Day 54 In the details

Another early start today as we had to be back at the hospital for 8.15am. to have the eye checked by the surgeon. He was happy with the result so far, but wants to see Justin again in a fortnight as the incision is larger than usual and more open to infection. As we were driving away from the hospital Justin was very pleased to note that his double vision has disappeared when he looks into the distance, he only saw one set of white lines, not the- usual crisscross. This is now only evident at middle and close distance. We went shopping on our way home, so I didn't see today's word until late morning. I thought about it while I was eating my lunch. I had just finished writing out the details of Justin's new eye drop regime into a table; five different kinds of drops, to be administered at differing intervals for a differing number of days, ranging from 4 to 30 ... but I have already taken photographs of words on paper so I looked around for something else.

I love beach combing; wherever I am I can't resist picking up bits and pieces, be it a shell, a bit of sea glass, a tiny crab's claw or a pretty pebble. I have a box filled with  small scale driftwood I used to use with tiny shells and other titbits for decorating photograph frames, assorted boxes of shells, even jam jars of different colours of sand...one of these days I shall have to downsize and have a clear out, but until then...

On my coffee table I have a low glass bowl with a layer of sand from our local beach, and in it I have an assortment of small reminders of places I have visited in past years. Everything is on a small scale, the pleasure is in the detail and the memories. This little group is just a sample. The red Serpentine pebble is from an misty morning visit to La Isla de La Toja in Galicia. The glass bubble, just a centimetre in diameter, is a reminder of the glass factory in Hergiswil. The tiny sea urchin and the abalone shell I found on a pebbled beach in La Coruña; how they survived being thrown about in the Atlantic and washed up on a stony beach I don't know, but there were many of them scattered amongst the pebbles without any sign of damage. The small black scallop shell came from the beach of Lido de Jesolo, picked up while I waited for the ferry to take me into Venice. The pink and black marbled scallop came from our own beach here in Calpe. Some years ago a very bad storm washed nearly all the sand from the most Southerly of our long beaches and it was replaced with sand dredged up from the sand banks off the Sierra Helada. The sand came loaded with assorted shellfish, many not seen before on our beach and of course those deposited above the tide line had no chance of surviving. The mechanical beach cleaners employed by the local Council to clean the beaches have removed all the larger shells, but the smaller ones escape the mesh, and make walking the tide line more interesting than it used to be.