Abalone

Abalone- this is a red abalone, one of the huge type from California. This one is a bought shell- it has been cleaned, rosined- we have had these forever, just about. When- if- you are lucky enough to find a whole one on the beach the back is likely encrusted with barnacles and corals, the inside beautiful with opalescence. But a whole one on the beach is a rare treasure- more likely bits and pieces of one, but that is rare to.

I like the beaches here- the warm water, smooth sand, whelks and Sargasso, but I've always loved the California beaches best. My earliest memories are of them, and some of the best times in my life. The sea is rough and cold, huge piles of kelp washed up, beds of rocks- washed smooth and round as eggs, some with holes (wish stones), the occasional lump of jade or amber. Jagged outcroppings that are teaming with sea life- barnacles, muscles, crabs, starfish, periwinkles and turbans, the anemones that look like flowers. Tiny fish in tide pools. Places that I would explore for hours, collecting, taking home to name them and draw them. I would climb all over the rocks looking- the cliffs at Hazard canyon, the sea wall at Morro Bay, but my favorite was the rocks at Caycous between that pier and the one at Atascadero. I've walked that before- it's a few miles- and you have to time it right because some of it is covered by the tide. Of course it has been over 25 years now- so long, so very long ago.