Wishes and Writing: Beach-comber

Last Friday we visited Worthing on the South Coast. We love it there and go there quite a few times a year. It is not busy like Brighton and we got a parking space on the coast road amazingly easily (well, we did get there at 9.30am - a mean feat with a fourteen year old I can tell you !) It was free parking too being a Bank Holiday - it was lucky all round!

The sea was quite calm and it had the same effect on us too. There is something magical about the seaside to me. Maybe it is because of my love for holidays there as a child or just a place to escape to in my mind. I picked up many character observations on my travels that day. Maybe to use for writing; maybe not. I am yet undecided. Perhaps I should try 'beach-combing' my mind as I cannot focus this week; cannot decide to leave something out of a piece or add it in... I dislike editing sometimes. It's knowing when to 'let it go'...

I took this picture. The husband sees it as just a load of dead seaweed. I think it is beautiful for some strong reason as I spy shells, white chalky pebbles and sponges all mixed up. I love the colours of the stones and the glistening shells opened up to the sky.

I have been reading Iris Murdoch books after being enthralled by her husband's biography as noted in my previous post in March (My Current Reading). She too loved stones and the sea. I love her use of language. When I first started A Fairly Honourable Defeat, I was confused but the story unravels to a surprising ending. It is a story of various aspects of love and how it can mess up so many lives. That's how I read it anyhow.

I am about to start her book the sea, the sea (Murdoch,1999,[1978]). I've been finding these Vintage Series books in excellent quality too at my local Oxfam Bookshop; another of my regular favourite places. There must be another person who likes her work too. I have returned the said other for the shop to make some more cash from it. See my Life Poetry page for my poem on my 'book' philosophy. I must finish my library book too and MUST get on with my assessments...next week; next week... ;D

References:
A Fairly Honourable Defeat, (Murdoch, I., (1975 [1999]), London,Vintage (Random House).
the sea, the sea, (Murdoch, I., (1978 [1999]), London, Vintage (Random House).

Here are some photos of the day at the beach last week.