Curiosities? Needful Things? Junk?

   Finding long lost treasures is always exciting but, on the other hand, finding a tin of junk is often merely a bepuzzlement.  What do you do with the oddities that have been stuck aside for so long that they become treasures from a time past?  Are they still treasures?  Are they now junk?  Should those items be kept or coldheartedly thrown in the trash bin?  Oh, the conundrum of those of us who have been deemed to be hoarders.   I sort of "inherited" a bunch of "treasures" from the old farm place, although, many did not originate there.  Mom held onto many items that came from old houses in Biloxi.  Pop was always doing some home repair work as a side job and often folks would have him empty out spare rooms, garages or sheds.  He was to haul off what they discarded.  He did.  He brought it home.  Mom saved treasures!  I inherited said treasures.  These have been sitting in the Little Bayou House for some 30 yrs since.

  As the long needed repairs are still being done on the Little Bayou House, I have found such treasures.  The one in question of today is a tin that once held mints. The tin, itself, probably has some value to collectors.  It is labeled "Katharine Beecher" and, at one time, held butter mints...or "The original butter mints...since 1931".  I found it amusing that the tin held "4 strengths of mint...colors...white, pink, green and yellow".  Perhaps the color represented a strength.

  The cannister is only the vessel that holds a myriad of treasures.  It is filled with broken or odd pieces of jewelry, small household items and other unusual, unidentified items.  While the collective worth of the items is probably questionable...what is the value?  Yes, there is a big difference.  Worth pertains to the monetary cost of an item, whereas, the value is more of an emotional attachment or the usefulness of an item.  So..when looking at the cost...the combined worth of the tin and items is probably not much.  The value, as far as emotional attachment, is probably nil.  BUT!  That usefulness may trump all as I have a profound interest in creating art pieces with such oddities!  It is my idea that the pieces can be turned into something useful and, yet, retain the original beauty.  The pieces shall not be altered beyond recognition but shall be showcased for the craftmanship of the original artist.  These, and many of the other "treasures" held in the Little Bayou House, are soon to become pieces that celebrate the past. 

  Ahh, yes!  I am the "Keeper of Weird and Wonderful Things"!  The Little Bayou House is a "House of Curiosities and Otherwise Forgotten Things" where folks can wander off into a place that often mesmerizes and overloads the senses with wonderment.  Yes...those things have been mentioned by visitors and I am good with it.  I figure if I cannot (and do not want) have the cookie-cutter style and boringly bare house that others find so appealing, I may as well surround myself with the mysteriousness of the unusual.  I am not opposed to those who love that style but it is not for me!  Mint tins, old jewelry, loudly ticking clocks, musty, old books, unexplained implements and artisan pieces make me happy.  Dangle pendants from the lampshade!  Fill shelves with artifacts!  Display early photographs of family members (even if they are not family members but photos that have been around so long they have become "like" family).  Celebrate history by preservation.  Enjoy whatever it is that makes you smile....whatever "speaks" to you.  Why not be happy?  Why even try to please others? Be yourself and do whatever it is that makes you feel good.  Life is too short.  

Hidden From View

  The north wind has been blowing a good bit with the cool spell that we are having right now.  This wind blows the tide way out from the shoreline and reveals all that which is normally covered by our muddy waters.  Brackish water hides a myriad of things from hurricane debris to trash from unthinking boaters.  When the tide is low and the mudflats are wide, the debris can be seen for miles.  A lot of the stuff is natural things such as logs and parts of piers but the bottles and cans come from trashy people.  That is the junk that causes problems.

  This morning, I took a few moments to check what all would need to be cleaned once we get the pier rebuilt.  Luckily, around our pier there is a minimum of trash.  We do have a lot of tree limbs and large logs that will make fishing difficult.  Those will need to be cleared.

  I find it interesting to see what the water hides.  Near the pier, there is also evidence that the family of otters is feeding well.  Thousands of clams have been dug and the shells discarded after the clam has been eaten.  The mud will eventually reclaim the shells as it does most everything else.  Low tide equals interesting finds.  Time for work.

Speak Softly

  I guess I am just tired.  It seems as if this week has contained more attempts at wearing on my last nerve than the entire year.  From losing the sweet old dog to being treated rudely, things started to pile up until the "ugly" was peeping close to the surface.  At times like this, it is a struggle to keep the head level and mind gentle.  "Speak softly, lady, speak softly" is a constant reminder flitting through my brain.

