Tag: swimming
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04/08/23 – Cornwall – dried thrift, home scars and a tide pool
We started at the top of the cliffs, looking out over the pale bay with its jagged spikes of rock. There were people tiny on the sand but we stayed on the cliff path, following the edge of a field. The path was like a long drag of claw marks and the verges were full…
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04/06/23 – Waves over the wall at the tidal pool
On Sunday I was so tired I didn’t think I had the energy for anything, but I still dragged myself to the sea. The wind was high and the waves were rushing in, bands of white flushing forward to the shore. I walked out along the concrete wall of the tidal pool, which was thick…
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16/04/23 – Bog myrtle and hollow tree trunks in the Lake District
We started on the road at the national trust car park, after talking to a ranger about the amount of rubbish left behind. We reached a gate and turned across a field, the lake and the mountains to our right across the long grass. We crossed a bridge and paused to watch a dog madly…
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02/04/23 – Mermaid’s purses and egg sacs on the shore
Yesterday I went to the tide pool. It was windy and I wobbled as I walked out to the first ladder. Great swathes of seaweed had spread since I’d last been and they were spread-eagled beneath the surface, black through milky grey. I climbed down the ladder into chest clenching cold, swam across with the…
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18/03/23 – Seven Sisters
We took the path beside the low lazy river through the marshland. The tide was low and the banks, straight and ochre, stood a foot above the flat surface. A kayaker paddled seaward and we noticed that, at the very edges, we could see the sandy bottom. A cormorant took flight and we kept walking.…
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22/12/22 – Low Tide
Yesterday I was tired and more than anything, I wanted to swim. I headed for the little bay next to the main sands but on the other, quieter side of the harbour wall. There was a huge digger on the ramp down to it, along with workmen in high viz jackets. I could see the…
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Mawddach Residency – DAY 14
Our last day! Woke up early to watch the light come. In the night I’d heard rain on the roof, hammering at the covered skylight, but by the time I was sat by the window the day was dry. The world was blue black and slowly, the light trickled in, sky lightening first, then water.…
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Mawddach Residency – DAY 11
Today it rained and the sky was grey and the water was grey and all of it was moving all the time, the water rippling, the air swelling, the clouds filling, the mountains dancing back and forth as the clouds fell back, pushed forward, fell back again. I swam in the morning, alone. The tide…
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Mawddach Residency – DAY 3
We swam in silver today. The silt from the banks made the water silky, slashed with ice blue, swan grey, silver. It was colder this morning, the air heavy with moisture; the rain from the night before had left a chill. We waded past clumps of yellowing bladderwrack half hidden in the mud thick water,…
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7/11/22 – Water like Guiness
Last week my brain was full of words, so I stepped outside for a walk. I was staying halfway up a wooded valley, on a steep hill, and the path I took went down. The sky was blurred out by beach trees and turning leaves and I could hear the river rushing down in the…
Bonnie Radcliffe 