Swordwhale Walking: illustration, webcomic, stories, photojourneys, videos
  • launch here
    • welcome aboard
  • art & stories
    • Tales of the E.L.F. >
      • cast and crew
      • I dreamed of black horses
      • fanfiction: If Wishes Were Elves...
      • fandom >
        • Radagast's Rabbit Ride
        • the Lone Ranger >
          • LOLs and Trolls
          • but wait, there's Moore, and Silverheels
          • Hi Yo Silver
        • black panthers and night furies
        • tales of Middle Earth >
          • Mirthwood
          • Loth-LOL-ien >
            • Im-LOL-dris
            • Smirkwood
            • well, that coulda' been worse
        • Sherlocked
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    • playing with water
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      • Christmas Magic Mural 2020
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      • the salamander room
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      • reptile week murals: Nixon Park
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  • mermaid tales
    • Gramma Swordwhale's Mermaid Blog >
      • how to mermaid
      • merfolk on the Chesapeake
      • my life as a mermaid
    • privateers and pumpkins and ponies oh my!
    • stupid gravity (the adventures of a mermaid on Eastern Neck Is.) >
      • stupid gravity credits
    • stupid gravity: the search for sea glass >
      • stupid gravity: the search for sea glass: credits
    • Stupid Gravity: Misty Cloudy Windy Stormy Augh! >
      • Misty Stormy credits
    • Stupid Gravity: the search for mermaids
    • mermaids, Moana and Maui, beached on Christmas Eve
    • horseshoe crabs forever
    • stupid gravity: hot hot hot >
      • hot hot hot credits
  • Chincoteague
    • identify that pony
    • chincoteague pony art
    • Fall Roundup Oct 2019
    • Chincoteague 2019
    • pookas pumpkins and swamp ponies
    • Chincoteague November 2018
    • the 3rd Sea Voyage of Makenuk's Fin
    • wild horses and kayaks 2017
    • wild ponies in camp
    • North Beach
    • on island time
    • saltwater cowboys
    • Chincoteague
    • Christmas by the Sea
    • island ponies
    • Ace and Unci revolt
    • beached
    • running water in between
    • Assateague Light
    • the Haunted Lagoon
  • crafty stuff
    • Rich Toy hobby horse rehab
    • ModPodge rules
    • chalk paint
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    • faerie gardens >
      • more faerie gardens
      • faerie festival at Spoutwood Farm
    • sea this tutu (and make)
    • I found Dory
    • knit me a mermaid, or chicken, or Hei Hei
    • sea treasures
    • sea glass
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    • rehabbing horse epic fail >
      • do you wanna build a snow pony?
      • do you wanna build a sand pony?
      • Barbie horse gets a makeover
    • mermaid saddles
    • Yule Laugh, Yule Cry... >
      • a Brandywine Christmas
    • Uncle Bob's Toys >
      • Uncle Bob's Toys 2016
      • more: Uncle Bob's Crafts
      • the Adventures of Mortimer
  • photo your toys
    • how to photograph Breyers in the wild
    • paint and wet snow pants
    • Legolas and Hwin, snow
    • derps (or how not to photograph Breyers and others)
    • wild Breyers >
      • printable prints and downloads
      • water horses
      • beach Breyers
      • Lotus Legolas and Arod
      • teeny tiny Breyers
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      • Black Horses
    • educational display
    • Schleich and Safari Faeries
    • North beached
    • more model horses
    • beach party
    • advenatureData
    • Finding Hank
    • Otterlock and Hedgejawn >
      • Hounded in Baskerville
    • how to photograph your dragon
  • adventures
    • Go Play Outside
    • Nature Deficit Disorder
    • I heart Nature
    • autumn light
    • cats
    • mushing 101 >
      • dogs on wheels >
        • Autumn Run on Wheels
      • dogsled
