Little Collections

I've been collecting sand from the beaches we visit for a long time (ten years to be precise), but I'm not always good at doing anything about it once we get home. I've also amassed a large collection of old bottles––the kind that emerge from old cellar holes here in New England––without even trying over the years. A couple of years ago, I finally got some of the sand I had collected into a few bottles, and labeled with the beach and the date of the visit, and I started to make a more concerted effort to get sand when we're at the beach.


(The fat jar in this picture contains Irish sand, and the jar is from the most divine Irish rhubarb yogurt.)

But I got lazy again, with sand sitting in buckets and jars for the last year, and the labels I had bought got wet and warped (we do keep them in the bathroom, after all, so water is an issue). After making some jam recently, I realized that the labels that come with the jars would work perfect for this project––they're almost impossible to remove with soap and water and a lot of elbow grease. So I rounded up my buckets and jars of sand, washed out some new old bottles, and dusted off the ones that already had sand in them, made new labels for all, and lined them up behind the bathroom sink.

In the process, I realized I don't have any sand from our most-frequented beach (ironically, I collected some last time we were there, and sent it to my sister in a "beach in a box" for her birthday). I think that's as good a reason as any to make sure we get to the beach once more this season, don't you?