`The Beach`

Well, today I finally got round to making my `Beach` as you can see the tides out, but it has left a rock pool!....lol...I was quite pleased with it though, its right outside my back door, so nice and handy to gaze upon, not much room for a deckchair obviously, but you cant have everything in life....

it was nice to have somewhere to display my `treasure` that I`ve found on the different beaches we`ve been to recently...especially, that rather nice white `Hag stone` and the lovely big razor shell I found yesterday.

We went to Meadfoot beach earlier in the week to get a bucket of sand

It was lovely and hot down there, and on the horizon were lots of tankers..

The tide was out, so there were lots of exposed rocks and boulders on the beach

and lots of periwinkles on the stones, must have been a bit hot on their roofs!

and some rather dramatic sea-weedy rocks

Pete had taken the fishing net down, so we had a bit of a poke amongst the rock pools, found a very large prawn, but popped him back, then collected the sand and went home for salad!

Teignmouth

We headed out to Teignmouth today, we didnt go till about lunch time, I made up some rolls, and a flask to have on the beach. It was a lovely day, but down on the beach the wind was very strong, although not cold. Unfortunately the tides were all wrong, so the fishing wasnt so very successful, so we packed that up, and had a bite to eat and drink, and took the spinning rod out.

When the tide dropped, it exposed a long spit of sand which was ideal for spinning off, from there we had lovely views across to Shaldon.

The fondant pink, cream and blue houses looked pretty set against the wooded hills.

Looking back down the spit, the houses on the sea front looked rather grand too, Teignmouth is a very pretty elegant sort of resort, not too spoilt.

Being virtually `out to sea` I had a nice view of the pier too, I love all the old fasioned sea side things, pity they dont still do Punch and Judy shows.

The Ness also looked lovely in the afternoon sunshine, the rolling fields bathed in the golden sunlight.

I walked up to the top of the spit, where the waves were snapping and lapping at the gravelly tip. I looked for `treasure` and found some nice stones, green glass and a fabulous razor shell, which will be perfect for my `beach`.

We walked back to the beach, where the receding tide had left the beach with lots of rock pools, and seaweed strewn rocks.

The gulls were rootling amongst the weed for sand eels and tit bits, it was lovely to see this years baby gulls enjoying the water, and investigating everything.

We wandered down to The Point, where Pete had a bit of a spin. This is the river Teign which seperates Shaldon from Teignmouth. It was flowing quite fast.

The little ferry was sailing backwards and forwards delivering people to the sandy beach.

We didnt catch anything today, except rather a lot of weed, but it was a very weedy beach, so thats hardly suprising, and it didnt matter, it was lovely to be in the salty air, with the wind ruffling our hair, and the sun shining down, and being together....

Battery Green

Today, we decided to go back to Brixham to do a little fishing, but somewhere different, Battery Green gardens, this is a very pretty spot, and was used during World War II as a defence position. We parked by the harbour, where the sea was ruffled by the stiff breeze and the little yachts bobbed up and down.

The flowers in the laboratory gardens were lovely, a really dark Buddleja, and lots of frothy fennel

I love the flowers on this, mine is just coming out in the garden, and the bees and hover flies love it too.

We followed the path up the steps, its part of the South West Coast path..

The path was edged with Buddleja here too..

It wound through little tunnels of trees...

till we came to a nice natural rocky platform to set up camp..

it had all the necessary requirements, lovely views across to Paignton and Torquay..

Interesting plants....

and nice little hidey holes..

The wind was quite brisk, although not cold, but it made the sea quite choppy, which I found hard to spin in, so I left Pete fishing and scrambled over the rocks, to a more sheltered piece behind him. The tide was dropping, and revealing lovely clumps of seaweed, and little limpets, stuck to the rocks...

It was a nice little spot, the sun was warm, and it was peaceful, and the harbour was starting to get busy with yachts, trawlers and the ferry tacking backwards and forwards. I was quietly spinning away, minding my own business, when I felt a fish on the line, so I whipped it out, and it was a little Pollack, so small, it wasnt as big as my spinner...lol I hadnt even hooked him either, I think he must have had an `Elvis` type lip and it just caught it, as he fell off onto the rocks when I wound him in, he was fine though, and Pete having heard me yell came and popped him back into the sea, such excitement!

Needless to say, Pete was catching something more worthwhile, some lovely Wrasse, they were such lovely colours, but of course they went back in again.

I stopped and had a coffee, and watched Pete fish, and enjoyed the views, when suddenly we saw a seal, he swam all round the rocks, right beneath us, then round to the side I`d been fishing in, he kept popping his head up to look at us, then swimming off, I couldnt manage to take a picture, but I did get him on video, which I`ll put at the end.

I decided to go for a walk, theres another little cove, Fishcombe across from where we were fishing, so I headed for that..

Theres lots of old war time look outs on the green..

I noticed the crocosmia was coming into flower...

there were lots of brambles, and a pretty Meadow Brown was sunning itself

Fishcombe is a lovely little tiny cove, it only has a small beach, but theres a nice little beach shop, which sells buckets and spades, teas and ice creams, and its surrounded by a lovely wood, so an ideal spot for all manner of things, we had a nice morning, although we were only there for a handful of hours....but it was so nice to see the seal and enjoy being outside.

Gone Spinning.

Well, we did go to Brixham spinning this afternoon. The weather was lovely, blue skies and golden sunshine.

Brixham looked pretty in the sunshine, the little pastel coloured houses set against the hills, and the harbour full of gleaming white yachts.

We were heading for the breakwater, which is about half a mile long, and a favourite place to fish

there were some lovely clumps of Samphire growing amongst the rocks on the breakwater

we evenually found a nice little spot, with plenty of room to fish, and picnic..

we had nice views from our platform across the harbour..

we hadnt been there long, when the water started to `boil` in different places in the harbour with mackerel shoaling to feed, it was incredible to watch, as they chased the sand eels all around. It happened on and off all afternoon.

I got my spinning rod out, and Pete refreshed my memory on the finer points of using it lol..and ta dah....I caught this lovely little mackerel, he was the most lovely greeny colour, and after admiring him, he was gently put back to swim another day!

Pete did some spinning as well as float fishing. He caught a couple of mackerels....

and this rather nice little fellow...a rockling..he went back in too..

It was a lovely spot, so peaceful....I sat on the steps and cooled my toes in the water..

sitting down so close to the water I had a lovely view down the breakwater, with weedy ropes disappearing into the crystal clear water, where I could see another world of seaweed forests, and little tiny fish darting about...

Right at the end of the breakwater, I could see the little white lighthouse...

and beside the steps little rafts of bladderwrack gently floated..

at the end of the afternoon, we had a bit of competition...this cheeky cormorant, who busily dived infront of us and came up with a fish....glad I didnt catch him when I was spinning!