Sand Trees

Sand Photograph – Ripples In The Sand Black And White by Glenn Gordon

We took Maggie for a walk along the beach yesterday morning rather than up into town as originally planned. For the early hour, the coffee shop was busy and there were a lot of people about, several of whom we knew by sight.

Since all the work was done, the beach is sandier in places where before had been rows of razor fish shells which could cut into a dog’s paw or child’s foot. What has always fascinated us about the beach though is the patterns left in the sand when the tide retreats.
You have those beautiful wavy patterns, and a lot of little rivulet streams trickling to meet up with the main after being left behind. Some of the recess ‘puddles’ are quite deep, and apparently our next door neighbour’s dog fell in one and rather surprised, had to swim out. She was not impressed as she hates the water, bless her.

There weren’t that many people on the actual sand on our side, most visitors concentrating on the ‘dog free’ area to our left where they and their kids can sit, play or go swimming and not worry about little deposits hidden in the sand.
Typically I didn’t have the camera, so I looked on the internet and found the above picture by Glenn Gordon which shows an example of the ‘sand trees’ similar to what we saw yesterday.
The way the water was sculpting its path to join the sea was leaving patterns that looked like small copses, the ‘trees’ having the most intricate bark and their branches reaching behind the flow towards the shore.
It was truly magical and quite beautiful, and of course will be lost now until another time when hopefully I will have the camera to take my own shots.

Nature is so wonderful, and we take so much for granted, simply because it’s there.
But how often do we really look?
Just a thought.