A Fun "Lobstah" Lunch at the Shore

My friend, Mary, took me out to lunch the other day at the Guilford Marina's Lobster Pound. Guilford, next door to Madison, is the town I grew up in and where Mary still lives. The marina is a great place to hang out on a summer afternoon, and as a child when my family owned boats, I spent a lot of time there. I brought my friend, Mike Urban's newest book, Lobster Shacks, along with me. The book includes entries for New England's classic roadside lobster restaurants, including the Lobster Pound, so I thought it would make a perfect little photoshoot. The lobster rolls were delicious, and as you'll see in the following photos, you can't get much closer to the water without swimming! Thank you, Mary!

• To read more about Lobster Shacks, click over to Amazon, here. It's a great read even if you aren't going to be traveling around New England this summer.
• To read more about the Lobster Pound, click here. Boat tours are available, too. 
• This just in! Publisher's Weekly has favorably reviewed Lobster Shacks, here!

Looking east from our table, this is the view of the Guilford Marina. Just to the right of the little wooden clubhouse in the background is where my family's various boats were moored as I was a child. It looks much the same today despite many updates throughout the years.

Each picnic table at the "Pound" has a flowerbox filled with annuals such as marigolds and begonias. The hefty boat rope is a great touch. That's a classic saltwater marsh in the background.

Looking out into the Long Island Sound. I can't tell you how many times my father piloted our boat out this very channel for a day on the water. You can moor a boat on the right and let your guests off for lunch.

The unassuming entrance to the Lobster Pound. Featuring a minimal menu, several types of chips and non alcoholic drinks are available to go with your freshly cooked seafood.

A vintage ship's wheel awaits seaside guests as they step off their boats.

Shade or sun, it's your choice at the "Pound."

Busy day. The tables filled up as quickly as they emptied. The food arrives quickly and couldn't be any fresher. Local fishermen supply the seaside "shack" with their goods.

Seagulls keep a lookout for any crumbs that may fall their way!

Just a lovely Connecticut shoreline day in the sun, everyone is enjoying the quintessential New England seashore meal.

January Surprise!

 

Poking their spring leaves, and buds, through the sun-drenched soil at the beach, these daffodils are at least 2-3 months early! It's January, folks! I can only imagine that our lack of snow this winter, our fairly balmy days, and this rock facing due south sheltering the bulbs and reflecting the sunlight onto the soil, combined to give these daffies an early start. A very early start! We will have a winter though, I'm sure. There is a little bit of snow in the forecast for the next week, but only an inch or so along the shoreline. February can be a brutal month though, so a "real" winter might be just around the corner. 

Bonus Photos:

Low tide at the beach reveals the nature of this week's high tide line—thousands of tiny seashells. After a storm, this line might be strewn with debris, flotsam and jetsam, as it were, consisting of wood, broken buoys, etc. Other times it might consist of mainly seaweed and sponges and crabshells.

Looking almost like a mirage, New York's Long Island is visible in the upper left of this photo. Sometimes it's clear enough to tell the difference between the sandy shores and the darker green vegetation on top. Most of the time it's barely visible from the Madison shoreline. I believe it's about 15 miles as the crow flies at this part of the Sound.

The third, and final, Amaryllis bud has bloomed. Their shape really reminds me of the "morning glory" horns on early record players like my Edison Gem.

Sticks and Stones (and Leaves and Seaweed)

On my daily walks, I usually pick a "theme" to photograph that day, for example, rocks, trees, leaves, abstracts, houses, cars, wildflowers and the like. It gives me a focus and makes each walk around town just a bit different from the last. Above, a nice windy day created whitecaps as the waves neared the shoreline. The sounds of seagulls and the rushing waves was trance-inducing. These abstractions and closeups look great when enlarged. Just click on 'em.

Seaweed and algae clings to rocks frequently under water. This was shot at low tide, exposing more or the rock than most of the time.

Fall leaves catching the light just so. I know I once learned why some trees turn orange while others change to yellow or red, but I can't remember now... 

Different types of rock melded together. I'm guessing this process took place millions of years ago.

A lone sailboat enjoying a lazy September afternoon off the coast.

Small tidal pools are formed in the depressions in the rocks during low tide.

Fractures and cracks all along these impressively huge boulders and shoreline rocks.

Euonymous turning its eponymous Burning Bush firey magenta.

Slippery when wet!

One can imagine the extreme temperatures and forces that took place millions and millions of years ago to create these shoreline boulders. The glaciers thousands of years ago probably added to these strakes and grooves as they tore across the land.

This huge stone has an area of the Connecticut shoreline's famous pink granite blended right into the more common shoreline gray rock. My great-great-grandfather, John Beattie made his fortune quarrying this granite. His company was called Red Rocks and he supplied much of the stone for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, as well as almost every turn-of-the-century shoreline railroad bridge between New York and Maine. A bit about his 1899 funeral, here. And a few photos of the quarry workers, ca 1880s, here. My other great grandfather was a sculptor at the quarry.

I'm not sure what causes this oxidation on some of the stones. I'm guessing a higher iron content in these areas.

Reaching to the sky...

Erosion and water softens the harder edges on these boulders. How many hurricanes and dangerous galeforce storms have these rocks seen through the eons?

Glaciars left many huge rocks in odd places throughout New England. We had one ten times this size just sitting in the middle of a hill by itself at our family home.

Elephant skin or rocks, lol?

Seabirds frequently use shoreline rocks like these to drop their clam- and oyster-shells onto from the air to get at the gooey goodness inside.

A lone Winterberry tree ready to shed its leaves and show off why its named Winterberry.

Trillion-ton glaciers once inched along the Connecticut shoreline leaving behind these deep scars.

Some rocks show a more melted-looking visage.

A tight little cluster of early-turning autumn leaves. The rest of the tree caught up a few weeks later.