Nostalgic sands in time
I am an optimist and I reckon that there is some good in everything but I’m not sure if this kind of philosophy carries much weight right now in view of the present Coronavirus dire threat.
I usually look on the bright side of things so I don’t dally under ladders unless they are the nylon kind, and being a nostalgia nut, I do remember being ‘stoned’ on Guinness and kissing a rather Blarney inflicted colleen who took my fancy on one of the few occasions I strayed over the Irish Sea.
Maudlin no…..nostalgic yes! I have been looking back to what I consider are memorable ‘over my shoulder’ happenings which probably will never return. But who knows! Even these soporific memories are not all delightful but the dreamy bits usually are. I still recall being totally immersed in building sand castles with my kids on Skegness and Cleethorpes beaches in the latter part of the 50’s when the flimsy razor sharp barbed-wire defences had still to be destroyed and disposed of the wire
Didn’t bother the kids; with buckets and spades they would find a pristine patch of sand and enjoyed their holiday heaven! There were few cockle shells around but who needed trimmings! Time moved on and my personal castle turned out to be a semi-detached in suburbia, my bike became a motorbike and sidecar….and I settled for a job in the newspaper game. My life had not been too much of a struggle, the kids grew up and prospered and suddenly, thirty-five years later Spain took my fancy and retirement castles in the air became less than just a fancy. The castles in the sand on the Yorkshire coast had long been locked away in memory though..….until by chance I spotted a couple of blokes (men, not children) actually building a castle in the sand…… on the Costa Blanca in Mediterranean Spain.
My memories revitalized as I strolled along Playa Levante. I was astonished to see quite a lot of damp sand manipulators artistically toiling over a number of creations that were truly eclectic.
Sculptured as the Twelve Apostles feasting was a beautiful sand-created frieze, cleverly dye-coloured. Elsewhere was a gigantic seated sand Budha, Macbeth’s witches, King Neptune and several other magnificent sandy figures. My interest was captured when I saw that the sand artistry was not just on my doorstep. I took to beach browsing and was delighted to discover more superb sand sculptures created on
Sandy strands ‘a la playa’ as far apart as Alicante and Calpe. It soon became clear that al fresco sand artistry had been popular for quite some time but had recently been banned by the various local council for reasons I never discovered or understood. Whether the sand-art sculptors were commandeering too much deckchair space I know not but good or bad, that was the last I saw of them.
Now with the Coronavirus plague causing even walking on beaches to become frowned upon I imagine that sandcastles may remain nostalgically part of the past! However, for those souls who have never experienced this artistic phenomenon or attempted to do likewise, I have delved into my archives and uncovered a number of sandcastle and sand sculpture photographs which I captured on camera here ‘a la costa’ towards the end of the last century.
Another thought which comes to mind is that towards the end of the Summer some hotels may be re-opening and package deals back on line……
With their children and (virus threats out of mind) who knows the ‘giftee-shopee tiendas may be doing business with plastic buckets and spades again keeping holiday folk happy. …….and the rest of us!