A coastal web

I like wandering on the beach on my own. I call it 'poking about'. and I can do it well in lots of different places but my favourite places are at the coast or in woodland.

Children are excellent at poking about; picking things up, investigating, literally poking things with sticks, scrambling, kicking, seeing how things feel, taste, smell...

But I think there is something about the seaside that allows more grown ups to feel it's okay to poke about; draw in the sand, dig, build, splash, collect things...

So I was really pleased that after making this little web and leaving it on a fairly remote part of the beach, a few days later it was still there and there were other things too. Someone else was poking about with sticks and bits root.

I suppose you could call it playing, but there is something distinctive about this kind of play. It is creative, sensory, physical and intrinsically connected with the outdoors. It feels primitive and unrestrained.