Happy as A Clam

Once the kitties were fed and a cup of coffee consumed, I wandered into town.  I was supposed to pick up my last paycheque, but it wasn't ready.  So I wandered into the shops to look for a Bermuda specific gift I was supposed to pick up, but the prices were too high so I decided to try at Harbour Nights later.  I went into work and handed in my ID Badge and said goodbye to a few people who were in a meeting when I left the day before, and gave a quick hello to my micro coworkers.  Then I was off with my camera to start doing some exploring.

I went to Palm Grove Gardens, where I have been dying to get back to for a while, but they are only open Monday to Thursday during the day, so it has been hard to do.  Now that I don't have to work, I was free to head over.  I stopped to have a quick chat with the parrots, vowing to bring some almonds the next time.  One little fellow is a talker, who I think says one o clock, bye rob, hello, whadda think about that, and who also surprised me by laughing a funny, old man laugh!  I was hoping to photograph longtails, but I swear they saw the glint of the camera lens and flew a few miles away.

There was a summer camp of kids enjoying the natural pool built onto the property.  They were sharing the water with a few tiny fish, and one little guy grabbed my hand and dragged me along to see "the beautiful thing" over by one of the walls.  Well versed in his fish, he was at a bit of a loss to tell me about this sea urchin, but he knew all about the sargent majors flitting about his feet.  Probably the most awkward place an adult with a camera can find themselves is in a group of strange kids dragging you into their midst and begging you to take their picture.  I was desperately trying to escape when one of the older girls marched up and asked in a haughty voice if i was some sort of photographer and then say she did not want her picture taken and stared me down with all the fierceness that an 8 year old who thinks she has found one of those creepy adults can muster.  The camp adults started looking over as I backed away from this dangerous wildlife, just wanting to be alone in one of my favorite photo spots, while the talkative little cluster of boys stuck to my heels until they finally got reeled back in by one of the chaperones,  Whew, I escaped.  I will never understand why kids always flock to me.

"The Beautiful Thing" the kids wanted to show me

An ocean fed swimming pool on the property

This statue fascinates me because I just can't fathom WHY someone went to the effort to do this

Once free of the kids, I looked around to see what Bermuda had to offer for me today.  What was available to me in abundance was something I had never noticed before in my busy days as a worker bee in society.  I first saw this large, spotted, pretty shell.

I had just snapped the first photo when I got a BBM from Edmonton asking what I was doing with my first day of freedom.  "Photographing mollusks," I replied.  That seems to be a bit of a conversation killer.  But I carried on, fascinated by the thousands of shells clinging to the rocks.  They varied in size from something the size of a pea to something the size of your fist.  And while staring at the rocks a little more closely, I just about fell off the rock I was standing on when I realized something had been watching me back and was now scurrying by at light speed.  My primal fear of insects kicked in, and I was very happy to regain my balance and realize my fellow explorer was not a big scary bug at all.

Another little soul enjoying the view on the rocks that day

Close Up

Seeing this little crab made me happy as a clam!  Well, right up to the moment where my presence caused him to scuttle over to the very edge of the rock.  At that point a gentle wave washed over him, which I thought might be quite refreshing.

A refreshing wave to cool the little fellow off

But then the next wave swept him away and I found myself wondering in horror if all crabs, including sand crabs, can swim, because killing off the cute little subjects I find is not my intent!  I was assured later that they are swimmers.  I went back to the more stationary mollusks after that.  I won't make you look at all of the mollusk pictures I took, so narrowed it down to a few.  The first thing I noticed was that there were loads of them, lined up on the rocks as far as the eye could see, and they kind of look like tiny mushrooms, or the inspiration for The Smurfs village.

The second thing I noticed is that real estate certainly changes how the little guys must experience life.  If I recall, they filter nutrients from the water that washes over them.  But it must take a certain amount of energy to hang on in the rougher waters.  I also remembered a conversation I had with a friend who is a Buddhist.  I am always interested in how different religions view the afterlife, and since Buddhism involves reincarnation, I wanted to hear more about that.  She seemed a little reluctant to go there, but I asked about really bad people, say Hitler, what would his fate be, since all life starts out good, any life would be a reward.  She said the less complicated lives, things like barnacles and mollusks, could spend lifetimes filtering water to earn good karma.  I am sure it is not her intent, but I have never really gotten the idea of the Hitler mollusk out of my head.  I have to say they all looked like mollusks with good intent, sweet actually, but these are the bizarre things that go through my head somedays.

Not sure which is the safest spot

Because life is a constant stream of tsunamis when you are a tiny mollusk

Realizing that my quick outing had been over 2 hours without sunscreen, I knew it was time to head back to the bike and home to the shade.   My little friends were still hollering "take my picture" when I passed by again.  So I did, making sure it was a long distance shot.

 On the way back I stopped to take another picture of the pond shaped like Bermuda.

I also found this curious tree, which is still very much alive.

And stopped to smell the flowers -- I always love the pink against the bright blue skies.

After that I grabbed groceries, toodled around the house, and only realized around 7 pm that my house and bike keys were missing in action.  The rest of the night would be spent looking for those and hoping I didn't forget them in the ignition of the bike where a passerby nicked them with bad intentions.  All in all, I got very little that I planned to get done accomplished on day one.  But at least there were mollusks.