Hudson Beach Combing part 3: Metal

(february...the month for tying up loose ends.  This blog entry should have been posted last summer...)

The metals can be divided into two simple sub-categories: the junk I bring home in my bike basket,




and the junk I must leave behind for future archeologists, like this portable typewriter

and this extreeeemly heavy rusty bucket of railroad spikes.

which was buried deep down in the sand when I discovered it.

Of all my metal finds, my favorite things are these little mystery trinkets:

which appear to be once-molten bits of aluminum (though they feel heavier than aluminum).  Some of them have a sort of liquidy, art nouveau feel to them. (click to enlarge)

I like to pretend the one pictured at right here 

was perhaps once a tiny pocket saint carried off to sea with some WWII sailor, and found its way back up the Hudson over the years.

Hudson Beach Combing Part 1, Glass

      

Just as I was about to compile my own local beach glass guide, the New York Post Parade Magazine published A Shore Thing yesterday, a little Sunday piece about "sea glass" collectors.  It calls us "secretive, greedy, even starry-eyed" (yeah, I guess), and runs down a list of glass color hierarchy in the sea glass collectors world.  For the most part, the article works as a guide for river glass collectors as well:

            "Green and Brown are common"  it says.
                             
I couldn't agree more and have to stop bringing them home, unless they are particularly smooth and well-shaped.


                 "Blues are harder to find, but not impossible".

Here in Hudson, blues are indeed rare  (those boaters are drinking beer, not Perrier---)  and it is the lime greens that are rarest, and a personal favorite.

 This is where the river experience differs from seashore.
 Parade names red glass "ultra-scarce"; the "holy grail" of beach glass collectors.

But I can usually find 1-2 a day on the Hudson shores.

Probably because red ones are made of tail lights and boats are in a more confined area here. (?)  For all I know these channel markers have glass lights on them too, that occasionally bust and wash ashore.

In any case, while reds are rare, at least they will scream out to you.

Today I ventured into new territory, and my haul included an unprecedented 

five reds and four blues

Without salt water and high seas, glass shards around here don't get very smooth, so I doubt I will ever face much competition in the local beach glass-hunting scene.

I love the color combo-ing though.

This very dense opaque red one is my newest favorite, 

and feels like it's been knocking around for quite some time.

                               

mud hole on Diamond Street

Found

8x10" photo stuck to glass.
Found at a yard sale in Claverack a couple months ago (the seller gave it to me).

It reminded me of a scene in one of my favorite movies, Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World.  In it, Max von Sydow's character has invented a ground-breaking device that can record the visual experiences of one person and then transfer them to the brain of a blind person, in this case his wife.  The technology is still rough though, so the imagery the woman experiences, of her children and grandchildren, are quite blurry and broken.