I walked to the Sound today.

The Gulf is angry. It has been for several days. The oil spill looms some 100 miles from shore and we wait anxiously. Our pristine beaches are threatened. The sugar-white sands may be blackened for decades.  The Emerald green waters stained. This looks as though it will be the worst oil spill in history.

The effects are widespread. The full extent of the damage will not be known for generations. Twelve days later, the pipe still leaks. They don’t know how to turn the flow off. It is all due to greed. A simple turn-off valve that should be inserted in every one of the drills but is not required in the U.S. due to the oil lobbyist and their corporations unwillingness to pay the cost. So we will pay the cost in the loss of wildlife and our beautiful shores.

I picked blackberries as I walked. Enouph to fill another another pie. I saw a snake in the grass. It was not the harmless black snake we toyed with as children, so I kept my distance.

The Magnolias are in bloom.  The trees are now decorated with the full flowers of creamy white that stretch out large and wide and fill the surrounding air with a sweet, lemon smell. I saw a snowy white egret take flight in the marsh just beyond a particularly generous blackberry patch.

When I reached the Sound the wind blew hard on my face, the white caps a telling sign of a dangerous surf just beyond. This body of water was formed only by a thin barrier island of sand. I will drive out to the Gulf later today for what could be one last glance in a very long time of what is known to be the world’s whitest beaches.

My heart bleeds. I will start a painting today, similar to my Schoolhouse Beach series in composition but with the green waters of the Gulf and what is for now and always has been,the most beautiful sand that can be found anywhere. I pray that somehow, they will stay so incredibly pristine forever.