I love the sea

I love walking along deserted beaches where the ocean talks to you alone and the sea birds swoop down to join you and bathe in the shallows keeping an eye on you as well as their companions especially in the breeding season when their exaggerated courting actions will include opening their beaks wide and raising their plumes to impress the lucky lady.

And so it was this late spring day where alone, free from owners with dogs and balls I had found a resting place and sat quietly drinking from a bottle of water and perusing the endless push and pull of the sea trying to make it’s mind up whether it should tease me with an advance or hurry back to keep her distance.

Far off I could see her in a more boisterous mood as she roared angrily over the coral reef well out of my reach. In the sky wheeling and playing together there were a pair of birds swooping low now over the spume, then up high again winging their way to heaven in a dance of love for the other and for life so I thought. Suddenly one dived into the sea and caught a fish and returned to his mate and their romantic play continued as the fish was passed from one to the other.

It was then that I noticed they each had a black plume on their heads and I nodded approval, Crested Terns I surmised. Not rare but a welcome sight none-the-less. I waved foolishly to acknowledge that I had seen them.  “Not another human” they would no doubt think and ignore such as incident as most of our actions probably were.

I wandered on again facing into the breeze knowing that unwittingly she too would help me on my way back later. The crabs scuttled in and out the water tempted by rotting titbits at the seas edge and shellfish would announce their presence spitting water from their shell. Despite the dryness of the weather, being so close the waves the sea’s constant watch on me meant the air was full of moisture.

She had finally come to terms with me being by her side now and somehow seemed to accept that my love of her would mean I would tell of the wonderful thread of life that existed in and around her and how much that meant to me.

And so I have.