Oily looking ferrous reds stain the greyer mud of the marsh edges at different locations within the immediate Parish bounds. University of Southampton research concludes these are ‘ochre springs’ of ferrous hydroxide colloids emerging from alluvial sediment and the clays, marls and gravel of the later Eocene period 33 million years ago. This brush with the geological strata will continue to colour my thoughts.
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.
The water of the Beaulieu River etches its own tide lines into its enclosing banks of flora; the stems of the grasses have a fine coating of alluvial clay whilst the leaf line on the blackthorn is also clearly drawn by saline stream.
‘Egglet No1’ was launched yesterday after some delay due to adverse weather (south westerly winds which would have quickly returned it to its point of departure). An easterly wind and a neap tide carried it to a marsh island around sixty metres distant, where it will stay until spring tides around full moon allow it to venture further. It carries the shell of a five year old common whelk as well as the egg cases of the same species, previously gathered from this location.
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.
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 