  This morning, yet another thing irked me.  This time it was not something that I can control other than to "clean up the mess".  While Mark was motoring out from the pier in the small skiff, I noticed several bits of trash in the mud.  The tide was low so everything was exposed.  I am used to picking up the occasional beer can or water bottle.  Those are bad enough as they create a total mess on our beautiful shoreline but, this morning, the trash was actually a danger.  Someone had obviously discarded large beer bottle.  This bottle had become broken (either before being tossed or after..who knows?) and could have caused a wicked injury to anyone swimming, throwing the net or cleaning up the mess, as I do.  I was careful not to be cut by the jagged glass.  A cut would have been painful but with the bacteria still lingering in our waters, a simple nick could be life-threatening.  

  I realize there are those who will find my dismay trivial and, like I said earlier, I guess I am just tired, but the fact that people throw their garbage in the very waters that are enjoyed around here really irks me.  It brings to mind that adage...Only trash litter.  Yep, only trashy people think to dispose of their garbage by littering up the place, however, when it comes to putting others in immediate danger (as this broken glass does), it is downright hateful!  So, my day began with a bit of irritation.  Once again, the speak softly refrain echoed among the cobwebs in the dusty corners of my mind.  Speak softly.

My Hero!

  I have this thing about people who throw trash in the Bay.  It aggravates me and makes me think "not so nice" things.  To me, the saying "Only trash litters" makes a lot of sense.  It takes a trashy person to litter up a perfectly clean place.  Why pollute the waters?  I have also found that those same people who toss their garbage into the water are the very same ones who complain that the Bay is polluted.  Well, la-di-dah...guess who made it that way???  Get real.

  Early this morning, Mark and I made our rounds about the hillside then wound up on the pier.  This  is our usual morning routine.  Once there, I spied something stuck in the marsh about half way to the mouth of the Bayou.  For the life of me, I could not figure out what that thing was.  It did not help that the rising sun was causing a blindspot right on the object.  I knew that it did not belong there so it frustrated me.  Someone had discarded some more trash into the Bay.  Ugh!  Mark, seeing how this upset me, decided to climb in the small skiff and go fetch the trash.

  As he paddled the small skiff across the glass-smooth water, I kept yammering about the ugliness of some people, their trash and their disrespect.  Mark reached down and pulled out a gasoline container.  Why in the world would you toss your gas can into the water??  Then, he pulled out a broken child's lawn chair.  Where did that come from??  We hauled both up the hill and properly discarded them.  Now, just how hard would that have been to do in the first place??  Come on, folks, put your trash where it belongs!!  And THAT is not my Bayou!!!  Through all of this, I realized that Mark is my hero!  Once again, he came to my rescue even if it was just to ease my mind about trash floating about in the Bay.

Something BIG! Something UGLY!

  The Bayou is full of surprises.  Some are good.  Some not so good.  Usually, I try to find some positive aspect about everything but, at times, there are things that just can't go there at all. It seems that the people on the other side of the Bay use the water as their personal dumping site.  With the south winds and change in tides, guess where all of that trash collects??  Yep, in the Bayou.  The way the Bayou is situated it is more or less like a giant funnel from the Bay.  As the tide rises, items wash into the nooks and crannies of each little pass.  They are shoved far to the back near the creek.  Then, when the tide falls, everything that has been washed in...stays in.  It collects in the marsh and becomes an eyesore for those of us used to the beauty of the place. 

  Recently, we had a stout wind from the southeast.  This pushed the tide up over the pier and washed tons of garage up into the marsh. I reach what I can.  Using a long handled scoop net, I try to retrieve any items that I can lift.  Some are just too large or are too far out of reach.  Nope.  I am not traipsing out into the marsh to fetch some garbage tossed by disrespectful people.  Years ago while spearheading a cleanup drive, my sister made signs that stated "Only trash litters".  It made sense to me and stuck in my head.  Only trash litter...trashy people toss their garbage into the water, on the sides of roads and in the woods.  Oh, come on, people!!!  Get real!  It cannot be that hard to find a garbage can.  

  The aforementioned wind and high tide brought in a strange looking piece of something.  I am not quite sure just what this barnacle-covered thing is but it sure is trashing up the marsh.  The "whatever" is far too large for me to scoop in my net and far to heavy for me to roll ashore using a rod.  Each time I near this area, I cringe at the thought of the "thing" staying there for eternity..or at least until the next hurricane.  Then...this item will most likely be tossed further up in the yard and wind up battering the house.  Not fun.  So..I will keep trying to think of a way to retrieve the thing short of traipsing out among the gators, snapping turtles and moccasins.  It is UGLY! And BIG!  A BIG UGLY thing tossed out by trashy people.

