I realised the other day that I’d not been back to my favourite pier since Comet Neowise’s visit last summer. A quick check of tide times told me there was a low tide occurring shortly after sunset on Wednesday this week, so I made a note in my dairy.
Low tide in the Severn Estuary means mud, and lots of it. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with it; I love how it reflects light and colour from the sky, but I hate the mess. Sure enough, within a few minutes of wading into the mud it was all over my hands, trousers & t-shirt! It just sems to ooze up my legs and spread like it’s a living organism.
After a bit of squelching about, I had my composition. It was now a matter of waiting for the pier lights to turn on. The pier lights seem to come on so late and it is an agonising wait while you slowly sink into the mud. At about the point you are thinking it is so dark you can no longer see the way back to safety, they are suddenly on, and you never even noticed.
A couple of exposures later I’m carefully heading back across the mud and seaweed wishing I’d put some towels in the car to clean up – I never learn!
