I don’t know why this tire has intrigued me, but it has. I first noticed the tire it several weeks ago after our super king tide and storm surge at the beginning of the year. That is when it first appeared on the beach where I typically walk.
This month, a pretty strong storm decided to transport the tire to its current location on the beach where I roam frequently. When it first appeared, the entire beach was in disarray from the high tide. The entire beach looks different and inaccessible in many places where I could access easily before. A driftwood condo that had been living in the area for most of the year has now disappeared … with remaining remnants displaced up in the bluffs. The bluffs themselves have been torn away disrupted by the high tide.
So on the first day that I saw this tire, I could not go much further than the tire itself. But the tire intrigued me, as I watch the waves move in an out and flowing over the grooves of the tire. So I took a shot … then another …
It magically appeared with some other debris. But this was not the first local sighting of this tire. One of my local beach walking friends told me that this big tire has been residing for many years about a mile west of where it appeared today. Her sons (who are now over 40) used to play on that tire as children. One other beach walker mentioned that the tire looked like it originally was used to anchor a boat near shore. I guess it took another super storm to dislodge from that location to a beach.
I kept watching the tire every time I came down to the beach. This morning it was somewhere different and it caught my attention again. Someone or something had planted a big driftwood log right in the center of the sand filled tired as you can see in the photo. through the intrigue of the tire. I stopped and quietly meditated on the power of the water, the power of the sky, while looking beyond at the channel Islands. So …I plopped my tripod down and decided to take a few long exposures on this beautiful mist filled cloud morning.
I suppose I’ll continue to take pictures of this tire for a while. Even with the tidal destruction, the remnants of the storm and the debris on the beach… lies beauty in the complexity between nature and human elements.
After a few storms, the tire lost its log posts. As more sand returns to the beach the appearance of this tire continues to change. On the day of the photo “Free Again”, the tire was in the light of the new dawn and passing of clouds by a recent storm. I felt the calmness and excitement of the waves rushing up to the stable tire. My thoughts reflected on the mixed environment between the natural beach, waves and channel islands in the distance… and contrasting human elements of the oversized rubber tire and oil platforms in the distance.
The tire is currently buried under the newly laid beach sand, only to reappear at some future point in time.