Sea glass mosaic

You may have seen my Seaglass posts before, but perhaps not?

I've always enjoyed a treasure hunt of any sort.  Hunting for sea glass is one of my favourite beach pursuits.  My Mother is equally fond of it.

Thus, when I went to spend a Sunday with her around a month ago, when we went to the beach, the pair of us were searching for pieces.  It got a little competitive...

Sadly, a lot of the pieces there are still quite jagged in shape- I love seaglass the best when it has truly rounded edges but still, the hunt for various colours and some weathering is still great fun.

Once I've found them, I like to arrange them in a mosaic.  I got this idea from The Dainty Squid.

Here was my initial findings on the beach with Mum. A few colour including some greens, aquas, browns and even 2 Cobalt pieces!

We ended up searching for more later so back at my Mother's house, I photographed my augmented collection.

A few pretty, stripy shells found their way back too.
Which is your favourite piece?

My Mum needn't have worried as I donated my haul to her for her fairy garden. I don't think CBC always likes me returning home with loads of seaglass which he says is akin to bringing rubbish home. I suppose he has a point but it's rather attractive rubbish!

My Mum and I are planning to go to Seaham at some point which is a world-famous beach for amazing seaglass finds.

Have you been sea glass hunting?

Whitby wanderings- A meander at Sandsend

Morning! It is a beautiful, bright day here in Essex and I have had a sumptuous lie-in, then got up and cleared up the pigsty that has been the kitchen after a busy week whilst listening to John Williams filmscore sound tracks and then emptying the compost in the garden.  It continues with washing and all those necessary mundane tasks that have to be completed.

However, since posting here has been very sporadic, I thought I'd resume my Whitby writeup from half-term since it is almost Easter and it is now rather overdue!

After our walk in Whitby, CBC and I took a wrong turning from Whitby towards Goathland and ended up driving through a nearby village called Sandsend where the sea and beaches were right by the main road. It was very easy to pull over and park (no charges between October and April- hurrah!)

The beach was sandy which then seemed to turn into more Shingle and stone as we walked on.

CBC was perfectly content to watch the waves for a while whilst I searched for sea-glass.

Alas, as the tide was coming in, and I wasn't paying attention, my feet were quickly immersed in water which went over the top of my boots resulting in much squelchage.

The persistent surge of the waves is such a soothing accompaniment to beachcombing and I confess to a inner quietude laced with a fervent joy as I advance at a slow tempo along the stony terrain.

The froth ices everything in a thin layer for such a insignificant period of time before it returns from whence it came.

CBC joined in the beach-combing occasionally and rather liked the cappuccino-hued smoothness of this morsel.

The stones never quite retain their magical sheen if one removes them from their home but it is a joy to see familiar shapes gleaming as you walk. A heart for Valentines day.

I spied the odd thrilling piece of smoothed seaglass. Do you spy it?

Maybe this one is more obvious with its Emerald-city shades.

And the odd translucent milky shade accompanied by quartz.

Every so often, a wave would leave iridescent bubbles lingering on the surface of an honoured pebble.

And the odd stone dons a stylish quartz belt.

And finally, a heart-shaped fragment of seaglass in honour of St Valentines, held up alongside my beloved in the distance.

 Odd pieces of quartz mixed with other elements held up to the sunset yields an inner magic.

Whilst the waves continue their ceaseless ostinato.

As the misty air gives a turbulence to the ever-progressing waves, we feel it is time to retreat.

With a few more lingering glances.

"Come back soon!" the waves seem to entreat us as they lick at our feet.

Whilst we traipse back towards the car, my reluctance to leave results in a death-pace glancing ever downwards seeking a final treasure.

Nothing to see here but a myriad of proud grey tones.

And more quartz adornment.

But wait! What is that?  Long lost ceramics or pottery?

And a long-smoothed seaglass pebble.

A farewell emerald...

And a final flurry of bubbles.

Sandsend- our time with you was short but it was filled with beauty, thrills, solitude and magnificence.  We thank you.

xxx

Beach walker

 On Saturday morning, CBC and I drove to my Mum's new house she has bought.  It was really nice to see her in there and see her so excited about being able arrange her things the way she wants them AND be within walking distance of the sea- well the estuary!

