Looking Back at the Beach from Last Summer

Here we are, right in the middle of February, and right in the middle of winter. Overall, it hasn’t been that bad of a winter here so far. We got a little bit of snow and had a few bitterly cold days, but otherwise it has been rather mild. However, even such welcoming winter weather still isn’t all that great, unless you are one of those rare zealots who happen to like the cold and snow. Which I am not. So the middle of winter still leaves me longing for that summer weather that I love so much. Like this:

A life guard watches over the activities of the day from the big red chair at Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach, Florida, in a scene from our Florida trip last June. Just by looking at this photo, I can start to feel the warm breeze and taste the salt air. It doesn’t actually cause me to sweat but it does bring a little inside warmth. This was one of those perfect days where you would get hot by sitting in the sun, or even by sitting underneath your beach umbrella, and you would eventually have to go get in the water to cool off. Not that the water was all that cold, but it was just a little cooler than the warm air and sun. And then you would repeat the process for as long as you cared to stay out there enjoying it.

As you can see, the owners of this beach towel and beach umbrella have apparently done just that, going off to the water to cool of for a bit before coming back to soak up the sun. The towel person (I’m guessing it is just one person, based on the single towel and one pair of shoes) is exceedingly brave, since they don’t even have an umbrella to retreat under. He or she will be warming up pretty quickly once they return. Fortunately there is also a tube of sunscreen nearby, because that subtropical sun can be somewhat intense, especially for us fair-skinned people. I’m guessing that the towel person was not fair-skinned, however, solely based on the lack of an umbrella. And the umbrella person or people slightly beyond the beach towel are pretty brave as well, judging by how the umbrella is seemingly just propped up on the ground without anything to anchor it to the sand. If we were to try that with our umbrella, it would be in Cuba by now.

But this is still the winter, and we are still at home in Tennessee and not at the beach in Florida. So we will retreat back over the sand dune and back to our normal winter lives, thankful that we have the memories of the beach from last summer to keep us warm in the winter.

Just don’t trip over that red extension cord as you are retreating. The soft sand will break your fall, but you will still look rather silly to the muscle guys or beach babes who happen to be passing by. Not that I am speaking from experience or anything, because I happened to see the cord before I tripped over it. If you are wondering, the cord went out to the group of tents that were set up for a surfing competition, to power whatever they needed out there for the judges or for the snack people. I thought about wandering over there to try to blend in with the cool surfer dudes for a while, just to see if I could, but I decided against it. I figured I was cool enough as it was without needing validation from other people. Except that all that walking around made this cool guy hot, so I was better off heading back to the water to cool off anyway.

So anyway, back to normal winter life. I hope you enjoyed this look at warmer things as much as I did.

As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease. - Genesis 8:22

About the photos:

Whenever we are at the beach, I always set aside some time to go take some photos. I usually do not have a specific agenda in mind. Rather, I just wander back and forth for a while with my camera, looking for whatever happens to catch my eye. Some of my photos look the same year after year, because I keep liking the same views, but sometimes I come up with something different. These photos in this post are in some ways similar to what I have taken before, but in other ways different. Different enough to be shared here, at least.

I purposefully used warm, sunny tones to help sell the beauty of summer here in the middle of winter. And I have no idea about the realities of the people who go with the beach towel and umbrella. I just completely used my imagination, based on what I have seen in the past. So if that was you, I wasn’t stalking you or anything.

Photo: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens
Date: June 4, 2016
Location: Lori Wilson Park, Cocoa Beach, Florida