separation of the yellow beige of the land mass from the blue of the ocean. The very line that if superimposed from NOAA's navigational charts over the beach where i live, would be the same line, (give or take a few feet allowing for the height of the tide), I walk each sunrise. The edge of the beach. The edge of the ocean. The edge of a continent.
Working in a beach and ocean front home is great inspiration for a nautically inspired line of scarves. As I combine my designs with the charts i've loved since cruising New England as a young girl, I'll be observing my front yard. Writing about what happens in this little space, where this line, visual to me, imaginary to some, illustrated by NOAA, comes alive with low and high tide, changing from calm wavelets, to mountainous surf, and from sandcastles to mountains of seaweed. Who knows, maybe there are other "edges" to encounter that will need to be addressed from time to time. I have no specific plans. Writing a blog is new to me. Something that i will be navigating for the first time. No chart. No plotted course. Just observing life on the edge of a continent.