The Kindness of Strangers

Even on a cold day the beach is a great place to visit and there are some interesting things to photograph if you keep your eyes open.

Today's shots were taken one day last week at Runswick Bay on the North Yorkshire coast, near Whitby. There was a lot of sea coal being washed up on the beach and I had seen a number of people apparently scouring the beach for something. I was curious about this and so I stopped to ask a couple who were walking on the beach what it was that people were searching for. It turns out that this beach is one of three along the east coast where Jet can be found. It is becoming increasingly rare and difficult to find and as the tide was about to turn and come back in I was told that it was unlikely that I would find any if I tried. The gentleman I spoke to explained how you can tell the difference between Jet and coal and he said that if he was lucky enough to find any he would show me how to identify Jet.

After an hour or so, after I had given up looking and had gone back to photographing the surfers and the seabirds, the couple approached me to show me the one small piece of Jet they had found and very kindly they gave it to me as a souvenir.  I was really grateful for this wonderfully kind gesture and now that piece of jet is on display at home next to a fossilised leaf that I found last year in Sherwood Forest.

Anyway back to the photos. The first is a shot of two limpet shells which caught me eye as the waves pulled back down the beach.

The second is of the lines left again as the water receded around the large rock in the third picture. It looks very much like a river delta in miniature.

I like the simplicity and the detail in these images and the fact that within minutes of my taking the shot the picture would have been completely different.