San Clemente Beach and Pier

I spent the better part of a recent day wandering along the beach and pier at San Clemente, an adorable seaside town about an hour’s drive south of my home in Orange. The morning started overcast, my favorite, and cleared up (became hot) just before noon. Wandering on the beach soon had me with a heavy task… I noticed bees scattered along the sand, just at the water’s edge, struggling on their backs. I used the broken seashell I’d found to pick up, flip, and carry each bee away from the water. It was sad and perplexing. Were they seeking out water, not realizing the waves would toss and turn them? It reminded me of the times at my former office (prior to retirement) when I tried to rescue all the earthworms washed onto the sidewalk by the sprinklers (where they would dry up and die as the day turned hot). Truly an endless task that I finally had to give up on. Nature coming into contact with human “improvements”… generally not a pretty picture. I was able to get a smile on my face once up on the pier, though, and observed how the seagulls ignored the spikes added to the bathroom building, intended to keep them off. That truly made my day! ~SueBee

Photos taken with my iPhone.