Tag Archives: river

Focus: A Seat and a River Time Spell Cast

Sometimes you just need to sit a spell and get let the river cast its magic.

And it will. Always does. Sunshine, crisp fall air and river mystique knows no bounds. Taking that front-row seat puts the “Ahhhhhh” into the exhale. From there, it’s all about the infinite inhale of tranquility. Thanks, too, that the intoxicating view remains a best friend that transcends time, never leaving a Rumson-Fair Haven area kid’s carefree mind.

Continue reading Focus: A Seat and a River Time Spell Cast

Focus: Throwing Sunny Shade on River Time

There’s nothing like a crisp, bright fall day down by the river. It’s nothing to throw shade on, unless, of course, an umbrella or several are involved at an iconic spot along the Navesink.

That spot would be Barnacle Bill’s in Rumson. The shade? Well, when the fiery sunshine sears that fuzzy warmth into your soul, the umbrella that shades takes the glare away, calling the view into vivid focus. Call it falling for the same old, yet always new, scene. The river time scene.

River time. It’s time forever well-spent — sunny side always up under the umbrella of a day completed down by the river.

Take a look and feel the fall riverside sunshine in your soul. (Click on one pic to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy!)

The sun is set to shine bright for the rest of the week, bringing another little waft of locals’ summer. Here’s the Rumson-Fair Haven area forecast through the weekend from the National Weather Service …

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Focus: Washed in River Daze

Call it a wash. Down came that rain and washed the murky, humid muck in the air away.

And like the song, it seems like “you can see forever more,” especially from the iconic shores of the Navesink down by Barnacle Bill’s. No matter how far a hometown Rumsonite or Fair Havenite roams, the riverfront always calls them back to hold them tight.

It’s never a fishing expedition. The line was cast long ago and the anchor never rusts. This one’s a diamond. Unbreakable, it glistens with magnetic light shining, calling from deep in the river’s sandy floor.

The precious anchor stone’s gleam reflects in that hometown kid’s eyes, offering the view no one else has. It’s from that river’s shores that, murk or not, that kid at heart can see more clearly every inch of beauty that’s always been there, yet still lies ahead. They look back while looking ahead to see those little big things that brought them there. Held them there.

Those things? They’re still holding … with soothing tightness.

Hold those thoughts and keep them … like a kid collecting shells down by the river.

Click on one photo in the above gallery to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy the view!

— Elaine Van Develde

The weather forecast …

Heatwave humidity and wildfire smoke has cleared. Here’s what’s in store with the weather in the Rumson-Fair Haven area through the weekend and into next week.

Retro Sizzling Rumson Dock Girls’ 50s Summer

Rumson girls Alice Coyle Mansfield and Linda Zerr Feeny in the late 50s
Photo/Ken Card, courtesy of Alice Mansfield

Reprise, because everyone’s asking about those hot Rumson girls of the 1950s dock days. And they’re still around the towns …

Well, we are steeped in steamy summer heat. And there’s really nothing more sizzling summer hot than two Rumson girls of the 1950s who took the plunge into and out of summers together — suited up, off the Rumson Dock and into a longtime friendship.

Continue reading Retro Sizzling Rumson Dock Girls’ 50s Summer

Focus: River Time Front-Row Seat

Sometimes the best front-row seat is the one that cradles your river time.

Wherever it is, front-row Rumson Barnacle Bill’s or docked, it’s that seat that offers a hometown view with heart. Even in the haze, the the clarity of what matters most is caught like an opening night bouquet tossed into the audience’s lap from the Navesink River’s scenic stage.

It’s a show without a ticket or playbill. Curtain’s always up, even if the lights are dim and no one’s in the house. That’s because it’s always your own show with a take-away that stays like pressed flowers from the best of times.

That front-row seat to river time always calls, offering river time its own sitting ovation — always bowing in, not out.

That’s the show that holds down by the river. Always. Take a look at the above photo gallery for a glimpse from the seat ... (CLICK on one photo to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy!)

— Photos/Elaine Van Develde

The weekend weather …

Continue reading Focus: River Time Front-Row Seat

Focus: Solstice River Walk Solace

It doesn’t have to be the longest day of the year to get the most out of the warmth of river time before the sun sets, calling it a day — a first summer day.

