Photography #20 - Silver and shadow, and things not seen...

There are certain things money cannot buy, and a day by the sea with friends and family is one of those things. Even when the weather is grey and dull. And 'by the sea' means a grim, northern fishing town called Fleetwood...

There's also something about the vast, brooding ocean that feeds the soul and the imagination, calms the spirit and restores the heart. It at once feels unfathomable and comforting, foreign and familiar, immense but, at the same time, local. It holds dread and fascination and joy in equal measure for me, and it's always an adventure to visit.

We'd arranged to meet up and do something, however the weather forecasts seemed to be against us. No matter where we looked, there was going to be rain, with a chance of thunderstorms later in the day. Somehow, we'd arrived at the notion of coming here, to Fleetwood, to do some crabbing and everyone arrived eager to have an explore. We'd never been here before, so we had a quick stroll along the beach before settling down to some serious competitive crustacean catching...

"Crabbing', for those of you who are not familiar with this activity, involves dipping something edible and smelly (often bits of old meat) into the water on a line, and seeing if you can catch a crab. The crabs, in this case, are not eaten or harmed - we simply put them back into the water before we move to a different spot...

Nim and Wade look on at our children's attempts at
luring crabs from the depths...of a boating lake

The seagulls also look on for a tasty morsel to steal

It was relatively quiet by the boating lake and beach, and, other than a brief drizzle, the forecasted rain kept away. The teenagers were kept busy and out of trouble (sort of), the dogs had been walked, old friendships updated and stomachs filled with picnic food.

Little shelters line the beach path - handy in case
of a sudden downpour...

The crabs were well fed too (with some old bacon we'd found in our fridge before we came out)...

One of today's colourful catch...

As the weather front started to move in, we packed out bags, binned our rubbish and released the crabs back into their lake. A great day by the sea to prove that it's not always 'grim up North' as the saying goes...

My last photo as the first fat raindrops started to fall...

“Look at that sea, girls--all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn't
enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Adam