Beach walk and transitory art
Escaping the first day of work and school with a walk and some natural crafting on the Sussex shore.
Despite the howling wind and the bitter cold, it felt and looked like a nice day today. It was — nominally — our first day back at work, and the girls back at school. But a lack of attention means we'd missed that our youngest had an inset day — and so we had an enthusiastic nine year old rattling around the house. Bring the two together, and what do you have?
A beach walk.
Our greeting was hardly the stuff of outdoors influencer inspiration:
The great shingle move is underway, preventing longshore drift fundamentally changing the nature of this coastline. So, we watched and waiting, and once the heavy machinery was gone, we got on with enjoying our walk.
I picked plastic litter off the standline, while our youngest found interesting shells. And that led her to think about creating something. Or, indeed, somethings…
The ultimate transitory, all natural, sustainable beach art. By the time you read this, there's a good chance that there will be nothing left of her art than the constant parts, scattered across the beach. But that doesn't matter, because we have the memories and we have the images. And sometimes, that's enough.
An hour on the beach, sun on our skins, wind in our faces — and self-expression without permanence. Unlike those trucks, we trod lightly on nature today.
