Beautiful day (albeit hovering just above freezing!) and a morning expedition to Wrabness, near Manningtree and Mistley on the estuary of the River Stour. A little nature reserve there, you can walk down to the beautifully wild beach which was a glorious mixture of mud, sand, pebbles, corroded cliff and marshiness. As we walked down, all the little rivulets of water had frozen at the edges and were sparkling in the blazing winter sun .. fantastic! And well-worth the ten to fifteen minutes it took getting everyone dressed up for the expedition (nobody was allowed out of the car without 2pairs of gloves and socks, hat, hood and wellies etc).
As we walked round onto the beach the tide had pushed up piles of diamond-like ice crystals into drifts of frozen foam which made beautiful patterns and the sand was decorated all the way along the shoreline with wading bird footprints. I don't know whether there's some scientific explanation to do with the precise mix of salt and non-salt water here in the estuary that made this frosty wondrousness .. I don't need to know, it just was and we were there to see it and it was beautiful!
Definitely having a lucky day today - on the way back I was treated to a
kingisher flypast.. so fast I thought I had imagined it, a flash of brilliant turquoise, then as it turned a glimpse of crimson underbelly. It can't be, I thought.. but when I looked it up in the books back at home, it could be nothing else and this was just the type of habitat they like and apparently in Britain in the winter migration season they often head for coastal areas. I am letting nature herself be my teacher .. and slowly, I'm learning!
