Clonea Strand in The Rain

Finds from a few days ago on Clonea Strand when the grey skies and persistent rain made the colours sing.  I even stopped looking for plastic for a little while and took in the natural beauties of the sea weed and crab claws, in particular this gorgeous one.  There are certain times of the year when crab claws seem to be washed in all the time and this is one of them and the range of colours from yellow to dove grey and bright red are wonderful.

Sunday Afternoon Beach Combing

It was bitterly cold this weekend - rainy, dull, windy and generally just miserable on Sunday as I headed to the beach.  I had the place almost to myself and did a good clean-up, mainly of polystyrene which is evil stuff and breaks down into tiny particles which I'm sure must look very much like food to fish and other sea creatures.  I found some lovely pieces of driftwood, a rusty bit of lobster pot and these - I am especially fond of the computer cables and attached tiny piece of circuit board.

 

A spotted ray eggcase

Storms and What They Left Behind

The storms of winter and early spring left a lot of flotsam and jetsam and took a lot away again.  At the moment, the beaches are almost scrubbed clean, due in part I think to clean up efforts by local people and the council to get the beaches ready for summer and tourists.  Here are a few photos of things found and collected over the last couple of months.

The Grand Tour Part II

I had a guest staying a couple of weeks ago who was bitten by the beachcombing bug and so, on a beautiful winter's day, we did the Grand Tour from Ballydowane to Kilfarassy and this is what we found.

HP strike again - this ink cartridge is from a container spill in the Atlantic and thousands have been washing up all around the coasts of the UK and Ireland

Angler Fish

Hairbrush turned sculptural object

Canon printer cartridge

Hypodermic needle

Lobster tag

Lobster trap hook, doll's head and doll's leg!

Driftwood with piddock holes

Blue Day at Ballydowane

I haven't been able to get to the beach much due to other commitments but last week I had a day off and on a wonderful bright blue day I drove down there.  I got the tide times wrong and it was almost high tide but I managed a little mooch amongst lots of debris that had been deposited from the recent stormy weather.  Fittingly, lots of it was blue to match the sky.  I climbed up onto the cliff overlooking the beach and watched the tide come in. 

A car drove into the car park and parked up.  Talking to the driver on my (reluctant) way home again, I discovered that he is also a connoisseur of Ballydowne - a Ballydowaneophile I suppose.