A stroll down the flooded seafront. Water so high on some of the pathways that my sock was wet through one of my walking boots. Thankfully no rain today, so the hope of things beginning to sink into the water table and flow back to the sea.
At Ovingdene we found a stranded dogfish, hours dead but not yet found by gulls. It must have been thrown up by a swell and left there. The beach was strewn with such odd seaborne things. The bones of dead creatures, pieces of seacarved wood, strange stones and pieces of colour and interest.
Along with us, small groups of people were more actively picking things up. They had come with bags. “Don’t fill your pockets with things to take home,” advised Lou and I assured her I wouldn’t before putting down the interesting driftwood. Things like that need to be wet anyway. After a day at home they are often just a bit of wood, just a stone. My altar is covered in things I’ve picked up on important days having caught my eye, and I could only tell you now where about half of them actually came from!
We got as far as the rocks where Siwan and I set fire to a chicken full of fireworks on a dark dark night in November. There was no trace, of course. The sea covers it daily, and it has been a stormy stormy time. Plus we thoroughly burnt the thing. It was just papier-maché.
When there’s light there’s light and it is good. Even this month, always the bleakest of months and with no festival to break the dark, we had light and the illusion of warmth for a brief few hours.
I’m starting to carve shape into my early winter. Projecting positivity forward. Anticipating some shifts. Lou and I did some auspicious mystic stuff this evening and I’m feeling pretty positive now about the coming year. We walked a long way, and it was freezing. But I’m looking lustfully at the Shikoku Henro right now and that’s 30km a day for six weeks with a rucksack.
I can see why people who live near the sea have gardens full of random stuff. I wouldn’t have had the dogfish (please feel free to correct me aquatic scientists, I’m just going by the fins and size. Could it have been a small shark?)
AlBarclay 