Duke's crab hunting season is well underway.

Every morning he's digging 'em out and then giving 

frantic chase down to the sea, leaping around to avoid 

their little pincers. They always escape.

But this morning he met his match.

This mama crab just stood there defiantly and Duke, 

completely bewildered, could only sit abashed while 

she ambled leisurely to the sea carrying her new batch 

of eggs on her underbelly. 

Powerful thing, motherhood.

My birthday party was a quiet affair with a few friends.

As cameras and iphones were prohibited 

 a professional was commissioned to do an artistic rendition of the event.

( similarities to any person living, or just pretending, are purely coincidental)

Mysteries from the Sea (4)

One of the more exciting beach finds loomed up one morning a couple

of years ago. It had been roped off and surrounded by half-a dozen aliens

camouflaged as sprouts -  US Marines from Okinawa who had been 

helicoptered in.

One of them had leaped atop the thing and was about to attack it with a 

power saw. That was a surprise - it was FRP !

 I always thought those missiles were made of exotic metals like 

beryllium duralimanganese alloy.  

Maybe it was DIY model.   

My view was suddenly and rudely blocked by a giant sprout. 

Which was a pity, for the marine with the power saw had just been knocked 

off his perch by a high pressure gush of seawater shooting from inside the fin.  

A good photo op. missed.

"Sirrr," the giant sprout said ,"Would you put that camera away?'"

I did as instructed, but reluctantly, after all, it was 'my' beach. 

"What is that thing" I enquired in my best Officer of the Boy Scouts voice.

He hesitated a second, then snapped out , "First stage, Poseidon rocket"

"Oh," I said politely, and searched skywards,

 "And when does the second stage arrive?"

He was not amused and gave me both barrels of a double-barreled glare.

I moved on. 

Next morning the beach was as clean as a whistle except for a few unusual

scents for the dog to explore. Maybe sprouts.

It wasn't a Poseidon I later found out, they don't have fins. So what was it?

Da-daa…! The mystery remains.

Mysteries from the Sea (3)

Weird and wonderful things have washed up on the beach over

the years, but nothing as weird as this. 

Looks like some kind of old pressure vessel, at first glance a spray of some kind, 

but a closer look reveals all sorts of screwy enigmas: the nozzle is directed at

the outlet tube; the coils, usually for cooling purposes, seem to have 

no value and impossible to clean out.  It's a brass and copper mix and the 

wooden handle for the pressure plunger has long gone. 

Beautifully made, but for what? An artistic expression? A portable alcohol still ? 

Or a goofball's practical joke? Whatever - great for cocktail conversations.

Wife says, "What you doin' today?"

"Nothing much."

"You did that yesterday!"

"Aye, but I hadn't finished."

Sea Art?

Star Sand

Islands come and islands go.  

That white smear you see on the horizon has just come - 

or more precisely, come back.  

It is a popular sand spit called Yurigahama 

and five years ago it began disappearing. 

The island had almost gone when last year's series 

of  massive typhoons delivered it back. 

This is happy for the tourist trade because the island 

features a unique type of sand called Star Sand 

- one of the world's few places where it is (or was) 

found in abundance.

Years ago you could scoop it up but nowadays 

finding the little stars is a cause for excitement. 

Local star sand trade is monopolized by a bunch 

of old fishermen's wives who lurk in the approaches 

to the beach and invite visitors to buy little phials of the stuff, 

about a dozen grains for ¥200 

(18 US cents  or 9.7 Rupees or 1.13 Yuan or 11.5 UK Pees). 

Not bad - about the same price as gold.