The day may be over, but the river time feeling is forever docked in the mind. The fair haven on the Navesink always calls. Rain never drowns the call. The lap. The lull. The gentle tide reaches out and tugs at our hearts to stay. And we do.

Any day is the longest day down by the river, because it’s an endless river walk in our Fair Haven.

Rain never washes away the footprint of time wrapped in home’s swaddling river tide.

— Photos/Elaine Van Develde for R-FH Retro exclusively

And there will be lots of rain this week, drenching the area, according to the National Weather Service. It continues through the weekend and into next week …

Focus: Branching Out with River Time Buds

There’s nothing quite like branching out to a budding riverfront perspective — down by the Navesink at the Fair Haven Dock, of course.

Yes, spring has sprung. The buds are budding. And when it comes to seeing the river for the trees, the view is always the most flattering panoramic close-up of sunshine on an old friend.

It always smiles back and reaches out to hold with a tight hug. The buds on the trees branch out pulling you in to a new season, new day down by the river.

Happy budding river time 2023! (CLICK on one of the photos in the above gallery to enlarge and scroll. Enjoy!)

— Photos/Elaine Van Develde for R-FH Retro exclusively

Here’s what’s in store for the end-of-the-week into weekend weather forecast …

Focus: Sunset River Walk Reflection

As the sun sets over the Navesink River, a walk on the Fair Haven Dock sheds light on river time that saw its season, its sunshine — river time that stays within and keeps us warm with a vivid picture of where we were, where we are.

And when you’re lucky enough to go back in river time with a first childhood friend, the winter walk gets warmer with each step. Each step forward brings you back to the same place, together, half a century later, where the sun shines bright, searing the power of one place into your forever inner child’s mind. The sear is an intricate lightning caress. A tidy, stinging storm of light.

It hits hard, bloated with love, and courses through all that you are, all that you were. It knows the two are the same deep inside. The searing light pens the picture pristine, the detail intricate, embeds it in each smile line on your face. It etches, never turning the picture to ash, only refining it.

You can see it all … in that river walk back with that childhood friend. It’s clear — so clear that you can hear it. You can hear the splash as you turn to the girl who dared to jump with the cool kids all those years ago. She smiles at the girl who stood and watched, still anchored, never wanting loose her footing on that piece of home. She’s docked there, forever reminding her friend that she is, too.

They pluck oyster shells from the shore to mark the splash made, the picture emblazoned. The sun sinks into the horizon. Its light stays within. The shells once held a pearl. The river remembers it all. It holds on tight as the friends walk away … clasping their pearly shells.

— Elaine Van Develde

Any time is river walk time. The sun is another story for the rest of this week and through the weekend. Here’s the forecast from the National Weather Service …

Focus: New Year River Daze Imprint

Shrewsbury River in Rumson
Photo/Doug Borden

Sometimes it seems as if a river view is a window to heaven … on Earth.

And as the sunny late December view ushers in a new year, it offers clarity. The clarity of the beauty of home — where you can feel infinite peace emanating from a living Rumson landscape. A landscape that breathes a sigh of contentment. A landscape that beckons you at low tide into its rising tide of tranquility. The comfort of quiet solitude in its good company.

It’s always good company — the river, its inlets and marshland. It’s where all the gentlest elements meet for a nurturing hug and reflection. This time it’s the sun, the blue sky, traveled clouds mirroring in a small looking glass pool of water. The way it all looks back, casting the most golden of glows on wet sand that holds each mark of where many walks of life have been, gone and settled.

It’s a new year. Time to set out to leave more footprints, make your marks — marks of walking toward the satiety of that clear, peaceful view in your own back yard. Marks that stay. Marks emblazoned, emboldened by the sun. Marks in that sand that go out with the tide to wash up on another’s shore, leaving the grains of goodness that were once imprints.

Happy New Year.

River inlet view in Rumson
Photo/Doug Borden

Warmer days are ahead for the first week of 2023, albeit with a bit of dampness …

**Thanks to RFH alum Doug Borden for these spectacular river views!**