      • dogsledding: running on snow! >
        • Groundhog Day
      • kids and dawgs: first sled run
      • Klondike Derby
      • Sled Dogs and Pirate Ships
      • Christmas Day Run: Rail Trail
      • Horses and Huskies: when predator and prey share the trail
      • Schipperke doo dah >
        • Runnin' with the Big Dogs
        • Hobbit Husky
      • women who run with the wolves
      • Play Time
      • wubba wubba
      • New Year's Dog Day
      • Team Swordwhale
    • trains, sleddogs, and horses oh my!
    • butterscotch and sprinkles
    • horses >
      • horse reference for art
      • ponies small but mighty
      • First Horse: Saraf
      • the Wild Black Mare
      • between thunder and lightning
      • Goliath, Nevada Mustang
      • Yataalii
    • Planet Water >
      • planet toadpool
      • Planet Pond
      • Planet Stream
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      • Planet Water Bird >
        • Planet Water Bird: gulls
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    • kayak! >
      • blue boat home
      • kayaking 101
      • kayaking Assateague and Chincoteague
      • how to train your dragonfly
      • Chasing Raven
      • the Susquehanna River >
        • the Rock Garden >
          • return to the Rock Garden
        • Conewago Dreamin'
        • the Conejehola Flats
        • Thunderbird Island (petroglyphs on the Susquehanna)
        • to the White Lady and Beyond
      • Calvert Cliffs fossils
      • Sassafras River Lotus Paddle >
        • Return to the Sassafras
        • sassafras river 2015
        • sassafras paddle 20160814
        • Sassafras River 2017
        • Sassafras river 2018
      • Eastern Neck Island >
        • winter marsh, winter beach
        • Eastern Neck Island: under the supermoon
        • more Eastern Neck Island
      • Pinchot Park
      • Lake Marburg >
        • where are the manatees?
        • ...and the dolphins???
        • macros and SAVs
        • Lake Marburg 2018
    • beached
    • dive in! (SCUBA) >
      • Gourd of the Rings
    • mid Atlantic seashells
    • longship company >
      • December sail
      • Sae Hrafn at Oakley
    • pirates and privateers >
      • Sailing 101
      • Schooner Sultana 1768
      • Capt John Smith Shallop
      • Pride of Baltimore II
      • Kalmar Nyckel
      • downrigging 2010 >
        • Chestertown autumn
        • Downrigging Weekend 2014
        • Downrigging 2015
        • Downrigging 2016
        • Downrigging 2017
        • downrigging 2018: pink tardis
        • Downrigging 2019
      • privateer weekend
    • horseshoe crabs and red knots >
      • slaughter beach
      • horseshoe crabs and semipalmated sandpipers 2019
    • surfboards and watchtowers: Cape Henlopen >
      • beached
      • Watching Whales >
        • Watching Whales...again
    • Seadogs: Newfoundland water trials
    • wind hounds
    • wild things! >
      • baltimore aquarium
      • there's a hummer in the garage...ceiling ...
      • critter cam
      • sky walking
      • leaf-fall
    • The Adventures of the Good Ship Fearaf
    • the incredibly dead blog page
  • art class
    • framing 101
    • watercolor: how to
    • sip n paints
    • acrylic painting 101
    • wildlife art class
    • (drawing) horses 101 >
      • horse color 101
      • gaits
      • ponies in motion
      • tack
      • Draw: a horse
    • dogs and wolves
    • go ahead, draw a pirate ship
    • anthropomorphism (cartoon animals and stuff)
    • the Little Kids Page of Big Ideas
    • mural: how to >
      • Gabriel's Whale
      • stuff you need
      • drawing (mural)
      • drawing mural 2
      • painting
      • mural jungle
      • mural bat cave
      • mural cats
      • mural ocean
      • mural arctic
      • mural leaf smacking
      • watershed mural
    • crayons and colored pencils
    • palettes
  • Swordwhale's Store
  • wait wait! let me get the camera!
  • who perpetrated all this???
    • swordbroad

