At the end of an afternoon at the beach, Dandelion Niece and I took a walk along the boardwalk. We'd been swimming in the ocean, and the late afternoon breeze was cool. She jumped down onto the sand and rolled into the warmth of it, and then began sifting hot sand between her fingers and onto her bare legs.
I too love the texture and feel and warmth of sand against my skin, especially sand that has been heated by the sun. I figured I'd put this photo on my blog. I thought it would give blog readers that feeling — the coolness of ocean wind, the shivery way your body feels after a day of swimming, and the shifting warmth of soft sand under bare legs.
When I showed this photo to one of my sisters, she recoiled and said, "I HATE the feel of sand against my skin." A friend who saw the photo said in horror: "Throwing sand around so close a camera makes me nervous. Do you KNOW how bad sand is for your camera?"
I guess it's like what I always tell my students about writing for an audience: you have to take into account the associations your audience brings to a text or a photo.
Not everyone loves the feeling of sand. This photo is for the readers who do.
17 comments:
and I thank you for it.
:)
Me too. Its so white and fine and beautiful against the blue of the sky.
Sand is NOT soft. Have you ever knelt in it for any length of time [for praying or any other gratuitous activity...;-)]?
Ow.
FA
Holy cow, I wasn't gone long, but I sure missed a lot of posts. I feel like you're living your life without me!
I have felt the sand with the warmth you are writing about.
I have also felt the sand when it is so hot it will scorch your feet if you stand in one place too long.
The first thing that I thought of was the sand getting into her eyes and hair but then I deal mostly with children under 5 :-)
Fireant: Yeah, it's also not so great for romantic activities -- grains of sand in the wrong places can be quite painful.
Picky Mick: You should have joined me. That bay in the last picture is an amazing place to sail.
And hey, I heard a rumor that you and your sister had a quiemada WITHOUT ME. How could you?
Cathy: That happened to me once on vacation when we were farther south -- I was hiking with one of my kids and the sand was scorching hot. Ouch. We ended up just running as fast as we could to get into the shade.
Jodi: Yeah, when my kids were little, I was always yelling at them NOT to throw sand. And now I'm the kind of aunt who says, "Hey, keep throwing that sand. It'll make a cool picture."
I love the picture and I love warm sand :) I was the kind of mom and aunt, who not only told them to keep throwing, but usually joined them, or even started it.
I'm not such a fan of the sand myself, but I can see the temptation of it in this shot.
I too am a fan of the sand. I can walk for hours at the edge of the surf, watching the ocean shift the sand around, covering and exposing sea shells and other treasures from the briny deep. I love walking in sand that is still wet from a retreating tide. It's hard enough to support my weight, but soft enough to show footprints. And then there's the soft, warm, blindingly white sand beyond the high tide line. It's just perfect for playing in or lying on or diving into after catching a disc or sitting on to watch a sunrise or sunset with my best friend, my wife.
What a fabulous photo. It reminds me of the feeling I used to have when I was a kid and blew dandelion puffs...like I was floating with them, catching sunlight and breeze, drifiting...lovely writing too!
not a sand lover most of the time anymore, although I will make an exception for warm sand in the cool of an evening...great stop action picture!
I like feeling sand with my toes, but have to admit I'm not a big fan of grit in eyes, hair, clothes, under fingernails, etc. I also find it hard moving in deep dry sand. A coast with wet sand to walk on is wonderful.
That said, there's nothing like rolling down a giant sand dune.
On cameras, and kids throwing sand, when we were visiting our in-laws, they took us to a lovely beach, and my toddler nephew was happily picking up shells, digging in the sand, etc. He had a fist of something, and I was trying to take a picture of him, when he made and impish face and flung a fistful of sand smack into the camera! The adults were horrified; he giggled.
The flash hasn't been quite right since, but the rest of the camera is fine.
(Carry a strong squeezy air thing and a little brush, and you will fear no sand.)
I LOVE being on the sand, feeling it between my toes, under my feet, in my hair, being buried in it by my kids-- love it all. There's very little, sense-wise, that I don't love about the beach.
I don't think I do like it. It reminds me of crunching sand in your sandwiches (is that why they're called sandwiches?) but I LOVE that photo.
That photo is SO FUN!
I love the sand and water so the beach is awesome. I think I still have some sand in my hair...
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