Saturday Surprise — Sandfest!

Posted on by under Humour, Saturday Surprise, Social commentary

Welcome to the weekend, my friends!  I suppose you all have big plans this weekend, for on this side of the pond, Sunday is Mother’s Day, though our friends in the UK already had Mother’s Day back in March.  I will be taking Miss Goose out later today to find something for her mom … and I am going to get Chris a Kohl’s gift card so she will buy herself some new work shirts, for I’m tired of seeing the same ones in the wash every week!

I’ve found a treat for you today!  Actually, Miss Goose found it and emailed it to me earlier this week, and I think you’re going to be amazed by some of these.  In late April, on the Gulf Coast of Texas, in Port Aransas, there is a celebration called Sandfest.  It is a three-day celebration with food, music, contests, and all sorts of fun.

The contest first began back in 1997 as a single-day event, but is now spread over three days and has expanded to include live music and much food.  But the highlight of Sandfest is the sculpting contest, and today I want to share with you some of the best sand sculptures you have ever likely seen!

First, the Solo Competitors …

Sand sculpture of Abraham Lincoln, covering his face with his hand

1st Place – Liberty Crumbling, Damon Langlois

Joris Kivits in front of his sculpture.

2nd Place – Keep it Together, Joris Kivits

Remy in front of a sculpture of a woman holding an owl

3rd Place & People’s Choice – Sofia, Remy Hoggard

Woman's face surrounded by tall buildings.

She’s a Little Bit City and a Little Bit Country, Delayne Corbett

Sculpture of a mother and baby elephant

Save the Elephants, Paul Hoggard

Then the Duo Competitors …

Opposites Attract, Laura and John Gowdy

1st Place – Opposites Attract, Laura Cimador-Gowdy & John Gowdy

Man looking into his plants with a magnifying glass, and seeing creatures partying in the plant.

2nd Place – Party in Your Plants, Morgan Rudluff & Abe Waterman

Man in Motion, Ted Siebert & Fred Dobbs.

3rd Place – Man in Motion, Ted Siebert & Fred Dobbs

Then there are the Semi-Pro Competitors …

Sculpture of an elephant holding a gun in one hand and a rose in the other.

1st Place – Guns and Roses, Andrew Daily

Achilles holding a sword and shield

2nd Place – Achilles, Amanda Bolduc

Sculpture of a WWII veteran holding a photo of himself as a young soldier.

3rd Place, Greatest Generation, Bruce Peck

Items from the 80s, including a dial phone, Atari, Rubick's Cube, and more.

People’s Choice – 80s Callin’, Dale Andrews

Sculpture of a lion

Braveheart, Albert Lucio, Sr.

I think these are awesome and I tried to find out how long, on average, it takes to build one, but could find nothing.  I’m guessing days, but … what if it were to rain during the building process?  Instant destruction!  I can’t imagine there was much sand left on the beach after this!

My own favourite was Save the Elephants by Paul Hoggard, and I learned that Mr. Hoggard is British and has created literally thousands of sculptures since his first in 1991.  In 2000, he was commissioned by the Royal Cornwall show to create a sand sculpture for Her Majesty, the Queen of England. He created a farm yard scene of pigs and piglets, which he presented in person to Her. It is said that she enjoyed it very much.  I hope you enjoyed the sand sculptures and that you have an awesome weekend!  And Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there!

kids in sandbox

74 thoughts on “Saturday Surprise — Sandfest!”

  4. How do folk manage to create them? Where do they get the patience and artistry from to work with sand. Amazing.
    Now if I could do that, I would measure the distance between tide out and how far tide gets in. Then I would check where the half-way tide in place would be (are you with me so far?)
    THEN, I would follow the tide going out, wait until it gets to that distance and with a group of like-minded folk build one of Trump,film the whole thing when the tides comes back in and post it up on Social Media……
    Cool uh?

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    • I know I would not have the patience to build something like that! Heck, a small, kid-sized sand structure would likely tax my patience.

      Hmmm … I was puzzled there for a minute, but then the 💡 came on! You have a most cunning mind, Sir Roger! Great idea!

