Summer so far has been made up of: work, work, and more work. And when that's not going on? There's some sleep. Oh, and more sleep.
(Above: a shot of a heritage rose, which grows next to a friend's weathered barn/shed.)
But every now and again I manage to carve out some time to go to the beach. Last weekend I decided that the beach needed to happen again. My friends Mel and Simon and brother Mat and I all packed into Mel's car, along with all the necessary ingredients for a great beach day. (Those would be: bodyboard, food, towels, beach chairs and a big sunhat.)
Then, we headed to Inverness County (also known as the "West Side".)
There, we ran into friends we knew, and myself and a lady named Kate made these drawings on the wet sand. "It's like a cross between graffiti art and Buddhist sand mandalas," she said. You make them by taking fine, dry sand from elsewhere on the beach, and letting it drop from your hand in a steady stream, make a design on the wet sand. It stands out on the dark background. It also has an airbrushed quality to it - hence the graffiti art feel. But, it's impermanent, as the tide will come in again, and little kids and dogs will walk all over it.
This is currently my desktop image. That's so that when I'm at work, puttering away on my laptop, I can take a second or two to gaze at this and feel like a little part of me is still there on the beach, feeling the gritty sandstone under my feet, and feeling the soft lap of sarong cloth as it flutters in the breeze.
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