24 Tuesday Nov 2015
Posted in Adventure, archives of the sea, Friendship, Love, message in a bottle, Romance, Travel
Tags
Clint Buffington, Gwen and Clinton Bennett, Inspiration, love, marseille, message in a bottle, travel
Marseille’s shoreline glitters under the Mediterranean sun. Legend has it the first messages in bottles were sent in these very waters a couple thousand years ago by a Greek fellow named Theophrastus who hung out with both Plato and Aristotle.
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03 Tuesday Dec 2013
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adventure, Asheville, beachcombing, business card in a bottle, Clint Buffington, Cocoa Beach, cypress gardens, Grenelefe, illustration, John E Freeland, Long Island, message in a bottle, message in a bottle hunter, ocean currents, Phil Freeland, romance, stick figure, travel, winter haven
No one answered my phone call. I was jittery before I tried the number—I always get a little shaky when I’m on the verge of finding a sender.
Maybe it’s the coffee. I am, admittedly, an addict.
07 Friday Oct 2011
Posted in Adventure, archives of the sea, message in a bottle, Romance, Travel, weird news
Tags
adventure, beachcombing, Caribbean, Clint Buffington, Godzilla, Guinness, history, humor, illustration, Inspiration, message in a bottle, Neptune, Ovaltine, scroll, stick figure, travel
In 1959, something bizarre and completely unprecedented happened in the Atlantic ocean.
I know what you’re thinking: Godzilla sighting…
23 Friday Sep 2011
Posted in Adventure, archives of the sea, message in a bottle, Travel, weird news
Tags
adventure, advertising, beachcombing, beer, Caribbean, Clint Buffington, Guinness, history, message in a bottle, travel
Friends and neighbors, imagine my surprise when I found a message in a bottle from my favorite beer company, Guinness!
Check it out:
07 Wednesday Sep 2011
Posted in Adventure, archives of the sea, Breaking a bottle, Love, message in a bottle, Romance, Travel
Tags
adventure, beachcombing, Clint Buffington, daydreaming, humor, illustration, message in a bottle, romance, stick figure, travel
Finding a message in a bottle is fun!
It’s also extremely addicting. And when I’m landlocked and working, and my mind wanders back to the beach, and to bottles shining in sunlight–
I start getting a little batty! The unopened bottles in my home become the tell-tale hearts of my life, always pulsing in their cardboard box, hijacking my concentration. I stare at them and want to open them and yes, yes, their time will come!
But I have to be extremely careful. The papers inside are the only links I have to the senders, soon to be (hopefully!) my friends. Each one is priceless, each brittle paper. So I wait until the time is right for each bottle, wait till I have time and a quiet day stretching out before me, when I can gather the tools and supplies I need. And then, the bottles know: there is no escape!
27 Saturday Aug 2011
Tags
adventure, Art, art in a bottle, artist, beachcombing, Clint Buffington, cruise, Inspiration, John Piper, mesage in a bottle, plastic bottle, romance, travel
Three pencil sketches in a bottle I found washed ashore in the Caribbean in 2008.
That night, after my mom had taken the drawings out of the bottle, we passed them around, speculating. Was this the work of a famous artist we weren’t familiar with? Did we hold priceless treasure in our hands, the flippant gesture of an artist bored at sea? What was this?!
I emailed John the very night I got home.
Dear Mr. Piper,
We are strangers to each other, or were, but you should know this: I found your pencil sketches—the ones you put in a big plastic bottle and tossed in the sea!
Two hour later, he wrote back to me!
What an amazing thing to happen. It has been drifting around since November 2006! When I threw it over the side of P & O cruise ship Oceana, (but then you might know that already, I can’t really remember what I put on the notes? It was only a bit of fun and just a very long shot). I had no idea where it would end up; probably swallowed by some passing whale perhaps? So where on earth did you find it? I am so totally overcome by this event.
I live in Exeter, in the County of Devon, in the South West of England. I am retired and painting and writing full time.
John Piper in the Caribbean in 2007