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          • True.
            And there must be few in California?
            (And why did this take a day to appear underneath the ‘little bell’. WP-wise up willya!)

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            • True, and also on the North Carolina coast … there’s Keith … perhaps he could be convinced?

              WordPress is apparently doing aesthetic changes again, for I notice the little star when you ‘like’ a comment doesn’t turn yellow anymore, but only a slightly darker blue. AND … when I visited your blog earlier today, it asked me to ‘follow’ your blog. I clicked the ‘follow’ button, of course, but I’m puzzled, for I have followed yours for years now, and I received notification of your post, so obviously I was already following. I’m confused by it all. Sigh.

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              • Worth a try. Trumpy Sand Castles all over the USA’s seaboards…..tee-hee.
                Oh WP Jill!
                It’s having one of its ‘episodes’ again.
                It’s currently randomly wiping my comments on people’s posts…..Frib knows why!

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                • Y’know, though … Trump would probably see it as the people honouring him with all those sand sculptures. He has a way of turning things around in his pea brain.

                  Sheesh … they cannot leave well enough alone, can they?

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                  • I don’t think he’d care much for the image of the tide washing away those castles, and accompanied by folk cheering…
                    (Sneaky guys us hard-line socialists….subversion is the name of the game 😉…..(Even got two back plans when some Trumpophile tries to react by building a concrete and stone image of him)

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                    • Yep, you are pretty sneaky … what’s your back-up plan for the concrete & stone image? Y’know, that started me thinking … I bet he expects that someday there will be a monument built to honour him, as have been done for Lincoln, Washington and Jefferson. 🤢

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                    • Well, y’know they always try and put these things on grassy places. So in the dead of night you feed a hose underground attached to a water supply and turn it on. The ground grows soggy and eventually the lump of stone starts to subside, this risk early identification but is good for a gesture.
                      Second ploy ensure the immediate area is replete with bird feed, birds land on lump of stone and we all know what birds do on lumps of stone.
                      Third ploy at irregular interludes, in the dead of night go and glue silly hat on the area some folk call a head.
                      Fourth ploy take pot shots with a paint gun.
                      No doubt the shmuck expects that, not realising it would be constant target for such mischief as above.

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                    • I could be a speaker for the party though
                      Can I bring along my lectern?
                      I don’t know if Sheila would let me grow my hair wild and woolly anymore though, she’s only just trained me to have restrained hair….and I can’t work the lectern in public without wild and woolly hair.

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                    • I have decided to foreswear off on pogo sticks, I cannot be a thundering condemnatory orator with a pogo stick, the messages are too mixed. 🤔.
                      In the meantime we have the Flabmiester coming to us, that will be fun…… (tee-heee)

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                    • I will have to foreswear of the pogo stick, I cannot be be a thunderous condemnatory orator and have one; it sends a mix message.
                      If only I had learned to ride a horse; charging in on a mighty night black steed….ah there’s the image!

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                    • There was this project for ‘Crime and Punishment’ , but no one appreciated my interpretation of the central character Rodion Raskolnikov in the style of Moe of The Three Stooges.
                      I must be very, very much ahead of my time.
                      Ah well, too books (this Volume 3 won’t write itself y’know) and blogs then.

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                    • While I would have liked to see that, and I’m sure you have always been a bit ahead of your time, the question about the film was my bad! I thought David said you were in a film, but he was talking about somebody else, and since your name was in the same sentence, I thought he meant you! And before you ponder on why your name had come up, I used one of those expressions you taught me, “Woe, woe, thrice times woe!”, and naturally gave credit where credit was due by saying you had taught me that one! 😉 No, the book will not write itself … I’ve been trying to work that magic for months, and it ain’t happenin’!

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                    • They didn’t appreciate my interpretation of Richard III in the style of Groucho Marx either…🗣…typical of the Film Industry.
                      That’s why you couldn’t find me…..Ha!
                      It is sad Jill, but books don’t write themselves, it’s a question of putting words on paper or laptop, any words will do to begin with and then you sort them out.

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                    • Your talents just haven’t found the right venue yet … Richard III in the style of Groucho simply has to be hilarious!

