Sandcastles

When I was very young my mother taught me how to build sandcastles. There was something immensely satisfying in packing the moist sand into a bucket, forming turrets and walls, and then decorating them with coquina shells that seemed like tiny pastel butterfly wings. We'd add spires and designs by scooping up wet handfuls of sand by the surf and dripping small bits on in little glistening globs. Each one seemed like a work of art to me.



Last Summer, we played with sand art just a bit on the beach while we vacationed in Sanibel. A small starfish took me over an hour to make, and a giant swordfish took us all day. We collected close to 1000 shells to create that one.

Last night, a friend sent me some pictures of sand art from the Cannon Beach Annual Sandcastle contest on the coast of Oregon. It takes patience, vision, and skill to create something truly beautiful. The creators of these incredible sand sculptures truly possess those attributes and more!















































If you'd like to see more, you can check out the contest's website. The photos are simply amazing!