North Beached

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​I wanted to just throw a beach chair on the sand, jump in crystal clear water, snorkel, sit on the beach chair...
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​

Nope, welcome to Assateague, a sandbar on the edge of the world.

10-15 mph winds... gusting to gale force with nothing but the van to stop them. Camping neighbors cleverly tied a tarp to their picnic table to serve as temporary windbreak for tent. I finagled van into place to sort of be a windbreak and never opened more than one door at a time (wind tunnel = all of van's contents blowing to Florida).

Ground Blizzard of Sand. Impossible to sit on beach chair on beach because... sandstorm and I Am Not A Camel.
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​Also hard to do photoshoot because Breyer horses kept getting blown over. And all of the equine transportation system had to be stood upon while wrangling camera and trying not to get sand and salt spray in camera. Why won't my camera focus now...
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​Also tent flapped for two days... you have no idea how loud a flapping tent in gale force winds is.

Also good thing I was only person in tent because I had to angle bed so flapping tent did not flap on my face.

Where are the wild horses? Oh, they fled inland to avoid the wind.
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​Toothless got washed out by wave.

%^**!! Not the quiet beaches of the Chesapeake Bay. Real surf.

Crappy awful surf. 
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​Did not pack bike: lots of roads to ride on and places to pull bike over but not car. So... bike. I didn't have one.

Would have been exciting... in the wind. Just spread cloak and sail downwind...

Path to beach is a slightly lower piece of a sand dune... about the consistency of fresh deep snow... or all those dunes people are staggering through in desert films...
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Neighbor asked if I wanted help to launch kayak. (bwaaaa haaaaaaaaaa haaaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa) (phone rings: "Can you come pick me up in the Bahamas, cause I blew there...")

Brought firewood (compressed sawdust, ash borer free, TSC, $3.50). And marshmallows. Managed to light fire. “If there are any to see I at least am revealed to them. I have written Gandalf is here in signs that all can read from Rivendell to the mouths of Anduin.” 

Assateague is never what you expect. I have hiked it, kayaked it, swam it, dived it, snorkelled it, given blood to the vampiric hordes of flying macroinvertebrates. It is not the Bahamas. it is a Hero Journey of Epic Proportions...

​...or at least a slightly odd photoshoot.
The various Legolas action figures are from Toy Biz's Lord of the Rings collection. Shot from various angles, his face actually has different expressions. The Traditional sized Breyers are to scale, if the horses they are riding are big ones. This grulla is Smokey the Cowpony (whose broken tail I replaced with some epoxy putty and real horsehair). 1981-1985, sculpted by Chris Hess. The site is A-loop in the Maryland State Park. The tent sites are right behind the dunes. ​The beer is Flying Dog's oyster stout "Pearl Necklace". Beer is not allowed in Maryland state parks... unless you're an Elf.
More Toy Biz LOTR figures and traditional sized Breyers. Gandalf's n"Shadowfax is Breyer's Fighting Stallion who has been in production since 1961, in a wide variety of colors, sculpted by Chris Hess. This matte alabaster version was done between 1965 and 1985. He's yellowed a bit over time. The black horse with the Elven warrior is Breyer's Black Stallion (also a Chris Hess sculpture), 1981- 1988, some other colors available later. The overo pinto with Tauriel (The Hobbit films) is Hidalgo, from the film of the same name. The gorgeous Hidalgo model is also Silver, Hobo, Blue Suede Shoes, Fortissimo, Black Beauty, Phoenix rising, Mauvelous, Strawberry fields, Skullduggery, Matrix, Unbridled, Mythic Pegasus, and others, depending on the paint job. He is one of my few non-Chris Hess models and was sculpted by Kathleen Moody. The blowing sand is natural, I only added special effects (a handful of flung sand) on the Legolas In The Forest scene at the top of the page.
The first five pics are of Traditional size Breyers, along North Beach on Assateague Island, where wild ponies do run. The next set is the smaller Classic series, many done as mustangs, at least two are Spirit and Rain from the Dreamworks film Spirit. The "strawberry roan Appaloosa" is Breyer's running Stallion (sculpted by Chris Hess, 1968 - 1974). He's usually listed as a "red roan" though red roan is a bay base with black points and this is clearly a chestnut base with chestnut points. Also, the spots are more like a leopard complex horse like the Appaloosa... a roan is a smooth combination of white and colored hairs. He's quite a flashy model, one of my favorites as a kid, I named him Volcano.m The running foal is the "alabaster" (light grey) in front, and the Running Mare is the darker grey with white mane in back. The black galloping horse in full flight is Black beauty (Chris Hess sculpture), 1979ish.

Toothless and Howling Wind's Moving Sandcastle

The howling winds kicked up some serious waves on this generally flat and serene beach. Also this foamy stuff. And sand. Lots of blowing sand. Unlike the Chesapeake Bay beaches Toothless has hung out on before, this beach had long, strong waves. He washed out on one...

​...and fortunately, washed right back in on the next one...
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