A pair of wood pigeons perched in the blackthorn this morning, took flight just before I could produce a camera. The clay pigeon made by CCI International sometime after 1982 (and still in production today) was more obliging. Found in river mud beside the Egg, it had something of the appearance of a Romano British dish, until washing revealed its true more prosaic identity.
This carapace (top bit of the body) of a spider crab could have inspired the creation of an adversary for Doctor Who or a bit part character from a galaxy far away in Star Wars. I found it on an everyday shore line at N 50.46.960 W 001.23.916 on the extreme edge of the Outer Bank.
Walking along the high water line toward the wooded edge of Exbury Gardens, I discovered the seat of a child’s swing which may have been strung from the overhanging bough of one of the many twisted oaks there ( N 50˙47.327′ W 001˙ 24.385′). Once driven by youthful energy out over the water and up toward the sky, it is now pulled back and forth by the tides. A small hardwood platform to contemplate the adventures of childhood unknown.
I discovered this Tilley Hat on a foreshore walk this afternoon at N 50˚ 47.327′ x W 001˚24.384′. Alex Tilley was born in 1938 in Mount Albert, Canada and graduated from the University of British Columbia. He worked as a self employed arts consultant while designing hats as a hobby, before making a business of his pastime.
The description printed on the inside label, would suggest that it is a hat capable of surviving on the river for a very long time. Perhaps I should appropriate it as a part of my autumn collection of Eggwear and reclaim one of Mr Tilley’s hats for art.
An empty packet of Mustad Aberdeen precision fish hooks is on the foreshore nearby at N 50˚47.172″ x W 001˚24.489″. The fish depicted on the washed out pale blues of the packet are easier to capture on film than the fleetingly glimpsed grey mullet that swim around the Egg at each high water.
The Egglet released around a week ago beached on the marsh edge yesterday, just twenty feet from its original point of departure and I immediately relaunched its more weather worn self. The wind is having a stronger effect than the tide on this small but lightweight orb and I hope a Winter north-easterly might eventually carry it toward the Solent.
Two metres of a green painted lateral channel marker has been washed up at N 50˚47.143″ x W 001˚24.449″ (20 feet from the Egg). These posts are made from boughs of willow driven into the mud to mark the starboard edge of the winding navigable water. I found a further shorter section upriver, as well as a fragment of green painted bark around 100 metres from the main section of post. Erosion, accidental knocks and wood rot play their part in the ever changing changing shape of the local scene.
A high spring tide washed over the sea purslane last night, carrying away dead leaves and laying their pale ochre, khaki and wan russet tints over deeper notes of mud. A discord of florescent yellow (N 50˚47.151′ W 001˚ 24.478′), turned out to be a small hand held drawing tool, which still functioned when tested.
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.
The Exbury Egg 