Seascape in a basket

As an avid watcher of the BBC’s series ‘Coast’, my eyes enjoy feasting upon views down onto the seas from above, showing (on their sunnier outings) the grey-blue graduation in colour of our watery surroundings. However lovely our coast appears, for me it can’t match the high intensity colour provided by summer light in the Mediterranean. The contrasts between bleached rocks and turquoise sea are something I’ve grown up with, for I was one of the ‘lucky ones’, taken to play on its warm, sandy shores when they were still relatively empty.

My parents were adventurous for Brits in the early 1960s and thought nothing of packing up the extended family, along with a multi-lingual dictionary, taking a ferry across the channel, and driving through France into Spain, to the coast near L’Estartit. There’s a picture here of a very small me on one of the empty Costa Brava beaches as then they were. I’ve followed in the same tradition, taking my children on the same route for many years to beautiful beaches like Sa Tuna. I hope they’ll go back one day themselves now they’re independent travellers.

Even to think of it now, looking down through the path under the stone pines to the sea below, the jewel colours of the gently lapping waters still come to vivid life. I can understand why artists are fascinated by the sea, like Monet for example, as it offers a rich palette as the light changes and the texture and rhythm of the sea moves with the wind. Mediterranean sea colours called me again during the week when I had my different coloured bags of ‘fluff’ out on the floor, seeking inspiration.

With Gypsy Kings music on the brain and Paul Theroux’s Pillars of Hercules on the table, the die was cast! With some Teeswater locks for seaweed, and a few bits of Angelina fibre as homage to the water’s sparkle in the sun, I was off, wheeling away. Despite all the rain outside, the colours kept me warm inside, mentally and physically while spinning. As I hand-felt my yarns after spinning, to make sure the locks stay in, it’ll be a day or two before it’s completely dry and I can admire my handiwork. In the meantime, here’s wishing you a week full of mental sunshine to speed you through your tasks!