A weekend at the beach

Tags

cuttle fish, fishermen, shells, sponges, wedding

While it’s snowing in unexpected places in Europe, and Warsaw is -15, autumn dawns gloriously in my corner of Australia. Saturday is spectacularly blue and sunny, and even foot-fumbling along the beach at high tide can’t diminish my pleasure. The beach is quite busy, at least for Potato Point. A couple I’ve known for nearly forty years are set up, he fishing for lunch with bucket and line, she comfortable on a chair under a shady black hat reading. Halfway along the beach a table, white-clothed, is set up for a wedding and a man in a satin- backed waistcoat waits with friends, including a guitarist and a crouched photographer, for the bride to appear through the dunes.

The sea is welcoming. High tide may make walking a chore but it makes swimming easy. No struggle to immerse myself: the sea does it for me, a calm serene sea where I can feel myself gently lifted and lowered.

On Sunday, we’ve had a southerly overnight and the sky is cloudy. However the water is still warm and the rise and fall remains gentle. The beach offers unexpected treasures: a scattering of white bones with elegant black patterning. These are the internal shells of cuttlefish, chambered and gas-filled, used to control buoyancy when the cuttlefish is in possession and for a variety of other purposes after its demise: as a polishing powder used by goldsmiths; a toothpaste additive; an antacid; a dietary supplement for caged birds, chinchillas, hermit crabs, reptiles, shrimp and snails.

There is also an unusual smattering of sponges (an interesting synchronicity since I’ve just spent five minutes photographing J’s dried sponge collection from our beachcombing phase) and a translucent shell.

There is one touch of approaching winter (or is it a gardening glove?) abandoned on our towel and hat rack.

Dusk sculptures

Tags

beach sculpture, dusk

Last night we went for a late walk along the beach, as the sun set in pink slashes and the sea took on subtle colouration. Three young people seemed to be loitering idly mid-beach back near the dunes, and we profiled them accordingly as we headed towards the sea mist.

On the return journey we saw what they’d been doing and had to unwind our prejudices. There were three very different Andy Goldsworthy constructions crafted from the flood-wrack still remaining high on the beach. There was enough light to capture the sculptures without fancy photographic know-how and we had a chance to express our delight to the artists as they straggled back across the beach to the village.  J saw the sculptures as transient, at the mercy of the sea and the night, but they were still there the next day.

  
  
Check out Andy Goldsworthy in Google images

“A blessing for the whole day”

Tags

early morning, shell, Thoreau

I'm a bit uneasy quoting Thoreau: I'm not a big fan. He is too self-righteous by half, especially if you believe the story that his mother brought him lunch in his self-sufficient solitude. However, he's sometimes spot on. An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. He doesn't mention a swim, but that doubles the blessing.

For the last few days I have been doubly blessed. I rarely walk early these days, and even more rarely plunge into the ocean. But the water is warm; I have a companion; throwing a ball for the dog gives me a bit of body heat; and by the time I've walked the length of the beach I'm ready to meet the waves, hoping one will slosh me out of the gradual approach that is my custom when I encounter a body of water.

This morning the colours are muted, shades of grey and a tinge of apricot, early light becoming the fingers of god reflecting in the wave wash. Sand anemones blur under the surface of a rock pool. But there are a few sparks of bright beauty: opalescence inside a shell, the gleaming gold of seaweed, a tiny speck in the surf which is my resident son doing what he loves best.

By the time I leave the beach, the light is aureate, and I am set up for the ordeal of a phone call to the Polish consulate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A seaweed gallery

Tags

sea weed

Seaweed is usually a recalcitrant photographic subject for me: the gleam disconcerts the camera, and distracts it from its primary duty of sharpness. But recently an early walk with the sun just rising produced this haul of Tutankhamen gold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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After heavy rain

Tags

after heavy rain, foam, iridescence, seaweed

Every time I go to the beach near my place, I think “Oh well, I suppose there’ll be nothing new.” Today the creek is open and the Tuross River north of Blackfellows Beach flooded. Sea mist rises like smoke at the end of the beach; the sky is layered with clouds and blue: and creek and ocean fight it out in a roiling of tea, khaki and white, courtesy of the flooded Tuross River. Seaweed is wreathed in bubble-mesh, a tracery over its shapes and holes, instead of offering its usual dark strappy gleam. The sea is murky and deposits mud on the beach at the tideline. But the mud is lacy, a delicate deep brown edging of the paler sand-lace. The foam brought in by each wave-surge quivers in the light breeze: iridescent bubbles hold their shape briefly, and then collapse.

Nothing new?

Feedback please: I’ve finally started resizing my photos, from MB to KB, shocked into action by a too-large internet bill. Please let me know if you think I’ve resized them too small.

Acknowledgement

I too am playing around with a circle frame. Thank you, Jude and Pauline, for reminding me of this possibility.

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Collecting shells … and a few other things

Tags

feather, lichen, reflections, shells

Finally I have the study clear, and it's beginning to seem like a pleasant place to be, sun and light pouring in, and the faint sound of the sea. The living room? Now, that's a different story! Chaos is its title. So I escape into the morning to walk along my beach for the first time since the beginning of the year, and indulge in the soothing pastime of shell-collecting. I can't resist feather, lichen, rocky sand shelf, sand ripple and reflections in the creek either.

 

 

 

 

 

PS For a great whale shot click here.

 

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