A wide-open treasure chest. Moonrise over ‘Crow Point’ beach near Braunton.
I always think I’m a castaway whenever I step out onto the sandy vastness that is ‘Crow Point’ beach——even though just over the other side of the Torridge estuary, all the home-lights of Bideford and Appledore twinkle as fireflies on a warm Summer night; it’s a magical place to Be after sunset.
We had ALL the beach all to ‘ourselves’ which is a rare treat nowadays.
My takeaway memories of ‘Crow Point’ on Tuesday, 29th. May 2018 are of soft whisperings from the dunes – of Marram grass, and Curlew calls – and a constant, low-level effervesant fizzing from the millions of ‘Sand Fleas’ that were everywhere.
Nearly the end of the day.
Such curious——prehistoric creatures, hopping round in seemingly mad circles, waiting for the next tide to come in; are we not all just little ‘Sand Hoppers’ at the end of the day?
No man – or Sand Flea is an island – we all share this wonderful Earth together.
“Hello little fellow!” To catch a ‘Sand Hopper’ is no mean feat! They are like the jumpiest, jumping beans Ever!
But to hold one is to “Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand…” from a poem by William Blake. Once caught the little fellow curled up and pretended he was fast asleep – and then I let him go…
I was doubly delighted to find a ‘new’ stone too – to add to my collection. I’ve got too many stones already! Heart-shaped stones, a stone with a hole through it called a ‘Hag Stone’ – even a ‘Lucky Seven Stone’ – to name but a few, but never before have I stumbled upon ‘a stone within a stone’ like this one – or these two! 
The stone in the middle is stuck fast – however did it get in there one wonders and goes on wondering…
Whilst turning it over and over in my hand as well as in my head…
I have ‘concluded’ for the time being at least, that it has been in ‘there’ since the beginning of Time – it is perhaps another ‘Hag Stone’ in the making – or was! How many million years has it taken for the power of the sea to channel out the gaps, that infinitesimally – are still not quite wide enough to set the inner stone free? There is no way that the middle can come out of the hole – or ‘Whole’ – and why would I want it to anyway, when it’s a curio that came to me – a washed-up treasure to be treasured, just as it IS for the rest of Time.
Another Sunset – or ‘just’ a half-embedded scallop shell waiting to be freed by the next high tide? Until my next ‘Crow Point’ treasure hunt – “Goodbye”.
Some earlier posts about the remote beauty of ‘Crow Point’ beach…