Above: shells, skates' eggs and cuttlefish (composite picture courtesy of Photoshop!)Below: Llansteffan Castle, through the mist
I was on the beach at Llansteffan last Saturday, doing a spot of 'beach-combing'. I did not collect any of the items I came across, but it was good to look along the tidelines and to see what I could see. I was amazed at the colours - blue, black, pink, white, silver, orange and grey - of the shells. I also found a few clusters of skates' eggs and a couple of pieces of cuttlefish in among the pieces of seaweed, fishing net and driftwood. Cuttlefish are cephalopods, and as such, close relatives of the squid. A giant squid was found recently: its record-breaking eyes were almost as long as a 30cm ruler! My favourite cephalopod poem is The Paper Nautilus by Marianne Moore. You can read a commentary (or several) here. I love the imagery of the Pentelic marble sculptures of the white horses on the Parthenon.
1 comment:
I love beachcombing too, we were at the beach last weekend...
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