Trashy People

  At times, I have little faith in the intelligence of humankind.  I ponder the smarts of folks that continually try to obliterate the very planet on which we all live.  Maybe not obliterate but contribute to its slow demise.  Folks, keep your trash where it belongs and not in the Bayou!  Here is a novel idea!  Why not put the trash in a TRASH CAN!!!  Amazing that thought has not crossed the minds of certain people. There is not a day that goes by that I am not fishing something from the marsh.  Bottles, cans, cups, grocery bags, jackets (yes, I have gathered several of those), broken fishing gear and a few "unmentionables" (disgusting but true).  As tired as I am of picking up other folks' garbage, I will continue.  This Bayou that everyone keeps trashing is my front yard.  

  We  recently bought fifty pounds of shrimp for our son and daughter-in-law.  We headed the shrimp and froze them so that they could get them the next time they visit the Bayou.  Our younger son took the shrimp heads down to the Bayou to feed the fish but the large plastic bag was brought back to the house.  He washed the bag, tied it up in a small bundle and put it in the trash bin.  He then took the huge box, broke it down to a workable size and disposed of it in the same manner.  Folks that is what you do with garbage...you dispose of it properly.  You do not toss it in the Bay.

  Later in the evening, Mark and I took our leisurely walk to the pier to relax a bit.  Our relaxation was short lived.  I became quite saddened at the sight.  A similar shrimp box had floated across the Bay to become lodged in the marsh.  Ok, so the box was not too bad...unsightly but not the end of the world.  It would decompose eventually but what I saw a bit to the east made me sick to the stomach.  There wedged in the marsh was a bag that obviously contained the heads and peels of either shrimp or crawfish.  Geez!  Whoever threw that over does not have a bit of sense in their head!  EMPTY THE BAG!!!  Just empty the bag and put the plastic in the trash! Critters will eat the foodstuffs but the containers just cause problems.  Since the bag (and the box) were far from the pier, I could not retrieve them to dispose of them properly.

  Later that night, the bag was ripped to pieces as critters tried to eat the contents.  Bits and pieces of blue plastic floated about on the waves until it was scattered about the place.  While I know my griping will never solve the problem, at times, it irks me enough that I have to vent.  I guess I will forever have to pick up after people who don't care much about Mother Nature.  Grrr!

You Are Trash!!!

  Some folks would much rather toss things in the garbage than to spend a bit of time and effort to revive, reuse or repurpose it.  The thought of "making do" is out of the realm of many folks. The "toss it and buy a new" mentality has filled the landfills beyond capacity and have literally made dumps of so much of our beautiful Earth.  This makes me sad. Personally, I have a tendency to use things even beyond their durability stage.  I save things to the point that my kids worry about my "hoarding problem".  I figure it is not really hoarding if you actually use the items.  It is more like commonsense.

  This "Don't toss it" thought must be something that was drilled into my head as a kid.  I can remember Granddad telling me to "Put that up.  You may need it some day."  He was right.  So it is easy to see why my brothers fall right in that almost hoarding group as well.  My oldest brother was doing yard work for an elderly lady when he noticed that her neighbor put a potted plant in the trash.  Granted, the begonia was past its prime and looked sort of sad.  He felt bad for the poor plant and snagged it off the trash heap.  After a bit of loving care, he brought the plant down to me.  "Here.  I got you this out of the trash."  Sweet!  My brother obviously thinks very highly of me if he brings me trash....hmmmm.  Anyway, he handed me the plant, gave strict instructions on how to care for it and said he had beans cooking back at his house.   With that, I became the proud owner of a begonia. 

  Since the plant came to reside here, it has bloomed profusely and is now making seed pods.  The thing has doubled in size with my following his detailed care instructions.  The man sure can make things grow.  But just think.  This plant was doomed.  Tossed aside as trash by the previous owners.  How sad.   What a waste.

It "Poked" a Hole!

  You see some mighty strange things here on the Bayou.  I suppose that holds true for most any place if folks just take the time to actually see things.  I do.  Just today, something a bit weird was found down in the marsh near the mudflats.  While Son was tending to the old skiff, I took it upon myself to gather other people's trash from the marsh.  We take care of the marsh since it is literally our front yard but some people have no qualms about tossing trash into the water.  It makes me sad since all of this junk washes up in the marsh and, hence, our yard.  In total, I picked up three beer cans, nine water bottles, seven assorted other drink bottles, four Styrofoam plates, three glass bottles, two empty fishing line spools, the top of a toolbox , one gallon bleach bottle and one torn life preserver that was strewing foam sheets about the place with each wave.  This is a weekly task and since I do not traipse about in the marsh, the trash gathered is only what can be reached from the pier using a long handled scoop net.  I can easily see enough junk to fill another trash bag but cannot reach it.  It makes me disgusted with those who litter our waters.  As sad as it seems, I have even had to go so far as to ban some (not immediate) family members from the pier due to littering the marsh.  Funny thing, they were quite appalled when I suggested that I dump trash in their front yard.  I guess it just doesn't sink in to some thick heads.

