LOFTY CLOUDS SOLITARY BEACHES

... returned from the beaches near Wilmington, NC.

... had beautiful weather, lofty clouds, cooling breezes

... solitary beaches.

The white-hot sun of day was slowly falling when we arrived at Shell Beach. 

Shell Beach --- the perfect name.  

Mounds of shells crushed to tiny fragments, the beginnings of new sand.

Hand size half shells of alabaster and sandstone, 

 piled like drift wood along the shoreline.

The evening sun split blades of sea grass

into thin ribbons of warm light, 
shooting above split rails.

The most spectacular surprise were a dozen or so cactus, in  amazing colors.  Bulb upon bulb, crimson, violet, purple, fuchsia, 
theo-violet....all balanced by greens, blended into blue.

Too quickly, the plummeting  sun was at an oblique slant, flooding everything in golden light.

Then our evening  diminished into darkness and the rush of the ocean waves.

...on the wings of wind
...we closed the day with a sherbet sky
...and a sand bucket of memories. 

 ...smiles: sharon