                      Putting words on paper … my problem is that I overthink … I proofread as I put those words on the page, decide they could be said better, undo, redo, think, change, and finally relegate the whole thing to a folder of “works in progress”. I have many such. Someday, though, inspiration will hit … hopefully I won’t need stitches!

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • I could do it, I tell ya!
                      Anyway, the writing thing:
                      The best course is only do the the proofread, edit stuff after a whole bunch of pages (not getting too technical am I?). Typoes, errors in syntax, inconsistencies, holes on plots etc will creep in all over the place at any time, even after the third edit, so you might as well accept them and get those words out, structure and stuff can wait.
                      I have approx 20,000 words on Vol 3 and as a conhensive work what is there no doubt stinks….However there will be enough material to footle around with and sift to build up to a solid first draft, which itself will be ‘bad’ and will need attending to at least twice…..
                      Welcome to the writers’ world…It’s cool…it’s a blast, I tell ya!😃

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                    • Y’know, Roger, I think my problem is that I’m trying to do too many things at a time and … there just aren’t enough hours in a day. I spend 10-12 hours on this blog, 3-4 hours on housework, cooking, laundry, etc. 4 hours or so sleeping, a couple of hours on family time, and then it’s time to start over again. When do I find time to write, or even to read a whole book? I think, and I would not admit this to any but you, I have bitten off more than I can chew. The things I most want to try to do, like writing something besides this blog, reading 200 pages in a sitting, going for a long walk … they keep getting pushed back until I’m too exhausted to even think about them. Sigh. I’m thinking to set aside some “me-time”, even if only an hour a day, to write or read whatever suits me, to put Trump and the world out of my mind for just a bit. I started doing that a few weeks back, and it lasted all of two days.

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                    • Yeh, blog time can be pretty intense too.
                      As you’ll have noticed I’ve dialled back a bit; having noticed that as many folk still support Brexit as they did before and not taking a share of the blame over the mess; as there is a still a draft-dodging racist crook in the Whitehouse with 30,+ million loyal supporters; as populism is on the rise in Europe, I just can’t be everywhere.
                      My books are taking centre stage, and whereas they may not sell, they may not every be known, they will be mine…. In actual fact I might even get pushy with marketing (somehow) which is a first for me.
                      As for the political scene as regards the way the simplistic populists carry on, I’m in the mood of sitting there, grimly watching and saying to myself ‘You will get your rewards and will spend the rest of your lives wishing to God that you were never given them!’
                      My advice is to shut down for a while, carry on with the ‘Good Things’ by all means.
                      Let Trump dig his own pit

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                    • Yes, I noticed you weren’t posting as much, and figured it was because you’re hard at work on your books. And yeah … you’re right … whether I write this blog or not, Trump will still be in the White House, people will still be racists and homophobes, and children will still be dying at the border. But, maybe I do it more for me, as an outlet for my own angst over all the terrible things I see that keep me awake nights. I dunno. As re Trump digging his own pit, he is doing a pretty good job of it, but his minions keep filling it back up! Some day this will all end … not in any good way if we don’t get serious about our environment. You’re a good man and a good friend, Roger. 🌻

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                    • Thank you Jill, your words mean a great deal to me.
                      You must take care of yourself, because the world needs Jill, in particular your family…..right kids (😻😻😻😻😻-yeh we luv our Gwannie!).
                      Would that we could change the world (though probably not my way, I don’t think the world is ready for Benevolent Stern Authoritarianism and Indoctrination- and if all else fails a serve ass-kicking programme).
                      Regards the environment, there are many folk of many outlooks around the world doing their bit to clean things up, and maybe therein is the salvation, small determined efforts by 10s of millions of folk, day in day out….we can but hope.
                      As for ‘I don’t do cover up’ sh**-for-brains. One day, they’ll start to cover up that hole while he’s still in it……even Hitler got betrayed by his closest in the end as they tried to save their own worthless skins….Ha!

