Southward Beach on Bryher

After joining up with my friends again, I think we had about an hour before our boat back to St Mary's was due to pick us up. So rather than rush and try to do more of the island, we decided instead to wander slowly along Southward beach in the sunshine. Also we would be wandering in the right direction! I should say at this point, that on any island, if you miss the boat back to St Mary's, unless you can find someone with a small boat and pay them probably alot of money to get you back to St Mary's, you are stuck on that island until about 10.30 the next day! I'm sure it must happen many times.

Just before we got to the beach, I saw and fell in love with this old boat that has probably seen it's last wave. Shame!Southward beach is a long stretch of sandy beach on the sheltered east side of Bryher. In the distance, you can just about see our destination back at the quay. It was lovely just to wander slowly along here. The weather was perfect, the air was as fresh as can be and we had no need to rush. How rare is it nowadays to have absolutely no pressure on one's time!?I love this shot. I'm not even sure why really. I do know that when I saw it on my comp screen that it reminded me of an Eve Sweatman photo, hers come naturally, mine come by accident! Really!Oystercatchers are fairly common on the islands. They're really characterful birds with a lovely distinctive whistling call. This bunch were loafing around on the sand minding their own business.............until muggins here got a bit too close for their comfort. They didn't go too far though and I made sure I walked further up the beach once they'd settled again. They're striking birds in flight. Unfortunately in this photo that patch of seaweed in the water makes it look like it has long legs and I don't know enough about photoshop to get rid of it. Help Evie! (-:When you have more time than usual to soak up a place, you start to look at details as well as the overall scenery. Well that's what happened on this day anyway! (-: I loved this slimey bright green plant? covering the rounded pinkish granite stones on the beach.Again, the seaweed caught my eye. I love the colours and textures of this stuff and the way the sunlight lifted it from being just a dull bubbly mess.I guess all these different seaweeds have their own names. It's not something I'm likely to try and find out, I just enjoyed them while I had the chance.Then all these different shells caught my eye, so I did a spot of shell watching. Here are some of my favourites...I thought this one looked like a heart. I wished Chris could be there with me sharing this day (slushy I know, but what the heck) (-:Shushhhhh! Don't tell anyone, but I gathered up some favourite shells to take home as a memento. Here they are. Hopefully the beach wont miss them too much!

I thought this one looked quite snug on it's own surrounded with seaweed and it seemed to glow in the sunlight.I like this one enlarged and have got it as my desktop background at the moment. The colours are fabulous.I couldn't work out what this was at first, but I think it must be some sort of sea anemone? Any one out there know different?I'll finish with a photo of the sunlight throwing an amazing pattern on the sand through the shallow sea water. This was taken as we were waiting for the boat back at the quay.This was without doubt my best day of my time spent on Scilly. Bryher is a beautiful little island. The weather could not have been better and even though we didn't see very many birds at all that day, the scenery on the west side and the beach on the east made it one of those perfects days that doesn't fade from the memory.