On the beach today

The weather has been so bad recently that just being able to walk along the beach has given me hours of simple entertainment.  It was good to be able to get out in the fresh air and look at what the tide brought in.  Nothing exotic but it helped me while away an hour or so.  I present not so much a collage as a compilation of what I saw.

A ball of fishing net was would up so tight you could have used it as a football, I suppose.  There is a lot of plastic fishing net around on the beach, some pieces larger than others.

A hagstone, supposed to be lucky because it has a hole through it.  This one had several interconnecting holes so maybe extra lucky.  I didn't pick it up so I hope my luck remains.

I'm sure this was a hubcap once.  I kicked it about and it seemed like a hubcap.  It must have been in the water a long time.

Somebody's collection of shells was abandoned, not allowed to carry it home, I imagine.  I have my own collection or I would have rescued them.  They are , I think all of them, whelk shells.

Whelks produce the white papery mass known as sea wash balls, their egg casings, also known as fisherman's soap.  If you use the ball like soap, apparently it will produce a lather.  I didn't try. 

A ridge of sand along the line of the beach.  We don't normally see sand at this level but it must have been deposited by the rough seas.  Later the lower edge has been redistributed by the tides but quite an amount of it has been left high and dry.

It's hard work walking along the shingle but I kept going because I though a shot of the two kites by the fishing boat would look good.  By the time I was near enough to get a decent shot, the kites had disappeared.

You can see to the right how sharply the beach shelves.  Getting back up to the top requires determination and a zigzag course.  You could clamber straight up but not with a camera in your hands. 

Right at the top, a bluebell was waiting for me, a garden escape I think.  Wild bluebells generally have fewer bells on them.  Tomorrow is the designated walking day so with a bit of luck and sunshine, i will be able to make a comparison.  Even though it was up close to the road, the roots must have had to penetrate a fair way down.

That was by no means all I saw on the beach - there were corks, seaweeds, driftwood, gloves (not matching).  all sorts of things to keep an idle mind happy.