In this week’s Tuesday Treasures, I’ve taken a series of photos from last Thursday, when we went for a walk along Littlehampton beach. The grandchildren were with us and it was a beautiful sunny afternoon without a breath of wind. It was amazingly mild for the time of year, so I could dawdle on the shingle, soaking up the sun and watching the boys tussle down by the sea. They both returned with wet shoes, but that was okay. I got them dry before they went home the following day. A drop of golden happiness in the middle of the gloomiest of gloomy winters…
In this week’s Tuesday Treasures, I’ve taken a series of photos from last Tuesday, when we went for a walk along Littlehampton beach. The first few pics are taken on the pier looking up and down the River Arun, as it enters the sea. The sea was millpond smooth, which is never all that common, even in summer. But at this time of year, it is extremely unusual. It was lovely to be down by the sea on a day when there was no bullying wind to add to the chill factor. There were a lot of birds busy feeding. The ravens have a noisy flock that regularly scavenge the strandline as this fellow was doing. And I think the small bird on the steps by the lighthouse is a little stint – but I’m not completely sure about that!
This is part of the weekly meme over at the Caffeinated Reviewer, where book bloggers can share the books and blogs they have written.
It’s been another really busy week. I was able to attend my first session of Fitstep in over a month and I’m hoping to start back at Pilates, now that our second lockdown has eased and we are designated as a Tier 2 risk. It’s not the same as we have to dance within separate squares and be socially distanced, but flinging myself around to music again was a real treat. This week was dominated by Tim’s annual review and getting the paperwork up together for that, as well as conducting a conference call instead of the usual meeting. And yesterday was my mother’s birthday. We sent her a bouquet of flowers and a card and spoke to her on Skype. She looks marvellous, which is a comfort, but it’s not the same as seeing her…
The photos this week come from a walk along the beach with Himself on the last day of his holiday, before he returned to work on Wednesday. Just look at the millpond smoothness of the water…
Last week I read:
AUDIOBOOK Machine – Book 2 of the White Space series by Elizabeth Bear Meet Doctor Jens. She hasn’t had a decent cup of coffee in fifteen years. Her workday begins when she jumps out of perfectly good space ships and continues with developing treatments for sick alien species she’s never seen before. She loves her life. Even without the coffee.
But Dr. Jens is about to discover an astonishing mystery: two ships, one ancient and one new, locked in a deadly embrace. The crew is suffering from an unknown ailment and the shipmind is trapped in an inadequate body, much of her memory pared away. Unfortunately, Dr. Jens can’t resist a mystery and she begins doing some digging. She has no idea that she’s about to discover horrifying and life-changing truths. I thoroughly enjoyed accompanying Dr Jens as she tried to uncover exactly what was going on. Mystery thrillers set in space are always enjoyable – and though Jens does spend quite a lot of time musing about Life, the Universe and Everything – it was only in the later stages of the mystery that I wanted the pace to pick up. Review to follow.
Forged – Book 11 of the Alex Verus series by Benedict Jacka To protect his friends, Mage Alex Verus has had to change–and embrace his dark side. But the life mage Anne has changed too, and made a bond with a dangerous power. She’s going after everyone she’s got a grudge against–and it’s a long list. The penultimate book in this series, it certainly has a sense of cranking up the stakes as high as they could possibly go. I like the fact that despite there being a lot of battle scenes – Verus still very much minds about the fact that he is causing the deaths of a lot of people. Review to follow.
Swordheart by T. Kingfisher Halla is a housekeeper who has suddenly inherited her great-uncle’s estate… and, unfortunately, his relatives. Sarkis is an immortal swordsman trapped in a prison of enchanted steel. When Halla draws the sword that imprisons him, Sarkis finds himself attempting to defend his new wielder against everything from bandits and roving inquisitors to her own in-laws… and the sword itself may prove to be the greatest threat of all. This was such fun! I have previously read A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, which I’d loved and when I saw Himself had added this one to our TBR, I was delighted. I shall be reading more of this author in the coming year…
This week on Tuesday Treasures, I am featuring the pics I took on our walk along Littlehampton beach on Sunday morning. And this time around, the tide was in. Some of the photos were taken on the small pier at the mouth of the River Arun – we were lucky with the sunshine, after a rainy, stormy week. And evidence of the storms is the seaweed strewn across the beach.
Me on Littlehampton pierView looking up the River Arun towards LittlehamptonLooking straight down from the pier onto the breaking wavesLittlehampton lighthousePart of the longest bench in the world which runs the length of the beachThis teak groyn was flung up onto the beach in the last storm – and it’s HEAVY
This week on Tuesday Treasures, I am featuring the pics I took on our walk along Littlehampton beach on Sunday morning. As you can see, the tide was out a long way…
Himself joining me on my walkPatterns of different coloured sand made by the retreating tideWe were lucky with the weather – the rain didn’t come until we got homeBarnacles growing on one of the groynsThe seaweed looks so ordinary until you get close – and realise how pretty it is…The sand is broken up by heaps of flints that appeared after the work on the sea defencesThere are now rockpools and seaweed growing on these pilesI loved the way the sun was reflected in one of the rockpoolsSeaweed is unfurled and beautiful in rockpools, rather than sodden heaps on the sand
I’ve been uploading photos of my garden on my Sunday Posts, which have been getting a lot of positive comments, so I have decided to feature the pics in their full size, so you can see some of the detail. Last Friday, we went for a walk along the seafront here in Littlehampton. It wasn’t raining, but it was blowing a hoolie – to the extent that the birds were struggling. The young starlings were all sheltering in the lee of Coastguard station and that seagull roosting on the top of the groin post is looking decidedly grumpy!
The shingle beach, with the road running parallel between Littlehampton and Rustington, is a constant source of joy. But no one was walking along it last Saturday…
We have been having some stunning sunsets this winter – the sky has been splashed with amazing pinks, purples, oranges and every shade in between. So I tried to capture the sun setting over the sea… I have an elderly camera and am a snapper rather than a proper photographer, but even I managed to capture a slice of the jaw-dropping beauty of the winter sky…
Now that the autumn is well and truly upon us – I thought I’d just recall one of a series of wonderful sunsets we experienced during this summer, which was the best we’ve had since 2006. I wandered along the shingle, snapping the lovely pink-tinged seascape and clouds and was delighted that a number of them came out reasonably well…
