Bright sky over sea, slate grey over land.

Brilliant white, candy-floss clouds on the horizon.

Morning sun filters gently through thin cloud,

creating a mirror of wet sand

left behind the retreating tide.

Brown seaweed bleached by the reach of the sea

creates untidy waves high up on the shore.

Sand around rock pools rippled like water.

Bladderwrack and green carpets of algae cover the rocks.

Worm casts and holes sculpted into the beach.

There are prints on the beach:

human and canine, avian and equine.

Flies skim about just above it all.

Goldfinches busy collecting thistle down from dunes.

Corvids on the lookout at the sea’s edge.