Thursday 18 April 2013

Jetsam

Most of my days start off with walking Chester, and the walk of choice recently has been  a stretch of beach that I pass on my way home from dropping the boys at their schools.

Last night was stormy , which hadn't quite cleared by this morning...so Chester and I decided to go to a different beach so that we wouldn't get blown away with the inshore wind.....it can hardly be relaxing when its difficult to catch your breath...and poor old Chester, with such long ears,  has no hope of staying grounded.


It was a scene that told the weather of the night before, but now was calm and washed clean.  The walk down was lush and green,  with an abundance of bluebell leaves, which didn't quite keep their promise last year. 


This beach is stony and gravelly, but rather than being firm underfoot, today it was disconcertingly squashy, I stood for a little while walking up and down, realising that most of the beach had been thrown up onto seaweed, which was why the ground beneath me had so much give...made me feel quite odd!

Among all the pebbles and seaweed were bits of jetsam,  and it made me wonder how sailors had fared last night in such high winds.  There was food packaging with unfamiliar languages on, plastic, driftwood....all sorts....but among it all, something that I had been looking for, for a while.....






.....cuttlebones, from  cuttlefish ....I've been looking out for them  as my sister has taken up silver smithing and these can be used as moulds for casting silver....I'm hoping that my haul will bring lots of inspiration to her....interestingly, sepia is cuttlefish ink...which I didn't know before....did you?

10 comments:

  1. Very interesting post. I'd love to see some of the items your sister makes.
    Hugs to you Faith,
    Meredith

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  2. I didnt know those things. Fascinating to see all the cuttlefish. I thought they were brought in from tropical lands not from the British coastline.

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  3. How interesting! I haven't had cuttle fish for a very long time. My mum would usually bring it back from Hawaii. I'll have to tell her to do that this summer.
    How cool you can take a walk to a nearby beach. WE live in-between the bay and the ocean.

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  4. Your beach looks so rugged and wild, I like that a lot, my kind of beach Faith. As for the cuttlebones, who would have thought they can be used in silver smithing! I love sepia toned photography too.
    I used to have a little budgie when I was about 10 or 11 who loved to nibble on cuttlebones if we found them on the beach, maybe to sharpen his beak not sure.
    Thanks for sharing that gorgeous sea shot xxx Penny

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  5. It must be lovely to live so close to the sea. I've never seen cuttlefish bones on a beach, do you get them often, is it just after storms?

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  6. No I didn't know... How interesting. It must be so nice to live near the beach. I lived near the beach for 29 years in Brasil until I moved here to the US.

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  7. Oh how I long to live as close to the sea as you do. Nothing beats a beach walk just after a storm!

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  8. I had heard about sepia, but not about casting in the cuttlebones. Thank you for showing us a picture ... they look fascinating.

    And ditto to Annie's comment. :)

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  9. I like how your post sounds like a story, its very descriptive.

    It sounds fascinating, that your sister can do silver smith with shells...

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  10. You live in such a beautiful place Faith...you're so lucky! I've learnt something about silver smithing and sepia today too!...Love your pics....
    Hope you're having a good weekend,
    Susan x
    P.S Thank you for the lovely comments about my crochet...your work is always so beautiful!

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