West Mersea in the sunshine

It was such a beautiful afternoon today that I thought I’d go down to the beach at West Mersea.

I collected up a sketchbook, my little silver box of drawing things, and a camera, and consulted the tide table. I reckoned that I’d reach the Strood (the causeway which links Mersea Island to the mainland) about an hour and fifteen minutes after high water, so I’d be OK to drive over. Mersea friends who visited Open Studios on Saturday told me that over the Autumn Equinox period they have been having enormous tides – 5.9 metres (have I remembered that right??) – and when I reached the Strood the sea had only just cleared the road, and there were still large pools everywhere!

I headed for the Monkey beach, and was soon drawing in the sunshine. The sky was beautiful with long cirrus clouds mixed up with lots of vapour trails from planes.

The huge tides had washed up a great many large old oyster shells, some of them dark grey, and others multi-layered as if five or six shells had all grown attached to each other.

I found one possible dinghy for a painting – and also one that I definitely will not be painting . . . . have you ever seen a dinghy that is such an unlikely colour??

(And Shirley, if you read this, it was a spur of the moment trip, no time to contact you – but I haven’t forgotten the tea appointment! And the sloe gin is amazing . . . . . . !!)

Hope you are all enjoying these beautiful autumn days. 🙂