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                    • Tell me, babes, if you love Gwannie so much … why do I have a huge gash on the top of my foot??? I once heard it said that love shouldn’t have to hurt. 😿

                      I try to take care of both physical & emotional health, but some days my motivation to do so wanes. Y’know, the world might not be ready for your sort of change, but I think it might be just what the world needs, as long as you keep that first word, ‘benevolent’ in the equation. I fear we are heading in that direction only sans ‘benevolence’.
                      Hopefully you are right about the environment … it just seems that we are cleaning up the small things, while the other guys are dumping mounds of ‘stuff’ on the part we just picked up. But yes, we can hope and we can keep doing our best to make a difference.
                      I sense that the day will come when his own betray him, but first they will ride his coattails for all they’re worth, to the misfortune of the world.

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                    • Hey you guys!….for shame…😿😿😿😿😿.
                      There’s a great deal of talk about folk being disillusioned with the political elite, and yet what do they turn to Trump, Farage, Five Star, Le Pen, Modi?
                      Somehow WWII has been airbrushed out of the memory….
                      British PM Horace Walpole said in 1739 on a populist inspired declaration of war against Spain…’They may ring their bells now; before long they will be wringing their hands. –’….. Britain did not do terribly well in that war.

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                    • When I was a kid, we had a gas stove and I got the brilliant idea to put a tissue in the burner that was lit at the time. I learned a lesson that day about fire and tissues and never repeated the mistake. However, decades later, my son tried the exact same thing. We can learn, I think, from our own mistakes, but it seems we never learn from the mistakes of those who went before us. Sigh. So, we must repeat the mistakes of the past, learn the lesson over again, and … we now see why the Chinese say that history is cyclic.

                      Boo, the foot-shredder, has taken your admonishment to heart and stood in the corner facing the wall for about a half hour to hide his shame.
                      I sowwy Uncle Woger 🙀

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                    • As the saying goes ‘Admit to your mistakes before someone else exaggerates them’!.
                      Mistakes is what we make, admitting them and trying not to inflict them on others under the guise of some BS is the crime.
                      Now you be good Boo (finger wagging here) 😿

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  6. Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
    This is really something to enjoy. TAKE A LOOK … ‘ In late April, on the Gulf Coast of Texas, in Port Aransas, there is a celebration called Sandfest. It is a three-day celebration with food, music, contests, and all sorts of fun.’

    Liked by 1 person

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  7. Happy Us Day, for we are all mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, kids, and grandkids, wrapped in one.
    Amazing sandsculptings, Jill, but you and Bereaved know you jinxed them for next year. The weather is going to be crappy in 2020: high winds, torrential rain, high waves–sounds like a hurricane, doesn’t it! (Trying to use Ergleflaeg’s Law against Murphy’s Law.)

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      • There are only about 10 people in the world who know of Ergleflaeg’s Law, and nine might be dead. The discoverer of the law was a jewish hippie standing about 5′ tall with long reddish orange hair. Looked a lot like a happy hobbit, he did. He later became a rabbi in New York City. I have no idea if he is still alive or not. Part of Murphy’s Law states if you do or say something negative about the future, it will make it happen. You and Gary both mentioned about bad weather for the Sandsculpting Festival, so depending on how you interpret that, either Murphy’s Law was double invoked, since you both spoke of bad weather. Ergleflaeg’s Law states if someone else mentions the invoking of Murphy’s Law, it will uninvoke it. Or, Gary’s comment may have uninvoked yours, and thus my invoking of Ergleflaeg may have reinvoked Murphy; or, my invoking of Ergleflaeg only once may not have been strong enough to uninvoke a double-Murphy.
        By now I am so confused I have no idea how to evaluate where we stand, and next festival may go totally smoothly, or it might have to be completely cancelled because of harsh weather. If anyone has any further laws to invoke, please be prepared to jump in next April. If you can remember…

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        • My head is spinning after reading your explanation and analysis not once, not twice, but thrice! I think the best we can hope for is that everything canceled everything else out and next year’s festival will be smooth sailing. Or did I just re-jinx it? At any rate, I shall keep an eye open next year, and the Texas Gulf Coast is hit with a massive off-season hurricane during the time of the scheduled festival, I will know that it is all my fault!

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    • Ha ha … that is true! Toddlers or dogs. Can you imagine spending all that time, and just as you put the finishing touches on, here comes a golden retriever bounding down the beach and … SPLAT … go hours of backbreaking work!

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