 We went to wander along the beach for a little while.  I would be contented to walk there for ages. Doesn't matter if it isn't the most wonderful or idyllic beach- if you have that sea joy within you, you love to be near it and it is quiet and lots of shells to look through.

 I hope that it is a continually happy place for her and it will make her childcare duties for my sister much easier and convenient.

 Of course, I did keep an eye out for sea glass.

 There was lots of glass,but a lot of it was too 'fresh' and needed much more weathering.  That said, this piece of aqua glass did come home with me.

 Mum, typically, has been lugging home seaweed for the garden- it is very good for the soil.  She has also made friends with someone who has been bringing her along bags of chicken poo for the garden.  That's typical her. I remember countless occasions as a child where we had to carry home horse manure for the allotment!

 Get close to the ground and see what you can see. A whole myriad of colours, textures and sizes.

 It was good to see her and to delight in her glee.

 Oh and this large piece of sea glass was acquired just as we were turning to go back.

I hope your day was beautiful, successful or contented.

Much love.

xx

Circumnavigating the UK - Day 10- Guernsey St Peter's Port

It struck me back in January writing my South Africa posts, that I never did finish my series on my cruise circumnavigating the UK. I did consider leaving it but since I had already put the photos into a blog post, that I would like to be able to read this in the future.

So forgive me for this being 7 months late...

We arrived at Guernsey and it was an anchorage so we had to sign up for tenders (boats) to the port.

Mum and I headed out fairly early but not amongst the first most eager beavers and found ourselves on land.  We didn't have any particular plan in mind, just decided to have a little explore and see what we could find.

I dressed suitably nautically in a Navy sailor top and striped skirt.

Although these photos don't look particularly bright, it was a warm and sunny day.

The marina was full of all sorts of sea-vessels.

Mum and I were both glad of our hats.

We decided to walk right away from the marina and explore in hope that we might find a beach to paddle on.  There seemed to be a sort of area with a lido created with the sea. It looked a bit deserted and none-too-salubrious but later when the sun really hotted up, we  saw children jumping in having lots of fun.

As we walked along, very soon, we came to signs for an Aquarium.  As a bit of respite from the sun, we opted to head in.

It was nice to see the different creatures within the Aquarium though it wasn't the most exciting place ever.

It is remarkably hard to photograph fish in that sort of lighting. These are the best of a rather shoddy lot.

This rather rotund fellow had really attractive sparkly scales which I wish I could have captured better.

These clown-fish are just so cartoonish, aren't they!!! Not surprised Nemo became one of those.

Not sure what this little fellow was, but he sure has an impressive set of whiskers!

This lizard was so still.  He turned his eye to look at me once but then just sat there as still as can be.

So many lizards..

After that, we headed to the kiosk nearby to buy some ice-creams and went and sat down by the cove.It was very stony and not really paddleable as there were lots of treacherous rocks, it is a pity.

At this point, I decided to hunt for seaglass and shells and created this arrangement.  Mum also looked for shells. We are always so content beachcombing. I could have done this for much longer.

I debated leaving it for passers-by as an art-gift but decided I liked my finds too much.  Sooo.... Mum and I decided to do a 5-minute beach collage to leave.

Mum made this delightful mermaid. I loved how she found flesh-coloured stones for her skin and seaweed for her hair.

I made a simple heart.

And then we left them for the public.

You can see that natural seawater lagoon I talked about earlier.

After this, we began a walk along the cliffs but Mum was rather tired so we headed into the town and found somewhere for milkshakes.  After this, we tried to find a paddling beach but it seemed we would have to walk for miles so she walked back to the boat and I mooched around for a bit in town.

Eventually, I joined Mum back on the boat and we went in the pool and jacuzzi on board. I had a great laugh chatting with a few people in there!  Lots of people were encouraged to come to the pool by our raucous laughing.

In some ways,  I wish we'd caught a bus to one of the glorious sandy beaches I heard tell of but our adventures were pleasant as they were.

That evening, we had a Gala dinner. I'll tell you more about that soon.

I'd like to visit Guernsey again.

Have you visited Guernsey?

xx