The other day, my honey said to me, "After work, I'm taking you somewhere and you need to bring your camera."

Oooh! A surprise photo location? Cool!

He said, " I'll give you one word: RUST."

At five, we headed home (we work together), grabbed the camera, hopped in the Little Car and headed out. Ten minutes later, we arrived at our destination, Dowses Beach in Osterville.

From the parking lot, we took this sandy lane through the Cape Cod roses (rosa rugosa) to get to the beach:

Camera in hand, I followed him to the  jetty. We climbed onto the rocks and carefully made our way to the end, the Atlantic Ocean splashing up against our raised path. I looked out and saw nothing but a  seam of sea meeting sky.

But that's not what I was there for.

ooooooh. What is that?  

Only the most amazing bubbly rust that I have ever seen. 

Looking down toward the base:

Can you even believe it?

Closer:

Top view:

(stupid monkey toes. Damn that longer second toe!)

Awesome painty crackles on the other side:

Ok, so I pretty much got every surface.

But can you blame me?

Ready to leave, I looked down with the camera and he got all  cute and shy with his feet, the sillyhead!

 Thanks, sweetie!

Today we're going across the street to the West Barnstable Cemetery.

Yep, it's directly across the street! I can see it right now from the couch, through the living room window.

I love these old gravestones. They grow such excellent patterns.

Do you see the  horizontal wisps of incised lines they  used for a  lettering guide? Like lined paper! I wonder who carved this stone. Did they carve their own before they died? If I were a gravestone carver, I would have wanted to.

Ahhhh:

Awesome! I'm officially inspired.

Is that cherub blowing into a wrench?

It would be neat to do rubbings of them, but you're not supposed to because it could damage the stones.

That one is in  good shape, but many of them are all flaking away.

This is a work of art: 

Mildew and lichen on marble. Wow. 

My heart starts to hula dance when I look at that.
Oh my god:

Be still, my heart.  Mildew, lichen and rust! >sigh<

It just occurred to may that perhaps not everyone digs this stuff as much as I do. Ruh-roh!

Come on, how could you not like this patina?: 

 And this little headless creature!

Where, oh where did your little head go? 

Look at the delicately curled under front legs. So cute.

Gorgeous day. 

  Notice how the rust from the bolts follows the lines of the crackled paint:

Love that.

 Feeling kinda quiet, can you tell?

Here are some more pictures I took at the same time as those from the previous post.

Check out this one:

I don't even know what this building was originally. 

And a couple more from the rusty series:

And here is some rusty-painty-drippy perfection:

Reminds me of cocoa with melty marshmallow. 

Yesterday, a couple of people  commented  that my rusty texture pics have either inspired them to get out their camera or influenced them to notice the beauty in something they might otherwise disregard.
That truly makes my week.

Thank you.
xo