2009 Not Over Yet

We haven't created the final tally for the season. With school starting before Labor Day, the Summer was suspended abruptly. Nothing can change the standings, though. Everyone is separated by so much, the last few days counts won't make a difference. Its safe to say dad (me), didn't win this years Dad's Sea Glass Challenge. However, I had a great time trying!

Mid-July Update

I am declaring the "winter deposit" theory officially debunked. As you'll see from the counts below (and my previous post), it all depends on the conditions that day. We've had great days and days that were just okay. Beautiful and fun, though, they all were.

8/8: 185 pieces (47 and 46 by the kids)! Insane catch. We came down within two days of a storm and what a difference that makes. There were several pebble mounds scattered on the beach. Sifting through the pebbles revealed many peices. They were along the beach and in the water, too. Out of the total, only a handful were what I would call "jewelry quality" -- and small at that.

I would love to see a time-lapsed film of the storm and the waves depositing all those pebbles.

8/14: 63 pieces. Less than a week later and the pebble mounds were gone. It was a bit less frenzied, though, which was nice. I took my time on the way back and found the piece of a lifetime -- see the pictures. Its larger than most we find, and completely, evenly worn. The pitting on the "outside" is quite deep; several grains of sand are embedded. For me, its an exciting find.

8/16: 32 pieces. We hit the beach at a bad time in the tide cycle. The waves weren't right, either. We all knew there was more, but not to be found that day. The nicest piece that day was part of a brown bottle-top ring -- maybe 20% of the circle, and nicely frosted.

Vacation is coming. We'll be on the beach for days. We'll be able to easily go at unusual times of day. It will be interesting to see what we find.

Geting Caught Up

Its been a while since my last post. Thank June's wash-out weather for part of it. Its been very rainy here, but fortunately, we have had good days in July.

I think my theories on geology/hydrology have won out. Initially, it looked like the "winter's deposit" theory, that the most glass would be available early and then the supply would wane, would win. Its been up and down as you'll see below, which argues for my theory.

There we two "in competition" days in the spring. Since then, we've been to the site of competition 4 times...

7/5: 37 total pieces (vs. 80 and 64 previously). There was even distribution amongst the participants, which we haven't seen since.

7/11: 78 total pieces with one person finding 39! The competition kind of blew apart on this day. I am still in second, but by a huge margin now. Oh, the monster I've created!

7/17: 1 piece. Very frustrating day. Very little "material" on the beach -- as smooth and wide at low-tide as I have ever seen it. The random seaweed piles didn't help. I fortunately found the only piece of the day (in 6 inches of water): a nice chunky browny. I am pleased to be the only one without a "zero" day, so far.

7/25: 23 total peices. Not a great day for me. I only found two. One was good. The other qualified for our competition, but wasn't that nice. It was cloudy when we went walking, so it was hard to spot the pieces. Oh well.

So far, our total is many multiples of last year. The erratic catch tells me there is plenty out there, it just depends on the conditions.


One additional note: I found a small, but nice, green piece -- on the bay side of Cape Cod! At first I didn't think the wave action was rough enough, then, I didn't see any glass. Finally, while talking to a relative on our last day, I looked down and there it was in one of my footprints! Nice.

Memorial Day

It was a beautiful weekend where we are. It deserved a beach trip, and the sea glass was calling, anyway.

It was low-tide for the time we were there. The beach was wider and flatter than most recalled seeing in many years. That's a good sign. Winter was good to the beach this year. We'll have to see what that does to the surf, though. Hopefully its not too smooth this year.

Upon my first look down the beach, I thought the sea glass hunting would be weak. It was so smooth and flat -- and the waves very gentle. I did find two peices right in front of where we set our chairs (in a populated area), so I was encouraged. When we all set out, everyone followed their usual patterns of placement on the beach and speed down it.

I find I have to be in a Zen frame of mind: open to seeing what's revealed, rather than trying to actively see what I want. I prefer the strand (waters edge) and the slowest speed. The sea glass "reveals" itself to me better there!

We had a great day as far as total count was concerned: 64 pieces. That is not as high as the one day in April (see previous post), but more than last season's total. There were no pebble fields this time, so I'm sticking to my geology/hydrology theory. Some of the peices were tiny, but a few are the chunkiest we've found. Nice.

The days will start rolling now. Hopefully every day will be as nice as yesterday.

Interesting Article

Visit this article (Smithsonian.com) for an interesting story on sea glass. See also the reader comments. Pretty interesting.

2009 Sea Glass Challenge Kick-off

It finally came on April 18!

It started off sunny and cold -- with wind. See the video clip (sorry for the rough editing). Then it turned raw when the clouds came in. Tough day for exposed fingers!

The sea glass hunting was amazing. We found 80 pieces of wildly varying sizes (six people). That's double last seasons entire haul! Additionally, there were pieces that the Rules Committee did not accept (too sharp, not "frosted" enough, etc.). Pretty great day in that regard.

While I think there was something to the "winter theory" (get to the winter's deposit before the summer hoards), I think the two usual factors had more to do with it. The geology of the beach that day was unique and the hydrology was just like our best days from last summer. The pebble fields were unlike any I've seen at the beach in my 42 years of going. Also, the waves were the perfect force for washing mid-sized things up and down the strand without burrying them under sand.

The word is we'll be going for another "pre-summer" day soon. We'll see if that day's catch sheds any further light on the winter theory.

Season starts soon!

Not sure if we'll kick off 2009 this coming Saturday or maybe the following. Our hope is that we'll get to the winter's deposit of sea glass before the hoards of sun worshipers. Though, as I've said, I think it really depends of the geology and hydrology of the beach on any given day. We'll see.

Treasure from 2008

As I've mentioned, at our beach, sea glass isn't everywhere. This is the entire haul for 2008: 2 vacation days and 6 other Saturdays or Sundays. You can see both the quantity and size (dime in both images for scale) -- not that much. Interestingly, the take on any given day depends on the geology of the beach and the tide that day. Some days we find just a few pieces. On our second to last day in 2008, we doubled our catch (20 pieces in one day).

The shell shows you the 1-point spiral shells that count for Dad's Sea Glass Challenge.

Welcome

TreasureGlass is all about the magic of discovery. Some things may be small and insignificant, but their rarity and uniqueness render unto them the qualities of treasure. And when they glow in the sun’s light, it’s a special reward. Such are the jewels we commonly refer to as “sea glass”.

Your appreciation for sea glass probably depends on the beach you know and love. At a city beach or a sheltered cove, the glass may be sharp and a nuisance or danger. At others, the smooth and frosted fragments may be so plentiful as to be mundane. At the beach we frequent (where, before eminent domain claimed property, my great grandmother owned two homes) the elements are just right for magic on a summer afternoon: rough enough surf that smoothes the pieces, an especially wide beach at low tide, a quantity of glass that makes finding it special, but not discouraging.

To keep J and G occupied, I even created a bit of a game around TreasureGlass: Dad’s Sea Glass Challenge. It’s a points based game that adds another dimension to sea glass hunting:

Clear, green, and brown glass: 1 point per piece
Blue glass (now extremely rare at our beach): 5 points per piece
Glass ring (if we ever find one, I expect it to be from the thick part at the top of an old Coke bottle): 10 points
And for G, special shells, where the internal spiral is partially exposed, count for one point.

The most points for the season wins. The 2009 season kicks off soon. I don’t know what the winner gets, since I won last year. This is more about the finding, than the winning. At least it is for me.

Check back for stories, updates, and pictures of what we collect.

Welcome to TreasureGlass!