Well I hope the Festive Season was a happy one for all and not too stacked with the lunacy and angst that usually accompanies the end of the year.

My main hope, though, for all of you who read this, and all of you who don't, is that it has been safe. 

For us... we risked life and limb on a drive to Mordor, my name for a beloved stretch of coast, a chance to catch up with some dear old friends and their boys, who I love dearly, having watched them rise from twinkles in an eye to twinkly eyed young men. My two young men have grown up with them so this reunion of sorts was heartening and sobering too. Time has really flown.

In the village at the Trading Company, Old Bill continues to cast his sea crackled eye at the passing throng, throws out the odd nugget of wisdom, and even the odd hug, as he near squeezed a tear from my eye in memory of my Dear Old Dad. Good on you Billy. I was very touched.

One morning, too, we were gifted with some cracking waves, a little gap in a bit of a horror run typical of this time of year, what with early morning onshores and small swells.

Banks everywhere and one very sucky, hollow right was mine! mine!! mine!!! for an hour or two at the bottom of one of the most rugged shorelines on the earth. Jagged, angular and near beach less, but breathtaking too. I could go on. Suffice to say it was not perfect but perfect moments don't need to be.

To sit out there, gaze at the constantly shifting horizon and just be... was the best present I could imagine.

Pics today, some snaps of a divine morning, courtesy of being at the right place at the right time.

This time last week the weather was wild.

Relentless bands of lightning storms, so distant they were silent. I had a camera, albeit an inexpensive one, and a yen to experiment.

This meant happy accidents became the method to my madness as I'd have to be mad to expect anything sharp, but luck can play into you hands.. After all, with digital, all you lose is a press of a button.

So out on the front porch for a few minutes, ducking the rain and trying to hold still leaning on a pole, the usual 'how the hell do I do this?' internal questions coupled with incomplete mastery of my tools resulting in a couple of shots that I like for their painterly oddball-ness.

It was fun, and as I've heard said before by a slightly crazed friend, fun is the key. The more Jackson Pollock of the two came about as I thought the shutter had closed and I'd wandered about, camera in hand.

Soon they may stink, the test of time a bitter mistress, but having a noodle with an idea... playing... well it beats lying down with unseeing eyes staring at the lid of a box, and if you cant' play, then go for a walk.

Which leads me to my next digression in this ramble.

Going for a walk has meant my eyes have been on the ground saving me from tripping, stepping in dog do and/or falling off a cliff.

It does lead you to the bottom of them though and there I found the 'split in two' rock on the left in the pic below. It was in western Spain at the eastern edge of Playa Rodiles, the home of a ridiculous left, and the former home of large gatherings, as I was about to discover, of ammonites, a nautilus like shellfish, though that was around 300 million years back. On a hunch I'd thrown it hard to the ground, breaking it open. Inside was this ammonite, my distant cousin, via an even more distant shared ancestor. 

An ain't life wonderful moment.

A couple of years later, some k's inland from the Moroccan coast near Agadir, at an altitude of maybe 600ft, a glance towards the path side cliff face revealed a not very fresh oyster. I have yet to research the geology of the spot but I bet old Bishop Usher is well off his creation of the world date of 6000 odd years back as this particular mollusc bit the bullet well before Adam was a boy.

That too was an ain't life wonderful moment, bitter sweet in a way though as I love oysters and this one looked like it was a beauty. 

Once.

Why am I going on with all this?

I suppose just a couple of examples of being in the moment.

You never know what you might see, or have fall into your lap, or wished you'd eaten when you had the chance... when you were an ammonite.

Pics for today: Experiments, rocks, and Winki a couple of days back, the first good waves in a few weeks,  hungry crowd just out of the frame.