Water Water

Every Grain of Sand

There is irony in the fact that I live within walking distance of the sea, where the tides wash up and down twice every day, and water is plentiful, but my garden, and my allotment, are parched.  

It is beautiful here, in north-west Norfolk, at any time of year, with miles of sandy beaches, naturally occurring dunes and an abundance of wildlife.

And even in the heat of summer, during the peak holiday period, there is space, even, sometimes, no one else to be seen.....

Or if there is someone, they may just be a dot on the horizon....

Water, water, every where, 

And all the boards did shrink; 

Water, water, every where, 

Nor any drop to drink.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

A de-salination plant would be an eye-sore.  But, perhaps, it could help with these hot dry summers.  It could help with irrigation of the fields that are now burned and dead.....

Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear

Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer

The sun beams down upon the steps of time to light the way

To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay

Every Grain of Sand

Bob Dylan

It is great to swim here.  The water is clean and fresh, the zing of salt a zesty seasoning to life.....

And these days even the clouds are warm, and dry.  Water vapour that tantalisingly will not condense and precipitate.....

I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame

And every time I pass that way I'll always hear my name

Then onward in my journey I come to understand

That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand

Every Grain of Sand

Bob Dylan

The shores are littered with the remains of life. Here a variety of shells, deposited at the high-water mark, await the grinding process that will turn them into sand.....

And here a harmless Moon Jelly lies stranded on the shingle, to slowly evaporate to nothing before the next tide flows back.....

Sometimes the weather looks to change, the clouds angrily torn by the sun.....

But it doesn't deter the lovers on the beach, and nothing comes of the falsity of hope.....

The Sun came up upon the left, 

Out of the sea came he! 

And he shone bright, and on the right 

Went down into the sea.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

And then, as the day draws to a close, the colours intensify, and the heat abates.....

Sometimes the sun just gleams across The Wash....

On other evenings there is bruising and blood stain....

And sometimes the water is pewter and the sky a furnace.....

I feel insignificant before all this grandeur.....

I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea

Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other times it's only me

I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man

Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand

Every Grain of Sand

Bob Dylan

These pictures were not all taken this month (though they were taken this year), but all of them are from the Norfolk coast between Snettisham and Cley.....