The hammock and camp bed between them have resulted in a lot of sleepless nights, so I decided to solve the problem by building a new mezzanine floor at the stern of the Egg as the base for a new bed. The taped together pages of an old newspaper made a template for a new foam mattress that exactly fits the curving shape. I have now had two consecutive nights of restful sleep as I dream of new shelving for the bow.
Though I try to be hand in glove with nature, I’d not necessarily like to put my hand in this glove. The tide line this morning was littered with different items of human detritus which I tagged with date and geo-location. Over the course of the year I will record their movements around my personal little parish. Should anyone find a Beaulieu Beadle (BB) item further afield, please do advise me of its position prior to safe disposal.
Fifteen days ago my flowerpot saucer fell into the river and was carried away by the tide. I rediscovered it this evening, returned to the shore four metres upstream from the Egg where it was lost. On a tidal current it takes a long time for the flotsam or the jetsam to reach the sea. Today, I returned to the Egg myself after a few days break.
Whist building my collection of molted crab exoskeletons, the ideal collecting device hove into view on the high water line.
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A first swim in the Beaulieu River this afternoon on a high spring tide of 3.9m.
A webcam streaming live video from outside the Egg is showing very clear images in the infrared spectrum after sundown. I must remember its beady red eye is going to be on me. Please do go to look at http://www.exburyegg.org. I was out taking more pictures of the river and moon tonight.
After the heat of the day there is a wetness in the air tonight, and it looks like rain from the early hours tomorrow. I hope the Egg does not leak!
Empty molted shells of hundreds of crabs are washed up on the high tide line beside the Egg and I am starting a collection of these exoskeletons from the size of a penny to the full size of my hand. A crab might molt 20 times in its life and I’d like to find an equivalent number of spent shells of increasing size to tell something of this remarkable process.
There must be scores of places to read about this online, but I referred to this link http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/Kodiak/shellfish/cultivation/crabGrow.htm
The large circular window adopts different egg like form depending upon point of view. It was well polished by Wendy the architect prior to delivery here, where I anticipate a great many more intriguing and original screenings.
The water around the egg is alive with shoals of tiny fishes that have been irridescent in the warm sunlit shallows for the last few days. At present they are just 10mm in length and will soon resemble the mother fish that spawned them here. My guess is on the frisky grey mullet.
The Exbury Egg 