Cape Photo of the Day - Photo #10

Longboards Hanging on Cedars...

Henry and his longboard buddies were on the same wavelength as me yesterday. Earlier in the day, I went over to the Main Beach to take some pictures and got locked up on the grove of cedars just inside the entrance to the right. I found myself wondering if there is some history to that grouping of trees or if they are just naturally occurring.

I believe they are Eastern Red Cedars which are native to most of the Eastern US. I thought from my initial internet search that they might be Atlantic White Cedars, but those are quite rare this far inland - hugging a tight band along the East Coast. There are only a few isolated stands along the Magothy and Severn comprising only three hundred trees or so total. I'll have to do a little more research (please chime in if you know something of trees or the history of these), but my best guess for our Cape grove is Eastern Red Cedar, which is actually not a cedar at all, but a variety of juniper. (I really wanted them to be an undiscovered Atlantic White Cedar grove).

At any rate, I took a few pictures of the cedars as possible Photo of the Day candidates. Then this morning, Henry showed me this picture he took with his phone camera when he was out longboarding with his buddies yesterday. They had stopped for a break at the Main Beach and hung their boards on the tree that has the really crazy trunk.

I asked Henry what inspired them to do this. He replied, "One of the guys hung up his board. I thought it looked cool, so I hung up my board. Then the other guys thought it looked cool, so they hung up theirs. And then it looked so cool that we all took pictures." I love the flash of creative impulse that overtook this crew of 12 and 13-year old longboarders. I also love the picture.

Here are a couple of the ones I took. The longboards and helmets of Henry's elevate the subject to a whole different level, not to mention adding color and interest. So far, my kids have had a better eye than their mother for Cape snapshots. I did get one of the cedar grove that I like very much which I will post as tomorrow's Cape Photo of the Day. I think it's an ideal Cape Sunday morning shot.

Crazy trunk tree/longboard rack

Grove viewed from the NW.

Grove from the east.