Beach Walk

Despite living only about ten miles away from the beach, I somehow only managed to get there a handful of times this summer. Lately, I've been feeling the need to connect with Mother Nature so I've been trying to make up for the lack of summer beach time. I'm trying to make a weekly ritual to get there for a walk, meditation, or just enjoy a sunset. This past weekend, I got there fairly late in the day and it was super cloudy and windy out, so I spent some time taking pictures and just "being".

There is only very limited parking, but what is available is free. Makes parking on beautiful summer days a little difficult, but not so much in the cooler weather. This is the pathway from the parking area down to the shore.



The very first thing I do whenever I go to the beach is immediately take off my shoes and put my feet in the water.



There was some rough weather in the Gulf with Hurricane Ida, so the surf created these little sand cliffs when the tide came in earlier.



Depending on the time of day, tides, and even weather, you will find powdery soft sand on our Gulf beaches or you may find patches of broken shells.



Please keep off the sand dunes and do not pick the sea oats. There are some endangered plant and wildlife species that inhabit these areas. The dunes also capture sand from being blown into populated areas. Not only are sea oats beautiful, but they also preserve and stabilize the sand dunes. It is illegal to pick sea oats.



It may have been cloudy, but the sunset was still beautiful creating a play of light through the clouds.



It got dark pretty quickly after the sunset, so I was forced to end my time visiting Gaia.

Thanks for visiting the beach with me!

New in Shop: Gaia Bracelet

I've always admired the Jens Pind (pronounced yens pint) chain maille weave. I like the rope-like nature of it (both the looks and feel of it), but also that it's very intricate and delicate at the same time that it's strong. It's a captivating spiral weave and for some reason, despite how much I love it, it took me until this past weekend to sit down and try it for the first time. Needless to say, I was hooked. It works up fairly quickly and feels nice in the hand.

I've also had it in my head to make some multi-strand bracelets for a long time now, combining the intricacies of chain maille with the earthiness of gemstones. Working up a pure copper Jens Pind chain, the thought occured to me that this would be the perfect marriage. I'd like to introduce to you the Gaia Bracelet.


Gaia is a Greek Goddess also known as Earth Mother. She is the earth and all the power of the earth. Gaia was the original deity at Delphi, for she is the giver of dreams, mantic oracles and prophecies. She is a reminder that we must ground ourselves in the reality of nature and incorporate all sides of ourselves, be they pleasant or unpleasant, light or dark. All bodies eventually return to her, into the black, fertile earth, to be devoured and to receive her life to live again.

The Gaia Bracelet is available in both Athena's Armoury Artfire Studio and Etsy Shop.