My sister-in-law (J) needed to drive down to Cape May for an errand, and I 
went along with her. Took care of the errand, and the friend she saw (masked and distanced) suggested we continue down the road to the beach. So we did.
It turned out that this was Higbee Beach, on Delaware Bay. The bay is so huge, we couldn't even see the other side!
My best friend
from high school was a Higbee, so I had to look up why this is called Higbee Beach. This one and a half mile sandy beach was named for Joseph Higbee, a boat 
pilot on the Delaware River. In the 1800s, people would sail down to Cape May from Philadelphia, and Joseph was a well-known river 
pilot. There are a variety of local legends about Joseph Higbee who owned the beach and the woods behind it - or more accurately, the
legends are about his brother Thomas Horres Higbee. Thomas inherited the property, and the story is that had a strange plan to keep the land in the family. He allegedly told a friend that he wanted his niece to have the property after his death, so he made arrangements to be buried there, knowing she wouldn't sell the property with his body interred there. Well, the niece didn't sell. But after HER death, Thomas's remains were moved from the beach to a church cemetery, along with the niece. And the property was sold.Of course, now there are stories of ghosts haunting the beach at night, specters of an old bearded man who roams the beach. We have no idea if this is true or not, but it makes for an interesting story.
The ferry still leaves from the mouth of the Delaware River, and we saw it pulling out into the bay. Did a little bit of walking, dipped my toes in the water which was quite chilly. I tried returning a horseshoe crab to the sea, but I think I was too late.
But it was a pretty day, and we enjoyed our impromptu visit to Higbee Beach and Wildlife Management Area.
More information: https://njaudubon.org/wp-content/wildlife/DelawareBayshoreTrails/Sites/tabid/440/Scope/site/Guide/DELBAYSH/Site/35/Default.html
27 May 2020
I've been corresponding with various state and local agencies to find out about the sign for the 
senior park down the road. The state agency said they have no problem with us making a sign, but that we should speak with the Linwood 
township government. I found that the parks are under the city's Department of Recreation (and presumably parks and recreation). 
I tracked down an email and sent them our offer to create a sign.The departmental clerk said she'd need to see if a new sign had been ordered,
and then wrote back to say it had not. The department would like to see a sketch as well as the dimensions for our sign. So I have to sketch out my plan, and 
I also measured the sign that is already there. Once I submit that, we'll be all set.My SIL suggested doing a mosaic, which would be fun, but heavy to
hang. I think we'll stick with some kind of exterior grade wood with exterior paint, and we'll work on getting the letters cut out with a router or 
whatever one calls those tools.28 May 2020
Our little car Mr. Tiki is here!!! Yay!
We kept our car from our year in Arizona and summer in Washington, and found a vehicle storage center in
Bellingham. Tiki was in an indoor garage, slot #2007 - so we envisioned the car pretending to be a James Bond vehicle with all those hidden abilities. You know, an aquatic car that also flies, with guns under the headlights and taillights, maybe bulletproof, and probably self-driving as well.
Anyway, my brother picked little Tiki up last week, made sure he was running, and got him ready for travel. Richard made arrangements with a vehicle
shipper, and Tiki was picked up and loaded onto a truck for his trip across country. It took just over a week, and we now have a happy car 
reunion!He'll adjust to this new coast, and we'll adjust to driving around on the labyrinth of streets and highways and pikes that make
up the New Jersey roads.30 May 2020
On our walks, I always notice the flowers and take photos. I do love flowers, however short their lives might be. But now, we seem to find all sorts of quirky lawn ornaments.
One house surrounded by trees on three sides had a lovely little wishing well filled with flowers. They also somehow had an odd wooden two-legged deer propped up against the tree. No idea why no one carved four legs when they were creating this deer of wood, but hey, who am I to argue?
Another house had old random bits of furniture planted with flowers: an old stove, an old school desk and chair, a bed headboard, an old treadle sewing machine table. Gorgeous flowers and amusing little planters of repurposed furniture.
There were the usual little cement animals, including a happy rabbit family. And a few elegant herons in some kind of metal casting.
The elementary school nearby has a school garden, not well maintained with schools closed at the moment. But the clematis filling the tub were looking gorgeous, and I also enjoyed the cement stepping stones in the garden, embellished with glass marbles.
The school must have a creative art teacher - there are several panels of plastic-bottle-top mosaics hanging on the exterior of the school. Really, each spot of color is a bottle cap. What a great art and science lesson about plastics, re-using or recycling or upcycling non-biodegradable items!
And the peonies are especially beautiful right now.
I have one more chapter of what happened this week, but it's going to be enough for an entire blog post unto itself, so please check back for another pandemic break!
No comments:
Post a Comment