Wednesday, September 17, 2014

A Little Beach Music




I think I've cracked the code. Just come to the beach. Bring your bucket and your shovel, a couple of big towels and your swimsuit. Oh, and don't forget some books. Nothing too cerebral, just easy beach reading. Leave clocks and watches back at the house. Tell your everyday life to hold its noise, you'll be back in a week.

First order of business is to walk along the beach. Even if it's late when you get there you can walk along the water's edge with the waves slapping your ankles....



.....and watch the sun go down, the best kind of multi tasking.




 Get some sand between your toes and listen for the music to start in your head.
Wear something short so you don't have to get the hem of your britches soaked by a sneak attack from a runaway wave. Soon the pounding of the waves will blend with that music in your head and wash you over with peace and tranquility.

I forgot to mention --- bring tea. It's important to have the means to make a nice cuppa before you crawl in between the covers and sleep like a baby, full of salty fresh air and sea spray.

Next morning get up, no alarm, just whenever you wake, and do it all again.

Be brave. Go swimming. It'll feel like bathwater, back to the womb, or at least to Ballybunion, fifty plus years ago, with the endlessly blue sky and the vast stretch of the strand and your dad dollacawling with the little stove in the hollow of a sand dune, out of the wind, brewing the best tea you ever tasted.....To go with the best sandwiches ever, made by your mum who was always dainty and cut off the crusts....

 'Cept its warmer here, the water more greeny-bluey-turquoise than grey-green. But the exhileration of outwitting the waves is the same. So, added bonus. You're not only subduing time, you're travelling back in it. And yet another bonus --- when you come out of the water your teeth won't chatter like they did way back then, and you won't be covered in goose bumps 'cause the air here is just as warm as the water. Then you can sit in your beach chair or lie on the sand and read your book or just gaze up at the sky and watch the gulls wheeling by.

And if it's raining, as it is today, you just make another cup of tea and curl up on the couch that isn't yours but comfy just the same, and lose yourself in the romantic entanglements of your beach book, confident that, for now at least, you have subdued time.

13 comments:

Marigold Jam said...

Wonderful! But we Brits are genetically to enjoy the cold and damp of a UK beach aren't we? I like the sound of yours better now though and wonder can I come too even if only in my head?! Is a little gentle conversation between us allowed or would that spoil the whole experience?

molly said...

Gentle conversation would be welcome, just nothing loud jarring.

Glad you popped in MJ because I am unable to get to your blog so no conversations, gentle or otherwise, until I figure out the problem.

Relatively Retiring said...

That's lovely, Molly. I can't go anywhere very much at the moment, so I really appreciate that.

Elephant's Child said...

Bliss. Thank you for taking me there this morning. Thank you so much.
My cup of tea tastes better for this walk...

patty said...

sounds like heaven; tea, beach, book!

molly said...

RR --- Sorry to hear your wings have been clipped, though I did enjoy your visit to the Severn Bore!

EC --- We found a tea here made from apples, hibiscus, rose hips, coconut and pineapple. I'm usually a black, strong, English/Irish sort of tea drinker but this one is delicious....

Patty --- Indeed. Tea, beach, books....and shore birds!

StitchinByTheLake said...

I love the beach...but today I'm in the mountains, which play the same kind of music. blessings, marlene

Susan Kane said...

Sounds like a lovely holiday! I would enjoy the breaks with a cup of tea, and then the wading. No swimming.

Ali Honey said...

That sounds lovely. Do you beach comb?If so what do you find?

Lee said...

I think I need a few days on a beach...one that isn't crowded...I care not if it rains...I love rainy days...whether at the beach or elsewhere. I need some soul-healing! :)

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

Sounds wonderfully restorative . I always love the smell of the sea .

Secret Agent Woman said...

I really believe the sea air is healing.

dianne said...

my mountains, your beaches