Shells
Mussels
Remind me
Of the beach
The sea
Washed by waves
Crushed underfoot
One day you will be sand.
Shells
Tag: Shells
Still missing the sea
Sunshine, a stick of rock, sandy beach, bucket and spade to make sandcastles. The cool feeling of wet sand as you wiggle your toes in it…or the hard ridges of sand rippled by shallow water. Memories of collected shells, long thin razor shells, cockle shells, mussels, spirals and smooth. So many types.
All these memories were made on various holidays and day trips to beaches, looking out over the sea, walking through seaweed that littered beaches, sand flies and sand hoppers.
Remembering catching various trains, some of them were steam trains. Watching the countryside fly by, a river running on one side of the train, then the other. The train running past the caravan site we stayed at.
Sunshine, rain, home made cooking in the caravan on a tiny stove. Sleeping on a bed made of boards and cushions where the table had stood. Gas mantles that hissed when mom lit the lights at night.
The tiny crab that escaped from my plastic bucket and spade and hid in my shoe… And it’s pincers snapping on my little toe!
Memories and the wish to make more. Missing the seaside.
Shells
In this case a bi-valve. Shells are made up of calcium carbonate. They need a neutral water environment to grow and survive. But like so many problems we cause, we are damaging the oceans. The seas are slowly acidifying them. The oceans are now weakly acidic which is slowly affecting the growth of shells and corals. They cannot lay down the material they are made of as easily in the current environment. If things get worse we could lose many of these beautiful creatures (yes they are animal not plant life).
More to work on in the coming decade. If we don’t a large number of animals that eat shellfish may be affected. We really do have to think about it.
Sea and sand
Build your castles on the sand and they might be washed away. Water creeps or washes in. It sinks down under the sand. The beach quakes. The rocks fall….
What is sand? Silica, ground up rock and shells. Sand can be melted into glass, a solid once liquid. Fused in heat either through vulcanism, lightening (did you know when lightening strikes damp sand it can melt a branching path through it, like plant roots?). Humans also build kilns and create glass to be blown or fused or slumped.
The sea washes or crashes in to a beach. Longshore drift pushes sand and rock sideways and along a coast. In a severe storm sand can be stripped off a beach completely, and yet it can equally be washed back again.
The world warms, water rises, sand washes away, cliffs crumble, castles crumble.
Life changes and evolves.
Mallaband-Brown 