  But even with all of the saddening finds, one thing stood out as interesting. A lot of boards also were strewn about the marsh. One of these boards had sprouted a thing of beauty if you can call a toxic plant beautiful.  A Poke Weed (I am assuming here merely by the color) had sprouted and grew up between a small crack in the board.  As the plant grew, the hefty plank was nigh on split asunder.  The plant does indeed resemble a Poke Weed with its bright red stalk but the leaves look a bit withered.  Surely the brackish water has enough salt to be detrimental to the health of the plant.  Still, it is growing strong even with salt-burned leaves.  

  The Poke Weed, even though toxic to humans and most mammals, does supply birds with a nice supply of berries.  We shall see if this one is able to produce in its inhospitable surroundings.  Oh, and add one plastic oil container to that list of trash.  Son was able to fish that one from the marsh as well.

Let me have a little goodwill

Christmas carols are ringing through the Little Bayou House from sun up to sun down.  The familiar phrases bounce around in my head even when I am out of hearing range of the music.  "Deck the halls with boughs of holly", "Silent night, holy night,  All is calm, all is bright" and "Of peace on Earth, goodwill to men" run through the brain as I do chores both inside and outside the house.  The music will continue to play throughout the Christmas Season.  It just seems to be the thing to do.

Today, Michael and I headed to the pier.  It was gorgeous out.  The sun was shining, the temperature had warmed nicely and there was just a mere hint of a breeze.  I had not had the opportunity to be on the pier in some time and it seemed as if the water was calling to me.  As we reached the end of the pier, that water was far, far away from the shore.  The north wind from the night before had caused an extremely low tide.  There would be no fishing today!  Then I spied something white near the shore..TRASH!  Oh, my goodness.  Some (for lack of a better term) stupid person had thrown an empty jug over into the water.  Why, oh, why must people have nothing better to do than toss their garbage in the waters of the Bay?  This is something that truly irks me.  I try my best to scoop out anything that washes up to the pier, but a lot of things stay just a bit too far for me to reach.  With the low tide, the boat would have proved most unhelpful in retrieving the garbage.  There was not a lot I could do.  Michael did fish out a few other items that were close to the pier but that jug and an old tire were glaring at me from a distance.  My faith in the intelligence of  humanity plummeted once again.  Are folks just too stupid to see that every piece of trash..every water bottle, every beer can, every old tire..creates problems for Mother Nature?  Yep, I do get infuriated at the lack of commonsense and respect.

Please, Lord, grant me the ability to have some inkling of goodwill toward men, women and children that cannot respect your Earth even though I find their behavior entirely atrocious!

Fishing but not for fish...

I have this pet peeve that sometimes drives me a bit crazy.  As you all know, I love my Bayou.  It is my own little chunk of paradise.  It is my escape from all the weirdness of the world.  It is my "happy place" where I can go and find peace.  Yep, I love my Bayou and all that is there...almost.  Occasionally, something really irks me.  It takes a lot to rile me on most days but let me find find just one careless person littering the waters of the Back Bay and I do become quite irate.  Not that it does much good as I can never confront the folks that toss junk in the water and marsh.  People!  There are litter laws for a reason!  If you want to enjoy the water..keep it clean!  My sister has organized a clean-up day in her small town.  Every so often, most of the good folks of her community gather together to pick up trash along the roadsides.  They work all day, have a fine lunch and good fellowship.  These fine folks know that it takes a bit of work to pick up after those who just don't care enough to keep their trash to themselves.  The slogan of this group of concerned citizens..."Only trash litters!"  To me, that says it all...Only trash does litter.  No decent person would ever dream of messing up this paradise we call Earth.

This evening, I took our long handled scoop net and fished a good bit of litter out of the marsh near the pier.  A lot, I could not reach.  Still, I pulled out nine plastic bottles, seven beer cans, a shoe, one short piece of rope and a fishing lure.  Hmmm, well, at least I can reuse the lure and I suppose it was lost quite by accident!  The bottles and cans were too nasty for recycling, the rope was rotten and the shoe..well, lets just say I don't want it!!!  Here is a novel thought...if every one picked up a dozen or so pieces of trash each day, perhaps we could make a difference.  Also, if slovenly folks would clean up their act..perhaps we would not have to work so hard to clean up behind them...just saying.   Remember..Only trash litters!