So the last day before I go back to work, the New Year’s Bank Holiday, we decide to go to the beach for the day.
Actually, we managed about 45 minutes on North Berwick beach itself before the kids got too cold. And with everything shut for the bank holiday, we didn’t even get to take refuge in any warm place but the car. Martin did a bunch of photography with the big cool camera while Alex threw rocks in the water and Fiona walked around exploring the sandy world. (There was also a certain amount of climbing on rocks, running about and shrieking, and generalised beach fun.)
Nonetheless, I did see a couple of things that just needed photographing, and as usual, the camera phone came through!
Rock and seaweed
Taken 2 January 2006
Roseate seaweed
Taken 2 January 2006
Rocks and sea glass. (I am particularly fond of sea glass, for long complicated reasons.)
Taken 2 January 2006
I love the dark trails in the sand under this bit of seaweed.
Taken 2 January 2006
Yeah, yeah, more seaweed. But I like it.
Taken 2 January 2006
I did a bit of colour messing with this shot – but only a tiny bit. I love the textures, but I know I may be alone in that.
Taken 2 January 2006
This is the prize shot. I tried it with the big fancy camera, but actually, this one from the phonecam is the best of the day. In my opinion.
Taken 2 January 2006
(And, by the way, happy new year.)
The seashore has a pallette all its own, even — or maybe especially — in its details. I agree that the last photo is the best, but I like the seaglass one almost as much. Can you say more about your fondness for seaglass?
Happy new year!
Dad
I love sea glass partly because it’s the Tarzan of the beach – a piece of mankind that has gone back to nature, been changed by nature, and surivived without harming its natural companions.
I also love it because of one particular memory, and the associations that follow to this day.
Once, in June of 1991, I went to lunch with a friend. We walked around the seaside town of St Andrews, talking, then ended up on the smaller and less glamourous of the two beaches. We sat there together for some time – it might have been an hour, it might have been several – and did not speak.
One thing we did do, though, was find sea glass, and give it to each other. I still have the piece that Martin gave me, somewhere, and I think he has the piece I found for him. It was the small beginning of a very big thing, and we have since given each other found pieces from time to time as a reminder of that day.
We shared a small smile when he saw the photo.