Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Oops! Made a boo-boo!

So I thought I was posting number 300 the other day and well.......apparently not! Guess I was seeing things, so now I will be madly thinking of this to write about......and trying to catch up!
So today as I was puttering around doing some house cleaning I thought I would show you some of the sea glass that has gotten me so excited about beach combing around here. I've only been collecting it for a few months and it is very addicting but I love just wondering down the beach and as the Hubs can attest to this, he pretty much has to drag me away....especially if it is a nice sunny day.

Have you experienced the thrill of finding a deliciously-frosty and perfectly-tumbled piece of sea or beach glass? Although most are not colored, each piece is an exciting find in itself. But when I find a colored piece I get very excited!

Although many folks have collected sea glass, also known as beach glass, for a lot of years, this pastime has really grown in popularity lately.

If you are hearing about it for the first time, here is a definition that should clarify what it is and how to recognize it.

Definition:
Glass Becomes Sea Glass or Beach Glass when:

1- A piece of glass has been tumbled by natural wave action to the point where there are no sharply-defined edges or corners, and

2-The natural action of elements in the water along with sunlight and tumbling action have produced a unique frosted or etched surfacecovering all sides of the glass.

If these two factors are not present, it is just a glass shard, no matter where it is found.

*The term "Beach Glass" is more general and includes naturally-tumbled glass that is found on freshwater beaches as well as ocean beaches.


A palm leaf bowl from the Dominican holds these jars of sea glass

I've been using glass jars from candles to display the different
colors of glass, this one is the white and amethyst and a few pale blue or green

This is my green glass collection
Usually, if someone is walking along a beach and sees me bending over, hands on knees, scrutinizing the sand and pebbles, they slow right down, and kind of try to see what I'm looking for. Then, if they aren't too inhibited they'll ask, "What ARE you looking for?"


So, I'll say, "Sea glass," and see how they respond. Some will ask right off, "What IS sea glass?" Some already know what it is.

On the other hand, some are hesitant to let on that they don't know what sea glass is, so then I'll usually ask them if they know what sea glass is.

If they don't know what sea glass is, I'll say something like:

"You know, when you're walking along the beach and you find little pieces of glass of different colors.

Those are from busted up bottles and glassware that have been in the salt water for a long time and because of the currents and the sun and the waves and the sand, they turn out really frosty."

Then there are some people that just sort of nod their heads and think, "mmmmmmm, she's a strange one!" but that's okay, different strokes, for different folks.....Sue and I get it. So if no one else understands our passion, that's all right, more for us to scour the beaches for!

Well, must do some baking, and get supper semi-ready, and hopefully it isn't pouring cats and dogs at 5:30 so we can go out for a run, count down 4 days till the Fool's Run! Yikes!!! Protein! Carb load! Water! Stretching! Mind prep! Awwwww! It's all good, it's only 21km for crikey sake!

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