We've Been BPeed On

Beach Light by Sweet Eventide

If there is a bright spot in all the trouble BP is causing here on the Alabama Gulf Coast, it is making new Etsy friends. A few weeks ago I made an Etsy Treasury of beach chair art called "Waiting". Today I had a wonderful convo from one of the featured artists - Jessica of Sweet Eventide. She is part of the Craft Hope community and they are involved with Project 8 :: Gulf Coast Oil Spill.

"For Project 8 we will be partnering with The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, the Audubon Nature Institute, and the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge to assist them in their efforts in caring for and cleaning oiled marine mammals, mostly dolphins, other marine mammals, birds, and sea turtles.

--- from Craft Hope blog

Jessica and her craft group are making and collecting handmade towels for cleaning oiled wildlife. Visit the Project 8 blog for info on what, when, where, how many ......

Check out Jessica's Etsy shop

Everyone knows this disaster is taking a huge toll on the Gulf waters, but I'm afraid many aren't aware of the impacts the wildlife are feeling. The pictures we see on the news every day are horrible. If the sight of a pelican (my favorite bird and the one I hope I come back as in my next life) covered in oil doesn't break your heart, then you probably don't have much of a heart to break. WKRG news from Mobile not only gives the weather forecast now, they also give viewers the oil forecast. Part of me doesn't want to see any more and the other part can't stop looking.

The Taller Half is working for a BP sub-contractor cleaning the beach from 6am - 6pm seven days a week. Unfortunately, we are also experiencing the hottest June I can ever recall. The temps on the white sand beach are in the mid to upper 90s with high humidity making the heat index soar over 110°. I don't know how he stands it and I worry when he comes home so exhausted every night. I have never felt prouder of anyone in my life. He doesn't have to do this, but he wants to help the country of which he so recently became a citizen.

Another thing on the good news about the spill is the upcoming benefit concert Jimmy Buffett is giving in Gulf Shores. 

Now That's What I Call Fireworks

There's nothing like a forest fire to celebrate the birth of our country. The taller half and I drove over to the state park to watch the fireworks last night and ended up with a front row seat to an accidental fire in the brushy wetland area between the beach road and the lake.

We parked on the edge of the road where the spillway connects Lake Shelby and Little Lagoon. The area between the two is wetlands with very few tall pines left since Hurricane Ivan visited in 2004. Our view of the fireworks show was spectacular - they appeared to be coming right at us as the shells were fired from a barge anchored just offshore in the Gulf. As one really spectacular chrysanthemum shape faded, I pointed out a green flare slowly dropping to the ground. Probably someone over in the small beach houses on 1st or 2nd Avenue. Laughing, I commented that someone's car or yard would probably catch fire from it.

And catch fire it did. We noticed the smoke getting thicker and then we saw the flames a couple of hundred yards across the marsh from where we were parked. It was a real two-for-one show - fireworks above and roaring flames below. Firetrucks, park rangers and other emergency vehicles were coming past our vantage point and sirens could be heard across the water. We stayed to watch until the rangers started pulling out hoses and blocking traffic. We headed home then to listen to the police scanner and watch the southern horizon for smoke.

In this morning's paper, there was a small article saying that the fire was contained and allowed to burn itself out since it was in a wetland area and no homes were threatened. This link will take you to a compilation video of shots submitted to al.com http://videos.al.com/2008/07/gulf_state_park_fire_compilati.html.

Our video was taken from the northeastern side of the fire looking south toward the Gulf. The scenes in the al.com videos were taken from the south and southwest on the beach road and on the western side as seen from Highway 59. As the fire grew, the frogs and bugs around us in the marsh really tuned up. You can hear them along with sirens in the video.